They also had a creation story. They had a flood story. They did animal sacrifices. They observed purity taboos. Israelite religion was another Ancient Near Eastern religion and they differed from their neighbors only over the number of gods they worshiped: one or many.

他们都有原创的神话，他们都有一个关于洪水的神话,都有动物牺牲，他们都尊崇高洁的竹子,以色列宗教是另一种古近东宗教，它们和别的宗教,唯一不同之处就在于崇拜的神的数量：一个还是多个。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选

And scholarship of the nineteenth century and most of the twentieth century is generally characterized by a deep-seated bias that views impurity rules as primitive and irrational taboos, and sacrifice as controlled savagery that's empty of any spiritual meaning.

十九世纪和二十世纪的大部分时期,学术界都有一个,很深层的偏见，那就是认为不纯的规则是,原始且无理的，献祭是野蛮人才干得出来的,无任何精神意义的活动。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选

Whatever the actual origin of these various dietary taboos, they are here embedded in a larger ideological framework concerning the need for the Israelites to separate themselves and to be holy like their god. The dietary laws are connected then with this theme of imitatio dei, of imitation of God.

不管这些饮食禁忌的实际起源是什么，它们都被嵌入一个庞大的思想框架,这个框架考虑到以色列人对区别他们自身,和他们神圣的神的需要，饮食教规,和对上帝的模仿有关系。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选