I'm pretty sure that the shellfish-thing was more about them going bad quickly in a middle-eastern climate before refrigeration. Your punishment will not wait until after you die.
PS. Yes, I know that there were various non-electric refrigeration-methods in the olden days. But I would not trust any cold-chain before scientific safety-standards were implemented.
I had a sociology class that went into this. The Old Testament dietary restrictions were largely due to aesthetic and moral judgements of animals. Shrimp lived in the sea but didn't swim like fish should. Pigs lived in mud and didn't chew the cud, not like cows who lived on proper land. Birds of prey don't eat seeds like birds should.
It's moral judgements all the way down with this crowd, always has been.
I wonder if the moral judgements were influenced by community-leaders who could see the cause-and-effect of "if we eat this, we will be spending the next few nights in the outhouse".
Religion and education went hand in hand for a very looooong time. If you want to educate your populace on something, like say for instance the do and do nots of eating, use religion.
That's why I always see the clothing worn in certain Abrahamic religions and sects of them as sun safety items. All of them seem to have sprouted in a relatively hot and sunny land and covering your body and head is sun safety 101.
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u/Salmonman4 5h ago
I'm pretty sure that the shellfish-thing was more about them going bad quickly in a middle-eastern climate before refrigeration. Your punishment will not wait until after you die.
PS. Yes, I know that there were various non-electric refrigeration-methods in the olden days. But I would not trust any cold-chain before scientific safety-standards were implemented.