The bible says nothing about domestic cats. Nada. Zilch. Some wild cats are mentioned. Dogs are poo-pooed.
A search for 'domestic cat' on the openbible.info website produced nothing at all. I know this from previous searches. The domestic cat is not mentioned in the bible at all. Other animals are. The dog is. The domestic cat, no. Wild cats are sometimes referenced but rarely; such as the leopard and lion below. P.S. The dog is mentioned over 40 times in the bible but nearly always in a derogatory and contemptuous manner.
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| What the bible says about cats. Image: MikeB |
Then God said,
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Search for 'domestic cat' produced no references in the bible as mentioned twice already!! A search for 'cat' produced the above. 'Cats' produced the following (a reference to the leopard):
Daniel 7.6: After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it.
The lion mentioned on search for 'lion'. There are other mentions.
Psalm 104:21: The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.
Why isn't the domestic cat mentioned in the bible? The Bible Research Today website says this:
"The most common explanation for the omission of the cat within Hebrew biblical texts is that it was a reaction by monotheistic Israel against the Egyptian practice of worshipping cats (or gods that were fashioned in the form of cats)."
In an earlier article I wrote years ago I suggested that the domestic cat was irrelevant to the topics discussed in the bible and was not mentioned as a result. A common-sense viewpoint.
When it comes to the bible forget about the domestic cat which was very much part of the lives of some Jews at the time of Christ (plausible and reasonable suggestion). Perhaps they were quite rare among Jews.
The domestic cat existed at that time as the Egyptians had domestic cats for thousands of years before Christ. There were probably fewer pet cats than pet dogs among the Jews. Today the Jews are generally very kind to stray cats. There are lots of them in Israel. Too many actually! Ironic that.
There is a book called “The Gospel of the Holy Twelve” said to be a translation of an early Christian document found in a Buddhist monastery in Tibet. One legend in it seems to be among those things left out of the Bible when they ought to have been put in, for they bring before us the mind of Jesus Christ much more clearly than some other recordings by the disciples.
ReplyDelete“As Jesus entered a certain village, He saw a young cat which had none to care for her, and she was hungry and cried unto Him, and He took her up, and put her inside His garment, and she lay in His bosom. And when He came into the village He set food and drink before the cat, and she ate and drank, and showed thanks unto Him. And He gave her unto one of His disciples, who was a widow, whose name was Lorenza, and she took care of her. And some of the people said, “This man careth for all creatures. Are they His brothers and sisters that He should love them?” And He said unto them, “Verily, these are your fellow creatures, of the great Household of God; yea they are brothers and sisters, having the same breath of life in the Eternal. And whosoever careth for one of the least of these, and giveth it to eat and drink in it’s need the same doeth it unto me; and whosoever willingly suffereth one of these creatures to be in want, and defendeth it not when evilly treated, suffereth the evil as done unto me.”
Thanks a lot Ruth. Fabulous comment. Just the kind I like as it adds beautifully to the article. Keep well.
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