– The Jews could not eat meat with blood because, according to the Law, the soul of the animal was there:
Gen 9:4 : Only you shall not eat flesh with its soul, with its blood.
Leviticus 7:26 : Wherever you live, you shall not eat the blood of birds or animals.
Lev 17,11.13-14 : For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and that blood I have given you for the altar.
Deut 12:16 , 23 : You shall only abstain from blood, which you shall sprinkle on the earth like water.
Deut 15:22 : Only you shall not drink up the blood, which you shall pour out on the ground like water.
1Sm 14,32-33 : He took the sheep, the oxen and the calves, which he slaughtered […], eating the flesh together with the blood.
Acts 15:20 , 29 : Abstain from meat offered to idols, from uncleanness, from suffocated meat and from blood.
– Therefore, whoever spilled human blood would also have his blood spilled:
Gen 4:10 : The Lord said to him: “What have you done! Behold, the voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.”
Gen 9,5-6 : I will demand an account for your blood […] and from the man (who kills) his brother, I will demand an account for the man’s soul.
Ex 20,13 : Thou shalt not kill.
Deut 5,17-18 : Thou shalt not kill.
Judg 9:24 : His blood fell on Abimelech, his brother, who had killed them, and on the Shechemites.
2Sm 21,1 : There is blood on Saul and on his family, because he killed the Gibaonites.
1Kings 2:32 : The Lord will bring this blood on his own head, because he killed, he smote with the sword.
Ez 35,6 : I will hand you over to blood, and blood will pursue you; inasmuch as you are not horrified to shed blood.
Rom 14:9: For this reason Christ died and came back to life, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Jas 2:11 : For he who said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, said also, Thou shalt not murder.
Rev 16:6: Because they shed the blood of saints and prophets, you also gave them blood to drink.
– Once a year, the blood of the victim was sprinkled on the people to atone for their sins:
Ex 30:10 : Once a year, Aaron will make atonement on the horns of the altar. With the blood of the victim for sin.
Leviticus 3:17 : This is a perpetual law for your descendants wherever you live: You shall not eat fat or blood.
Leviticus 16:2-29 : He will take the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat.
Heb 9,7.21 : Taking with him the blood to offer for his own sins and those of the people.
– It is also used in the consecration of priests, in the ritual of sacrifices and in alliances:
Ex 24,8 : Moses took the blood to sprinkle the people with it: “Behold”, he said, “the blood of the covenant”.
Ex 29,20-21 : Thou shalt slay and take some of its blood to anoint it on the extremity of Aaron’s right ear.
Leviticus 1:5.11 : The priests, sons of Aaron, will offer the blood and pour it around on the altar.
Lev 8,23-24.30 : Moses sacrificed it, took its blood and put it on the tip of Aaron’s right ear.
Leviticus 9:12 : His sons presented him with the blood, which he poured out on the altar all around.
Ps 49 :5 : Gathered my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me through sacrifice.
Ez 43:20 : You shall take some of its blood to put it on the four horns of the altar.
Zec 9,11 : As for you, because of your blood covenant, I will free your captives from the waterless pit.
Heb 9:18-22 : For this reason, not even the first testament was inaugurated without an effusion of blood.
– In the NT, the blood of innocent Christ ratifies the new covenant:
Mt 27,4.24-25 : I have sinned by giving up the blood of a righteous man.
Lc 22,30 : That you may eat and drink at my table […] and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
1Cor 11:25 : This cup is the New Covenant in my blood; as often as you drink it, do it in remembrance of me.
Heb 9:14 : How much more the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself a spotless victim to God?
1Pt 1:19 : The Lamb without blemish and without blemish, who was predestined before the creation of the world.
1Jn 3 :5 : You know that he (Jesus) appeared to take away sins, and that in him there is no sin.
– Forgives the sins of men, justifies and redeems them:
Mt 26:28 : Because this is my blood, the blood of the New Covenant, shed for many men in remission of sins.
Rom 5:9: So much more now that we are justified by his blood.
Eph 1 :7 : In that Son, through his blood, we have Redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Acts 20:28 : The Holy Spirit has made you bishops […], which he purchased with his own blood.
– It is by eating the body of Christ and drinking his blood that we celebrate his sacrifice, unique and unbloody, as atonement for sins:
Mt 26,28-29 : Because this is my blood, the blood of the New Covenant, shed for many men in remission of sins.
1Cor 10,16-17 : The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ?
1Cor 11,25.28 : This cup is the New Covenant in my blood; as often as you drink it, do it in remembrance of me.
Heb 9:1–10 :18 : For this reason, not even the first testament was inaugurated without an effusion of blood.
