Leviticus 7:26-27

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. ¹  7:27 Any person who eats any blood – that person will be cut off from his people.’” ² 

Leviticus 17:10-13

Prohibition against Eating Blood

17:10 “‘Any man ³  from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who reside ⁴  in their ⁵  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, ⁶  17:11 for the life of every living thing ⁷  is in the blood. ⁸  So I myself have assigned it to you ⁹  on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life. ¹⁰  17:12 Therefore, I have said to the Israelites: No person among you is to eat blood, ¹¹  and no resident foreigner who lives among you is to eat blood. ¹² 

17:13 “‘Any man from the Israelites ¹³  or from the foreigners who reside ¹⁴  in their ¹⁵  midst who hunts a wild animal ¹⁶  or a bird that may be eaten ¹⁷  must pour out its blood and cover it with soil,

Acts 15:29

15:29 that you abstain from meat that has been sacrificed to idols ¹⁸  and from blood and from what has been strangled ¹⁹  and from sexual immorality. ²⁰  If you keep yourselves from doing these things, ²¹  you will do well. Farewell. ²² 

Acts 15:1

The Jerusalem Council

15:1 Now some men came down from Judea ²³  and began to teach the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised ²⁴  according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

Acts 4:4

4:4 But many of those who had listened to ²⁵  the message ²⁶  believed, and the number of the men ²⁷  came to about five thousand.

[7:26]  ¹ tn Heb “and any blood you must not eat in any of your dwelling places, to the bird and to the animal.”

[7:27]  ² sn See the note on Lev 7:20.

[17:10]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”

[17:10]  ⁵ tc The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate have “your” (plural) rather than “their.”

[17:10]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “And I myself have given it to you.”

[17:11]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all/any person from you shall not eat blood.”

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

[17:13]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”

[17:13]  ¹⁵ tc The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain mss of Smr have “your” (plural) rather than “their” (cf. v. 10 above).

[17:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “[wild] game of animal.”

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

[15:29]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ 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]  ²² 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]  ²³ sn That is, they came down from Judea to Antioch in Syria.

[15:1]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ tn Or “had heard.”

[4:4]  ²⁶ tn Or “word.”

[4:4]  ²⁷ 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.