The Old Testament was suited to a specific place and time, for an ancient people who did not find anthropomorphism or the admissions of a ‘jealous God’ objectionable. That world found nothing odd about forbidding cooking a lamb in its mother’s milk, though Augustine thought the verse too absurd to be anything but allegory and Maimonides could only explain it as an ethical reminder not to cook an animal in a substance that should have nourished it.
