The diet of the Canaanites also had connection with their religion. Perhaps some of what God forbade would have been unhealthful for the Israelites to eat (cf. Leviticus 11). [1] However the main reason for the prohibitions seems to have been that certain animals did not conform to what the Israelites considered normal or typical. [2] Another view is that the distinctions between clean and unclean were deliberately arbitrary to teach the Israelites that God"s election of them from among other nations had also been arbitrary. [3] Others believe that only some of these distinctions were arbitrary. [4][source]
One characteristic of all the forbidden birds, despite the imprecision of the names that describe them, seems to be that they all consumed carrion. [5][source]
"The ceremonial custom of boiling a kid in its mother"s milk is known from the ancient Canaanite tablets found at Ugarit [1]. Such a rite was superstitiously observed by the Canaanites, hoping that through magical acts they could increase fertility and productivity ( Deuteronomy 14:21; Exodus 23:19; Exodus 34:26)." [7][source]
". . . various Canaanite cults regularly engaged in the practices of seething a kid in its mother"s milk as a fertility rite of sympathetic magic intended to coerce the deity into granting fertility to the wives, fields, and flocks of the cults" adherents. Such rites of sympathetic magic "worked" on the premise that the gods were in some way part of and subject to the same natural created order that human beings also inhabited. By finding the common natural connection points, human beings could "push the right buttons" and thus manipulate the gods... [source][source][source]
"Israelites do not, through an act of sympathetic magic, try to coerce the deity into blessing them with fertility for the year to come; but instead, after the year"s crops have been harvested and whether that year"s harvest has been fruitful or not, Israelites bring a tithe to God as an act of gratitude [8]." [9][source]
Another view is that this prohibition taught the Israelites not to use what promotes life, milk, to destroy life. [10][source]
In the present dispensation all foods are clean ( Mark 7:19; Acts 10:15; Romans 14:14; et al.). However, we too should avoid foods that are unhealthful, since our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and blood, the carrier and symbol of life ( Genesis 9:4). Moreover we should avoid practices that may lead us away from God"s will or appear to others that we have departed from God"s will ( 1 Thessalonians 5:22). [source][source][source]