The Law of Moses --
Dietary Regulations
U NDER THE MOSAIC LAW, killing an animal was in one sense the same as murder. The sacredness of life was a central tenet of the Law. This sacredness showed up in many ways, including the many regulations related to procreative powers and the lifeblood. We will concentrate on the latter. We read from the Law:
Lev 17:3,4 "As for any man of the house of Israel who slaughters a bull or a young ram or a goat in the camp or who slaughters it outside the camp and does not actually bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to present it as an offering to Jehovah before the tabernacle of Jehovah, bloodguilt will be counted to that man. He has shed blood, and that man must be cut off from among his people"
So, unless the man who killed an animal heeded the dietary law, he was worthy of death just as if he had killed a fellow human. Life was holy, even the life of animals. To compensate for the taking of life, the blood had to be offered to God:
Lev 17:6 "And the priest must sprinkle the blood upon Jehovahs altar at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and he must make the fat smoke as a restful odor to Jehovah."
In the case of hunting and killing, the rules were simpler, but still the person had to return the blood to God:
Lev 17:13 "As for any man of the sons of Israel or some alien resident who is residing as an alien in your midst who in hunting catches a wild beast or a fowl that may be eaten, he must in that case pour its blood out and cover it with dust."
These rules were compulsory and unvarying in Israel, even applying to foreigners living in the land.
Lev 17:11,12 "For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I myself have put it upon the altar for you to make atonement for your souls, because it is the blood that makes atonement by the soul in it. That is why I have said to the sons of Israel: No soul of you must eat blood and no alien resident who is residing as an alien in your midst should eat blood."
This compulsory and absolute nature of these laws demonstrates that they are moral, as opposed to ceremonial law, which may or may not apply to all inhabitants. Again, we see that blood is the soul or life of the creature. The provision to pour out the blood and give it back to God had nothing to do with the blood itself, as if the fluid was magical in some way. It had to do with respect for life. This can be seen from the fact that in cases of animals who had been killed by predators, strangulation or natural causes, and still had the blood in it, they were not covered by this absolute prohibition against eating blood. Sure, the Israelites were not allowed to eat it, but this was purely from a ritualistic point of view. The person had no bloodguilt, as a person who had killed an animal himself would have:
Lev 17:15,16 "As for any soul that eats a body already dead or something torn by a wild beast, whether a native or an alien resident, he must in that case wash his garments and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening; and he must be clean. But if he will not wash them and will not bathe his flesh, he must then answer for his error." (see also Lev 11:39,40)
That this rule was ritualistic and had little to do with the holiness of the blood itself, is clear from these verses:
Deut 14:21 "You must not eat any body already dead. To the alien resident who is inside your gates you may give it, and he must eat it; or there may be a selling of it to a foreigner, because you are a holy people to Jehovah your God."
The basis for the prohibition against eating animals that died of themselves was the holiness of the people, not the sacred nature of blood.
To summarise, the law in Leviticus chapters 17 and 18 contains a number of regulations. What is common for these, is that unlike the other dietary laws and holiness standards, these also applied to foreigners living in Israel. We will see this as very important later, when we handle the apostolic decree in Acts chapter 15. These rules were:
1. Offerings (really, meal offerings where the person took part in the meal) should be brought to Jehovah only, not other gods ( Lev 17:1-9 )
2. They were not permitted to eat blood ( Lev 17:10-14 )
3. They could not (unless in an emergency; see Deut 14:21,28,29 ) eat animals that were torn apart or had died by themselves ( Lev 17:15,16 )
4. They had to abstain from certain sexual practices and relationships ( Lev 18:1-27 )
We will come back to these rules later, since they play an important part in the so-called apostolic decree.
Next Chapter: The Christians and Blood