What Does Deuteronomy 14:8 Mean in the King James?
And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.
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
A split hoof is only half the sign; the missing cud-chewing determines the swine’s status.
THE MEANING
The verse names the swine unclean because it has one of the two signs: it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud. The boundary covers both eating its flesh and touching its dead body.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
One matching feature is not enough to meet a boundary that requires two.
THE ROOT
מַפְרִיס פַּרְסָה
mafris parsah
GROWS FROM
פרס
paras
to split, break, or divide
“divideth the hoof” in this verse is mafris parsah. The Hebrew names the split-hoof sign with a verb and a related noun from the same root. Yet the division alone does not establish the category here; the verse also requires the cud sign.
ALSO GROWS
parsah: hoof, here the split hoof
פַּרְסָה
This is the noun for the hoof in the verse, sharing its consonants with the verb for splitting.
paras: to break or divide; used of dividing bread in Isaiah 58:7
פָּרַס
The same root describes breaking bread out for the hungry, keeping the image concrete: something divided into portions.
טָמֵא
tame
GROWS FROM
טמא
ṭ-m-ʾ
to be ritually unclean or impure
“unclean” in this verse is tame. Here טָמֵא names the status assigned by the stated signs; it does not describe a moral defect in the animal. The verse then gives that status concrete limits around eating its flesh and touching its carcass.
ALSO GROWS
tum’ah: uncleanness, impurity
טֻמְאָה
This noun names the status marked by טָמֵא.
timme: to defile, make unclean
טִמֵּא
The same root can describe the act of making something unclean as well as the status named here.
THE PATTERN
When a boundary depends on paired conditions, meeting one condition does not erase the missing one.
Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat.For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.THE THREAD
And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat.This verse uses the same split-hoof vocabulary, from פרס (paras, to divide), and states the positive counterpart with both signs present. Read together, the verses show why the split hoof alone does not determine the swine’s status.
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