Genesis 9:4

Hebrew Bible

2 Every living creature of the earth and every bird of the sky will be terrified of you. Everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea are under your authority. 3 You may eat any moving thing that lives. As I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. 4But you must not eat meat with its life (that is, its blood) in it. 5 For your lifeblood I will surely exact punishment, from every living creature I will exact punishment. From each person I will exact punishment for the life of the individual since the man was his relative. 6 “Whoever sheds human blood, by other humans must his blood be shed; for in God’s image God has made humankind.

Leviticus 17:10

Hebrew Bible

8 “You are to say to them: ‘Any man from the house of Israel or from the resident foreigners who live in their midst, who offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice 9 but does not bring it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent to offer it to the Lord—that person will be cut off from his people. 10 “‘Any man from the house of Israel or from the resident foreigners who live in their 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, 11 for the life of every living thing is in the blood. So I myself have assigned it to you on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life. 12 Therefore, I have said to the Israelites: No person among you is to eat blood, and no resident foreigner who lives among you is to eat blood.

 Notes and References

"... The prohibition on blood (Acts 15:29) recalls the dietary restrictions of Genesis 9:4, while the general prohibition of bloodshed recalls Genesis 9:5–6. On the face of things, there is clearly some overlap with the biblical Noahide laws in Genesis 9 ... This sets out a range of obligations for resident aliens living in the land of Israel. The parallels are found in the blood taboos of Leviticus 17:10–14, the dietary laws of Leviticus 17:15ff, and the list of forbidden sexual relationships in Leviticus 18:6–30. It mirrors the concerns of Acts 15. There are good reasons, then, for thinking that Acts 15 is really a creative New Testament application of Leviticus 17–18, in much the same way as, for example, the prophet Ezekiel appears to draw on Leviticus 17–18 in his insistence that there are certain preconditions to living in the land of Israel (Ezekiel 33:24–26) ..."

Burnside, Jonathan P. God, Justice, and Society: Aspects of Law and Legality in the Bible (pp. 96-97) Oxford University Press, 2011

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