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 17:10-14

Prohibition against Eating Blood

17:10 “‘Any man ⁴  from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who reside ⁵  in their ⁶  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, ⁷  17:11 for the life of every living thing ⁸  is in the blood. ⁹  So I myself have assigned it to you ¹⁰  on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life. ¹¹  17:12 Therefore, I have said to the Israelites: No person among you is to eat blood, ¹²  and no resident foreigner who lives among you is to eat blood. ¹³ 

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

Genesis 9:4

9:4 But ²²  you must not eat meat ²³  with its life (that is, ²⁴  its blood) in it. ²⁵ 

Genesis 9:1

God’s Covenant with Humankind through Noah

9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Genesis 14:1

The Blessing of Victory for God’s People

14:1 At that time ²⁶  Amraphel king of Shinar, ²⁷  Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations ²⁸ 

Genesis 14:1

The Blessing of Victory for God’s People

14:1 At that time ²⁹  Amraphel king of Shinar, ³⁰  Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations ³¹ 

Ezekiel 33:25

33:25 Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: You eat the meat with the blood still in it, ³²  pray to ³³  your idols, and shed blood. Do you really think you will possess ³⁴  the land?

John 6:53

6:53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ³⁵  unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ³⁶  you have no life ³⁷  in yourselves.

Acts 15:20

15:20 but that we should write them a letter ³⁸  telling them to abstain ³⁹  from things defiled ⁴⁰  by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled ⁴¹  and from blood.

Acts 15:29

15:29 that you abstain from meat that has been sacrificed to idols ⁴²  and from blood and from what has been strangled ⁴³  and from sexual immorality. ⁴⁴  If you keep yourselves from doing these things, ⁴⁵  you will do well. Farewell. ⁴⁶ 

Ephesians 1:7

1:7 In him ⁴⁷  we have redemption through his blood, ⁴⁸  the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace

Ephesians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ⁴⁹  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints [in Ephesus], ⁵⁰  the faithful ⁵¹  in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 4:4

4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you too were called to the one hope of your calling,

[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.”

[17:10]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”

[17:10]  ⁶ tc The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate have “your” (plural) rather than “their.”

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

[17:11]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “all/any person from you shall not eat blood.”

[17:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the sojourner, the one sojourning in your midst, shall not eat blood.”

[17:13]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”

[17:13]  ¹⁶ tc The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain mss of Smr have “your” (plural) rather than “their” (cf. v. 10 above).

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

[17:13]  ¹⁸ tn That is, it must be a clean animal, not an unclean animal (cf. Lev 11).

[17:14]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn Heb “of all flesh” (also later in this verse). See the note on “every living thing” in v. 11.

[17:14]  ²¹ tn For remarks on the “cut off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above.

[9:4]  ²² tn Heb “only.”

[9:4]  ²³ tn Or “flesh.”

[9:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “its life, its blood.” The second word is in apposition to the first, explaining what is meant by “its life.” Since the blood is equated with life, meat that had the blood in it was not to be eaten.

[9:4]  ²⁵ tn The words “in it” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[14:1]  ²⁶ tn The sentence begins with the temporal indicator וַיְהִי (vayÿhi) followed by “in the days of.”

[14:1]  ²⁷ sn Shinar (also in v. 9) is the region of Babylonia.

[14:1]  ²⁸ tn Or “king of Goyim.” The Hebrew term גּוֹיִם (goyim) means “nations,” but a number of modern translations merely transliterate the Hebrew (cf. NEB “Goyim”; NIV, NRSV “Goiim”).

[14:1]  ²⁹ tn The sentence begins with the temporal indicator וַיְהִי (vayÿhi) followed by “in the days of.”

[14:1]  ³⁰ sn Shinar (also in v. 9) is the region of Babylonia.

[14:1]  ³¹ tn Or “king of Goyim.” The Hebrew term גּוֹיִם (goyim) means “nations,” but a number of modern translations merely transliterate the Hebrew (cf. NEB “Goyim”; NIV, NRSV “Goiim”).

[33:25]  ³² sn This practice was a violation of Levitical law (see Lev 19:26).

[33:25]  ³³ tn Heb “lift up your eyes.”

[33:25]  ³⁴ tn Heb “Will you possess?”

[6:53]  ³⁵ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[6:53]  ³⁶ sn Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. These words are at the heart of the discourse on the Bread of Life, and have created great misunderstanding among interpreters. Anyone who is inclined toward a sacramental viewpoint will almost certainly want to take these words as a reference to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist, because of the reference to eating and drinking. But this does not automatically follow: By anyone’s definition there must be a symbolic element to the eating which Jesus speaks of in the discourse, and once this is admitted, it is better to understand it here, as in the previous references in the passage, to a personal receiving of (or appropriation of) Christ and his work.

[6:53]  ³⁷ tn That is, “no eternal life” (as opposed to physical life).

[15:20]  ³⁸ tn The translation “to write a letter, to send a letter to” for ἐπιστέλλω (epistellw) is given in L&N 33.49.

[15:20]  ³⁹ 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]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “polluted.”

[15:20]  ⁴¹ 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).

[15:29]  ⁴² 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]  ⁴³ 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]  ⁴⁴ 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]  ⁴⁵ 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]  ⁴⁶ 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).

[1:7]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “in whom” (the relative clause of v. 7 is subordinate to v. 6). The “him” refers to Christ.

[1:7]  ⁴⁸ sn In this context his blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, refers to the price paid for believers’ redemption, which is the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross.

[1:1]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ⁵⁰ tc The earliest and most important mss omit “in Ephesus” (Ì⁴⁶ א* B* 6 1739 [Mcion^T,E]), yet the opening line of this epistle makes little sense without the phrase (“to the saints who are and are faithful…”? or perhaps “to the saints who are also faithful,” though with this sense the οὖσιν [ousin] is redundant and the καί [kai] is treated somewhat unnaturally). What is interesting is Marcion’s canon list which speaks of the letter to the Laodiceans among Paul’s authentic epistles. This, coupled with some internal evidence that the writer did not know his audience personally (cf. 1:15; 3:2; absence of personal names throughout), suggests that Ephesians was an encyclical letter, intended for more than one audience. Does this mean that the shorter reading is to be preferred? Yes and no. A plausible scenario is as follows, assuming Pauline authorship (though this is strongly contested today; for arguments on behalf of Pauline authorship, see M. Barth, Ephesians [AB 34], 1:36-50; P. T. O’Brien, Ephesians, 4-47; and H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 2-61): Paul sent the letter from Rome, intending it first to go to Ephesus. At the same time, Colossians was dispatched. Going counterclockwise through Asia Minor, this letter would first come to Ephesus, the port of entry, then to Laodicea, then Colossae. Tychicus’ instructions may well have been for each church to “fill in the blank” on the address line. The church at Ephesus would have certainly made the most copies, being Paul’s home base for nearly three years. Hence, most of the surviving copies have “in Ephesus” in v. 1 (so א² A B² D F G Ψ 0278 33 1881 Ï latt sy co). But one might expect a hint of evidence that Laodicea also made a few copies: Both Marcion’s list and Col 4:16 may well imply this. What is to account for the early Alexandrian evidence, then? These mss were perhaps made from a very early copy, one reflecting the blank line before each church filled it in. Although it is of course only speculation (as is necessary in a historical investigation lacking some of the pieces to the puzzle), this scenario accounts for all of the data: (1) “in Ephesus” in most mss; (2) Laodicea in Marcion’s list and Col 4:16; (3) the lack of an addressee in the earliest witnesses; (4) why the earliest witnesses’ reading must be rejected as too hard; and (5) why the author seems not to know the readership. In sum, is “in Ephesus” original? Yes and no. Some address belongs there; ἐν ᾿Εφέσῳ (en Efesw) is the predominant address, but several other churches also received this circular letter as their own. For this reason the phrase has been placed in single brackets in the translation. NA²⁷ also lists the words in brackets, indicating doubt as to their authenticity.

[1:1]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style [and even if this letter is not by Paul it follows the general style of Paul’s letters, with some modifications]) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated. See M. Barth, Ephesians (AB 34), 1:68 and ExSyn 282.