Shall Not Eat the Blood

[Goodboy]

Shall Not Eat the Blood

Does the Bible teach that we should…
A. Not eat any blood that comes from an animal?
or
B. Not to eat the animal while it is alive?

If A is true, then we should not be eating rare steak.
Looking at the first definitions of the Hebrew words for "Flesh", "Life", and "Blood" in Genesis 9:4, it would seem to me that the Bible speaks of not eating an animal while it was alive.

King James Bible
Genesis 9:4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

King James Bible with Strong’s Concordance
Genesis 9:4 But flesh H1320 with the life H5315 thereof, which is the blood H1818 thereof, shall ye not eat.

Flesh H1320 meaning
flesh (from its freshness); by extension body, person; also (by euphemism) the pudenda of a man: - body, [fat, lean] flesh [-ed], kin, [man-] kind, + nakedness, self, skin.

Life H5315 meaning
properly a breathing creature, that is, animal or (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental): - any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, X dead (-ly), desire, X [dis-] contented, X fish, ghost, + greedy, he, heart (-y), (hath, X jeopardy of) life (X in jeopardy), lust, man, me, mind, mortality, one, own, person, pleasure, (her-, him-, my-, thy-) self, them (your) -selves, + slay, soul, + tablet, they, thing, (X she) will, X would have it.

Blood H1818 meaning
blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or an animal; by analogy the juice of the grape; figuratively (especially in the plural) bloodshed (that is, drops of blood): - blood (-y, -guiltiness, [-thirsty]), + innocent.

While I have stated my thoughts, I really ask this as a question.

Goodboy

 

[Tall Timbers]

If A is true, then we should not be eating rare steak.

Steak is muscle tissue whether it is eaten raw or well done.

 

[Goodboy]

Steak is muscle tissue whether it is eaten raw or well done.

Are you saying that steak is not flesh or that steak does not contain blood?
Also, what about hamburgers?

 

[Kaatje]

The Bible’s first prohibition against consuming blood comes in Genesis 9:2-4, where God tells Noah, "Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it." This prohibition was most likely a ban on eating raw blood (i.e., uncooked meat). For the first time, animals were an allowable food source, and God was making sure that Noah did not eat them raw. A Jewish Targum comments on this verse: "But the flesh which is torn from a living beast at the time that its life is in it, or which is torn from a beast while it is slain, before all its breath is gone out, ye shall not eat."

Later, the prohibition of Genesis 9:4 is iterated in the Law of Moses. Leviticus 17:14 gives the reason behind command: “For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life.”

It’s important to understand that New Testament believers in Christ have freedom from the Law, and we are to “stand firm” in that liberty (Galatians 5:1). We are not under the Law but under grace. “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink” (Colossians 2:16). So, eating a rare steak, blood sausage, blood pancakes, blood soup, or blood tofu may not be palatable to all Christians, but it is allowable.

There is another passage to consider. In Acts 15, a question arose in the early church concerning what was necessary for salvation. Specifically, did a Gentile need to be circumcised in order to be saved (verse 1)? The issue came up in the church in Syrian Antioch, which had a mixture of Jewish and Gentile converts. To address this important issue, the leaders of the church met in Jerusalem for the very first church council. They concluded that, no, Gentiles did not need to follow Mosaic Law; circumcision is not part of salvation (verse 19). However, in verse 29, the leaders compose a letter with these instructions for the Gentiles in Antioch: “You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.” At this point, we must keep the context foremost in our minds. These four commands from Jerusalem to Antioch all dealt with pagan practices associated with idolatry. Most, if not all, of the Gentile converts in Antioch were saved out of paganism. The church leaders were exhorting the new Gentile believers to make a clean break from their old lifestyles and not offend their Jewish brothers and sisters in the church. The instructions were not intended to guarantee salvation but to promote peace within the early church.

Later, Paul dealt with the same issue. It is perfectly all right to eat meat offered to idols, he says. “Nothing is unclean in itself” (Romans 14:14). But if eating that meat causes a brother in Christ to violate his conscience, Paul “will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall” (1 Corinthians 8:13). This was the same concern the Jerusalem leaders had in Acts 15: if the Gentile believers ate meat with the blood in it, the Jewish believers might be tempted to violate their conscience and join them in the feast. One’s conscience is a sacred thing, and we dare not act against it (see 1 Corinthians 8:7-12 and Romans 14:5).

In short, ordering your steak rare or well done is a matter of conscience and of taste. What enters the mouth does not make us unclean (see Matthew 15:17-18). Eating black pudding may not appeal to everyone, but it is not a sin. We live under grace. We have liberty in Christ. Others may have different convictions about food and drink, and in that case we voluntarily limit our freedom in order to better serve them and God. “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” (Romans 14:19).

What does the Bible say about eating/drinking blood? | GotQuestions.org

What does the Bible say about eating/drinking blood? Do the Old Testament laws against eating/drinking blood apply to us today?

www.gotquestions.org

 

[Eric Nicholas]

There is little to no blood in rare steak. It's water and myoglobin that hasn't reacted to heat. It sure looks bloody though.

 

[Goodboy]

This prohibition was most likely a ban on eating raw blood (i.e., uncooked meat). For the first time, animals were an allowable food source, and God was making sure that Noah did not eat them raw. A Jewish Targum comments on this verse: "But the flesh which is torn from a living beast at the time that its life is in it, or which is torn from a beast while it is slain, before all its breath is gone out, ye shall not eat."

The statement above is kind of what I said. LOL!

Yeah, I know it is not a sin in the Grace age to eat blood or many other prohibitions, I was just trying to understand the verse. I wonder if one of the reasons it was given is because the blood of animals was used as a sacrifice to God in the Old Testament. In the New Testament it is ONLY Jesus blood that we care about.

 

[Spartan Sprinter]

The statement above is kind of what I said. LOL!

Yeah, I know it is not a sin in the Grace age to eat blood or many other prohibitions, I was just trying to understand the verse. I wonder if one of the reasons it was given is because the blood of animals was used as a sacrifice to God in the Old Testament. In the New Testament it is ONLY Jesus blood that we care about.

If you believe Katt Williams take, God was warning them not to do it so that they wouldn't die of salmonella poisonin

 

[Tall Timbers]

Are you saying that steak is not flesh or that steak does not contain blood?
Also, what about hamburgers?

Muscle tissue is flesh, and is not blood. Blood is typically drained from the carcass before it gets cut up. Hamburger contains muscle tissue (flesh) along with the fat of an animal. I guess a steak is gonna have some fat mixed in with the muscle tissue as well.

 

[Tall Timbers]

This prohibition was most likely a ban on eating raw blood (i.e., uncooked meat).

Meat isn't blood. The two are separate and unique items. Blood flows through the muscle tissue (flesh) of the living animal bringing needed oxygen to the cells. If you eat raw meat, which in the case of beef is done, you're not eating blood. The meat just happens to be red.

 

[Margery]

echoing the above, when an animal is bled out, the blood is gone. The red that remains is the myoglobin, the muscle tissue.

Here's the reason hemoglobin (found in red blood cells) and myoglobin (found in red muscle) are both red. They contain different molecules- both are red because they are iron based, but blood in a muscle is a bruise where the blood leaks out into the muscle causing inflammation and pain before it heals up by having the blood broken down and carried away. Muscle proteins are not found in blood.

"Hemoglobin is a heterotetrameric oxygen transport protein found in red blood cells (erythrocytes), whereas myoglobin is a monomeric protein found mainly in muscle tissue where it serves as an intracellular storage site for oxygen." From Hemoglobin and Myoglobin


God's design is perfection. The Red Blood cells transport oxygen to the cells around the body. Muscle cells need a lot of oxygen to work effectively so they also have a way to STORE HOUSE more oxygen.

One is a transport truck, the other is a warehouse.

 

[Hol]

Genesis 9:4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

My perspective may be odd.

I was raised as a Native American who fished and hunted since childhood. Since my great-great grandparents we relied on these foods, and passed on deep respect when harvesting any hunted creature. It can be very dangerous to hunt and fish, but when it's for a genuine need one can find courage (even if it's based on hunger). I have seen people disrepecting the act of killing something that's alive.

So, what little I understand is that God began civil laws that Noah and his family would institute. From Biblehub: "The Covenant of the Rainbow
Genesis 9:5 And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man: 6 Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind. 7 But as for you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out across the earth and multiply upon it.”…

But, mankind is slow to learn how God values mankind's individual lives. I've always imagined that Adam & Eve were profoundly saddened that God had to provide them animal skins.

In Exodus 12:5 ‘Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 'You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.

On our ranch we'd occasionally have animals that rejected their offspring or the parent was unexpectedly killed and we'd nurse the young one by hand. It is so cute when a calf butts into a bottle of milk that you're feeding it, or watching chicks drinking from an eye dropper, we even had about a half dozen orphaned owlets!

Sometimes it's easier to connect to animals, but whatever it takes to make us respect life, to respect the blood in that body -- until we eventually grow into understanding what it cost God to sacrifice Jesus for us.

That's my odd perspective.

 

[mattfivefour]

May I suggest a sound hermeneutical (ie. Bible interpretation) rule that will answer the questions raised in this thread?

Based upon Romans 7:1-6, there is no Old Testament law that has any authority over us at all ... unless it is repeated in the New Testament. Therefore --to be clear-- as Christians there is no need at all to concern ourselves with any law stated in the Old Testament ... UNLESS God has repeated it in the New Testament.

 

[Bethlehem57]

Steak is muscle tissue whether it is eaten raw or well done.

And boy oh boy do I loves me some rare (ok please don’t get grossed out)- almost mooing steak!