Leviticuschapter 17
16 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Leviticus Overview.
Moses gave this law to the whole nation and to the foreigners living among them, which widens the audience from the priests to everyone. It opens the second half of Leviticus, where the concern moves from the sanctuary to the holiness of daily life. The first hearers had been killing animals in the open field as their neighbours did. Listen for where an animal must be brought and for the reason the chapter gives about blood. That reason is the one place the Law explains how its sacrifices atone, and the New Testament builds on it.
Context
- Who
- Aaron, his sons and all the Israelites together, including the foreigners living among them, who are bound by name five times in sixteen verses
- What
- A law that every sacrificial slaughter be brought to the Tent of Meeting and that no one eat blood.
- Where
- The camp at Sinai, the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and the open country around the camp.
- When
- The second year after the Exodus, about 1445 BC on the traditional dating.
- Why
- To end sacrifice to the goat demons in the open field and to reserve the blood, which carries life, for atonement at the altar.
Historical context
The instruction is given to Moses and spoken to the whole nation rather than to the priesthood alone, which is the change that opens the second half of the book.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
Israel is camped around one tent, so the entrance to the Tent of Meeting is within reach of every household, and a rule requiring every ox, lamb and goat to be brought there is workable in a way it would stop being once the nation spread across a land. Deuteronomy 12:15 and 12:20 to 24 later allow slaughter for food far from the sanctuary.
A first hearer knew what verse 7 was forbidding, because he had lived beside it. The Hebrew word is se'irim, hairy ones or goats, and Adam Clarke ties the practice to the goat worship Israel had known in Egypt. The law is written to stop something the camp was already doing.
He also knew that the language of verse 4, that blood will be imputed to that man, was the language Genesis 9:6 uses of murder, so killing an animal privately was being charged as a crime against God rather than as a lapse in procedure.
The prohibition on eating blood was older than Sinai. Genesis 9:4 had withheld blood from Noah before there was an altar or a priesthood, and this chapter is where that restriction is finally explained.
The hunter's case at verse 13 was the ordinary one for a man who caught game that could not be brought to an altar. He poured the blood out and covered it with earth, and a first hearer understood that as burying it where it fell.
Significance
Verse 5 turned every animal killed for meat into a peace offering, which put a priest and an altar inside the family meal and made the sanctuary part of ordinary eating.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
Verse 11 gave the nation the reason behind sixteen chapters of blood applied to altars: the life of the flesh is in the blood, and God has given it on the altar to make atonement. Nothing else in Leviticus explains the system so directly.
The chapter also settled who the law reached. A foreigner living in the camp was held to the door of the tabernacle and to the blood, whatever else of Israel's law fell to him, which is the same terms Leviticus 16:29 had already set for the Day of Atonement.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
This chapter opens the part of the book that speaks to the whole nation rather than chiefly to the priests, which this site's Leviticus book page calls the Holiness Code and dates from chapter 17 to chapter 27. The classical commentators read it as two laws held together, where an animal may be killed and what may be done with its blood.
Sforno ties the opening to the chapter before it and takes the whole passage as a warning about worship given to what is not God: the earlier caution about uncleanness, he writes, meant "the warning implied that they were to separate themselves from spiritually negative influences represented both by ritual contamination and by demons" (Sforno on Leviticus 17:2:1, the Eliyahu Munk translation HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY). Rashi reads the same danger at the seventh verse, where he takes the word the chapter uses for the objects of the old sacrifices to mean demons and points to Isaiah 13:21 for the usage (Rashi on Leviticus 17:7:1, the Rosenbaum and Silbermann Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary, 1929 to 1934, public domain, citing Sifra, Acharei Mot, Chapter 9 8).
On the slaughter rule Rashi holds that the animal in view is a consecrated one and the offence is killing it away from the forecourt (Rashi on Leviticus 17:3:1 and 17:3:2, citing Sifra, Acharei Mot, Section 6 3 and 5, and Zevachim 106a and 107b). He measures the offence at its full weight: the man who does it stands "As though he had shed the blood of a human being, who is guilty of a deadly sin." (Rashi on Leviticus 17:4:1). The penalty of being cut off he reads as reaching both the line and the lifetime, "his offspring are cut off (die out) and his own life-time (lit., his days) is shortened" (Rashi on Leviticus 17:9:1). Where God says he will set his face against the man who eats blood, Rashi reads the word for face as leisure, so that God turns "from all My affairs and concern Myself only with him" (Rashi on Leviticus 17:10:2, citing Sifra, Acharei Mot, Section 7 4 and the Targum Jonathan).
The eleventh verse is the verse a Christian reader comes to this chapter for, and Rashi's comment on it is the classical Jewish reading of why blood makes atonement. He takes the life of every creature to hang on its blood, "and it is for this reason that I have placed it [on the altar] to make expiation for the life of man: let life come and expiate for life!" (Rashi on Leviticus 17:11:1). The principle is the same one the New Testament states at Hebrews 9:22, and the parting is over what has since been offered rather than over the principle, which is the question this site's Leviticus book page already carries under how a Christian reads the book now. Rashi adds that the ban on eating blood binds parents to keep it from their children, since the text is stated a second time "to admonish the adults about their young children" (Rashi on Leviticus 17:12:1, citing Sifra, Acharei Mot, Section 7 6 and Yevamot 114a), and he takes the command to cover the blood of a hunted beast as binding on penned birds too, the word hunting being used "to teach that one should not eat meat except after such toilsome preparation" (Rashi on Leviticus 17:13:1, citing Sifra, Acharei Mot, Chapter 11 2 and Chullin 84a). Ibn Ezra comments at 17:2, 17:5 and 17:7 and Malbim at the first, sixth, eighth and ninth verses, and the corpus holds no English version of any of them under a licence permitting quotation, so they stand here as citations.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, and every one of them is a locator without text, so this site cites where the rabbis took the chapter up rather than what they said there. The tractate that returns most often by far is Chullin, the tractate of slaughtering, at 74b:9, 85a:10, 85a:19, 86b:10, 87a:3, 87b:9, 117a:10, 117a:11, 120a:22 and 120a:23, which is ten of the forty. Avodah Zarah, the tractate of foreign worship, follows at 51a:22, 51b:1, 51b:2, 51b:5, 51b:6 and 51b:7, and after it Bava Batra 120a:11 and 120b:3, Menachot 26a:9 and 26a:11, Sanhedrin 34b:5 and Horayot 11a:20. The Jerusalem Talmud is taken up at Megillah 3:6:1, Nazir 4:6:6, Pesachim 7:5:7, Avodah Zarah 5:12:1 and Maaser Sheni 2:1:2. The midrashic locators are Sifra, Acharei Mot, Chapter 9 5 and Chapter 10 10, Bamidbar Rabbah 9:15, 14:1 and 17:5, Midrash Lekach Tov at Leviticus 17:1, 17:5, 17:8, 17:9 and 17:16, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayera 35, Ein Yaakov, Zevakhim 14:5, and Otzar Midrashim, Sefer Tagin 18:31. Rashi himself hands on locators as he goes, and the ones he names in the kept text of this chapter are Sifra, Acharei Mot at Sections 6 and 7 and Chapters 9 to 12, and the Babylonian Talmud at Zevachim 69b, 106a, 107a and 107b, Sanhedrin 34b, Chullin 84a, Yevamot 114a and 2a, and Shabbat 25a.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Leviticus 17:3:1, 17:3:2, 17:4:1, 17:4:2, 17:5:1, 17:7:1, 17:8:1, 17:9:1, 17:10:1, 17:10:2, 17:11:1, 17:12:1, 17:13:1, 17:14:1, 17:15:1 and 17:16:1, the Rosenbaum and Silbermann Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary, public domain, 1929; Sforno, Sforno on Leviticus 17:2:1, the Eliyahu Munk translation HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Leviticus 17:2:1, 17:5:1 and 17:7:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus under a licence permitting quotation; Malbim, Malbim on Leviticus, Achrei Mot 86:1, 99:1, 101:1 and 103:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus; Sifra, Sifra, Acharei Mot, Chapter 9 5 and Chapter 10 10 as the corpus links them; Sections 6 and 7 and Chapters 9 to 12 as Rashi cites them; Targum Jonathan, the Targum Jonathan at Leviticus 17:10, as Rashi cites it at Rashi on Leviticus 17:10:2; Babylonian Talmud, Chullin 74b:9, 85a:10, 85a:19, 86b:10, 87a:3, 87b:9, 117a:10, 117a:11, 120a:22 and 120a:23; Avodah Zarah 51a:22, 51b:1, 51b:2, 51b:5, 51b:6 and 51b:7; Bava Batra 120a:11 and 120b:3; Menachot 26a:9 and 26a:11; Sanhedrin 34b:5; Horayot 11a:20; and, as Rashi cites them, Zevachim 69b, 106a, 107a and 107b, Chullin 84a, Yevamot 114a and 2a, and Shabbat 25a; Jerusalem Talmud, Megillah 3:6:1, Nazir 4:6:6, Pesachim 7:5:7, Avodah Zarah 5:12:1, Maaser Sheni 2:1:2; Midrash, Bamidbar Rabbah 9:15, 14:1 and 17:5; Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 17:1:1, 17:5:1, 17:8:1, 17:9:1 and 17:16:1; Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayera 35; Otzar Midrashim, Sefer Tagin 18:31; Ein Yaakov, Ein Yaakov, Zevakhim 14:5; MannaFest, the two audiences, the Holiness Code and the question of how a Christian reads Leviticus now, on the Leviticus book page; the link from Leviticus 17:11 to Hebrews 9:22 in src/components/featured/types-of-christ/lens21-typology.data.json, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
One altar, one door, no field sacrifices
Chapter 16 was spoken to Moses for Aaron alone, and this one to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites together. The holiness code that runs from here to chapter 26 opens by widening its audience to the whole nation. The formula "this is what the LORD has commanded" gives the rule no ground beyond the command itself, which is how most of Leviticus argues.
Leviticus 17:1
“This chapter, in its immediate bearing on the daily life of the Israelites, stands as the first of four Lev. 17–20 which set forth practical duties, directing the Israelites to walk, not in the way of the pagan, but according to the ordinances of Yahweh.”
Leviticus 17:3-4
Every ox, lamb and goat slaughtered in the camp or outside it must come to the Tent of Meeting, and the man who kills one elsewhere incurs bloodguilt. "He has shed blood" is how Genesis 9:6 speaks of murder, so the animal's life is held to belong to God. Deuteronomy 12:15 and 12:20-24 allow slaughter far from the sanctuary, which commentators read as releasing a rule fitted to one camp.
Leviticus 17:3
“Every domesticated animal that was slain for food was a sort of peace-offering Lev 17:5. This law could only be kept as long as the children of Israel dwelt in their camp in the wilderness. The restriction was removed before they settled in the holy land, where their numbers and diffusion over the country would have rendered its strict observance impossible. See Deu 12:15-16, Deu 12:20-24. Lev 17:4 Blood shall be imputed unto that man - i. e. he has incurred guilt in shedding blood in an unlawful manner. Cut off - See Exo 31:14 note.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 17:3
“That killeth-Not for common use, for such beasts might be killed by any person or in any place but for sacrifice. In the camp, or out of the camp - That is, anywhere.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
John Wesley explains the charge of bloodshed. An animal's blood was sacred to God and pictured the price by which human lives were ransomed. Matthew Henry reads the one altar forward to Christ, in whom Christian sacrifices are accepted.
Leviticus 17:4
“He hath shed blood - He shall be punished as a murderer. The reason is, because he shed that blood, which, though not man's blood, yet was precious, being sacred and appropriated to God, and typically the price by which men's lives were ransomed.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 17:5-7
Verse 7 gives the reason the two verses before it withhold: sacrifice in the open fields was going to the goat demons, the se'irim or hairy ones. Adam Clarke ties them to the goat worship Israel had lived beside in Egypt. The text calls it prostitution because the nation is held to be married to God, and verse 5 turns every animal killed for meat into a peace offering.
The blood and the fat are the two portions that go to God from every animal brought here. John Wesley says these two are named as the chief of God's parts, though others were kept for him too. John Gill points back to Leviticus 3:3 for the fat meant.
Leviticus 17:6
“And the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of the Lord,.... The altar of burnt: offering, Lev 1:5, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; near to which it stood, see Lev 1:5, and burn the fat for a sweet savour to the Lord; the fat that covered the inwards, the kidneys, the flanks and caul of the liver; see Lev 3:3.”
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown connect the goat demons with gods such as Pan, whose symbol was a goat, and place the cult in the Egyptian province of Mendes. John Wesley cites Joshua 24:14 and Ezekiel 20:7 for Israel's taste for Egypt's gods. The rule closes that door.
Leviticus 17:7
“They shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils - They shall not sacrifice לשעירים lasseirim, to the hairy ones, to goats. The famous heathen god, Pan, was represented as having the posteriors, horns, and ears of a goat; and the Mendesians, a people of Egypt, had a deity which they worshipped under this form. Herodotus says that all goats were worshipped in Egypt, but the he-goat particularly.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 17:7
“And as the Egyptians were notorious for their idolatry, so the Israelites were infected with their leaven, Josh. xxiv, 14, Ezek. xx, 7, xxiii, 2, 3. A whoring - Idolatry, especially in God's people, is commonly called whoredom, because it is a violation of that covenant by which they were peculiarly betrothed or married to God.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The same law binds the foreigner living among Israel, and this chapter says so five times in sixteen verses, at 8, 10, 12, 13 and 15. A foreigner in the camp is held to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and to the rule on blood. Leviticus 16:29 had already put him under the Day of Atonement on the same terms as the native.
Leviticus 17:8
“The strangers which sojourn - The foreigners who dwell. See Lev 16:29 note. Or sacrifice - i. e., a slaughtered offering of any kind, generally a peace-offering.”
The life of the flesh is in the blood
Leviticus 17:10-11
Verse 10 holds the chapter's only threat God carries out in the first person, "I will set My face against that person", with no court or priest between. Verse 11 is the one place in the Torah where sacrifice states its own ground: "it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul". Genesis 9:4 withheld blood from Noah, this verse explains why, and Hebrews 9:22 takes it up.
Leviticus 17:10
“The prohibition to eat blood is repeated in seven places in the Pentateuch, but in this passage two distinct grounds are given for the prohibition: first, its own nature as the vital fluid; secondly, its consecration in sacrificial worship. Lev 17:11 Rather, For the soul of the flesh is in the blood; and I have ordained it for you upon the altar, to make atonement for your souls, for the blood it is which makes atonement by means of the soul.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 17:10
“The Zabians, or worshippers of the heavenly host, were accustomed, in sacrificing animals, to pour out the blood and eat a part of the flesh at the place where the blood was poured out (and sometimes the blood itself) believing that by means of it, friendship, brotherhood, and familiarity were contracted between the worshippers and the deities.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the life of the flesh is in the blood: John Chrysostom limits the verse to animals. For the beast its blood is its life, while the human soul is incorporeal and immortal and outranks the body. John Wesley reads the atonement here as a type fulfilled in the blood of Christ.
Leviticus 17:11
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood - This sentence, which contains a most important truth, had existed in the Mosaic writings for 3600 years before the attention of any philosopher was drawn to the subject. This is the more surprising, as the nations in which philosophy flourished were those which especially enjoyed the Divine oracles in their respective languages.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 17:11
“Is in the blood - Depends upon the blood, is preserved and nourished by it. The blood maketh atonement - Typically, and in respect of the blood of Christ which it represented, by which the atonement is really made.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
ConnectionsHebrews 9:22
Leviticus 17:12-14
The prohibition is stated three times in five verses, at 10, 12 and 14, which is how Leviticus marks weight. Verse 13 covers the hunter, whose game cannot go on the altar, so he must drain its blood and cover it with dirt. The Mishnah gives that act its own law in tractate Chullin, and Acts 15:20 and 15:29 carry the blood rule into the church's first council.
Leviticus 17:12
“Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, no soul of you shall eat blood,.... Great or small as Jarchi observes, for the reason above given; which, though not expressed before, was the true reason of this law, which had been given before, and now repeated; see Lev 3:17, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood; any proselyte of righteousness; this is not observed before.”
Matthew Henry reports that Jewish practice attached a blessing to the covering. The one who covered the blood blessed God for sanctifying Israel by his precepts and commanding them to cover blood. A field kill received a small act of reverence.
Adam Clarke adds reasons of health to the moral one the verse gives. He says blood spoils quickly in hot climates and is hard to digest. The verse itself rests the rule on life alone.
Leviticus 17:14
“Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh - Independently of the moral reasons given above, we may add, 1. That blood, being highly alkalescent, especially in hot climates, is subject to speedy putrefaction. 2. That it affords a gross nutriment, being very difficult of digestion, so much so that bull’s blood was used in ancient times as poison, “Its extreme viscidity rendering it totally indigestible by the powers of the human stomach.” 3. It is allowed that when blood was used in this country in great quantities, the scurvy was more frequent than at other times.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Eating what died of itself
Leviticus 17:15-16
The chapter closes with its lightest penalty: an animal found dead or mauled still holds its blood, so eating it means washing, bathing, and uncleanness until evening. The man who refuses the washing "shall bear his iniquity", the heavier sentence. Acts 15:20 sets things strangled beside blood in one clause, which is this case, and Ezekiel 44:31 lays the same rule on the priests by name.
Leviticus 17:15
“And every soul that eateth that which died of itself,.... Through any disease upon it, or by means of any other creature seizing upon it and worrying it, or was not lawfully killed; if a man ate ever so little of it, even but the quantity of an olive, it was a breach of this law; which is connected with the preceding, there being a similarity between them, because such creatures must have their blood in them, not being regularly let out, and so eating of them would offend against the above law.”
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 17:15
“This law appears to be grounded on the fact that the body of an animal killed by a wild beast, or which has died of itself, still retains a great portion of its blood. The importance ascribed to this law in later times may be seen in 1Sa 14:32-35; Eze 4:14; Eze 44:31, and still more in the apostolic decision regarding “things strangled,” which are pointedly connected with blood Act 15:20.”
Leviticus 17:15
“That eateth - Through ignorance or inadvertency; for if it was done knowingly, it was more severely punished. A stranger - Who is a proselyte to the Jewish religion: other strangers were allowed to eat such things, Deut. xiv, 21, out of which the blood was either not drawn at all, or not regularly.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
he shall bear his iniquity: Matthew Henry separates two kinds of fault. The uncleanness from the carcass was ceremonial, and refusing the prescribed washing became moral guilt. John Gill reports the reading of Jarchi, cutting off for an unwashed body and a beating for unwashed clothes.
Leviticus 17:16
“But if he wash them not,.... Neither wash his clothes: nor bathe his flesh; if he is negligent, and does not take care to make use of these ablutions: then he shall bear his iniquity; his guilt shall remain on him, and he shall suffer the punishment the law exposes him to, either by the hand of God, or the civil magistrate, which is due to persons that enter into the sanctuary in their uncleanness, or eat of holy things. For not washing his body the punishment was cutting off, and for not washing his garments, beating, as Jarchi says.”
How this psalm is built
The form: Covenant instruction addressed to the whole nation, opening the section commonly called the Holiness Code, as Wenham classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The audience widened | Chapter 16 was spoken to Moses for Aaron alone. This chapter is spoken to Aaron, to his sons and to all the Israelites together, so the Holiness Code opens by widening its audience, and what follows is laid on the whole nation rather than on the priesthood only.Andrew Bonar, A Commentary on Leviticus, 1846, on Leviticus 17:1 to 2. | Leviticus 17:2, Leviticus 16:2 |
| You must not eat blood, said three times | The prohibition stands at verses 10, 12 and 14, which is how Leviticus marks weight. Verse 10 carries the only threat in the chapter that God executes in the first person, with no court and no priest in between, and verse 11 gives the reason between the first two statements of the rule.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Leviticus 17:12. | Leviticus 17:10, Leviticus 17:12, Leviticus 17:14 |
| And for the foreigner among you | The chapter binds the foreigner living among Israel five times in sixteen verses, at verses 8, 10, 12, 13 and 15. Leviticus 16:29 had already put him under the Day of Atonement on the same terms as the native born, so the two chapters agree on who the law reaches.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Leviticus 17:8. | Leviticus 17:8, Leviticus 17:10, Leviticus 17:12, Leviticus 17:13, Leviticus 17:15 |
| The life is in the blood | Verse 11 turns on one word used three times in a single sentence. The life of the flesh is in the blood, God has given the blood on the altar to make atonement for your souls, and it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. The word blood stands eleven times in sixteen verses, counted over the Berean text in the store.Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews, 1886, on Leviticus 17:11. | Leviticus 17:11, Leviticus 17:14 |
The chapter is the seam of the book. This site's Leviticus dossier carries the concentric partition as proposed under Gordon Wenham's name, and 17:1 answers 11:1 to 15:33 across the centre: the purity section instructed the priesthood on clean and unclean, and the Holiness Code lays holiness on the nation. Verse 11 also answers the question the first seven chapters raised but never explained, which is why blood does what it does on an altar.
14 more paragraphs on the patterns
Genesis 9:4 had withheld blood from Noah before there was an altar or a priesthood, and this verse is where that restriction is finally explained. The reach is therefore wider than Israel, which is one reason the rule survives the change of covenant in Acts 15.
The historical value
The Hebrew word at verse 7 is se'irim, hairy ones or goats, which Adam Clarke ties to the goat worship Israel had lived beside in Egypt. The verse is evidence that open-field sacrifice to other powers was a live practice in the camp rather than a hypothetical, since the law is written to stop something.
The covering of the hunter's blood at verse 13 became its own body of Jewish law. The Mishnah, compiled around 200 AD, gives the act a name and a discussion in tractate Chullin, kisui ha-dam, the covering of the blood, and kosher slaughter keeps it now.
Deuteronomy 12:15 and 12:20 to 24 later allow slaughter for food far from the sanctuary, which named commentators read as the release of a rule fitted to a nation camped around one tent. The two passages are the clearest case in the Torah of a law stated for one setting and relaxed for another.
The New Testament's use
Hebrews 9:22 takes verse 11 up as the principle that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness, which is the New Testament's most direct use of any verse in Leviticus. Acts 15:20 and 15:29 carry the blood rule into the church's first council, and set things strangled beside blood in one clause, which is the case of verses 15 and 16. This is worth saying plainly, because a reader assumes every Levitical rule stopped at the cross and the Jerusalem council did not treat this one that way.
The debated point
What the apostles meant by keeping the blood rule at Acts 15 is argued. One position reads the four abstentions as temporary concessions for the sake of table fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers in mixed congregations, which would make them local and occasional. A second reads them as standing requirements grounded in a law older than Sinai, pointing to Genesis 9:4 as the source and noting that the council gives no time limit. A third reads them as a summary of the laws Leviticus 17 and 18 lay on the foreigner living among Israel, which would explain why these four and no others were chosen.
The strongest evidence for the third reading is the run of chapters themselves, since the foreigner is bound five times in this chapter and again in chapter 18, and the council's four items track them closely. The strongest objection to the first reading is that the council states a ground rather than a duration. The strongest objection to the second is that the New Testament nowhere returns to enforce the rule.
The second debated point
Whether verses 3 and 4 forbid all slaughter for food or only sacrificial slaughter is argued. Adam Clarke and others read the rule as covering every ox, lamb and goat killed for any purpose while the nation is camped around the tent, and read Deuteronomy 12 as the relaxation once Israel is spread across a land. Others read the chapter as addressing sacrificial killing only, on the ground that verse 5 speaks of what they sacrifice in the open field. The strongest evidence for the first reading is that verse 4 charges the offender with bloodshed in the language Genesis 9:6 uses of murder, which suits a rule about taking life rather than about liturgy.
Where to go deeper
The blood the chapter is built on is set out at the blood, and the altar it must come to at the altar. The council that carried the rule forward is set out at the Jerusalem council. The section the chapter opens belongs to the owed page on the Holiness Code.
Keep studying
Studies6
Words12
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1831, on Leviticus 17:3, read with Deuteronomy 12:15 and 12:20 to 24; Andrew Bonar, A Commentary on Leviticus, 1846, on Leviticus 17:10 to 11 and Gordon Wenham, The Book of Leviticus, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 1979, the partition this site's Leviticus dossier carries as proposed under his name, which runs the Holiness Code from 17:1 to 20:27.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Andrew Bonar, A Commentary on Leviticus; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13:10; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews.