• Blood
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • canceled (Col. 2:14), but that did not cancel the law that preceded it, for the Mosaic law had merely incorporated and outlined in detail the universal law that came centuries beforehand.

      On these points M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopœdia, Volume I, page 834, column 2, observes: “In the New Testament, instead of there being the least hint intimating that we are freed from the obligation, it is deserving of particular notice that at the very time when the Holy Spirit declares by the apostles (Acts xv) that the Gentiles are free from the yoke of circumcision, abstinence from blood is explicitly enjoined, and the action thus prohibited is classed with idolatry and fornication.” And Benson’s Commentary, Volume I, notes: “It ought to be observed, that this prohibition of eating blood, given to Noah and all his posterity, and repeated to the Israelites, in a most solemn manner, under the Mosaic dispensation, has never been revoked, but, on the contrary, has been confirmed under the New Testament, Acts xv.; and thereby made of perpetual obligation.” And Dr. Franz Delitzsch, noted Bible commentator, in agreement with this, says that this is not a requirement of the Jewish law to be abolished with it; it is binding on all races of men and was never revoked; there must be a sacred reverence for that principle of life flowing in the blood.

      VIEW OF EARLY CHRISTIANS

      Early Christians respected this Scriptural injunction even when efforts were made by judges in Rome to force them to break it. Tertullian, a Christian writer of the second century, speaking out against these efforts to get Christians to compromise, said: “We do not include even animals’ blood in our natural diet. We abstain on that account from things strangled or that die of themselves, that we may not in any way be polluted by blood, even if it is buried in the meat. Finally, when you are testing Christians, you offer them sausages full of blood; you are thoroughly well aware, of course, that among them it is forbidden; but you want to make them transgress.” Even as late as the year 692 C.E., a religious council in Constantinople (The Synod of Troullos) prohibited the eating of any food made of blood on pain of excommunication for the layman, and of unfrocking for a priest.

      The practice of drinking human blood, which was prevalent in ancient times, was especially repugnant to Christians. M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopœdia, Volume I, page 834, column 2, observes: “So far were they from drinking human blood, it was unlawful for them to drink the blood even of irrational animals. Numerous testimonies to the same effect are found in after ages.”

      BLOODGUILT

      The Christian Greek Scriptures outline three distinct ways in which a Christian could become bloodguilty before God: (1) by bloodshed, murder; this would include those actively or tacitly supporting the activities of a bloodguilty organization (such as Babylon the Great [Rev. 17:6; 18:2, 4], or other organizations that have shed much innocent blood [Rev. 16:5, 6; Isa. 26:20, 21]); (2) by eating or drinking blood in any way (Acts 15:20) and (3) by failing to preach the good news of the Kingdom, imparting the lifesaving information it contains to others.—Acts 18:6; 20:26, 27; compare Ezekiel 33:6-8.

      HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS

      While Jehovah God’s prohibition on the use of blood for other than sacrificial purposes (in our time, for Christians, this sacrifice has already been made by Jesus Christ) was primarily because of the sacredness of life to God, yet there are health and hygienic benefits by obeying that law. Medical men speak of the deadly hazards faced, including the transmission of malaria, hepatitis, syphilis, and the greatest danger of all, circulatory overload, which “drowns” a patient by forcing the transfused blood into his lungs. These are only a few of the hazards that continue to increase as more widespread use of blood transfusions spreads diseases and produces, as the Journal of the Florida Medical Association of September 19, 1952, stated, “a weird assortment of antibodies, which may prove to be the cause of crossmatching difficulties and may even endanger the life of the patient if he is given more blood.”

      It is interesting to note that the concluding words of the letter sent by the governing body to Christians in Jerusalem were: “Good health to you!” While these men were mainly concerned with the spiritual health of Christians, yet it is evident that there are physical health factors involved. On the eating of blood, Dr. Jacob B. Glenn, in his book The Bible and Modern Medicine, page 18, says: “Outstanding hematologists have found that the circulating blood in humans and animals alike harbors more, if not all, pathogenic agents, the bacteria, viruses and certain types of protozoans. Of course, the white blood cells in the circulating blood and in the lymphatic system serve as guards for the protection of the human body in warding off these harmful agents; but the massive concentration of the toxic material in blood is always potentially dangerous for human consumption.”

      Regarding the hygienic aspect of the Mosaic law’s injunction concerning a menstruous woman, Doctor Glenn says, on pages 56 and 57: “It was known for some time that the incidence of cancer of the cervix (neck) of the womb, was seven times larger in the Gentile woman than in the Jewish—the average Jewish woman, practicing and observing the regulations governing the menstrual period (Niddah) and observing the Mikveh rites in connection with menstruation. This condition existed up to and about 1925.” Further, he states: “The female genital tract, especially during periods of lowered resistance (menstruation), is particularly vulnerable to irritation and stimulation; hence, the strict law among Jewish people forbidding cohabitation during this period. The rite of tʼvilah also serves sanitary purposes of preventing any possible injury and spread of infection to the internal organs of the female. Thus, with the slackening of adherence to these laws, a corresponding (and alarmingly high) rise in the incidence of cancer of the genital tract of Jewish women, has taken place, becoming almost equal to that of the non-Jewish female.”

      INTEGRITY INVOLVED

      Christians recognize the fact that they are under the new covenant, which was inaugurated over the blood of Jesus Christ. They recognize the life-giving value of this blood through Jehovah’s arrangement and through Jesus as the great High Priest who “entered, no, not with the blood of goats and of young bulls, but with his own blood, once for all time into the holy place and obtained an everlasting deliverance for us.” Through faith in the blood of Christ, Christians have had their consciences cleansed from dead works so that they may render sacred service to the living God. They are concerned about their physical health, but primarily and far more seriously concerned with their spiritual health and their standing before the Creator. They want to maintain their integrity to the living God, not denying or counting as of no value the sacrifice of Jesus or trampling it underfoot. For they are seeking, not the life that is transitory, but everlasting life.—Heb. 9:12, 14, 15; 10:28, 29.