Opening the Bible, a person expects to find great revelations, but when reading the Old Testament he is struck by the abundance of petty precepts — for example, to eat the meat only of those animals that have cloven hooves and chew the cud. In a Pravmir publication of June 7, 2010, Andrei Desnitsky asks why God needs such details and whether this is really the main thing in religion.
The Law Was Not Given at Once
The author recalls that in the Old Testament itself such precepts occupy a modest place. First comes the account of the creation of the world, the Fall, the Flood and the patriarchs. The covenant with Noah after the Flood contained only two prohibitions: against murder and against eating meat with blood. The prohibition of blood, according to Desnitsky, was the only ritual restriction confirmed at the Jerusalem Council of the Apostles (Acts 15:23-29), since it goes back to the times before the Law. To Abraham, Isaac and Jacob God gave no detailed dietary or ritual rules except circumcision. Even the Exodus from Egypt took place before the giving of the Law — only the rules of Passover were established. This, the author writes, shows the relativity of the Law: great righteous men could live without it.
The Law was given to the people after the exodus from Egypt, when runaway slaves were to become a single people of the Lord on the way to the Promised Land. It contained the Ten Commandments, the most important moral precepts, as well as lists of forbidden foods and details of ritual.
Culture as a System of Prohibitions
Desnitsky compares Old Testament rules to traffic regulations and etiquette. In his view, many of them cannot be explained rationally, just as one cannot explain why people drive on the right side of the road or why red means stop. Some prohibitions, however, have a practical explanation: pork spoils quickly in a hot climate, and pigs are more often carriers of infection; among seafood and insects there are poisonous ones, so it is simpler to forbid everything at once. But many puzzling prohibitions remain, for example, why one may not mix wool and linen in one fabric.
The world of ancient people, the author writes, was organized differently, and man sought precepts mainly in religion. Today they are given by science, culture, law or etiquette.
The Meaning of the Precepts
Desnitsky divides the commandments into three groups. The first regulates relations with God — these are the numerous ritual rules, for example, the rites of sacrifice for sin (Lev. 4:13-15). The author examines in detail the symbolism of laying hands on the sacrificial animal: the elders acknowledge that they, and not the bull, deserve death. Such details, in his opinion, reminded people of the unity of faith in an era when there were no mass media.
The second group concerns relations between people. In ancient society there was no prosecutor's office, police or prisons; justice was administered by the community or the king. The Book of Numbers (chapter 35) regulates in detail cases of unintentional murder: a person who has involuntarily caused the death of another must flee to a «city of refuge» and remain there until the death of the high priest. It also says: «If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses; but a single witness is not sufficient to condemn a person to death» (Num. 35:30). The author asks whether these rules are petty if criminal cases of murder were decided by them, and answers that they are not.
The third group consists of those very «petty» laws, such as the prohibition against sowing a field with two kinds of seed or wearing clothing of wool and linen (Lev. 19:19). According to Desnitsky, they set a global principle: one should not mix concepts, for the universe has a structure that must remain inviolable. He also mentions the custom of wearing tassels on the corners of clothing (Deut. 22:12), which for Orthodox Jews have 613 threads — the number of the commandments of Scripture. The author compares this with the thousands of articles in modern legal codes and remarks that one can envy the ancient Israelites: only 613 commandments for all occasions.
Christians, Desnitsky recalls, do not consider the fulfillment of all the requirements of the Law obligatory, following the decision of the Apostolic Council: the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ freed them from the need to observe ritual precepts. But the general principles behind the Law remain in force. The author concludes with the thought that Old Testament rules are ways of expressing love for God and for people, and although one can do without them, with them it is easier.
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