Library Theodoret Questions on Exodus
Questions on Exodus 56: “You shall not boil a lamb in its mother’s milk”
How should one understand “You shall not boil a lamb in its mother’s milk”?
I have often said that through everything he teaches them kindness. Some say the law forbids eating what is newborn; others, that one must not boil it together with the mother’s milk—for in a way one also boils the mother. He also forbids offering to God at the same time a mother and what has been born from her. And he commanded them, when they found a nest of birds, not to hunt the mother together with the young; for that is to wipe out the race of the birds.
Greek: Theodoret of Cyrus, Quaestiones in Octateuchum / Questions on Exodus (CPG 6200.02; cf. Fernández Marcos and Sáenz-Badillos; also PG 80, cols. 225–298). English: study translation for BWAB Library—not the copyrighted Robert C. Hill (CUA Press) translation. The full Questions on Exodus (72 questions) is hosted here.