The Bible does not follow modern “Linnaean taxonomy” (rooted in the formulations of Carl Linnaeus in the 1700s). In ancient thought, classifications of creatures were grouped by movement and habitat rather than biology (e.g., sea vs. air vs. land; cf., for example, Genesis 1:28; Hosea 4:3). Consider this in regard to the modern classification of the bat as a mammal, while the Bible classifies bats with fowls of the air in Leviticus 11:13-19. Due to flight in the air, the bat is classified among the fowl of the air; due to swimming in the sea, the whale is classified among the fish of the sea. This seems to bother some modern folk. However, there is no reason for Christians to run away like frightened children just because the Bible uses its own classification system rather than following what has been developed by modern scientists. Why accept what men have said over what God has said?
Note: “Linnaean taxonomy is a hierarchical system for classifying and naming organisms developed by Carl Linnaeus. It organizes biological diversity into categories like kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species.” The fear of the difficult drives some commentators to affirm odd, unresearched, and false statements. For example, the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges commentary states: “It is scarcely needful to note that there are no whales in the Mediterranean.” There are actually a number of whale species found in the Mediterranean Sea.
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