The earliest implied reference to blood in the Bible text, is the
record of Abel’s sacrifice. “And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain
was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass that
Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And
Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat
thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but
unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.”[425] An inspired
comment on this incident is: “By faith Abel offered unto God a more
excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne to
him that he was righteous, God bearing witness in respect of [or, over]
his gifts: and through it he [Abel] being dead yet speaketh.”[426]
Now, on the face of it, in the light of all that we know of primitive
customs in this matter of the blood-covenant, and apart from any added
teachings in the Bible concerning the nature and meanings of different
sacrifices, this narrative shows Abel, lovingly and trustfully reaching
out toward God with substitute blood, in order to be in covenant
oneness with God; while Cain merely proffers a gift from his earthly
possessions. Abel so trusts God, that he gives _himself_ to him. Cain
defers to God sufficiently to make a _present_ to him. The one shows
unbounded faith; the other shows a measure of affectionate reverence.
It is the same practical difference as that which distinguished
Ruth from Orpah, when the testing time of their love for their
mother-in-law, Naomi, had come to them alike. “And Orpah kissed her
mother-in-law; but Ruth clave unto her.”[427] No wonder that God
counted Abel’s unstinted proffer of himself, in faith, an acceptable
sacrifice, and received it, as in inter-communion on the basis of
inter-union; while Cain’s paltry gift, without any proffer of himself,
won no approval from the Lord.
Then there followed the unhallowed shedding of Abel’s blood by Cain,
and the crying out, as it were, of the spilled life of Abel unto its
Divine Author.[428] “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me
from the ground,” said the Lord, to the guilty spiller of blood. “And
now cursed art thou from the ground, which hath opened her mouth to
receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand.” Here, as elsewhere, the
blood is preeminently the life; and even when poured out on the earth,
the blood does not lose its vitality. It still has its intelligent
relations to its Author and Guardian;[429] as the world has been
accustomed to count a possibility, down to modern times.[430]
After the destruction of mankind by the deluge, when God would begin
anew, as it were, by the revivifying of the world, through the vestige
of blood--of life--preserved in the ark,[431] he laid new emphasis on
the sacredness of blood, as the representative of that life which
is the essence of God himself. Noah’s first act, on coming out from
the ark, was to proffer himself and all living flesh, in a fresh
blood-covenant with the Lord. “And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord;
and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered
burnt offerings on the altar.”[432] From all that we know of the method
of the burnt-offering, either from the Bible-text or from outside
sources, it has, from the beginning, included the preliminary offering
of the blood--as the life--to Deity, by its outpouring, around, or
upon, the altar, with or without the accompaniment of libations of
wine; or, again, by its sprinkling upon the altar.[433]
It was then, when the spirit of Noah, in this covenant-seeking by
blood, was recognized approvingly by the Lord, that the Lord smelled
the sweet savor of the proffered offering,--“the savor of satisfaction,
or delectation,”[434] to him, was in it,--and he established a
new covenant with Noah, giving commandment anew concerning the
never-failing sacredness of blood: “Every moving thing that liveth
shall be food for you; as [freely as] the green herb, have I given you
all [flesh]. But flesh with the _life_ thereof, which is the _blood_
thereof [flesh with the blood in it], shall ye not eat. And surely
your blood, the blood of your lives, will I require; at the hand of
every beast will I require it: and at the hand of man, even at the
hand of every man’s brother, will I require the life of man. Whoso
sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image
of God made he man.”[435] Here, the blood of even those animals whose
flesh might be eaten by man, is forbidden for food: because it is
life itself, and therefore sacred to the Author of life.[436] And the
blood of man must not be shed by man,--except where man is made God’s
minister of justice,--because man is formed in the image of God, and
only God has a right to take away--directly or by his minister--the
life, from one bearing God’s likeness.
And this injunction, together with this covenant, preceded the
ceremonial law of Moses; and it survived that law, as well. When the
question came up in the apostolic conference at Jerusalem, on the
occasion of the visit of Paul and Barnabas, concerning the duty of
Gentile Christians to the Mosaic ceremonial law, the decision was
explicit, that while nothing which was of that ritual alone should be
imposed as obligatory on the new believers, those essential elements
of religious observance which were prior to Moses, and which were not
done away with in Christ, should be emphasized in all the extending
domain of Christianity. Spirituality in worship, personal purity, and
the holding sacred to God, all blood--or life--as the gift of God,
and as the means of communion with God, must never be ignored in the
realm of Christian duty. “Write unto them, that they abstain from the
pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from what is strangled,
and from blood,”[437] said the Apostle James, in announcing the
decision of this conference; and the circular letter to the Gentile
churches was framed accordingly. Nor does this commandment seem ever to
have been abrogated, in letter or in spirit. However poorly observed
by Christians, it stands to-day as it stood in the days of Paul, and
in the days of Noah, a perpetual obligation, with all its manifold
teachings of the blessed benefits of the covenant of blood.[438]