Endnote 11 – “You Shall Not Boil a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk”

The Interpreter’s Bible 1:1013–14 (1952) (Ugaritic text cited); Ronald F. Youngblood, Exodus (Moody Bible Institute, 1983), p. 108 (Bible clause protests against pagan ritual mentioned in 15th century text); Robert Alan Cole, Exodus (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, 1973), p. 180 (“The Canaanite texts show this to be a magic spell, so the prescription is more ritual than humane”); Henry Leopold Ellison, Exodus (Daily Study Bible, 1982), p. 134 (Ugarit seems to confirm rabbis’ view); James Philip Hyatt, Exodus (New Century Bible Commentary, 1971), pp 249–250 (“The true explanation seems to be that this rite was rorbidden by the Israelites because it was a sacrificial practice or the Canaanites. This is suggested by one or the Ugaritic texts, which is mythical-ritualistic…. A part of this line is broken, but the reading and translation are fairly certain”); Gwynne Henton Davis, Exodus (Torch Bible Commentaries, 1967), p. 189 (the “prohibition [is] now explained by reference to a Ugaritic text…. There, at sacrifices, a kid was cooked in milk and the fields were then sprinkled with the dish to ensure their fertility. The Israelite law prohibits Canaanite magical processes in the name of Yahwism”); Wilbur Fields, Exploring Exodus (Bible Study Textbook Series, 1976), pp. 515–516 (“This law is now generally understood to make allusion to a Canaanite religious practice, in which a kid was boiled in its mother’s milk. This practice was included in the rituals at Ugarit, when such a dish was prepared at restal ceremonies pertaining to the fertility of the soil”); George Angus Fulton Knight, Theology as Narration; A Commentary on the Book of Exodus (1976), p. 151 (“In the fourteenth century B.C. boiling a kid in its mother’s milk was accepted ritual act. Probably beginning as an ancient taboo it was later bound up with the acceptance and use or incest as an act of worship”); John H. Dobson, A Guide to the Book of Exodus (1977), p. 129 (Bible prohibition refers to Canaanite fertility rite); Brevard S. Childs, Exodus (1974), p. 486 (“the biblical prohibition was directed specifically against a Canaanite ceremony, which was probably connected with its fertility cult”); Martin Noth, Exodus (1962), p. 192 (“Verse 19b presumably forbids a practice usual in foreign cults”).