Summary: Many flesh-eaters seize upon "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you” (Genesis 9:3 KJV) to claim that God thereby gave humans permission to kill and eat any animals they fancy. But in the Exegeses Companion Bible (ECB), a literal translation of the Bible, it’s “Every living creeper…”(Jahn 1992: Col.11), which could only mean creeper plant because the eating of creeping animals, i.e., reptiles ,was strictly forbidden (Leviticus 11:41); and in the Genesis Apocryphon, one of the Dead Scrolls, it’s just “vegetables and plants” (Reeves 2014).
1. Every Living Creeper is for you (ECB)
Soon after Noah emerged from the Ark, God said to him, "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." (Gen. 9:3-4 KJV). [“And every creeping thing that lives shall be yours for food…” (Gen. 9:3 Aramaic Bible in Plain English).] Now, a creeping thing could either be a creeping animal or a creeping plant.
The Hebrew word origin of “moving thing” (Gen. 9:3 KJV) is רֶמֶשׂ (ramas). According to Brown-Driver-Briggs, the primary meaning of ramas is “collective creeping things”, as distinguished from בְּהֵמָה (beast), חַיָּה (animal), עוֺף (fowls), צִמּוֺר (bird), דָּג (fish). Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance straightforwardly states that is a reptile or any other rapidly moving animal.
On the other hand, according to the Exegeses Companion Bible, a literal translation of the Bible by Herb Jahn, the verses concerned read, “Every living creeper is for you; even as the green herb, I give you all. Only flesh with the soul, which is the blood, eat not” (Jahn 1992: Col.11).
As argued by Pastor William Metcalfe (1840: Chapt. 12-13) and Faye Stiles (2024), “living creeper” here must mean creeper plant, a new vegetation that cropped up after the Deluge. It could not possibly mean creeping animals or reptiles, for the eating of all reptiles, e.g., snails, snakes, toads, is strictly forbidden by Moses’ Law (Leviticus 11:41).
2. Noah and his Sons Planted a Vineyard
So, the “moving things” or “creeping things” prescribed by God as food for Noah and his offspring are creeper plants like vines or grapes. This is confirmed by Noah and his sons subsequently planting a vineyard (Jahn 1992:Col.12) (Gen. 9:20 KJV) (cf. Metcalfe 1840: Chapt.12-13). This is also corroborated by the fact that immediately after the dietary decree, God made a covenant with both humans and other creatures, which was mentioned seven times altogether (Gen. 9:9-17 KJV).
Moreover, after Noah emerged from the ark, he found all the land “abundant with their foliage and their fruit. And…filled with vegetation, grass, and grain,” (Jahn 1992:Col.12), such that the scarcity of food due to the Deluge, which had supposedly destroyed most plants on Earth, cannot be used as an excuse for animal-flesh-eating as an expedient measure.
3. Eat Vegetables and Plants but NO Blood! (Genesis Apocryphon)
Likewise, the Genesis Apocryphon (one of the Dead Sea Scrolls written in Aramaic, discovered in 1947 Cave 1 near Qumran) version reads, “Behold, I give all of it to you and your descendants for eating vegetables and plants (produced) by the land, but any sort of blood you will not eat” (Reeves 2014).
4. Life is Blood, Blood is Life
Thus, God only gave Noah and his descendants creeper plants, vegetables and green herbs for food but NO blood, i.e., no sentient beings, for whom life is blood, blood is life. As put by Prof. Andrew Linzey (1993), "after all, who can take animal life without the shedding of blood? Who can kill without the taking of blood, that is, the life itself?... For the early Hebrews life was symbolised by, even constituted by, blood itself. To kill was to take blood."
“Every moving thing” in Gen. 9:3 is a mistranslation as grave and as widespread in its negative influence as is “dominion” in Gen. 1:26 (Chen 2024).
(I’m indebted to Ms. Faye Stiles for drawing my attention to Genesis Apocryphon and ECB w.r.t. Noah.)
References
Chen, Chapman (2024). “Dominion in Genesis 1:28 Means Servanthood to Animals.” HKBNews, Apr. 14.
Jahn, Herb (1992). Exegeses Companion Bible. Iowa Falls, World Bible Publishers. https://studybible.info/ECB/Genesis%209
Linzey, Andrew (1993). “The Bible and Killing for Food.” Between the Species, Winter. https://www.academia.edu/96607933/The_Bible_and_Killing_for_Food
Metcalfe, William (1840). Bible Testimony on Abstinence from the Flesh of Animals as Food: Being an Address Delivered in the Bible-Christian Church. Philadelphia : J. Metcalfe & Co. https://archive.org/stream/bibletestimonyon11metc/bibletestimonyon11metc_djvu.txt
Reeves, John C., trans. (2014). “Translation of IQ Genesis Apocryphon II-XXII.” Pages. Charlotte edu. https://pages.charlotte.edu/john-reeves/course-materials/rels-2104-hebrew-scripturesold-testament/translation-of-1q-genesis-apocryphon/
Stiles, Faye (2024). “Rethinking Genesis 9:3, God expanded the food menu to include animals (every thing that moves)”, Facebook, Aug. 25, https://www.facebook.com/faye.b.stiles/posts/pfbid0evoDM3K1GYRoujBM4yfFmQcdUPTD7nSHMiB8BEkkrJMSyvq3bqd83RSbDkdmcMQil
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