“Whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters… them shall ye eat.”
— Leviticus 11:9, KJV
Anything living in the water that does not have both fins and scales was unclean for Israel.
Examples would include:
- Shellfish — shrimp, prawns, crabs, lobsters, crayfish
- Mollusks — oysters, clams, mussels, scallops
- Cephalopods — squid, octopus, cuttlefish
- Eels — fins, but no true scales of the required kind
- Catfish — fins, but no scales
- Sharks and rays — traditionally regarded as lacking the kind of scales described here
- Other aquatic creatures such as jellyfish, sea cucumbers, starfish, and similar animals
Leviticus is broader than just “fish.” Verse 10 says:
“And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you.”
So shrimp and lobster are probably the clearest modern examples of creatures forbidden under this law. They have neither fins nor scales.
An interesting detail is that having only one of the two was not enough. A creature had to possess both fins and scales to be considered clean.
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