Blood and the Apostles’ Letter

When Noah came out of the ark, God gave him every living thing for food, and in the same breath He drew a line: “But flesh (basar בָּשָׂר baw-sawr') with its soul (nephesh נֶפֶשׁ neh'-fesh), its blood, you shall not eat” (Genesis 9:4). It is a food law older than Sinai, and it was given to the father of every nation on earth.

Here is the claim this chapter answers: “At the Jerusalem council in Acts 15, the apostles freed the Gentiles from the law of Moses. They gave them only four rules, and those were temporary courtesies so that Jewish and Gentile believers could share a table. Everything else was lifted, because, as Peter said, the law was a yoke that no one could bear.”

Book 1 read the council’s four rules, where they came from, and the yoke. Here we read them again for what they say about food.

The Soul Is in the Blood

Moses gives the reason for the blood law in Leviticus 17.

Leviticus 17:10-11 And any man (ish אִישׁ eesh), man (ish) from the house of Israel, or from the sojourner who sojourns in their midst, who eats any blood — I will set my face against the soul (nephesh) that eats the blood, and I will cut it off from the midst of its people. For the soul (nephesh) of the flesh (basar) is in the blood, and I myself have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls (nephesh); for it is the blood that makes atonement by the soul (nephesh).

The reason is that “the soul (nephesh) of the flesh (basar) is in the blood.” The nephesh (נֶפֶשׁ) is the life, the living soul, and life belongs to God. Its blood may therefore go to only two places: on the altar, “to make atonement for your souls,” or poured out on the ground. It never goes into the mouth.

Leviticus 17:13-14 And any man (ish), man (ish) from the sons of Israel, or from the sojourner who sojourns in their midst, who hunts game, a living thing (chai חַי khah'-ee) or a bird that may be eaten — he shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust (aphar עָפָר aw-fawr'). For the soul (nephesh) of all flesh (basar) — its blood is in its soul (nephesh); and I said to the sons of Israel: You shall not eat the blood of all flesh (basar), for the soul (nephesh) of all flesh (basar) is its blood; everyone who eats it shall be cut off.

A hunter who kills a deer in the field “shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust (aphar).” Even outside the sanctuary, and far from any altar, the blood is given back.

A phrase keeps returning in these verses: “Any man (ish), man (ish) from the house of Israel, or from the sojourner who sojourns in their midst.” Verse 13 says it again: “or from the sojourner who sojourns in their midst.” These commands were written from the start for the stranger who lived among Israel, and not only for the native-born. The apostles held on to that.

Four Things, All from Leviticus

The question at the council is stated in the first verse of Acts 15.

Acts 15:1 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved."

That was the dispute: circumcision “according to the custom of Moses” as a condition of salvation. After Peter, Paul, and Barnabas had spoken, James gave the decision.

Acts 15:19-21 Therefore I krino κρίνω kree'-no(judge, determine) that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from sexual immorality and from what is strangled and from blood. For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who proclaim him, since he is read in the synagogues every sabbaton σάββατον sab'-bat-on(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23)."

There are four things: “things contaminated by idols,” “sexual immorality,” “what is strangled,” and “blood.” Every one of them comes from the same two chapters of the Torah, the chapters that speak to the sojourner.

The word for strangled is pniktos πνικτός pnik-tos', an animal killed without its blood being drained. These are not matters of table manners. The apostles reached into the part of the Torah that God had already addressed to the stranger, and they laid it on the strangers who were coming to the God of Israel.

The “For” in Verse 21

James did not stop at verse 20. Verse 21 is joined to verse 20 by the Greek word gar γάρ gar, “for,” and so it gives the reason for verse 20: “For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who proclaim him,” and he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.

Why only four? Because Moses was read every Sabbath in every city, and the Gentile believers were in those synagogues hearing him. Luke shows it again and again. In Pisidian Antioch, the Gentiles begged to hear the same words again on the next Sabbath, and a week later “nearly the whole city assembled to hear the logos λόγος log'-os(word) of God” (Acts 13:42-44). In Corinth, Paul reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, “trying to persuade Jews and Greeks” (Acts 18:4).

Think of a new nurse on her first day in a hospital. Before she learns anything else, she is told a few things she must do at once: wash her hands, never touch a sterile field, and never share a needle. Those rules are not the whole of nursing. They are what must stop or start on the first day, because without them she endangers everyone around her, and the rest she will learn in the training held every week.

The four things were what had to stop at once: idols, immorality, strangled meat, and blood. They belong to the second branch of uncleanness we saw in Chapter 21, the branch of idols, sexual sin, and blood. The rest of the Torah the nations would go on learning where it was read, Sabbath by Sabbath. The council did not hand the nations a final list.

What Was the Yoke?

Peter’s words at the council are often quoted as the last word on the Torah.

Acts 15:10-11 Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the charis χάρις khar'-ece(grace) of the Lord Yeshua, in the same way as they also are."

If the yoke “which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear” were the commandments of God, Peter would be contradicting Moses, who said the opposite.

Deuteronomy 30:11 For this commandment (mitzvah מִצוָה mits-vaw') which I am commanding you (tzivvah צָוָה tsaw-vaw') this day, it is not too wonderful for you, nor is it far off.

The apostle John agrees with Moses.

1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God — that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.

The yoke, then, cannot be the commandments themselves. What was it? Yeshua named the people who load men with weights too heavy to carry.

Matthew 23:4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.

That is the yoke: circumcision made a condition of salvation, as the men from Judea taught in Acts 15:1, with the traditions of men piled on top of it, the very traditions Yeshua rebuked in Mark 7. As we saw in Chapter 9, circumcision is not a condition of salvation for believers from the nations. It is the sign of Abraham’s house, and the Torah never gave it to the nations as the door to salvation.

Peter’s next sentence answers Acts 15:1 directly: “we believe that we are saved through the charis(grace) of the Lord Yeshua, in the same way as they also are.” Jew and Gentile are saved the same way, by grace. No one is saved by circumcision, and no one is saved by keeping food laws or by draining blood from meat. The four things were not the price of salvation, and the council did not put the yoke on the nations.

Years later, when Paul came again to Jerusalem, James and all the elders named the same four: “that they keep themselves from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from sexual immorality” (Acts 21:25). Years after the council the four still stood; they were not a passing courtesy.

From the blood that carries life, the Torah turns to the body itself: to a mother who has just given birth, to a man whose skin is struck, and to the life of a husband and wife. In those laws, too, we can watch what Yeshua did.