Sanctity of blood or of life?
1 The biblical command about blood, only regards the animals
slaughtered by man, or includes those dead from natural causes? And, does it
concern blood transfusions?
Since these questions are in relation to God's dealings with mankind,
the correct answers should not come from our views or from the speculations of
those whose «hands shed innocent blood», (Proverbs 6:16...17) because of their wrong scriptural
interpretations. The answers can only be found in Scripture, by going back to
the origin and reason for this
mandate.
2 Scripture says that towards the end of the sixth creation period,
«God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
birds of the air, and over the animals of all the earth, and over all the tiny
creeping creatures of the ground”. And God created man in his image, in the
image of God he created him; male and female he created them».
(Genesis 1:26…27) Then, the Creator told them what they were given as food, and said:
«Behold, I have given you every plant that scatters its seed upon the
face of all the earth, and every
tree with fruit, which sows its
seed», (Genesis 1:29) thus establishing a vegetarian diet for man. The animals could not
be used for food, or for anything not established by God in the perfect order of
his earthly garden, which eventually, men
should extend to the ends of the earth.
3 However, the man and his woman, choose to rebel against God's
authority, and what should have led them to enlightenment and independence,
broke their intimate relationship with their Creator and Father, source of all
life. Since then, the original balance became altered, and man, expelled from
Eden,
inhabited the uncultivated land from which he was taken. Still, his diet did not
change.
Although Abel and Cain's descendant, Jabal, tended sheep, sheep can
be bred for several reasons, as getting the wool, to producing milk and cheese,
and also to treat and use their skin, for Scripture says that «Yahuh God provided for Adam and his wife robes of skin, and
covered them». (Genesis 3:21)
Yet, men did not eat meat before the flood, otherwise, God's declaration to Noah
after it would have been meaningless, for He said: «The fear of you and the dread
of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, upon every bird of the air,
upon everything that creeps on the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea, for
they are delivered into your hand.
From now on, all moving things alive, shall be food for you…». (Genesis 9:2…3)
4 The population of the earth increased, and we read that over time,
«the earth had
become corrupted before God, and was full of violence. God examined
the earth and saw it was corrupt, because all mankind had degraded their way
upon the earth. And God said to Noah, “the end of all flesh is before me;
through them, the earth is full of violence. Behold, I will destroy them with
the earth”». (Genesis 6:11…13)
The waters of the universal flood and the phenomena that caused it,
produced major changes on Earth's climate, and as the edible plants were scarce,
God permitted mankind to eat animal flesh. He said to Noah: «As I gave you the green plants, I give you
everything». So God allowed man to eat animals, but not their blood,
since He added «Only, you shall not eat the
flesh with its life, that is, its
blood». (Genesis
9:3…4) In fact, before God, the blood of his creatures represents their life,
and all life belongs to Him.
These words of God established the sanctity of life, not of
blood, as some wrongly claim. Therefore, according to His
instructions to Noah, the fact of eating the blood in a slaughtered animal,
involves a violation of the sanctity of
life.
5 This decree is a universal law that concerns all Noah’s descendants,
which according to Scripture, are all mankind. However, the fact of eating
meat from an animal already dead from natural causes or killed by another
animal, can perhaps be a violation of this law? The answer to the following
questions reveals it: Is man responsible for the animal's death? And, can
the blood of a dead animal represent its
life?
If man is not responsible for the animal's death, eating its meat
would surely be a health risk, but not a violation of God's decree,
because the blood in a dead animal,
no longer represent its life. The Law given to Moses, confirms it, for it says:
«Any man of
the sons of Israel, or of the
sojourners that live among them, who in hunting, takes any beast or bird to
be eaten, shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust. For the life of every creature is its blood. So
I say to the sons of Israel: You shall not eat the blood
of any creature, for the life of all flesh is its blood, and whoever eats it
shall be cut off. But, every soul that eats what is dead by itself or has been
torn by beasts, whether native or
sojourner, shall wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and will be contaminated until the evening; then he shall be clean». (Leviticus 17:13...15)
6 October 15, 1983, the “Watchtower” magazine published by Jehovah's
Witnesses, in its heading “Questions From Readers”, tried to give a response to
an article entitled “Sanctity of
Life”, published in the informative booklet La Vía, by alleging: «Might the Bible’s prohibition about blood apply only to
blood from a victim killed by man, not to unbled meat of an animal that died of
itself or blood from a live animal or human?
Some persons have reasoned that way, pointing to a few Bible verses for seeming support. They
have thus held that it would not be wrong to accept a transfusion of blood from
a living donor. Such reasoning might sound valid, but close examination of the
verses used and of other relevant texts indicates that God expects his people to
avoid taking in blood and sustaining
their life with blood, whether from a living or a dead creature».
It is clear that some of these statements are in sharp contrast to Scripture. And, which are the verses
that support their conclusions? They mentioned Deuteronomy 14:21, that reads: «You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to the sojourner who is
within your towns, that he may eat
it, or you may sell it to a
foreigner, because you are a people holy to Yahuh, your
God».
7 Actually, this verse does not contradict at all what Leviticus 17:15 says;
Israel was a people consecrated to God, and
therefore should remain pure.
Avoiding contamination was very important for a people holy to God, and eating the meat of an animal found
dead, contaminated the person, making him unclean as when he touched a corpse (Leviticus 11:24). These things were
treated in the Law as unhygienic polluting behaviors, which God's people must
avoid, but when not avoided, the contaminated person had to wash his clothes and
bathe in water, remaining impure for some hours.
However, in seeming support to their wrong assertions: «Aid to Bible Understanding (page 51) points out that sometimes the term “alien resident” meant a person among
the Israelites who was not a full
proselyte. It appears that this
sort of person is meant at Deuteronomy 14:21, a man who was not trying to keep all of God’s
laws and who might have his own uses
for a carcass considered unclean by Israelites and
proselytes».
The source and basis of this statement is unidentified, however, the
worst is that according to them, the
sojourner and the foreign resident were not obliged to observe the Law given to
Moses for all the people. This is really grasping at straws, since in Numbers 15:15 we read: «There shall be one only statute for all the
community, for you and for the
foreigner who sojourns among you. It will be a perpetual statute
throughout your generations. In front of
Yahúh, the sojourner will be as you
are».
Moreover, in the Hebrew text of Leviticus 17:15, shown
here:
וְכָל־נֶפֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר תֹּאכַל נְבֵלָה וּטְרֵפָה בָּאֶזְרָח
וּבַגֵּר וְכִבֶּס בְּגָדָיו וְרָחַץ בַּמַּיִם…
the Hebrew term GER “גָּר”, translated as alien resident in Deuteronomy 14:21 and in Numbers 15:15, should be translated “proselyte” or “converted”, according to The Global Yeshiva's Communities, and
it is so translated in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew
Scriptures, that seventy-two experts conducted in antiquity, and which renders
more than seventy times the term GER “גָּר” as προσηλύτοις
proselyte. Therefore Leviticus
17:15, reads: «Καὶ
πᾶσα
ψυχή,
ἥτις
φάγεται
θνησιµαῖον
ἢ
θηριάλωτον
ἐν
τοῖς
αὐτόχθοσιν
ἢ
ἐν
τοῖς
προσηλύτοις, πλυνεῖ
τὰ
ἱµάτια
αὐτοῦ
καὶ
λούσεται
ὕδατι
καὶ
ἀκάθαρτος
ἔσται
ἕως
ἑσπέρας
…».
8 Another important thing that Jehovah's Witnesses should remember, is
that God himself says: «I, Yahuh, do not change», (Malachi 3:6) and mandate given to Noah
and all his descendants, which are all mankind, could not be abrogated 850 years
later by the Law given to Moses. Paul says about a similar case: «…a testament previously established by God, cannot be
declared invalid by a law which came four hundred and thirty years
later...». (Galatians 3:17)
For this reason, by declaring that to eat meat from an animal naturally dead or
killed by another animal, was a violation of the Law, Jehovah’s Witnesses are
also asserting that the Law given to
Moses by God, encouraged the people
of Israel to violate the universal law He gave to Noah and all his descendants, when in Deuteronomy 14:21, it suggests to give
the dead animal «…to the sojourner who is within your
towns, that he eats it, or… to sell it to a foreigner». Because the sojourner
and the foreigner, are not perhaps descendants of
Noah?
Besides, Leviticus 17:14
says of who violates God’s mandate about blood: «whoever eats
it shall be cut off», but
about who eats meat from an animal dead
by natural causes or another animal, the Law says that he must wash himself and his clothes, and that he will be unclean «until the
evening; then he shall be clean»,
not cut off from the people. All these things set the true sense and meaning of
God’s Law about the Sanctity of life.
9 Paul writes: «God has given you life
together with him (Jesus. ndr), forgiving us all our trespasses and canceling
the written decree which stood against us, by nailing it to the cross».
(Colossians 2: 13…14) After the sacrifice of Jesus, the
Law given to Moses lost force, but the universal law regarding the sanctity of life, which was
established by God's command to Noah and all his descendants, is still in
effect.
In the book of Acts, Luke says that the apostles and elders of the
Christian congregation, gathered in Jerusalem to take decisions regarding the
validity of circumcision and other provisions of the Law, and reached the
conclusion declared by Jacob (James), and often translated like this: «My decision is not to trouble those from the nations who turn to God,
but write to them to abstain from the contamination of the idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood». (Acts15:19...20)
The Greek text of this verse, literally says: «…διὸ ἐγὼ κρίνω µὴ παρενοχλεῖν τοῖς ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἐπιστρέφουσιν ἐπὶ τὸν
θεόν, ἀλλὰ ἐπιστεῖλαι αὐτοῖς τοῦ ἀπέχεσθαι τῶν ἀλισγηµάτων τῶν εἰδώλων
καὶ τῆς πορνείας καὶ τοῦ πνικτοῦ καὶ τοῦ
αἵµατος·». We point out that when the Greek preposition kai, is repeated two or more times in
the same sentence, the first “kai” should be translated as “i.e.” or “that is”, not “and”. Therefore, the correct translation of the verse should be: «Therefore, my decision is not to trouble
(with the precepts of the Law, ndr) the people of the
nations who turn to God, but write to them to abstain from the contamination of
the idols, that is: from fornication and from the suffocated
animals, and from
blood».
In fact, the people from the nations were familiar with traditions
and practices socially well considered, but totally unfit for Christ's disciples
as the sacred prostitution aimed at enriching the priesthood and their temples,
or the celebrating with their family and friends, feasts and banquets in the
temple, where they ate the meat of unbled animals, offered in sacrifice to the
gods. So these words of Jacob (James) for the Gentiles who converted to Christ,
pointed out the need of giving up any social complicity with idolatry and its
practices. Moreover, Jacob’s statement confirms the universality of the covenant
of Noah, even after the conclusion of the Law of Moses.
10 How do all these apply today? Perhaps someone could wonder whether
the use of blood components in pharmaceutical preparations, might involve a
violation of God's law regarding the sanctity of life. And, what about blood
transfusions?
In light of what we have considered, we can answer with a question:
does the blood used in these things
represent a loss of life of the donor? Because if the donor does not die, the blood he donates does not represent the loss of his
life.
People wishing to respect the universal law given to Noah, must not
eat the meat of unbled animals, a hygienic measure considered today essential,
and avoid foods containing the blood of slaughtered animals. Because despite of
the selfish and interested refusals of accepting the truth that Scriptures make
evident, taking medicines that may
contain blood components, and receiving blood transfusions, do not violate God's commandment concerning
blood, unless these things require the donor's death, something highly
unlikely. To donate or accept blood is therefore a legitimate personal choice,
which may represent some risk of infection, but otherwise, there is no reason on
Scripture, Hebrew or Christian, for these things to become a religious
problem.
ndr = Network Data
Representation
