Bible Statements on Blood

While blood is often mentioned in the Bible, certain passages are particularly pertinent to the question of blood transfusions:

As recorded in Genesis 9:3-6, Jehovah God presented to Noah and his family two regulations about regard for life. First, God said: “Every moving animal that is alive may serve as food for you. . . . Only flesh with its soul [life]​—its blood—​you must not eat.” And, while man might kill an animal for food, about human life Jehovah decreed: “Anyone shedding man’s blood, by man will his own blood be shed, for in God’s image he made man.”

Some persons claim that the Bible restrictions about blood applied only to Jews. But is that so? Recall that long before the law was given through Moses, God had warned Noah​—the progenitor of the whole human family—​against misusing blood. Was God’s command a mere dietary law?

Professor Gerhard von Rad has pointed out that Genesis 9:3, 4 “is not an isolated ‘dietary law’ at all . . . but an ordinance for all mankind.” (Genesis​—A Commentary, 1961) Remember, too, that in Genesis 9:3-6 the prohibition on blood was linked with God’s statement about man’s having even higher regard for the life of other humans. Rabbi Benno Jacob observed:

“The two prohibitions belong together. . . . The permission to eat meat, but without its blood, and the prohibition against shedding human blood indicate the place of man within the world of the living . . . In summary: the reason for the prohibition of blood is of a moral character. . . . Later Judaism regarded this passage as establishing fundamental ethics for every human being.” (Italics added)