Leviticus 11:20 says to not eat a flying insect on all fours. Deuteronomy 14:19 is more broad and says that every creeping insect that flies is unclean for you and not to be eaten. We also learn in Leviticus 11:32 that whatever unclean carcasses fall on becomes unclean. One might want to then consider the making of honey and how it is quite probable from what I've heard from an experienced bee keeper that it is impossible to keep a dead bee from ending up in the honey. How then could any bee honey be clean?

Answer From The Annual Reading Schedule - Week 24 Notes For Leviticus: The key to answering this is in Leviticus 11:34. We can't only look at Leviticus 11:32 and then come to the conclusion that this means any and everything is unclean – there are some exceptions. In verse 34, it specifically says food which is eaten "on which water comes". Also, in verse 36, we see a natural body of water (fountain, well, collection of water) is still considered clean. This means bodies of water that have direct contact with the land. Also, we see in verse 37-38 that seed is clean unless it had come into contact with water. So we can't interpret verse 32 to mean any and everything becomes unclean because we can clearly there are exceptions to that mentioned specifically in the following verses like verses 36-38.

So going back to verse 34, if we read closely we will see that this is similar to verses 37-38 in that it mentions water. The seed that had been exposed to water was considered unclean (verse 38), but the seed that had not been exposed to water was considered still clean (verse 37). Obviously you would have had to remove the unclean carcass from the dry seed without touching it (maybe gloves or something else), but the seed itself would still be considered clean.

So in verse 34 it states specifically the food on which water had come becomes unclean. Since this verse is similar to verses 37-38, that seems to imply the opposite is true also – that food on which water has not come does not become unclean. Although this is not specifically stated in this verse, I think since it is similar to verses 37-38 that we can safely make an inference that this is true.

In other words, if you had a dry stack of wheat, or potatoes, or barley, or some other plant that was dry and was stored in a safe dry barn and one day you come out and find a dead rat on the top of the stack of wheat that your cat had killed, as long as that wheat was dry and not exposed to water, the dead rat could be removed with gloves and the wheat would still be clean (from my understanding).

Obviously if there were any rat blood or dead rat parts on any wheat that couldn't easily be separated from the wheat, those pieces of wheat would just need to be disposed of also since parts of the unclean carcass are connected to them. But the parts of the wheat under the dead carcass that merely need the dead carcass lifted off of them and don't show any signs of rat remains still on them would be considered clean from my understanding.

What about if you found a dead fly on a stack of fries or on a loaf of bread? Well, fries and bread would have already come into contact with water or some amount of moisture in the preparation and/or cooking process so the fries and bread would be unclean. It is only food that has not come in contact with water. What about if you opened your jar of quick oats you bought at the store and found a dead fly? The flakes of quick oats might appear dry to your eyes, but the reality is quick oats were probably exposed to moisture in the manufacturing process.

An article online states, "Rolled oats are steamed and flattened whole oat groats". Steaming obviously involves moisture which is another way of exposing the oats to water. That would mean rolled oats would become unclean if something unclean fell on them. Although they look dry, the steaming process exposed them to water in my opinion. The article online goes on to say, "Quick-cooking rolled oats (quick oats) are cut into small pieces before being steamed and rolled. Instant oatmeal is pre-cooked and dried, usually with sweetener and flavoring added." So although quick oats and instant oatmeal might look dry, they were already exposed to water in the steaming and/or possibly also the cooking process from my understanding and therefore would become unclean if something unclean fell on them.

When we get back to the question on discussing honey, I researched and found that honey does not have water content in it. In fact, in the making of honey, I remember finding on the Internet that bees cause moisture to leave or evaporate from the honey. I don't understand this in detail, but that's kind of a paraphrase of my recollection of what I found while researching. So this would mean honey is a food, not a drink, and that honey would be a food not yet exposed to water under normal circumstances. So, when honey is processed, as long as filters are used to filter out the bee particles, that is how the honey is still considered clean.

Some people say on the Internet that it isn't talking about bee honey in the Scriptures that people eat, but date honey. However, we can see it is clearly bee honey as the honeycomb which is specific to bee honey is mentioned in 1 Samuel 14:27, Psalms 19:10, Proverbs 16:24, 24:13, 27:7, Song of Songs 4:11, 5:1, and Luke 24:42. I think the explanation of date honey only arises because a close examination of Leviticus 11 has not been completed. When we examine verse 34 and compare it to verses 37-38 in Leviticus chapter 11, I think that gives us the real explanation on how it is possible for bee honey to be clean.

This also made me somewhat surprised because I would have not guessed that any food could be clean if something unclean touched it; but apparently it can be as long as it was not exposed to water. For crops, I would say that means exposed to water after the time of harvesting. Obviously while a plant is still growing, it will be exposed to water from the rain. I do not think this is referring to that situation. I believe it is referring to food that has already been harvested.