Animals in the Holy Scripture

In the Holy Scripture, many issues related to animals, including religious, social, moral and mythological elements, are mentioned. These are also in question in the nutritional rules that are a part of daily life. In the Torah, some animals are considered clean and some are unclean, and it is forbidden to eat the meat of these animals. While the rules regarding this are meticulously applied in today's Jewish society; Christian tradition has avoided any prohibition on animal meat, adopting the motto of Jesus that "what goes out of the mouth will defile a person instead of what goes into the mouth". Another subject that is frequently emphasized about animals is presentations. Verses related to this, mostly in the Torah, reveal the bloody sacrifice culture. These animals, which were presented to God, were handled with different names according to their purpose and their practices were subject to different rules. This ritual, which continued until the destruction of the Temple of Solomon in 70 AD in the Jewish tradition; In Christianity, it has been a concept in which Jesus became central. In the passages in the Torah, in which the ten plagues inflicted on the Pharaoh and the Egyptian people are described, it is seen that animals are in the central position. There are those who think that these plagues are a divine punishment, and there are those who think that they are events that develop due to ecological reasons. It is thought that the animal species depicted in the form of statues, motifs and idols in the Bible are related to their symbolic meanings. Almost all of the mythological characters are depicted in different animal silhouettes. It is seen that there are various animals in the content of the miracles performed by the prophets in order to prove themselves and introduce God. The presence of conflicting verses between the Torah and the Bible caused the position of animals in human life to be interpreted differently in Judaism and Christianity. In our study, the animals in the Bible were categorized according to their subjects and were discussed under seven headings. In each chapter, firstly, the verses in the Bible about the subject of animals are included, and then its reflections in Jewish and Christian traditions are emphasized. Key Words: The Holy Scripture, Bible, Animal, Judaism, Christianity, Sacrifice