Bats of a Feather

Moses, who was one of the most-learned in Egypt, has been attacked in several cases to undermine biblical authority. This is another of those attacks to get people to doubt that God was speaking through Moses. Let’s evaluate such a claim in more detail. The passage reads:

And these you shall detest among the birds; they shall not be eaten; they are detestable: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, the kite, the falcon of any kind, every raven of any kind, the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind, the little owl, the cormorant, the short-eared owl, the barn owl, the tawny owl, the carrion vulture, the stork, the heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat. (Leviticus 11:13–19)

The Hebrew word for bird is actually ‘ôp̄ which means “fowl/winged creature.”1 The word ‘ôp̄ simply means “to fly” or “has a wing.” So the word includes birds, bats, and even flying insects. The alleged problem appears due to the translation of ‘ôp̄ as bird. Birds are included in the word ‘ôp̄, but ‘ôp̄ is not limited to birds. This shows that translators aren’t always perfect when handling the inerrant Word of God.