“ ‘You shall detest these among the birds; they shall not be eaten because they are an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.
Bats are a type of bird.
Zoology
38
passages in this field
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The cited passage
What current science says
Bats are mammals, not birds. They have fur instead of feathers, give live birth instead of laying eggs, and nurse their babies with milk. Both bats and birds can fly, but they evolved flight independently. It's like saying dolphins are fish because they swim - easy mistake, but wrong.
What the text says
Leviticus 11:13, 19 lists the bat among the unclean 'fowls' that are not to be eaten - grouping the bat together with the birds.
Three honest ways to read this passage
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As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
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As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
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As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.