Genesis 7 · a question people ask
Why are there "clean" and "unclean" animals before the law of Moses?
The law spelling out clean and unclean animals comes much later (Leviticus 11). Genesis 7 already uses the distinction without explaining it. Protestants read that in two ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Known from early on
God had already made the distinction known, at least for sacrifice. Genesis 7 gives it without explanation, as something Noah already understood, and after the flood Noah offers "every clean animal, and… every clean bird" (8:20).
Genesis 7:2 · Genesis 8:20
Told in Israel's terms
The story is told for Israel, in the words its first readers used, so it names the animals the way Israel's law would (Leviticus 11:47, "to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean").
Genesis 7:2 · Leviticus 11:46-47
The verses
“You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female.”
““‘This is the law of the animal, and of the bird, and of every living creature that moves in the waters, and of every creature that creeps on the earth, to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean, and between the living thing that may be eaten and the living thing that may not be eaten.’””