God loves those who love. About the relationship of man to animals

Talking Animals of the Bible

• The snake
  (Hebrew: נחש‏‎) is the first animal to appear in the Old Testament. The serpent was the tempter of Eve and led the first parents of people to the fall and expulsion from paradise.

• Balaam's donkey
  (Hebrew: אתון‏‎) is the donkey of the prophet Balaam, on which he rode to the king of Moab, Balak, to curse the Israelites.

Saint Neophytos “rents an apartment”… from a lion

The martyr Neophytos lived during the first centuries of the persecution of Christians. He decided to become a follower of the Savior, so he went to the mountains for retreat. In the cave where he decided to settle, there lived a lion. The saint calmly turned to the predator and asked him to leave his new home. The animal obediently left the cave.

When the pagans decided to torture Neophyte, they threw him into the Colosseum with wild bears. But the animals obediently bowed their heads before the saint. Then the tormentors decided to set a hungry lion on the saint. But he, like an obedient pet, approached Neophyte and licked his feet. According to legend, this was the same “friend” who at one time lent “housing”. Saint Neophytos turned to the lion and said that he could calmly return to his “apartment,” because the martyr clearly no longer needed it. The predator escaped from the circus arena and ran into a cave, and Neophyte had to be executed by people since the animals refused to do so.

Mysterious and mythical creatures

The Bible mentions creatures whose identification is difficult or impossible at the current level of scientific development. The words used by translators to denote these animals sometimes coincide with the names of mythical creatures (Dragons, unicorns, etc.).

• Hippopotamus - The biblical word "hippopotamus" was assigned to the mammal now known by this name in the 19th century.
• Dragons - the Psalter speaks of the captivity of the Jews in Egypt, which is figuratively called “the land of dragons” (Ps. 43:20).[1] In the Old Testament, "dragons" are used allegorically to describe poison: "their wine is the poison of dragons and the deadly poison of asps"
  (Deut. 32:33). The book of Daniel contains a story about how in Babylon Daniel killed the “dragon” in the temple with a lump of resin, fat and hair (Dan. 14:23-28). The dragon is most often mentioned in the book of Revelation of John the Theologian (Rev. 12-13, 16:13, 20:2, see Beast of the Apocalypse).
• Unicorn - used allegorically to describe the speed of God's action: "God brought them out of Egypt, the speed of the unicorn was with him;"
  (Num. 23:22). And it is also mentioned as an existing animal (Job 39:9-12) “9 Will the unicorn want to serve you and spend the night at your manger? 10 Can you tie a unicorn to a furrow with a rope, and will he harrow the field after you? 11 Will you trust in him, because his strength is great, and will you give him your work? 12 Will you believe him that he will return your seed and store it on your threshing floor?
• Leviathan is a sea monster (Hebrew: לווייתן‏‎) from the Book of Job (Job 40:20-41:26, Job 7:12).

David of Gareji with deer

This saint lived in the 6th century. At first he labored in Tiflis, and then he suffered from evil tongues and went into the desert together with his disciple Lucian. When the disciple began to feel sad from the lack of food and water, the saint tried to explain to him the action of God’s providence. At that moment, a female deer with small fawns ran up to him. Fulfilling the saint's obedience, Lucian milked the animals. And the faith and prayer of David of Gareji helped turn it into cheese.

People hunted for these deer, but the animals fled to St. David's cave to hide. Once inside, the hunters were very surprised, because the wild deer behaved like domestic animals.

Punishment by animals

• Ten Plagues of Egypt (plague of frogs, plague of midges, plague of wild beasts, plague of locusts)
• Damnatio ad bestias#Perception of death from animals in religion
• The killing of 42 children by two she-bears: “And he went from there to Bethel.
  As he walked along the road, little children came out of the city and mocked him and said to him: Go, you bald man! go, baldhead! He looked around and saw them and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the forest and tore to pieces forty-two children from them.” (2 Kings 2:23-24)

Bread for the bear

Many Orthodox Christians are familiar with the icon “Reverend Seraphim Feeding a Bear with Bread.” One nun was approaching the Sarov saint and saw a bear near him. With the words “My death!” and fell to the ground.

When she woke up, the Monk Seraphim asked her not to be afraid and called the animal to him. The huge bear quietly lay down at the feet of the saint, and Seraphimushka began to feed him bread; through the prayers of the saint, the calmed nun also joined in.

Another respected saint, St. Sergius of Radonezh, also fed the bear. It all started with the fact that a hungry animal came to the saint, having received a treat, it visited Sergius every day.

Birds in the Bible

Main article: Birds in the Bible

Birds in the Bible served as a source of food (they were hunted by Esau), and some types of birds were forbidden to be eaten. Birds were also sacrificed. Birds often play a symbolic role.

• sparrow (Prov. 26:2)
• raven (Job 38:41)
• dove (Gen. 8:8, Matt. 3:16, 10:16)
• vulture (Lev. 11:13)
• ibis (Deut. 14:16)
• kite (Deut. 14:13)
• gyrfalcon (Deut. 14:13)
• swallow (Prov. 26:2)
• swan (Deut. 14:16)
• eagle (Deut. 14:12, Job 39:27)
• peacock (Job 39:13)
• pelican (Deut. 14:17, Zeph. 2:14)
• fisherman (Deut. 14:17)
• owl (Deut. 14:15)
• ostrich (Deut. 14:15)
• hoopoe (Deut. 14:18)
• owl (Deut. 14:16)
• heron (Deut. 14:18)
• seagull (Deut. 14:15)
• hawk (Deut. 14:15, Job 39:26)

The story of the creation of the world: the mystery of reptiles

On the pages of the Old and New Testaments there are hundreds of references to a wide variety of animals. The world of animals and birds exists in Scripture in close connection with man and communication with him. Adam gives the animals names, Noah carefully leads them into the ark, in the psalms and the book of Job, animals and birds glorify God, reminding man of the greatness and wisdom of the Creator.

There are many more beasts in the Bible than we know today. Many of the animals mentioned are now considered extinct or completely unknown to us. Starting from the first pages of the book of Genesis, the Bible offers us such zoological riddles.

For example, in the creation account the creation of reptiles is mentioned twice: the first time from water, the second time from earth. In the Russian Synodal text they are translated as “reptiles” and “reptiles”. Another difficulty for interpreters is that the Lord further gives man power “over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Gen. 1:26), but not over the reptiles that came out of the water (a different word is used for them in the original language). How can one not recall the hypothesis about dinosaurs that once existed and became extinct?

Other Animals of the Bible

The names of animals and birds are listed in chapter 11 of the book of Leviticus, which explains which animals and birds can be eaten and which cannot. In the texts of the Septugint, Vulgate, Masoretic, Slavic and Synodal, the listed animals and birds differ[2][3][4].

Some animals:

B

• Bull (ancient Greek βοῦς, βόες - 34:28, Gen. 41:18, Job 1:3,14, 42:12)

IN

• Camel (ancient Greek κάμηλος - Genesis. 24:61, 31:17, 37:25, 1 Samuel 30:17, Isa. 21:7, 21:7)
• Wolf (ancient Greek λύκος - Gen. 49:27). Description of the wolf - Jer. 5:6, Hab. 1:8, Zeph. 3:3, Ezek. 22:27, Matt. 7:15, 10:16, Acts. 20:29.

E

• Egyptian cobra (asp) (ancient Greek ἀσπίδος - Is. 59:5)

Yo

• (ancient Greek ἐχῖνος - Zeph. 2:14)

Z

• Hare or Rabbit (ancient Greek δασύ-πους - literally: “hairy-footed” - Lev. 11:6, Deut. 14:7). The biblical regulations regarding the permitted animals to eat say that you cannot eat “a hare, because it chews the cud, but its hooves are not cloven, and it is unclean to you”
  (Lev. 11:6).
  The original is Hebrew. ‎ יסָה טְמֵאָה הִוא לָכֶם‏‎. The word “parsa” (Hebrew פרסה‏‎) can be translated as “ hoof, leg, horseshoe, the size of a person’s foot, sole
  ” and this phrase is sometimes understood only as an indication that the hare is not a cloven-hoofed animal.[5]
• Snake (ancient Greek ἔχιδνα - Matt. 3:7, Luke 3:7)

TO

• Goat (ancient Greek αἶξ - Gen. 15:9, 30:35, 31:38, Exod. 12:5, Lev. 4:23, Num. 28:15)
• Whale (ancient Greek κῆτος - Gen. 1:21)
• Cow (ancient Greek μόσχος - Lev. 22:28, Exod. 23:19, Deut. 22:6,7)
• Mole (ancient Greek ἀσπάλαξ - Lev. 11:30)

L

• Weasel (Ancient Greek γαλῆ - Lev. 11:29)
• Bat (ancient Greek νυκτερίδα - Lev. 11:19, Deut. 14:18). In the Bible it is mentioned as a “bat” and classified as a bird.
• Horse (ancient Greek ἵππῳ, ἵππος - Isa. 28:28, Job 39:19-25).
• Hindy or Mule (ancient Greek ἡμί-ονος - literally: “half donkey” - Ps. 31:9)
• Leopard (ancient Greek πάρδαλις - Isa. 11:6, Jer. 5:6, 13:23, Hab. 1:8, Dan. 7:6, Rev. 13:2)
• Leo (ancient Greek λέων - Gen. 49:9, Judges 14:5-6, 14:18, 1 Kings 17:34-35, 2 Kings 17:10, 3 Kings 13:24-25, 2 Kings 17:25-26, Amos 3:12)
• Frog (Ancient Greek βάτρᾰχος - Ex. 8:2-14, Ps. 78:45, 105:30, Rev. 16:13)
• Fox (ancient Greek ἀλώπηξ - Ezek. 13:4, Luke 13:32, Judges 15:4-5)

M

• Bear (ancient Greek ἄρκος - 1 Kings 17:34-37, 2 Kings 2:24)
• Mouse (Ancient Greek μῦς - Lev. 11:29)
• Field mouse (Ancient Greek: μυγάλη - Lev. 11:30)

ABOUT

• Monkey (Church Slavic pίθik
  from ancient Greek πίθηκος; lat.
  simia
  - 1 Kings 10:22).
• Sheep (ancient Greek πρόβατον - Ex. 29:38-42, Numbers 28:9,11, Lev. 9:3, 12:5, -25, -20, 1 Chronicles 29:21, 2 Chronicles 29 :21)
• Deer (ancient Greek ἔλᾰφος - Ps. 103:18)
• Donkey (ancient Greek ὄνος - Gen. 12:16, 45:23, Num. 22:23, 1 Sam. 9:3, Gen. 49:14)

R

• Fish (ancient Greek ἰχθύς - Gen. 9:2, Num. 11:22-28), John. 2:1,10)

WITH

• Dog (ancient Greek κύων, κυνός - 1 Kings 14:11, 16:4, ,23, 22:38, Ps. 59:6,14)
• Elephant (ancient Greek ἐλέφας, ἐλέφαντος) - in the Jewish canon of the Bible, as in the poems of Homer, is not mentioned as an animal, but is mentioned in ancient Greek. ἐλεφάντινον - ivory (Rev. 18:12, 1 Kings 10:22, 2 Chronicles 9:21). Mentioned in the Orthodox and Catholic canon of the Bible (1 Macc. 3:34, 6:46, 11:56, 2 Macc. 11:4, 3 Macc. 5:1-6:19[6])

T

• Calf (ancient Greek: μόσχος - Gen. 12:16)
• Triton (ancient Greek καλαβώτης - Lev. 11:30)
• Jerboa (ancient Greek χοιρογρύλλιον - Lev. 11:6)

X

• Chameleon (ancient Greek χαμαιλέων - Lev. 11:30)

I

• Lizard (ancient Greek κροκόδειλος ὁ χερσαῖος - literally: “land crocodile”
  - Lev. 11:29; ancient Greek σαύρα - Lev. 11:30)

Orthodox Life

Can animals play a fateful role in history? Why was there a need for a regulation on “clean” and “unclean” animals? How to treat the basilisk, dragon and leviathan mentioned on the pages of the Old Testament? Were these real species of animals or allegorical images? What did the Bible authors want to tell us by mentioning them? We made an attempt to sort this out on Animal Protection Day.

Detail from the joint painting “Paradise” by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, 1616

Notes

1. In Slavic translations, “land of dragons” is replaced by “place of bitterness”
2. [azbyka.ru/biblia/?Lev.11&crgl The Bible in 5 languages: Slavic, Russian, Ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew. Leviticus chapter 11]
3. [chassidus.ru/library/tora_inline/vayikro/shmini.htm Torah with commentary by Rashi Book of Vayikro Weekly section Shmini Chapter 11]
4. [www.bible.in.ua/underl/index.htm?OT/Le?11 Interlinear translation of the Bible Leviticus, chapter 11]
5. [hetrulycomes.info/dumulan/ctgry/1/hare.php Ruminant hare with hooves]
6. The Third Book of Maccabees is included in the Orthodox canon, but is not included in the Catholic canon of the Bible

Passage describing Animals in the Bible

Another even stronger wave swept through the people, and, reaching the front rows, this wave moved the front rows, staggering, and brought them to the very steps of the porch. A tall fellow, with a petrified expression on his face and a stopped raised hand, stood next to Vereshchagin. - Ruby! - Almost an officer whispered to the dragoons, and one of the soldiers suddenly, with his face distorted with anger, hit Vereshchagin on the head with a blunt broadsword. "A!" - Vereshchagin cried out briefly and in surprise, looking around in fear and as if not understanding why this was done to him. The same groan of surprise and horror ran through the crowd. "Oh my God!" – someone’s sad exclamation was heard. But following the exclamation of surprise that escaped Vereshchagin, he cried out pitifully in pain, and this cry destroyed him. That barrier of human feeling, stretched to the highest degree, which still held the crowd, broke through instantly. The crime had been started, it was necessary to complete it. The pitiful groan of reproach was drowned out by the menacing and angry roar of the crowd. Like the last seventh wave, breaking ships, this last unstoppable wave rose from the rear ranks, reached the front ones, knocked them down and swallowed everything. The dragoon who struck wanted to repeat his blow. Vereshchagin, with a cry of horror, shielding himself with his hands, rushed towards the people. The tall fellow he bumped into grabbed Vereshchagin’s thin neck with his hands and, with a wild cry, he and he fell under the feet of the crowd of roaring people. Some beat and tore Vereshchagin, others were tall and small. And the cries of the crushed people and those who tried to save the tall fellow only aroused the rage of the crowd. For a long time the dragoons could not free the bloodied, beaten half to death factory worker. And for a long time, despite all the feverish haste with which the crowd tried to complete the work once begun, those people who beat, strangled and tore Vereshchagin could not kill him; but the crowd pressed them from all sides, with them in the middle, like one mass, swaying from side to side and did not give them the opportunity to either finish him off or throw him. “Beat with an ax, or what?.. crushed... Traitor, sold Christ!.. alive... living... the deeds of a thief are torment. Constipation!.. Is Ali alive?” Only when the victim had stopped struggling and her screams were replaced by a uniform, drawn-out wheezing, did the crowd begin to hastily move around the lying, bloody corpse. Each one came up, looked at what had been done, and with horror, reproach and surprise, pressed back. “Oh my God, the people are like beasts, where can a living person be!” - was heard in the crowd. “And the guy is young... he must be from the merchants, then the people!.. they say, he’s not the one... how could he not be the one... Oh my God... They beat another, they say, he’s barely alive... Eh, people... Who is not afraid of sin...” they were saying now the same people, with a painfully pitiful expression, looking at the dead body with a blue face, smeared with blood and dust and with a long thin neck severed. The diligent police officer, finding it indecent the presence of a corpse in his lordship's courtyard, ordered the dragoons to drag the body out into the street. Two dragoons took hold of the mangled legs and dragged the body. A bloody, dusty, dead shaved head on a long neck, tucked under, dragged along the ground. The people huddled away from the corpse. While Vereshchagin fell and the crowd, with a wild roar, was embarrassed and swayed over him, Rostopchin suddenly turned pale, and instead of going to the back porch, where his horses were waiting for him, he, without knowing where or why, lowered his head, with quick steps I walked along the corridor leading to the rooms on the lower floor. The count's face was pale, and he could not stop his lower jaw from shaking, as if in a fever. “Your Excellency, here... where do you want?... here, please,” said his trembling, frightened voice from behind. Count Rastopchin was unable to answer anything and, obediently turning around, went where he was shown. There was a stroller on the back porch. The distant roar of the roaring crowd was heard here too. Count Rastopchin hastily got into the carriage and ordered to go to his country house in Sokolniki. Having left for Myasnitskaya and no longer hearing the screams of the crowd, the count began to repent. He now remembered with displeasure the excitement and fear that he had shown in front of his subordinates. “La populace est terrible, elle est hideuse,” he thought in French. – Ils sont sosche les loups qu'on ne peut apaiser qu'avec de la chair. [The crowd is scary, it is disgusting. They are like wolves: you can’t satisfy them with anything except meat.] “Count!” one god is above us!“ - Vereshchagin’s words suddenly came to his mind, and an unpleasant feeling of cold ran down Count Rastopchin’s back. But this feeling was instantaneous, and Count Rastopchin smiled contemptuously at himself. “J'avais d'autres devoirs,” he thought. – Il fallait apaiser le peuple. Bien d'autres victimes ont peri et perissent pour le bien publique“, [I had other responsibilities. The people had to be satisfied. Many other victims have died and are dying for the public good.] - and he began to think about those general responsibilities that he had in relation to his family, his (entrusted to him) capital and about himself - not as about Fyodor Vasilyevich Rostopchin (he believed that Fyodor Vasilyevich Rostopchin sacrifices himself for the bien publique [public good]), but about himself as the commander-in-chief, a representative of the authorities and the tsar’s authorized representative. “If I were only Fyodor Vasilyevich, ma ligne de conduite aurait ete tout autrement tracee, [my path would have been outlined completely differently,] but I had to preserve both the life and dignity of the commander-in-chief.” Swaying slightly on the soft springs of the carriage and not hearing the more terrible sounds of the crowd, Rostopchin physically calmed down, and, as always happens, at the same time as physical calmness, his mind forged for him the reasons for moral calmness. The thought that calmed Rastopchin was not new. Since the world has existed and people have been killing each other, not a single person has ever committed a crime against his own kind without reassuring himself with this very thought. This thought is le bien publique [the public good], the supposed good of other people. For a person not possessed by passion, this good is never known; but the person who commits a crime always knows exactly what this good consists of. And Rostopchin now knew this. Not only in his reasoning did he not reproach himself for the act he had done, but he found reasons for self-satisfaction in the fact that he so successfully knew how to take advantage of this a propos [opportunity] - to punish the criminal and at the same time calm the crowd. “Vereshchagin was tried and sentenced to death,” thought Rostopchin (although Vereshchagin was only sentenced to hard labor by the Senate). - He was a traitor and a traitor; I could not leave him unpunished, and then je faisais d'une pierre deux coups [made two blows with one stone]; For peace of mind, I gave the sacrifice to the people and executed the villain.” Arriving at his country house and busy with household orders, the count completely calmed down. Half an hour later the count was riding on fast horses across Sokolnichye Field, no longer remembering what had happened, and thinking and thinking only about what would happen. He was now driving to the Yauzsky Bridge, where, he was told, Kutuzov was. Count Rastopchin was preparing in his imagination those angry and caustic reproaches that he would express to Kutuzov for his deception. He will make this old court fox feel that responsibility for all the misfortunes that will occur from leaving the capital, from the destruction of Russia (as Rostopchin thought), will fall on his old head alone, which has gone crazy. Thinking ahead about what he would tell him, Rastopchin angrily turned around in the carriage and angrily looked around. Sokolniki field was deserted. Only at the end of it, near the almshouse and the yellow house, could be seen a group of people in white clothes and several lonely people of the same kind who were walking across the field, shouting something and waving their arms. One of them ran across Count Rastopchin’s carriage. And Count Rastopchin himself, and his coachman, and the dragoons, all looked with a vague feeling of horror and curiosity at these released madmen, and especially at the one who was running up to them. Staggering on his long thin legs, in a flowing robe, this madman ran quickly, not taking his eyes off Rostopchin, shouting something to him in a hoarse voice and making signs for him to stop. Overgrown with uneven tufts of beard, the gloomy and solemn face of the madman was thin and yellow. His black agate pupils ran low and anxiously over the saffron yellow whites. - Stop! Stop! I speak! - he screamed shrilly and again, breathlessly, shouted something with impressive intonations and gestures. He caught up with the carriage and ran alongside it. - They killed me three times, three times I rose from the dead. They stoned me, crucified me... I will rise... I will rise... I will rise. They tore my body apart. The kingdom of God will be destroyed... I will destroy it three times and build it up three times,” he shouted, raising his voice more and more. Count Rastopchin suddenly turned pale, just as he had turned pale when the crowd rushed at Vereshchagin. He turned away. - Let's go... let's go quickly! - he shouted at the coachman in a trembling voice. The carriage rushed at all the horses' feet; but for a long time behind him, Count Rastopchin heard a distant, insane, desperate cry, and before his eyes he saw one surprised, frightened, bloody face of a traitor in a fur sheepskin coat. No matter how fresh this memory was, Rostopchin now felt that it had cut deep into his heart, to the point of bleeding. He now clearly felt that the bloody trail of this memory would never heal, but that, on the contrary, the further, the more evil, the more painful this terrible memory would live in his heart for the rest of his life. He heard, it seemed to him now, the sounds of his words: “Cut him, you will answer me with your head!” - “Why did I say these words! Somehow I accidentally said... I could not have said them (he thought): then nothing would have happened.” He saw the frightened and then suddenly hardened face of the dragoon who struck and the look of silent, timid reproach that this boy in a fox sheepskin coat threw at him... “But I didn’t do it for myself. I should have done this. La plebe, le traitre... le bien publique”, [Mob, villain... public good.] - he thought. The army was still crowded at the Yauzsky Bridge. It was hot. Kutuzov, frowning and despondent, was sitting on a bench near the bridge and playing with a whip in the sand, when a carriage galloped up to him noisily. A man in a general's uniform, in a hat with a plume, with darting, either angry or frightened eyes, approached Kutuzov and began telling him something in French. It was Count Rastopchin. He told Kutuzov that he came here because Moscow and the capital no longer exist and there is only one army.

Belted with a snake

We do not know the name of this ascetic, but at least the fact that Paisius the Svyatogorets told this story does not allow us to doubt his existence.

One elder spent his life in work and prayer. But in the area where he lived there were many snakes. They were not afraid of the monk, they often approached him, and sometimes even interfered with his work. One of them was particularly annoying. The elder could not stand it: he grabbed it and tied it like a belt. One monk brought him food and was very frightened by what he saw. To this, the elder simply assured that there is no need to be afraid: “Christ said that he gives us the power to step on snakes, and scorpions, and all the power of the enemy, and nothing will harm us.”