2.4 Israelite Practices

Different Views of the Function of (Animal) Sacrifices

Food for the gods (rejected by Israelites)
Remove moral impurity from the sanctuary
Redistributed to the poor
Support the priests
Only moral way to eat meat
Expression of gratitude, devotion, self-sacrifice (explicit in Christianity, perhaps implicit in Israel)

Arguments About Intermarriage

You should marry whomever you love no matter what the religious or cultural differences
Intermarriage is okay as long as the children are raised the right religion
Intermarriage is okay as long as the spouse converts
Intermarriage is never okay even if the spouse converts
Intermarriage dilutes ancestry, which dilutes ancestry-based identity

Theories of Ritual and Dietary Impurity

Examples of things considered impure: pork, catfish, vultures, skin disease, dead bodies, semen, menstrual blood, birth defects, male homosexuality, four-day-old meat, foreskins, rival nations.

The Bible never really explains a reason, scholars have attempted to identify the unspoken underlying logic:

Hygiene
Symbols of human vice
Symbols of death
Social differentiator theory
Categories and fear of freaks