6
Not only so, but:
"These are unclean to you among all that creep: whosoever doth touch them, when they be dead, shall be unclean
until the even" (11:31).
All this prohibition is because Israel were a separated people,
"For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy ... this is
the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every
creature that creepeth upon the earth: TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE between the unclean and the clean, and between
the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten" (11:44-47).
This instruction to "make a difference" is reiterated in the corresponding section of Leviticus, namely, chapter
20:
"I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with
milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have SEPARATED YOU from other people. Ye shall therefore
PUT DIFFERENCE between clean beasts and unclean ... which I have SEPARATED from you as unclean. And ye
shall be holy unto Me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be Mine"
(Lev. 20:24-26).
It was in this atmosphere that the Jew was born, lived, moved and had his being. Practically from cradle to
grave, from morning till night, waking or sleeping, marrying or giving in marriage, buying or selling, he was
continually reminded that all the Gentiles were unclean, and that his own nation alone was holy unto the Lord. This
separation to the Lord was seriously enforced upon his conscience by the scrupulous observances of the Levitical
law.
If we observe the words that are used in the passages cited as translated by the LXX into Greek, we shall
perceive many a connection with New Testament teaching that may have passed unnoticed. "Make a difference" in
Leviticus 11:47 is diasteilai, and is found in Romans 3:22 and 10:12, where it occurs as the noun diastole. While
accepted by us today as obviously true, Paul"s statement, "There is no difference", regarding either sin or salvation,
was, when first uttered, revolutionary in its effect. In Leviticus 20:24 and 25 the LXX uses two related words to
translate "I have separated you". In the first of the verses the word is diorizo, and in the second it is aphorizo. The
word aphorizo is also used to translate the words "put a difference" in Leviticus 20:25. Diorizo does not occur in
the New Testament, but aphorizo does. An examination of the ten occurrences of aphorizo in the New Testament
will enable us the better to understand Peter"s attitude to Cornelius:
"The angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just" (Matt. 13:49).
"And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats" (Matt. 25:32).
"Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company" (Luke 6:22).
"The Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul" (Acts 13:2).
"He departed from them, and separated the disciples" (Acts 19:9).
"Paul ... separated unto the gospel of God" (Rom. 1:1).
"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and
I will receive you" (2 Cor. 6:17).
"When it pleased God, Who separated me from my mother"s womb" (Gal. 1:15).
"For before that certain came from James, he (Peter) did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he
withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision" (Gal. 2:12).