Insects Have 6 Legs Not 4

Insects Have 6 Legs Not 4

An insect is a small arthropod animal that has six legs and generally one or two pairs of wings. ⁽¹⁾ 

All living things can be divided into two main groups: the Animal Kingdom and the Plant Kingdom. There are many different kinds of creatures in the Animal Kingdom, and there is a scientific system for grouping animals into smaller and smaller groups that are more and more similar. 

The Bible strangely considers these insects to have 4 legs as opposed to the self-evident six.

“There are, however, some flying insects that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. But all other flying insects that have four legs you are to regard as unclean.” (Leviticus 11:21-23)

Firstly, Grasshoppers ⁽²⁾, Crickets ⁽³⁾, Locusts ⁽⁴⁾ and Katydid’s ⁽⁵⁾  all have six legs. 

As a matter of fact, all Insects have six or more legs. ⁽⁶⁾ Which is what clearly distinguishes them from other crawling bugs such as arachnids and spiders.

There are fifteen phyla of animals, and each phylum contains animals that have a combination of characteristics that animals in other phyla do not have. The phylum Arthropoda are the animals with jointed legs, segmented bodies, and a tough or hard outer covering that also serves as their skeleton (exoskeleton). Insects have these characteristics, so they belong to Phylum Arthropoda, but so do millipedes, spiders, ticks, crabs, lobsters, and crayfish, which are not insects.

Insects (from Latin insectum, a calque of Greek ἔντομον [éntomon], "cut into sections") are a class of invertebrates within the arthropod phylum that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antennae. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet, including more than a million described species and representing more than half of all known living organisms. The number of extant species is estimated at between six and ten million, and potentially represent over 90% of the differing animal life forms on Earth.Insects may be found in nearly all environments, although only a small number of species reside in the oceans, a habitat dominated by another arthropod group, crustaceans.


The class Insecta, or insects, are the Arthropoda that have three pairs of legs, a segmented body divided into three regions (head, thorax, and abdomen), one pair of antennae and, usually, wings. Other Arthropoda classes have more than three pairs of legs and only one or two body regions, and they never have wings. Other common classes of Arthropoda are Crustacea (such as sowbugs, crayfish, crabs), Diplopoda (millipedes), Chilopoda (centipedes), and Arachnida (such as spiders, ticks, mites, scorpions).

The life cycles of insects vary but most hatch from eggs. Insect growth is constrained by the inelastic exoskeleton and development involves a series of molts. The immature stages can differ from the adults in structure, habit and habitat, and can include a passive pupal stage in those groups that undergo 4-stage metamorphosis (see holometabolism). Insects that undergo 3-stage metamorphosis lack a pupal stage and adults develop through a series of nymphal stages.

Christians typically resort to the “It was mistranslated.” excuse. 

Therefore, we analyze the Hebrew lexicon which uses the word  אַרְבַּ֑ע. ⁽⁸⁾  

Bearing the obvious meaning of four. Not six.

Four: equivalent to the product of two and two

Six: equivalent to the product of three and three

In conclusion:

It is apparent that one of the several anonymous authors of The Bible who referred to these animals as having six legs was not paying attention during his writing & will always remain an unsolved mystery. When these insects are in plain-sight to a human beings view, it is unbelievable how one could possibly get this wrong...  This a rather strange event.