# Why did John the Baptist eat locusts? They're not kosher!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [March 13, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277 "2008-03-13T20:39:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/1 "2008-03-13T20:39:10Z")
> [@Matthew 3:1-6](#):
>
> And in those days cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of through Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Now John himself had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leather girdle about his loins; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then went out unto him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about the Jordan; and they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
I’m not Jewish but I know bugs ain’t kosher, no more than crabs or lobsters. Why did John the Baptist, putting himself forth as a Jewish religious leader/prophet, eat them?
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/2 "2008-03-13T20:42:21Z")
Locust is kosher. In fact, it’s the only kosher insect.
What can I say? We’re a strange religion.
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### Author:  [@LionelHutz405](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LionelHutz405)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/3 "2008-03-13T20:43:47Z")
Yep.
It was even mentioned on last night’s episode of [Survivorman](http://www.survivorman.ca/) (as he ate a locust.)
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/4 "2008-03-13T20:46:39Z")
Leviticus 11:20-23
> [@](#):
>
> All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you. There are, however, some winged creatures that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. But all other winged creatures that have four legs you are to detest.
(note, this is the infamous ‘insects have four legs’ passage).
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/5 "2008-03-13T20:53:40Z")
Hopping insects are exempted from the “no bugs” rule.
> [@](#):
>
> \*Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that creeps on all fours: those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth.
>
> These you may eat: the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind.\*
(Lev. 11:21-22)
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/6 "2008-03-13T21:05:21Z")
[QUOTE=Alessan]
Locust is kosher. In fact, it’s the only kosher insect.
What can I say? We’re a strange religion.
[/QUOTE]
Can you eat it with cheese?
(No conceivable answer you would give would surprise me.)
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/7 "2008-03-13T21:05:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> But all other winged creatures that have four legs you are to detest.
Just out of curiosity, what about insects without wings? Ants, for example.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/8 "2008-03-13T21:07:34Z")
I posted the question because I was wondering whether John the Baptist was declaring a new revelation or something, protesting the established Jewish laws (an attitude often attributed to Jesus by Evangelicals, on dubious scriptural grounds IMO). There’s also the camel-hair shirt he wore – don’t camels come under the heading of animals of which Jews may not even touch the dead carcass?
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### Author:  [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/9 "2008-03-13T21:12:36Z")
Sure, John the Baptist may lived in the desert, dressed in camel’s hair and believed that sin was water-soluble; but never let it be said that he failed to honor the sacred bug-eating traditions handed down from ancient Hebrews who couldn’t count to six.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/10 "2008-03-13T21:15:12Z")
According to [Wikipedia,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher_locust) only one or two Jewish traditions consider any locusts kosher and the Orthodox tradition rejects it WRT all species. Nothing on what the consensus was in John’s and Jesus’ time, however.
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### Author:  [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/11 "2008-03-13T21:18:08Z")
So is there another verse somewhere referring to locusts? Because I was under the impression that locusts were no longer considered kosher, because no one knows the specific _kind_ of locust that was OK to eat. That doesn’t make any sense with the verse posted here.
ETA: OK, the Wikipedia link from **BrainGlutton** says basically the same thing that I remember. Never mind!
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### Author:  [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/12 "2008-03-13T21:21:09Z")
Doesn’t it depend on how they’re killed and prepared?
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/13 "2008-03-13T21:27:01Z")
Is Batman kosher?
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### Author:  [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/14 "2008-03-13T21:28:43Z")
[QUOTE=scr4]
Just out of curiosity, what about insects without wings? Ants, for example.
[/QUOTE]
Ants have wings.
> [@](#):
>
> Most queens and male ants have wings; queens shed the wings after the nuptial flight leaving visible stubs, a distinguishing feature of queens. Wingless queens (ergatoids) and males can also occur.
> **[Ant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant)**
>
> Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22,000 species have been described. They are easily identified by their geniculate (elbowed) antennae and the distinctive node-like structure that forms their slender waists.
> Ants form colonies that range in size from a few dozen individuals often living in ...
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/15 "2008-03-13T21:37:06Z")
I’ve also read that **blood** is not kosher – but, then, why is the blood of Christian babies used to make matzohs? 😕
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### Author:  [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/16 "2008-03-13T21:40:37Z")
BrainGlutton:
> [@](#):
>
> Can you eat it with cheese?
Yes. Only the meat of mammals is Biblically forbidden from being eaten with dairy. Bird meat was prohibited by the Rabbis because a piece of bird meat could be easily confused for mammal meat. Fish and insects can freely be eaten with dairy.
scr4:
> [@](#):
>
> Just out of curiosity, what about insects without wings? Ants, for example.
Forbidden, as per
> [@Leviticus 11:41-42](#):
>
> And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth shall be an abomination; it shall not be eaten. Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are an abomination.
redtail23:
> [@](#):
>
> So is there another verse somewhere referring to locusts? Because I was under the impression that locusts were no longer considered kosher, because no one knows the specific kind of locust that was OK to eat. That doesn’t make any sense with the verse posted here.
No, your recollection is correct - Some Sephardic Jews have a tradition regarding the identity of the specific locust species that are permitted, but others and all Ashkenazic Jews have lost that knowledge and therefore stay away from all insects. But we do not think that the named species became forbidden, we just don’t have sufficient expertise to recognize them.
cosmosdan:
> [@](#):
>
> Doesn’t it depend on how they’re killed and prepared?
Nope, that only matters for birds and mammals. No special mode of slaughter is necessary for fish or locusts.
Ludovic:
> [@](#):
>
> Is Batman kosher?
Nope.
> [@Leviticus 11:13-19](#):
>
> And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: …(snip)…and the bat.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/17 "2008-03-13T21:54:50Z")
[QUOTE=cmkeller]
No, your recollection is correct - Some Sephardic Jews have a tradition regarding the identity of the specific locust species that are permitted, but others and all Ashkenazic Jews have lost that knowledge and therefore stay away from all insects. But we do not think that the named species became forbidden, we just don’t have sufficient expertise to recognize them.
[/QUOTE]
That seems weird - because ‘any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper’ seems too general and inclusive to be able to be misundertood or misidentified - is the English translation lending it a false sense of clarity?
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### Author:  [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/18 "2008-03-13T22:01:49Z")
Clearly the Levites were just as meticulous about their ornithology as their entomology.
“Well, OBVIOUSLY bats are birds; they have two legs! If they were insects, they’d have four.”
It breaks my heart to think of all the little Levite children who brought their own lunches to school, and had to watch the other kids eating delicious bat McNuggets while they were forced to choke down another of Mom’s crummy locust sandwiches.
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### Author:  [@JohnnieEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnieEnigma)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/19 "2008-03-13T22:04:23Z")
Because he was hungry?
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### Author:  [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-the-baptist-eat-locusts-theyre-not-kosher/441277/20 "2008-03-13T22:06:12Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
I’ve also read that **blood** is not kosher – but, then, why is the blood of Christian babies used to make matzohs? 😕
[/QUOTE]
Ok, that made me giggle insanely. Can I share your basket?
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