Question concerning "chewing the cud"

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> *Text:* Leviticus 11:6 reads as follows....
> "And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; 
> he is unclean unto you."

The common answer was found on Dejanews :-)

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Daz Gedye wrote in message <355bc3bd.256664@news.paradise.net.nz>:

 Yeah, but if you were a 16th century englishman trying to translate
 "ar-neh'-beth" what would *you* have put? ;->

 'Moses, as Bochart and other learned men observe, is the only writer
 that speaks of the hare as chewing the cud; though they also observe
 that Aristotle makes mention of that in common with those that do chew
 the cud, namely a "coagulum" or "runnet" in its stomach; his words
 are: "all that have many bellies have what is called puetia, a
 coagulum or runnet, and of them that have but one belly, the hare;" '
 
 Rabbits and Hares are known to eat their own faeces.  This is thought
 to enable a more complete digestion of cellulose, which is also the
 goal of cud-chewing.
 
 We still don't know what the heck a "ar-neh'-beth" is or was.
 My Hebrew Dictionary had this to say:
 1a) probably an extinct animal because no known hare chews its cud,
 exact meaning is unknown, and best left untranslated as "arnebeth"

 <><
 Daz Gedye
 for email my domain is geocities with a dot com on the end.
 dgedye@bigfoot.com">http://www.bigfoot.com/~ HREF="mailto:dgedye@bigfoot.com">dgedye@bigfoot.com
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Unfortunately, arnebeth has been translated into "hare" or "rabbit"
in every translation of Hebrew Scripture, including the Septuagint,
so I'm not sure the "bad translation" argument holds.

Richard Masoner
Champaign Illinois USA