What Does Deuteronomy 14:10 Mean in the King James?
And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The boundary is carried on the creature itself: fins and scales mark what may cross from water into food.
THE MEANING
The verse draws the food boundary around a creature’s visible features: without fins and scales, it is unclean for you and is not eaten. The distinction is in the creature, and the verse names its consequence for the one receiving it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being a creature of the water alone does not make it fit for food; the verse marks fins and scales as the distinguishing boundary.
THE ROOT
טָמֵא
ṭāmēʾ
GROWS FROM
טמא
ṭ-m-ʾ
to be unclean or become impure
The Hebrew family keeps the state of uncleanness and the act of making unclean under one root. Here, “unto you” locates that status in relation to the eater, making it part of the stated food boundary.
ALSO GROWS
ṭumʾāh: uncleanness, impurity
טֻמְאָה
This noun names the condition with the same root that underlies the verse’s word “unclean.”
ṭimmēʾ: to defile, make unclean
טִמֵּא
This verbal branch names the act associated with that condition, keeping the root’s related meanings of state and consequence together.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes distinctions legible through a creature’s kind, features, or sorting, and those distinctions shape how each is received.
And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.THE THREAD
These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat:Verse 9 names the presence of fins and scales as the mark for what may be eaten; verse 10 turns the same boundary around and names its excluded side. Together, they show the permitted and barred categories through the same paired signs.
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