Is the Cat in the Bible?
In my study of the Bible, I find
that many animals are mentioned,
but I have not seen the cat
referred to anywhere. Perhaps I'm
not looking where I should or haven't
read enough of the Bible yet. A
friend told me that the cat was
mentioned in the original scriptures,
but then deleted by some of the
early writers of the Bible because
they associated the cat with the
Egyptians. In those days the
Egyptians held the cat in high
esteem, even worshiped it, and
the Christians deemed the Egyptians
pagans.
I wonder if any visitors can help me
discover more information to clarify
this mystery for me. If so, I wish they
would send the information to me.
Lorraine,
There are no cats mentioned in
the Bible. I have personally read the
entire Bible four times. However, before we claim that they were mentioned
in the original texts but deleted for reasons of belief, it is probably
most scholarly and wise of us to assume the following:
1) If there was a belief popular in Biblical days that cats were in some
way associated with evil, then rather than assume that the original
writings mentioned them but later editors deleted them, we should assume
that the original writers would have held those beliefs and that the
originals, rather than edited copies, would have made no mention of cats.
However,
2) There is no documented evidence that I know of, which makes mention of
feline association with the evil of Egypt. In fact, consider this: There
are 144 mentions of lions in the Bible, either of actual lions or speaking
of God figuratively as a lion. (i.e. "the Lion of Judah"). So most
likely, such a belief about cats did not exist.
3) The most likely reason that cats are not mentioned in the Bible is very
mundane-- probably the same reason that there is no mention of toenails.
There was nothing of importance to say concerning them.
I hope this has been helpful.
-Dwight Monk
Dwight W. Monk
*** dwmonk@mindspring.com
ALT: 5081242@pager.mirabilis.com
dwmonk@juno.com
dwmonk@email.unc.edu
dwmonk@hotmail.com
dwmonk@usa.net
lorraine@theesotericworldnews.com
Last updated on 11/23/2006 05:55 PM