Minimalist

Because if you've ever had a cat you know that cats think they are god.

Doug Shaver

Minimalist sort of beat me to it. I was going to say that cats are living proof that monotheism is a crock.

Sheshbazzar

It seems extremely peculiar that cats are never mentioned, particularly in light of the many, much more obscure animals, amphibians, fowl, and insects that are mentioned, many species of birds, snakes/lizards, locusts/grasshoppers, different types of owls, and other wildlife, as well as a variety of phantasmagorical 'Biblical' 'creatures' 'beings?' thingies.
Yet the domestic cat, that common creature notorious for hunting down mice and protecting stored grain from rodent infestation is missing?


I been thinking about this for a while, and tend to believe that this omission was a deliberate exclusion. I have came up with a couple of possibilities for the reasons why, so I'll just run them by you for your consideration.
Domestic cats are often the companions of the elderly and lonely. In a superstitious environment a person who lived with, and 'conversed' with a cat would have been viewed as having a 'familiar', a 'shadd' (demon spirit) with whom they communicated, and would be in great danger of being accounted as a 'kashaph' that is a 'witch' or 'sorcerer', or in other words 'dead meat'.
Cats by their easily tamed and friendly nature, and ability to live comfortably with people, are by inference, the perfect body for a shadd demon-spirit, to take possession of and inhabit. (See the current thread on the 'possessed' dog- superstition and stupidity is still alive and well among religious Jews)

And of course there is that obvious ancient idol social-phobic stigma associated with cats, with their images and symbology long being associated with the worship of 'other' gods', whom to the Israelites were all 'shaddim' ('shadd-eem') the plural form of 'Shaddai') and were to be scrupulously avoided, and not even to make mention of their name.
I believe the reason why the word for 'cat' is not to be found within these texts, is that particular word was identical to the name of the cat god idol, inextricable, thus henceforth to be avoided.

Along this line, decades ago while delving deeply in studying the ancient Hebrew measuring system, I couldn't help but note that linear measures and descriptions are slavishly conformed to only simple cubic and rectilinear forms with straight-line, point to point measurements.
Then it occurred to me. The triangle or Pyramid would have been seen as a symbol sacred to 'other' gods. The 'strange gods' symbols for their 'triads' (Egypt)and as their gods symbol for 'eternity'.
Same with the 'circle,' as a symbol also sacred to many non-Hebraic religions. These forms are studiously avoided being mentioned or even described.
With the Pyramids being one of the most prominent, and most enduring symbols of Egypt, and with the Egyptian ideas of religion, life and death, and eternity, And with Hebrews (allegedly) being in Egypt 430 years, it is strange, -or perhaps not the least bit strange- that you will not find 'pyramids' or a triangular figure described or even mentioned anywhere within the Hebrew Bible.

Circles are another thing that are very minimised other than the 'rings' used for practical purposes in the construction of the Tabernacle and Temple. And recall that these were fashioned from the circular 'bracelets, earrings, nose rings, rings and necklaces' (Ex 35:21-22) 'offered' or 'given up' for the religious purpose.

So symbolicaly, as sacred symbols, A triangle or pyramid for Ra, a circle or orb for Zeus, and a square or cube for Yahweh.

Solomon's 'sea' is often described as being a circle, and noted that the description given does not conform to the geometric Rule of pi.
However a geometrical solution to the problem is simple, geometrically precise, and can be duplicated by any able bodied person with no more a length of chalk-line and a nail for a peg.

My two cats are laying right here watching me as I type this




.

Minimalist

And doubtlessly communicating telepathically about the activities of the silly human typing away!

Berthold

In many areas throughout long periods of antiquity, the ferret was the common domestic mouse predator.

Vorkosigan

Awesome.

mountainman

While there do not appear to be any references to cats in the Gnostic literature, there are some references to "cat-faced" in the Nag Hammadi Codices

Sheshbazzar

Gets weirder all the time. Yahweh had a cats face?
Old avoidance taboos? Name, or in the Image of?

Sarai

No kidding, Sheshbazzar! Does make one wonder, doesn't it? I'm going to keep an eye out for any mention in the Dead Sea Scrolls. I'll check my notes for the ones I've gone through so far, but I don't recall them being mentioned in the ones I've read.

Regards,
Sarai

braces_for_impact

Because they were still walking back from Mount Ararat. Duh.

You know how cats are, continuously distracted by a bit of string here, insect there...