Morsels of Doom to the Alien

Reading:   Deuteronomy 14

Today we have stumbled across another one of those pesky translation errors...

DEUTERONOMY 14:21

21 Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk. 

Did you catch the two mistranslations?  The Israelites were prohibited from eating animals that were not killed by their own hand because animals that died "of themselves" were considered unclean, and rightly so.  Without knowledge of how an animal died or when the death occurred, it would be hard to say wether or not the animal had a disease or if it had spoiled.  It is a measure of health just like all the warnings in Leviticus about washing hands and clothing whenever dealing with the sick (see Medical Ignorance Exposed).  Okay, so why then would The Lord allow the Israelites to feed the unclean animal to a stranger or an alien?  The uncleanliness of the morsel still applied and could adversely affect anyone who partook of it.

Joseph Smith had it absolutely correct when he translated the verse like this...

21 Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt not give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest not sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.  

It's truly amazing that biblical scholars haven't made a point to debate this verse and in many cases even attempt to defend the mistranslation.  Even Matthew Henry explained the handing over of unclean (possibly diseased) meat to aliens and strangers as a mere act of kindness...

Now as to all these precepts concerning their food, It is plain in the law itself that they belonged only to the Jews, and were not moral, nor of perpetual use, because not of universal obligation; for what they might not eat themselves they might give to a stranger...or they might sell it to an alien, a mere Gentile...

But, not two sentences earlier, even he explains the warning as a protection against unwholesome food...

They are further forbidden...to eat the flesh of any creature that died of itself, because the blood was not separated from it, and, besides the ceremonial uncleanness which it lay under (from Lev. 11:39), it is not wholesome food, nor ordinarily used among us, except by the poor.

Interesting, right? Even a biblical scholar of his magnitude chose not to question the monastical translators of the ancient biblical text - he didn't want the wrath of religious zealots knocking down his door and proclaiming him a heretic.  Who could blame him?

As for the last bit of the verse, "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk," it's a simple warning not to cook or boil a goat (animal) in the milk of its mother.  I'm not sure if the exercise of avoiding the mix of dairy and meats is still practiced in fundamental jewish communities but I will ask a Rabbi friend of mine and get his take on the custom.  As to the purpose of the warning I'd imagine its a respect thing but I haven't researched it so don't quote me on that.

~Kipling