the Week of Proper 22 / Ordinary 27
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Genesis 9:4
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However, flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat.
"Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
But flesh in the life therof [which is] the blood therof, shall ye not eate.
But I give you one command. You must not eat meat that still has its life (blood) in it.
Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
outakun that ye schulen not ete fleisch with blood,
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not eate.
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
Onely eate not the flesh with the bloude, wherin the soule is:
"But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
But flesh with the life-blood in it you may not take for food.
But flesh with the life thereof, [which is] the blood thereof, you shall not eat.
But flesh with the life of it, [which is] its blood, shall ye not eat.
But flesh with the life of it, the blood of it, you shall not eat.
But you must not eat meat with its life (that is, its blood) in it.
But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
But life is in the blood, and you must not eat any meat that still has blood in it.
only flesh with its life, which is its blood, you are not to eat.
Only, the flesh with its life, its blood, ye shall not eat.
But flesh with the life thereof, I meane, with the blood thereof, shall ye not eate.
Only flesh with the life thereof, that is, the blood thereof, you shall not eat.
The one thing you must not eat is meat with blood still in it; I forbid this because the life is in the blood.
But flesh with the life of it, the blood of it, you shall not eat.
Only flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
But you must never eat any meat that still has the lifeblood in it.
But you must not eat meat with blood in it because that is its life.
Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
But flesh with blood of life ye shall not eat.
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.
Yet flesh with the life thereof, the bleed thereof, shall ye not eat;
Saving that flesh with blood you shall not eat.
Only you shall not eat raw flesh with blood in it.
But you shall not eat flesh in its life, its blood.
But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
But you must not eat meat that still has blood in it, because blood gives life.
However, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood in it.
only flesh in its life -- its blood -- ye do not eat.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
the life: Leviticus 3:17, Leviticus 7:26, Leviticus 17:10-14, Leviticus 19:26, Deuteronomy 12:16, Deuteronomy 12:23, Deuteronomy 14:21, Deuteronomy 15:23, 1 Samuel 14:34, Acts 15:20, Acts 15:25, Acts 15:29, 1 Timothy 4:4
Reciprocal: Genesis 1:26 - have dominion Exodus 26:33 - within the veil Leviticus 17:14 - General Joshua 22:23 - let the Lord 1 Samuel 14:32 - did eat 2 Samuel 23:17 - the blood Ezekiel 33:25 - Ye eat
Cross-References
and with every living creature that is with you—the birds, the livestock, and the wild animals of the earth along with you, of everything that comes out of the ark—every living creature of the earth.
"It shall come about, when I bring clouds over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the clouds,
'It is a permanent statute for your generations wherever you may be, that you shall not eat any fat or any blood.'"
'Moreover, you are not to eat any blood [of any kind], whether of bird or animal, in any of your dwelling places.
'You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor practice divination [using omens or witchcraft] or soothsaying.
"Only you shall not eat the blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.
"Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life (soul), and you shall not eat the life with the meat.
"You shall not eat anything that dies on its own. You may give it to the stranger (resident alien, foreigner) who is in your [city] gates, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner [since they are not under God's law], but you are a people holy (set apart) to the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat or a lamb in its mother's milk.
"Only you shall not eat its blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.
but that we write to them that they are to abstain from anything that has been contaminated by [being offered to] idols and from sexual impurity and from [eating the meat of] what has been strangled and from [the consumption of] blood.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
But flesh with the life thereof, [which is] the blood thereof, shall you not eat. This is the only exception to the eating of flesh; it was not to be eaten with the blood in it, which is said to be its life; not that the blood is of itself the life, but because it is a means of life, and that being exhausted, the creature must die, and because the animal and vital spirits appear to us most vigorous in it; yea, it is the ailment and support of them, and which furnishes out the greatest quantity of them: or rather it may be rendered, "the flesh with its life in its blood" m; while there is life in the blood, or while the creature is living; the meaning is, that a creature designed for food should be properly killed, and its blood let out; that it should not be devoured alive, as by a beast of prey; that raw flesh should not be eaten, as since by cannibals, and might be by riotous flesh eaters, before the flood; for notwithstanding this law, as flesh without the blood might be eaten, so blood properly let out, and dressed, or mixed with other things, might be eaten, for aught this says to the contrary; but was not to be eaten with the flesh, though it might separately, which was afterwards forbid by another law. The design of this was to restrain cruelty in men, and particularly to prevent the shedding of human blood, which men might be led into, were they suffered to tear living creatures in pieces, and feed upon their raw flesh, and the blood in it. The Targum of Jonathan is,
"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.''
And the Jewish writers generally interpret this of the flesh of a creature taken from it alive, which, they say, is the seventh precept given to the sons of Noah, over and above the six which the sons of Adam were bound to observe, and they are these;
1. Idolatry is forbidden. 2. Blasphemy is forbidden. 3. The shedding of blood, or murder is forbidden. 4. Uncleanness, or unjust carnal copulations is forbidden. 5. Rapine or robbery is forbidden. 6. The administration of justice to malefactors is required. 7. The eating of any member or flesh of a creature while alive n is forbidden.
Such of the Heathens who conformed to those precepts were admitted to dwell among the Israelites, and were called proselytes of the gate.
m ××× ×שר ×× ×¤×©× ××× "carnem cum anima, "seu" vita ejus, sanguine ejus", Cartwright. n Maimon. Hilchot Melachim, c. 9. sect. 1.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- The Blessing of Noah
2. ×××¨× moÌraÌ', âfear, reverence, awful deed.â ×ת chat, âdread, breaking of the courage.â
Noah is saved from the deluge. His life is twice given to him by God. He had found grace in the sight of the Lord, and now he and his family have been graciously accepted when they approached the Lord with burnt-offerings. In him, therefore, the race of man is to be begun anew. Accordingly, as at the beginning, the Lord proceeds to bless him. First. The grant of increase is the same as at first, but expressed in ampler terms. Second. Dominion over the other animals is renewed. But some reluctance on their part to yield obedience is intimated. âThe fear and dread of you.â These terms give token of a master whose power is dreaded, rather than of a superior whose friendly protection is sought. âInto your hand are they given.â They are placed entirely at the disposal of man.
Genesis 9:3
The grant of sustenance is no longer confined to the vegetable, but extended to the animal kinds, with two solemn restrictions. This explains how fully the animals are handed over to the will of man. They were slain for sacrifice from the earliest times. Whether they were used for food before this time we are not informed. But now âevery creeper that is aliveâ is granted for food. âEvery creeperâ is everything that moves with the body prone to the earth, and therefore in a creeping posture. This seems to describe the inferior animals in contradistinction to man, who walks erect. The phrase âthat is aliveâ seems to exclude animals that have died a natural death from being used as food.
Genesis 9:4
The first restriction on the grant of animal food is thus expressed: âFlesh with its life, its blood, shall ye not eat.â The animal must be slain before any part of it is used for food. And as it lives so long as the blood flows in its veins, the life-blood must be drawn before its flesh may be eaten. The design of this restriction is to prevent the horrid cruelty of mutilating or cooking an animal while yet alive and capable of suffering pain. The draining of the blood from the body is an obvious occasion of death, and therefore the prohibition to eat the flesh with the blood of life is a needful restraint from savage cruelty. It is also intended, perhaps, to teach that the life of the animal, which is in the blood, belongs not to man, but to God himself, who gave it. He makes account of it for atonement in sacrifice; otherwise it is to be poured on the ground and covered with dust Leviticus 17:11-13.
Genesis 9:5-6
The second restriction guards human life. The shedding of human blood is sternly prohibited. âYour blood of your lives.â The blood which belongs to your lives, which constitutes the very life of your corporeal nature. âWill I require.â I, the Lord, will find the murderer out, and exact the penalty of his crime. The very beast that causes the death of man shall be slain. The suicide and the homicide are alike accountable to God for the shedding of manâs blood. The penalty of murder is here proclaimed - death for death. It is an instance of the law of retaliation. This is an axiom of moral equity. He that deprives another of any property is bound to make it good or to suffer the like loss.
The first law promulgated in Scripture was that between Creator and creature. If the creature refuse to the Creator the obedience due, he forfeits all the Creator has given him, and, therefore, his life. Hence, when Cain murdered his brother, he only displayed a new development of that sin which was in him, and, being already condemned to the extreme penalty under the first transgression, had only a minor punishment annexed to his personal crime. And so it continued to be in the antediluvian world. No civil law is on record for the restriction of crime. Cain, indeed, feared the natural vengeance which his conscience told him his sin deserved. But it was not competent in equity for the private individual to undertake the enforcement of the penalties of natural law. So long as the law was between Creator and creature, God himself was not only the sole legislator, but the sole administrator of law.
The second law is that between creature and creature, which is here introduced on the occasion of giving permission to partake of animal food, as the first was published on that of granting the use of vegetable diet. In the former case, God is the administrator of the law, as he is the immediate and sovereign party in the legal compact. In the latter case, man is, by the express appointment of the Lord of all, constituted the executive agent. âBy man shall his blood be shed.â Here, then, is the formal institution of civil government. Here the civil sword is committed to the charge of man. The judgment of death by the executioner is solemnly delegated to man in vindication of human life. This trust is conveyed in the most general terms. âBy man.â The divine legislator does not name the sovereign, define his powers, or determine the law of succession. All these practical conditions of a stable government are left open questions.
The emphasis is laid solely on âman.â On man is impressively laid the obligation of instituting a civil constitution suited to his present fallen condition. On the nation as a body it is an incumbent duty to select the sovereign, to form the civil compact between prince and people, to settle the prerogative of the sovereign and the rights of the subjects, to fix the order of succession, to constitute the legislative, judicial, and administrative bodies, and to render due submission to the constituted authorities. And all these arrangements are to be made according to the principles of Scripture and the light of nature.
The reason why retribution is exacted in the case of man is here also given. âFor in the image of God has he made man.â This points on the one hand to the function of the magistrate, and on the other to the claims of the violated law; and in both respects illustrates the meaning of being created in the image of God. Man resembles God in this, that he is a moral being, judging of right and wrong, endowed with reason and will, and capable of holding and exercising rights. Hence, he is in the first place competent to rule, and on his creation authorized to exercise a mild and moral sway over the inferior creatures. His capacity to govern even among his fellow-men is now recognized. The function of self-government in civil things is now conferred upon man. When duly called to the office, he is declared to be at liberty to discharge the part of a ruler among his fellow-men, and is entitled on the ground of this divine arrangement to claim the obedience of those who are under his sway. He must rule in the Lord, and they must obey in the Lord.
However, in the next place, man is capable of, and has been actually endowed with, rights of property in himself, his children, his industrial products, his purchases, his receipts in the way of gift, and his claims by covenant or promise. He can also recognize such rights in another. When, therefore, he is deprived of anything belonging to him, he is sensible of being wronged, and feels that the wrongdoer is bound to make reparation by giving back what he has taken away, or an equivalent in its place. This is the law of requital, which is the universal principle of justice between the wrongdoer and the wrong-sufferer. Hence, the blood of him who sheds blood is to be shed. And, in setting up a system of human government, the most natural and obvious case is given, according to the manner of Scripture, as a sample of the law by which punishment is to be inflicted on the transgressor in proportion to his crime. The case in point accordingly arises necessarily out of the permission to use animal food, which requires to be guarded on the one hand by a provision against cruelty to animals, and, on the other, by an enactment forbidding the taking away of human life, on the pain of death, by order of the civil magistrate. This case, then, turns out to be the most heinous crime which man can commit against his fellow-man, and strikingly exemplifies the great common principle of retributive justice.
The brute is not a moral being, and has, therefore, no proper rights in itself. Its blood may therefore be shed with impunity. Nevertheless, man, because he is a moral being, owes a certain negative duty to the brute animal, because it is capable of pain. He is not to inflict gratuitous or unnecessary suffering on a being susceptible of such torture. Hence, the propriety of the blood being shed before the flesh is used for food. Life, and therefore the sense of pain, is extinguished when the blood is withdrawn from the veins.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Genesis 9:4. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood — Though animal food was granted, yet the blood was most solemnly forbidden, because it was the life of the beast, and this life was to be offered to God as an atonement for sin. Hence the blood was ever held sacred, because it was the grand instrument of expiation, and because it was typical of that blood by which we enter into the holiest.
1. Before the deluge it was not eaten, because animal food was not in use.
2. After the deluge it was prohibited, as we find above; and, being one of the seven Noahic precepts, it was not eaten previously to the publication of the Mosaic law.
3. At the giving of the law, and at several times during the ministry of Moses, the prohibition was most solemnly, and with awful penalties renewed. Hence we may rest assured that no blood was eaten previously to the Christian era, nor indeed ever since by the Jewish people.
4. That the prohibition has been renewed under the Christian dispensation, can admit of little doubt by any man who dispassionately reads Acts 15:20; Acts 15:29; Acts 21:25, where even the Gentile converts are charged to abstain from it on the authority, not only of the apostles, but of the Holy Ghost, who gave them there and then especial direction concerning this point; see Acts 15:28; not for fear of stumbling the converted Jews, the gloss of theologians, but because it was one ÏÏν εÏÎ±Î½Î±Î³ÎºÎµÏ ÏÎ¿Ï ÏÏν, of those necessary points, from the burden (βαÏοÏ) of obedience to which they could not be excused.
5. This command is still scrupulously obeyed by the oriental Christians, and by the whole Greek Church; and why? because the reasons still subsist. No blood was eaten under the law, because it pointed out the blood that was to be shed for the sin of the world; and under the Gospel it should not be eaten, because it should ever be considered as representing the blood which has been shed for the remission of sins. If the eaters of blood in general knew that it affords a very crude, almost indigestible, and unwholesome ailment, they certainly would not on these physical reasons, leaving moral considerations out of the question, be so much attached to the consumption of that from which they could expect no wholesome nutriment, and which, to render it even pleasing to the palate, requires all the skill of the cook. See Leviticus 17:10.
