The New Yorker:

In the spring of 1989, a Pentecostal preacher named Clyde Lott was thumbing through the Bible, looking up all the references to cows. This wasn’t so odd, given that Lott is one of the leading cattle breeders in the Southeast. At the time, he specialized in raising show cattle for youngsters involved in 4-H clubs and the Future Farmers of America. His office, in Canton, Mississippi, contains many ribbons, plaques, and trophies, including awards for two national championships in judging and showmanship. As it happens, the Old Testament is full of references to cows and cattle; it is, after all, a history of an agricultural people. When Lott turned to Numbers 19, he read one of the many conversations that God had with Moses and his brother Aaron as they led the Jews through the desert toward the Promised Land. “Speak unto the children of Israel,” the Lord commanded, “that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came a yoke.” The cow will be given to a priest to slay, the Lord continued, and burned on a pyre of cedar, hyssop, and a strand of scarlet thread. Then the ashes of the heifer will be mixed with water and used to purify those who have been exposed to death. Anyone who fails to be purified “shall be cut off from among the congregation, because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the Lord.”

This is one of the most mysterious injunctions in the Bible. Even King Solomon, who was said to understand the meaning of all things, could not explain the reason for the red heifer. Clyde Lott didn’t understand it, either. He also wondered where the children of Israel could have obtained a red cow. From his own reading, he had concluded that the Old Testament herd was descended from the cattle that Jacob, the son of Isaac, had received in wages from his uncle Laban. Those animals—as described in the King James Bible—were speckled, spotted, and brown. “Your speckled and spotted cattle basically are recognized as a purebred cow, like a holstein,” Lott says. So where did the spotless red heifer come from? Genetically, it didn’t add up. And yet the Lord had specified that this was the only way for the Israelites to cleanse themselves and participate in the worship of God. “I didn’t realize then that God always sent to Israel, at the time she needed it, the man with the red heifer.”

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