blood Summary and Overview

(1.) As food, prohibited in Gen. 9:4, where the use of animal food is first allowed. Compare Deut. 12:23; Lev. 3:17; 7:26; 17:10-14. The injunction to abstain from blood is renewed in the decree of the council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:29). It has been held by some, and we think correctly, that this law of prohibition was only ceremonial and temporary; while others regard it as still binding on all. Blood was eaten by the Israelites after the battle of Gilboa (1 Sam. 14:32-34). (2.) The blood of sacrifices was caught by the priest in a basin, and then sprinkled seven times on the altar; that of the passover on the doorposts and lintels of the houses (Ex. 12; Lev. 4:5-7; 16:14-19). At the giving of the law (Ex. 24:8) the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled on the people as well as on the altar, and thus the people were consecrated to God, or entered into covenant with him, hence the blood of the covenant (Matt. 26:28; Heb. 9:19, 20; 10:29; 13:20). (3.) Human blood. The murderer was to be punished (Gen. 9:5). The blood of the murdered "crieth for vengeance" (Gen. 4:10). The "avenger of blood" was the nearest relative of the murdered, and he was required to avenge his death (Num. 35:24, 27). No satisfaction could be made for the guilt of murder (Num. 35:31). (4.) Blood used metaphorically to denote race (Acts 17:26), and as a symbol of slaughter (Isa. 34:3). To "wash the feet in blood" means to gain a great victory (Ps. 58:10). Wine, from its red colour, is called "the blood of the grape" (Gen. 49:11). Blood and water issued from our Saviour's side when it was pierced by the Roman soldier (John 19:34). This has led pathologists to the conclusion that the proper cause of Christ's death was rupture of the heart. (Compare Ps. 69:20.)

To blood is ascribed in Scripture the mysterious sacredness which belongs to life, and God reserved it to himself when allowing man the dominion over and the use of the lower animals for food. Thus reserved, it acquires a double power: (1) that of sacrificial atonement; and (2) that of becoming a curse when wantonly shed, unless duly expiated. #Ge 9:4; Le 7:26; 17:11-13|

BLOOD is the fluid of life in the animal body. Ex 29:12. Its use was expressly prohibited to Noah when everything else was freely given him. Gen 9:4. By the Jewish law also it was expressly and solemnly forbidden. Lev 17:10, etc. The reason of this interdiction is probably because blood was sacredly appropriated. Lev 17:11. The Jewish ritual abounds with the use of blood, Heb 9:22; and the manner of employing it is stated with minuteness in Heb 9:1-10:39, where also its use and effects are shown in striking contrast with the blood shed upon the cross. See also Acts 20:28; Rom 5:9; Eph 1:7; Col 1:14; Heb 7:27; 1 John 1:7. The prohibition of eating blood or animals that are strangled has been always rigidly observed by the Jews. In the Christian Church the custom of refraining from things strangled and from blood continued for a long time. In the council of the apostles held at Jerusalem, Acts 15, it was declared that converts from paganism should not be subject to the legal ceremonies, but that they should refrain from idolatry, from fornication, from eating blood, and from such animals as were strangled and their blood thereby retained in their bodies: which precept was observed for many ages by the Church. Acts 15:20-29. The notion that the blood of the victims was peculiarly sacred to the gods is impressed on all ancient pagan mythology. See Christ. Blood, Avenger of. See Avenger, Cities of Refuge.

Forbidden to be eaten (Genesis 9:4) under the Old Testament, on the ground that "the life (soul) of the flesh (the soul which gives life to the flesh) is in the blood," and that "God gave it upon the altar to make atonement with for men's souls" (Leviticus 17:11). Translate the next clause, "for the blood maketh atonement by virtue of the soul." The blood, not in itself, but as the vehicle of the soul, atones, because the animal soul was offered to God on the altar as a. substitute for the human soul. Now that Christ's one, and only true, sacrifice has superseded animal sacrifices, the prohibition against eating blood ceases, the decree in Acts 15 being but temporary, not to offend existing Jewish prejudices needlessly. In Leviticus 3:17 the "fat" is forbidden as well as the blood. God reserved the blood to Himself, investing it with a sacramental sanctity, when allowing man animal food. Besides the atoning virtue it typically had, it brought a curse when not duly expiated, as by burial (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 17:13). The blood of victims was caught by the priest in a basin, and sprinkled seven times (that of birds was squeezed out at once) on the altar, its four corners or horns, on its side above and below the line running round it, or on the mercy-seat, according to the nature of the offering; the blood of the Passover lamb on the lintel and doorposts (Exodus 12; Leviticus 4:5-7; Leviticus 16:14-19). A drain from the temple carried the blood into the brook Kedron. A land was regarded as polluted by blood shed on it, which was to be expiated only by the blood of the murderer, and not by any "satisfaction" (Genesis 4:10; Genesis 9:4-6; Hebrews 12:24; Numbers 35:31; Numbers 35:33; Psalm 106:38). The guilt of bloodshed, if the shedder was not known, fell on the city nearest by measurement, until it exculpated itself, its elders washing their hands over an expiatory sacrifice, namely, a beheaded heifer in a rough, unplowed, and unsown valley (Deuteronomy 21:1-9). The blood and water from Jesus' side, when pierced after death, was something extraordinary; for in other corpses the blood coagulates, and the water does not flow clear. The "loud voice" just before death (Luke 23:46) shows that He did not die from mere exhaustion. The psalmist, His typical forerunner, says (Psalm 69:20), "reproach hath broken my heart." Crucifixion alone would not have killed Him in so short a time. Probably the truth is, if we may with reverence conjecture from hints in Scripture, that mental agony, when He hung under the Father's displeasure at our sins which He bore, caused rupture of the pericardium, or sac wherein the heart throbs. The extravasated blood separated into the crassamentum and serum, the blood and the water, and flowed out when the soldier's spear pierced the side. Hence appears the propriety of Hebrews 10:19-20, "having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He hath consecrated for us through the veil (which was 'rent' at His death), that is to say His flesh." Also, "this is My body which is broken for you" (1 Corinthians 11:24) is explained by the breaking of the heart, though it was true "a bone of Him shall not be broken" (John 19:32-27); compare also 1 John 5:6, "this is He that came by water (at His baptism by John in Jordan) and blood" (by His bloody baptism, at Calvary). THE AVENGING OF BLOOD by the nearest kinsman of the deceased was a usage from the earliest historical times (Genesis 9:5-6; Genesis 34:30; 2 Samuel 14:7). Among the Bedouin Arabs the thar, or law of blood, comes into effect if the offer of money satisfaction be refused. So among the Anglo-Saxons the wer-gild, or money satisfaction for homicide, varying in amount according to the rank, was customary. The Mosaic law mitigated the severity of the law of private revenge for blood, by providing six cities of refuge (among the 48 Levitical cities), three on one side of Jordan, three on the other, for the involuntary homicide to flee into. The avenger, or goel (derived from a Hebrew root "pollution," implying that he was deemed polluted until the blood of his slain kinsman was expiated), was nearest of kin to the man slain, and was bound to take vengeance on the manslayer. If the latter reached one of the six cities, (Kedesh in Naphtali, Shechem in mount Ephraim, Hebron in the hill country of Judah, W. of Jordan; Bezor in Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead (Gad), Golan in Manasseh, E. of Jordan,) he was safe until the elders of the city, and then those of his own city, decided whether it was an involuntary act. In this case he was kept safe from the avenger in the city of refuge, so long as he did not go 2,000 cubits beyond its precincts. After the high priest's death he might return home in safety (Numbers 35:25; Numbers 35:28; Joshua 20:4-6). The roads were to be kept clear, that nothing might retard the flight of the manslayer, to whom every moment was precious (Deuteronomy 19:3). Jewish tradition adds that posts inscribed "Refuge," "Refuge," were to be set up at the cross roads. All necessaries of water, etc., were in the cities. No implements of war were allowed there. The law of retaliation in blood affected only the manslayer, and not also (as among pagan nations) his relatives (Deuteronomy 24:16). Blood revenge still prevails in Corsica. The law of blood avenging by the nearest kinsman, though incompatible with our ideas in a more civilized age and nation, is the means of preventing much bloodshed among the Arabs; and its introduction into the law of Israel, a kindred race, accords with the provisional character of the whole Mosaic system, which establishes not what is absolutely best, supposing a state of optimism, but what was best under existing circumstances. Moreover, it contained an important typical lesson, hinted at in Hebrews 6:18; Hebrews 2:14-15. The Son of man, as He to whom the Father hath committed all judgment, is the goel or avenger of blood on guilty man, involved by Satan the "murderer from the beginning" in murderous rebellion against God. He, in another sense, is the goel or redeemer of man, as the high priest whose death sets the shut up captive free; He is also the priestly city of refuge (His priestly office being the mean of our salvation), by fleeing into which man is safe; but in this latter sense, as our High priest "ever liveth," we must not only eater the city, and moreover abide in Him, but also abide in Him forever for eternal safety (John 15:1-11). "The way" to Him is clearly pointed out by God Himself (Isaiah 30:21). "Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope" (Zechariah 9:12) Once in Christ, He can defy avenging justice (Romans 8:33-34).