Leviticus 17:11 · Doctrine · Featured Study
The Blood
Scripture rules that the life of a creature is in its blood, and from Genesis to Revelation it gives that blood to the altar to make atonement.
The first blood shed in the Bible spoke before any law of blood was given: “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.”
- First taught
- Genesis 9:4 “But you must not eat meat with its…”
- Fullest statement
- Leviticus 17:11 “…the flesh is in the blood, and I…”
Titian, Cain and Abel, 1542 to 1544. Public domain.
Summary
The sacrifices of the Bible are made with blood, and the doctrine runs from Abel's field in Genesis to the throne in Revelation.
- Leviticus 17:11 states the ruling: the life of the flesh is in the blood, and God gave it for atonement upon the altar.
- After the flood God forbade Noah to eat meat with its lifeblood still in it (Genesis 9:4).
- The blood marked the doors at the Passover, sealed the covenant at Sinai and was carried into the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement.
- Jesus called the cup at the Last Supper His blood of the covenant, and Hebrews 9:22 says there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood.
- Revelation 12:11 says the saints conquered the accuser by the blood of the Lamb.
The Ruling
Genesis 9:4 forbids the lifeblood as food, and Leviticus 17:11 gives the reason and the use of the blood.
But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.The first law of blood is given to Noah for every people after the flood, and it ties the blood to the life.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for your souls upon the altar; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.The fullest text gives the reason for the law and names the altar as the one place the blood is given.
Two Hebrew nouns carry Leviticus 17:11: dam, blood, and nephesh, the life or the soul.
Every later text of the doctrine applies that ruling. The blood is a life given up in death, and Leviticus 17:11 gives it to make atonement for the souls of those who bring it.
Three commentators on Leviticus 17:11Matthew Henry, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, John Wesley
Matthew Henry reads the verse as the reason the blood was appointed to make atonement, because the life of the flesh is the blood.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the law as God, the owner of nature, keeping the blood for Himself and allowing it only one use, in sacrifice.
John Wesley reads the blood of the altar as making atonement in figure, for the blood of Christ it stood for, by which the atonement is really made.
From Abel to the Throne
Twelve texts carry the blood from Abel's field to the throne in Revelation, and five words of the doctrine are counted from the lexicon.
Each step of the chain gives the blood a new work, and each later step rests on Leviticus 17:11.
- Text
- Genesis 4:10
- What the blood does
- The blood of the murdered brother has a voice
- Text
- Genesis 9:4
- What the blood does
- God forbids Noah to eat meat with its lifeblood
- Text
- Exodus 12:13
- What the blood does
- Blood on the doorframes spares the house from the plague
- Text
- Exodus 24:8
- What the blood does
- The people swear to keep the Book of the Covenant and are sprinkled
- Text
- Leviticus 16:30
- What the blood does
- The high priest carries blood not his own behind the veil each year
- Text
- Leviticus 17:11
- What the blood does
- The reason for every sacrifice of the law is stated
- Text
- Isaiah 1:11
- What the blood does
- God takes no delight in blood offered by unjust hands
- Text
- Matthew 26:28
- What the blood does
- Jesus takes the words of Exodus 24:8 at the Passover meal
- Text
- Hebrews 9:22
- What the blood does
- Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness
- Text
- Hebrews 12:24
- What the blood does
- The sprinkled blood of Jesus answers the blood of Abel
- Text
- 1 Peter 1:18 to 19
- What the blood does
- Silver and gold give way to a lamb without blemish or spot
- Text
- Revelation 12:11
- What the blood does
- The saints conquer the accuser by the blood of the Lamb
A chain of twelve texts from Genesis 4 to Revelation 12, each with the work the blood does there.
Ritual refused, The cup, The law stated, The better word, The ransom price, The accuser conquered
Nephesh, the life, is the most frequent of the five words, and the Hebrew dam for blood stands more than three times as often as the Greek haima.
- life, soul
- blood
- to atone
- testimony
The five counts as a table
| Word | Uses in the Bible | What it means | Verse |
|---|---|---|---|
| nephesh (H5315) | 754 | life, soul | Leviticus 17:11 |
| dam (H1818) | 360 | blood | Genesis 9:4 |
| kaphar (H3722) | 102 | to atone | Leviticus 16:30 |
| haima (G129) | 97 | blood | Hebrews 9:22 |
| martyria (G3141) | 37 | testimony | Revelation 12:11 |
Five words of the doctrine, each counted across the Bible from the store's lexicon, with one verse where it stands.
Ritual Without Obedience
Isaiah 1:11 refuses the sacrifices of people whose hands are covered with blood, and the next verses name the cure.
“What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.Read alone, the verse sounds as if God refuses the blood of the altar itself.
Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil! Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.”The cure Isaiah gives is justice and mercy, and he leaves the altar standing.
Isaiah 1:15 names the charge: the hands that bring the offerings are covered with blood. God refuses sacrifices offered as a substitute for justice and mercy, and He holds the worshipper to the meaning Leviticus 17:11 gave the blood.
Albert Barnes on the offering of the heartAlbert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on Isaiah 1:11
Albert Barnes reads the verse as God's answer to a people who pointed to their many sacrifices, and he says none of them would be accepted without the offering of the heart.
Ambrose on the sacrifice God does not needAmbrose of Milan, Interrogation of Job and David 4.9.33
Ambrose hears God say that He is full of His own sacrifice and does not seek the people's.
“By saying that he does not delight in the sacrifices of the people, God is saying this: I abound in my own [sacrifice], I do not seek yours, I do not desire whole burnt offerings of rams and the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls and of goats. And do not come so into my sight.”
Ambrose of Milan · Interrogation of Job and David 4.9.33 · on Isaiah 1:11Patristic
One Sacrifice for All Time
Hebrews 10 sets the daily sacrifices of the old priests beside the one sacrifice of Christ.
Day after day every priest stands to minister and to offer again and again the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.The verse names the daily round of the old priesthood, and the next verse answers it.
But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.Where the old priests stand, this Priest sits down, because His offering is complete.
because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.Hebrews reads the yearly Day of Atonement of Leviticus 16:30 by its own logic: a sacrifice repeated every year has not finished its work.
The ruling of Leviticus 17:11 holds in both covenants, and blood is the price of a life in each. What changes is the blood: an animal's, offered again every year, gives way to the blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or spot in Peter's words, offered once.
John Wesley reads Hebrews 9:22 as pointing to the blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin.
What the Text Leaves Unsaid
Scripture leaves two questions about the blood open.
Leviticus 17:11 says that God gave the blood for atonement, and it gives no further account of how the blood atones beyond the life that is in it.
Genesis 3:21 says that God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and it names no altar, no sacrifice and no blood.
The Accuser Answered
Revelation 12:11 joins the blood of the Lamb to the word of the saints' testimony.
They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives so as to shy away from death.The canon's last word on the blood is a victory over the accuser, won by a blood already shed.
to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.Hebrews joins the doctrine back to Genesis 4:10 and the first blood shed.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown say that without the blood the accuser's charges would have no answer.
“Had that blood not been shed, Satan's accusations would have been unanswerable; as it is, that blood meets every charge. SCHOTTGEN mentions the Rabbinical tradition that Satan accuses men all days of the year, except the day of atonement.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible · on Revelation 12:11Reformed
Derek Prince, in his teaching The Climax of the Conflict, reads Revelation 12:11 by the Passover. The hyssop applied the blood to the doorframes in Egypt, and he says the believer's spoken testimony to what the blood of Jesus does applies it now.
How the Blood Has Been Taught
Three teachers, from the sixth century to the nineteenth, on the Passover blood and the blood of Abel.
died 550 · Oecumenius
The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews
The quotation1 quotation, 1 paragraph
Oecumenius sets the blood of Abel, which cries against the murderer, beside the blood of Christ, which speaks for us to the Father.
“For the blood of Abel cries out against the murderer. But that of Christ speaks for us to the Father. Therefore, it is said, ‘that speaks better than the blood of Abel.’”
Oecumenius · The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews · on Hebrews 12:24Patristic
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
The quotation1 quotation, 1 paragraph
Henry applies Genesis 4:10 to the death of every martyr.
“The patient sufferers cried for pardon ( Father, forgive them ), but their blood cries for vengeance. Though they hold their peace, their blood has a loud and constant cry, to which the ear of the righteous God is always open.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Genesis 4:10Puritan
Adam ClarkeNineteenth century
Clarke reads the blood of the Passover as the sign to the destroyer that the house stood under God's protection.
Readings of Genesis on the Blood
Readers differ on what Hebrews 12:24 sets beside Abel and on whether Genesis 3:21 records a sacrifice.
Abel's own blood, which cried for justiceOecumenius, Catena on Hebrews; Matthew Henry on Genesis 4:10 · Early and Protestant commentary
Abel's offering, made by faithJamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, on Hebrews 12:24 · Protestant commentary
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the comparison as one between Christ's sacrifice and the offering Abel brought by faith, and they cite Hebrews 11:4.
The objection is the wording of the verse, which speaks of the blood of Abel, and Genesis 4:10 is the text where Abel's blood speaks.
The garments of skin came from a sacrificeJohn Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Adam Clarke, Commentary on Genesis 3:21 · Protestant commentary
Wesley and Clarke hold that the animals whose skins clothed Adam and Eve were slain as a sacrifice, so that the first death in the Bible pointed to the death of Christ.
“The beasts whose skins they were, must be slain; slain before their eyes to shew them what death is. And probably 'tis supposed they were slain for sacrifice, to typify the great sacrifice which in the latter end of the world should be offered once for all. Thus the first thing that died was a sacrifice, or Christ in a figure.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament · on Genesis 3:21Evangelical
The objection is the silence of the verse, which names garments and no altar or blood, and it was raised in the fourth century by Ephrem the Syrian.
The garments of skin have no stated sourceEphrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 2.33.1 · Syriac church
Ephrem asked whether the garments were the skins of animals, or whether God created them as He created the thorns and thistles after the other works of creation.
The objection is Clarke's: Cain and Abel brought offerings in the next chapter, and he holds that God must already have taught the first family to sacrifice.
Books to Read Next
Two works on the blood and the types, each free to read online.
Commentary on the Whole Bible, volume 1
Matthew Henry · 1710
Henry reads Genesis 4, Genesis 9, Exodus 12 and Leviticus 17 verse by verse.
Read at the Christian Classics Ethereal LibraryThe Typology of Scripture, viewed in connection with the entire scheme of the divine dispensations
Patrick Fairbairn · 1859
Fairbairn reads the persons and rites of the Old Testament as types, set in the whole order of God's dealings, as his title says.
Read at the Internet ArchiveThe Blood That Speaks Better
The Bible's first blood cried out against a murderer, and its last blood answers every charge of the accuser.
Peter asks the reader to live in reverent fear during this life, and Hebrews asks the reader not to refuse Him who speaks.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- Strong's lexicon entries, with their occurrence counts.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Leviticus 17:11.
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Leviticus 17:11.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Leviticus 17:11.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, on Exodus 12:13.
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on Isaiah 1:11.
- Ambrose of Milan, Interrogation of Job and David 4.9.33, on Isaiah 1:11.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755, on Hebrews 9:22.
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Revelation 12:11.
- Derek Prince, The Climax of the Conflict, a teaching of Derek Prince Ministries, on Revelation 12:11.
- Oecumenius, the Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews, on Hebrews 12:24.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 4:10.
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Hebrews 12:24.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Genesis 3:21.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, on Genesis 3:21.
- Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 2.33.1, on Genesis 3:21.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, volume 1.
- Patrick Fairbairn, The Typology of Scripture, viewed in connection with the entire scheme of the divine dispensations, 1859.
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