Someone asks, “Is it sinful to have a blood transfusion?” All three religious periods in the Bible – Patriarchy, Judaism, Christianity – prohibit eating blood. Patriarchy: “But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood” (Genesis 9:4 NKJV). Judaism: “Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat” (Deuteronomy 12:23 and many more Scriptures). Christianity: “But that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood” (Acts 15:20).
Genesis 9:4 prohibited people living under Patriarchy from eating blood because life is in the blood. The two following verses, hence, introduce “lifeblood” and associate blood with life and death. Prohibitions under Judaism about eating blood provide an additional reason for not eating blood; idolatrous worship at the time involved eating blood (Leviticus 19:26; Ezekiel 33:25). Likewise, Christianity’s restriction from eating blood is also associated with idolatrous worship. “…That you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality” (Acts 15:29).
All three religious periods in the Bible – Patriarchy, Judaism, Christianity – prohibit eating blood. However, nowhere in the Bible does God even mention blood transfusions. Eating blood and blood transfusions are not the same thing. Blood transfusions neither involve eating blood or having it pass through the digestive system (e.g., stomach). Neither do blood transfusions have any relationship to idolatry. The Jehovah Witnesses stand alone in Christendom in presuming that eating blood and having a blood transfusion are the same thing and equally condemned. Sincere, nevertheless, they are sincerely mistaken and have erroneously interpreted Acts 15:29 and other related Bible passages. It is not sinful to have a blood transfusion.
