Leviticus 3:17

3:17 This is ¹  a perpetual statute throughout your generations ²  in all the places where you live: You must never eat any fat or any blood.’” ³ 

Leviticus 7:26

7:26 And you must not eat any blood of the birds or the domesticated land animals in any of the places where you live. ⁴ 

Leviticus 17:10-14

Prohibition against Eating Blood

17:10 “‘Any man ⁵  from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who reside ⁶  in their ⁷  midst who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats the blood, and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, ⁸  17:11 for the life of every living thing ⁹  is in the blood. ¹⁰  So I myself have assigned it to you ¹¹  on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life. ¹²  17:12 Therefore, I have said to the Israelites: No person among you is to eat blood, ¹³  and no resident foreigner who lives among you is to eat blood. ¹⁴ 

17:13 “‘Any man from the Israelites ¹⁵  or from the foreigners who reside ¹⁶  in their ¹⁷  midst who hunts a wild animal ¹⁸  or a bird that may be eaten ¹⁹  must pour out its blood and cover it with soil, 17:14 for the life of all flesh is its blood. ²⁰  So I have said to the Israelites: You must not eat the blood of any living thing ²¹  because the life of every living thing is its blood – all who eat it will be cut off. ²² 

Leviticus 19:26

Blood, Hair, and Body

19:26 “‘You must not eat anything with the blood still in it. ²³  You must not practice either divination or soothsaying. ²⁴ 

Deuteronomy 12:16

12:16 However, you must not eat blood – pour it out on the ground like water.

Deuteronomy 12:23

12:23 However, by no means eat the blood, for the blood is life itself ²⁵  – you must not eat the life with the meat!

Deuteronomy 14:21

14:21 You may not eat any corpse, though you may give it to the resident foreigner who is living in your villages ²⁶  and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. You are a people holy to the Lord your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. ²⁷ 

Deuteronomy 15:23

15:23 However, you must not eat its blood; you must pour it out on the ground like water.

Deuteronomy 15:1

Release for Debt Slaves

15:1 At the end of every seven years you must declare a cancellation ²⁸  of debts.

Deuteronomy 14:1

The Holy and the Profane

14:1 You are children ²⁹  of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald ³⁰  for the sake of the dead.

Acts 15:20

15:20 but that we should write them a letter ³¹  telling them to abstain ³²  from things defiled ³³  by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled ³⁴  and from blood.

Acts 15:25

15:25 we have unanimously ³⁵  decided ³⁶  to choose men to send to you along with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul,

Acts 15:29

15:29 that you abstain from meat that has been sacrificed to idols ³⁷  and from blood and from what has been strangled ³⁸  and from sexual immorality. ³⁹  If you keep yourselves from doing these things, ⁴⁰  you will do well. Farewell. ⁴¹ 

Acts 15:1

The Jerusalem Council

15:1 Now some men came down from Judea ⁴²  and began to teach the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised ⁴³  according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

Acts 4:4

4:4 But many of those who had listened to ⁴⁴  the message ⁴⁵  believed, and the number of the men ⁴⁶  came to about five thousand.

[3:17]  ¹ tn The words “This is” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied due to requirements of English style.

[3:17]  ² tn Heb “for your generations”; NAB “for your descendants”; NLT “for you and all your descendants.”

[3:17]  ³ tn Heb “all fat and all blood you must not eat.”

[7:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “and any blood you must not eat in any of your dwelling places, to the bird and to the animal.”

[17:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “And man, man.” The repetition of the word “man” is distributive, meaning “any (or every) man” (GKC 395-96 §123.c; cf. Lev 15:2).

[17:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”

[17:10]  ⁷ tc The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate have “your” (plural) rather than “their.”

[17:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “I will give my faces against [literally “in”] the soul/person/life [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh, feminine] who eats the blood and I will cut it [i.e., that נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] off from the midst of its people.” The uses of נֶפֶשׁ in this and the following verse are most significant for the use of animal blood in Israel’s sacrificial system. Unfortunately, it is a most difficult word to translate accurately and consistently, and this presents a major problem for the rendering of these verses (see, e.g., G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 244-45). No matter which translation of נֶפֶשׁ one uses here, it is important to see that both man and animal have נֶפֶשׁ and that this נֶפֶשׁ is identified with the blood. See the further remarks on v. 11 below. On the “cutting off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above. In this instance, God takes it on himself to “cut off” the person (i.e., extirpation).

[17:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “the life of the flesh.” Here “flesh” stands for “every living thing,” that is, all creatures (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT “every creature”; CEV “every living creature.”

[17:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for the soul/life (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) of the flesh, it is in the blood” (cf. the note of v. 10 above and v. 14 below). Although most modern English versions begin a new sentence in v. 11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood” (see, e.g., NJPS, NASB, NIV, NRSV), the כִּי (ki, “for, because”) at the beginning of the verse suggests continuation from v. 10, as the rendering here indicates (see, e.g., NEB, NLT; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 261; and G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 239).

[17:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And I myself have given it to you.”

[17:11]  ¹² tn Heb “for the blood, it by (בְּ, bet preposition, “in”] the life makes atonement.” The interpretation of the preposition is pivotal here. Some scholars have argued that it is a bet of exchange; that is, “the blood makes atonement in exchange for the life [of the slaughtered animal]” (see R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:694-95, 697 for analysis and criticism of this view). It is more likely that, as in the previous clause (“your lives”), “life/soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) here refers to the person who makes the offering, not the animal offered. The blood of the animal makes atonement for the person who offers it either “by means of” (instrumental bet) the “life/soul” of the animal, which it symbolizes or embodies (the meaning of the translation given here); or perhaps the blood of the animal functions as “the price” (bet of price) for ransoming the “life/soul” of the person.

[17:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “all/any person from you shall not eat blood.”

[17:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and the sojourner, the one sojourning in your midst, shall not eat blood.”

[17:13]  ¹⁵ tc A few medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “from the house of Israel” as in vv. 3, 8, and 10, but the LXX agrees with the MT.

[17:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”

[17:13]  ¹⁷ tc The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain mss of Smr have “your” (plural) rather than “their” (cf. v. 10 above).

[17:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “[wild] game of animal.”

[17:13]  ¹⁹ tn That is, it must be a clean animal, not an unclean animal (cf. Lev 11).

[17:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “for the life/soul (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) of all flesh, its blood in its life/soul (נֶפֶשׁ) it is.” The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate leave out “in its life/soul,” which would naturally yield “for the life of all flesh, its blood it is” (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 261, 263). The present translation is something of an oversimplification, but the meaning is basically the same in any case. Cf. NRSV “For the life of every creature – its blood is its life.”

[17:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “of all flesh” (also later in this verse). See the note on “every living thing” in v. 11.

[17:14]  ²² tn For remarks on the “cut off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above.

[19:26]  ²³ tn Heb “You shall not eat on the blood.” See the extensive remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 319-20, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132-33. The LXX has “on the mountains,” suggesting that this is a prohibition against illegitimate places and occasions of worship, not the eating of blood.

[19:26]  ²⁴ tn Heb “You shall not practice divination and you shall not practice soothsaying”; cf. NRSV “practice augury or witchcraft.” For suggestions regarding the practices involved see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 133, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 320.

[12:23]  ²⁵ sn The blood is life itself. This is a figure of speech (metonymy) in which the cause or means (the blood) stands for the result or effect (life). That is, life depends upon the existence and circulation of blood, a truth known empirically but not scientifically tested and proved until the 17th century a.d. (cf. Lev 17:11).

[14:21]  ²⁶ tn Heb “gates” (also in vv. 27, 28, 29).

[14:21]  ²⁷ sn Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. This strange prohibition – one whose rationale is unclear but probably related to pagan ritual – may seem out of place here but actually is not for the following reasons: (1) the passage as a whole opens with a prohibition against heathen mourning rites (i.e., death, vv. 1-2) and closes with what appear to be birth and infancy rites. (2) In the other two places where the stipulation occurs (Exod 23:19 and Exod 34:26) it similarly concludes major sections. (3) Whatever the practice signified it clearly was abhorrent to the Lord and fittingly concludes the topic of various breaches of purity and holiness as represented by the ingestion of unclean animals (vv. 3-21). See C. M. Carmichael, “On Separating Life and Death: An Explanation of Some Biblical Laws,” HTR 69 (1976): 1-7; J. Milgrom, “You Shall Not Boil a Kid In Its Mother’s Milk,” BRev 1 (1985): 48-55; R. J. Ratner and B. Zuckerman, “In Rereading the ‘Kid in Milk’ Inscriptions,” BRev 1 (1985): 56-58; and M. Haran, “Seething a Kid in its Mother’s Milk,” JJS 30 (1979): 23-35.

[15:1]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew term שְׁמִטָּת (shÿmittat), a derivative of the verb שָׁמַט (shamat, “to release; to relinquish”), refers to the cancellation of the debt and even pledges for the debt of a borrower by his creditor. This could be a full and final remission or, more likely, one for the seventh year only. See R. Wakely, NIDOTTE 4:155-60. Here the words “of debts” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied. Cf. NAB “a relaxation of debts”; NASB, NRSV “a remission of debts.”

[14:1]  ²⁹ tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); TEV, NLT “people.”

[14:1]  ³⁰ sn Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald. These were pagan practices associated with mourning the dead; they were not be imitated by God’s people (though they frequently were; cf. 1 Kgs 18:28; Jer 16:6; 41:5; 47:5; Hos 7:14 [LXX]; Mic 5:1). For other warnings against such practices see Lev 21:5; Jer 16:5.

[15:20]  ³¹ tn The translation “to write a letter, to send a letter to” for ἐπιστέλλω (epistellw) is given in L&N 33.49.

[15:20]  ³² tn Three of the four prohibitions deal with food (the first, third and fourth) while one prohibition deals with behavior (the second, refraining from sexual immorality). Since these occur in the order they do, the translation “abstain from” is used to cover both sorts of activity (eating food items, immoral behavior).

[15:20]  ³³ tn Or “polluted.”

[15:20]  ³⁴ sn What has been strangled. That is, to refrain from eating animals that had been killed without having the blood drained from them. According to the Mosaic law (Lev 17:13-14), Jews were forbidden to eat flesh with the blood still in it (note the following provision in Acts 15:20, and from blood).

[15:25]  ³⁵ tn Grk “having become of one mind, we have decided.” This has been translated “we have unanimously decided” to reduce the awkwardness in English.

[15:25]  ³⁶ tn BDAG 255 s.v. δοκέω 2.b.β lists this verse under the meaning “it seems best to me, I decide, I resolve.”

[15:29]  ³⁷ tn There is no specific semantic component in the Greek word εἰδωλόθυτος that means “meat” (see BDAG 280 s.v. εἰδωλόθυτος; L&N 5.15). The stem –θυτος means “sacrifice” (referring to an animal sacrificially killed) and thereby implies meat.

[15:29]  ³⁸ tc Codex Bezae (D) and a few other witnesses lack the restriction “and from what has been strangled” (καὶ πνικτῶν, kai pniktwn), though the words are supported by a wide variety of early and important witnesses otherwise and should be considered authentic.

[15:29]  ³⁹ tc Codex Bezae (D) as well as 323 614 945 1739 1891 sa and other witnesses have after “sexual immorality” the following statement: “And whatever you do not want to happen to yourselves, do not do to another/others.” By adding this negative form of the Golden Rule, these witnesses effectively change the Apostolic Decree from what might be regarded as ceremonial restrictions into more ethical demands. The issues here are quite complicated, and beyond the scope of this brief note. Suffice it to say that D and its allies here are almost surely an expansion and alteration of the original text of Acts. For an excellent discussion of the exegetical and textual issues, see TCGNT 379-83.

[15:29]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “from which things keeping yourselves.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the relative pronoun (ὧν, |wn) has been replaced by a pronoun (“these things”) and a new English sentence begun. The participle διατηροῦντες (diathrounte") has been translated as a conditional adverbial participle (“if you keep yourselves”). See further L&N 13.153.

[15:29]  ⁴¹ tn The phrase ἔρρωσθε (errwsqe) may be understood as a stock device indicating a letter is complete (“good-bye,” L&N 33.24) or as a sincere wish that the persons involved may fare well (“may you fare well,” L&N 23.133).

[15:1]  ⁴² sn That is, they came down from Judea to Antioch in Syria.

[15:1]  ⁴³ tc Codex Bezae (D) and a few other witnesses have “and walk” here (i.e., instead of τῷ ἔθει τῷ Μωϋσέως [tw eqei tw Mwu>sew"] they read καὶ τῷ ἔθει τῷ Μωϋσέως περιπατῆτε [kai tw eqei tw Mwu>sew" peripathte]). This is a decidedly stronger focus on obedience to the Law. As well, D expands vv. 1-5 in various places with the overall effect of being “more sympathetic to the local tradition of the church at Jerusalem” while the Alexandrian witnesses are more sympathetic to Paul (TCGNT 377). Codex D is well known for having a significantly longer text in Acts, but modern scholarship is generally of the opinion that the text of D expands on the original wording of Acts, with a theological viewpoint that especially puts Peter in a more authoritarian light. The expansion in these five verses is in keeping with that motif even though Peter is not explicitly in view.

[4:4]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “had heard.”

[4:4]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “word.”

[4:4]  ⁴⁶ tn In the historical setting it is likely that only men are referred to here. The Greek term ἀνήρ (anhr) usually refers to males or husbands rather than people in general. Thus to translate “of the people” would give a false impression of the number, since any women and children were apparently not included in the count.