“... Eleazar next turns to chewing the cud, which he connects with the cloven-hoofed: “And the one who has the aforementioned habit of being separated he also has characterized as having memory.” The idea of memory and recollection rests on the fact that ruminants chew their food a second time – even though Ps.-Aristeas assumes that his reader knows about this process. Since life is sustained through food, its second chewing signifies recollecting or ruminating on life. This statement leads to a quotation of “scripture” (see Notes), a composite citation of Deut 7:18 and 10:21, whose point is to show that God has done “great and amazing things in you,” which for Eleazar are the fashioning and working of the human body and the operation of the senses. Recalling that God has created human beings prompts the continued remembrance of how God preserves all things, which recalls Eleazar’s comments in § 141 that God is sovereign over all things. Thus, cud chewing ultimately signals the recollection of “the ruling and preserving nature of God” (§ 157). [...] Epistle of Barnabas 10:11 allegorizes ruminants as showing that Christians should associate only with those who fear God and “ruminate on the word of the Lord.” ...”