In ancient Israel, the law codified which animals were clean - and which were unclean.
There were four types of clean animals:
1. All quadrupeds (four-legged animals) that chew the cud and divide the hoof. These include: ox, sheep, goat (the sacrificial animals), hart, gazelle, antelope, etc. This category DOES NOT include the camel, rock-badger, rabbit, and pig.
2. Proper fish with fins and scales.
3. Most birds. There is a long list of forbidden birds, which seem eliminated because they are birds of prey or waterfowl (and also the bat).
4. Winged insects that go upon all four and have legs above their feet to leap. Four kinds of locusts are thus listed as clean. All other creeping things are emphatically NOT clean, including such things as the weasel, mouse, lizards and chameleon.
For Jews even today, these animals remain unclean and must not be eaten. For Christians, however, we believe that the "kosher laws" are no longer in effect (see Acts 10).
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