Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 17:11
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.
11. The reason for avoiding blood is given.
the life your souls the life ] The Heb. word nphesh is the same in the three cases.
it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life ] i.e. the life which it contains, not as A.V. ‘maketh atonement for the soul.’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 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. That the blood actually possesses a living principle, and that the life of the whole body is derived from it, is a doctrine of Divine revelation, and a doctrine which the observations and experiments of the most accurate anatomists have served strongly to confirm. The proper circulation of this important fluid through the whole human system was first taught by Solomon in figurative language, Ec 12:6; and discovered, as it is called, and demonstrated, by Dr. Harvey in 1628; though some Italian philosophers had the same notion a little before. This accurate anatomist was the first who fully revived the Mosaic notion of the vitality of the blood; which notion was afterward adopted by the justly celebrated Dr. John Hunter, professor of anatomy in London, and fully established by him by a great variety of strong reasoning and accurate experiments. To support this opinion Dr. Hunter proves: –
1. That the blood unites living parts in some circumstances as certainly as the yet recent juices of the branch of one tree unite with that of another; and he thinks that if either of these fluids were dead matter, they would act as stimuli, and no union would take place in the animal or vegetable kingdom; and he shows that in the nature of things there is not a more intimate connection between life and a solid than between life and a fluid.
2. He shows that the blood becomes vascular, like other living parts of the body; and he demonstrated this by a preparation in which vessels were clearly seen to arise from what had been a coagulum of blood; for those vessels opened into the stream of the circulating blood, which was in contiguity with this coagulated mass.
3. He proves that if blood be taken from the arm in the most intense cold that the human body can suffer, it will raise the thermometer to the same height as blood taken in the most sultry heat. This is a very powerful argument for the vitality of the blood, as it is well known that living bodies alone have the power of resisting great degrees of heat and cold, and of maintaining in almost every situation while in health that temperature which we distinguish by the name of animal heat.
4. He proves that blood is capable of being acted upon by a stimulus, as it coagulates on exposure to the air, as certainly as the cavities of the abdomen and thorax become inflamed from the same cause. The more the blood is alive, i. e., the more the animal is in health, the sooner the blood coagulates on exposure; and the more it has lost of the living principle, as in cases of violent inflammation, the less sensible it is to the stimulus produced by being exposed, and coagulates more slowly.
5. He proves that the blood preserves life in different parts of the body. When the nerves going to any part are tied or cut, the part becomes paralytic, and loses all power of motion, but it does not mortify. But let the artery be cut, and then the part dies and mortification ensues. It must therefore be the vital principle of the blood that keeps the part alive; nor does it appear that this fact can be accounted for on any other principle.
6. He thinks this vitality farther proved from the case of a person who was brought to St. George’s hospital for a simple fracture of the os humeri, and who died about a month after. As the bones had not united, he injected the arm, and thus found that the coagulated blood which filled the cavity between the extremities of the fractured bones was become vascular, and in some places very much so, which vessels, had it been dead matter, it never could have produced.
This system has been opposed, and arguments have been adduced to prove that the principle of vitality exists not in the blood but in the nervous system. But every argument on this ground appears to be done away by the simple consideration that the whole nervous system, as well as every other part of the body, is originally derived from the blood; for is it not from the blood of the mother that the fetus has its being and nourishment in the womb? Do not all the nerves, as well as the brain, c., originate from that alone? And if it be not vital can it give the principle of vitality to something else, which then exclusively (though the effect of a cause) becomes the principle of vitality to all the solids and fluids of the body? This seems absurd. That the human being proceeded originally from the blood admits of no doubt and it is natural and reasonable to suppose that as it was the cause under God which generated all the other parts of the body, so it still continues to be the principle of life, and by it alone all the wastes of the system are repaired. Two points relative to this subject are strongly asserted in Divine revelation, one by MOSES, the other by ST. PAUL.
1. Moses says, The LIFE of the flesh is in the BLOOD, Le 17:11. This has been proved by the most indisputable facts.
2. St. Paul says, God hath made of ONE BLOOD all nations of men, Ac 17:26. And this is demonstrated, not only from there being only one pair from whom all the nations of men have been derived, but also from the fact that every human being, from the first-born of Eve to the present hour, has been formed out of and supported by the mother’s blood; and that from the agency of this fluid the human body, after being born into the world, has its increment and support.
The reason given by God for the law against eating blood is perfectly conclusive: I will set my face against that soul that eateth blood – for the LIFE ( nephesh) of the flesh is in the BLOOD, and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls ( naphshotheychem, your LIVES:) for it is the blood (because it is the LIFE, nephesh) that maketh an atonement for the soul ( bannephesh, for the life; for the word is the same in all these cases.) By transgression a man forfeits his LIFE to Divine justice, and he must die, did not mercy provide him a substitute. The life of a beast is appointed and accepted by God as a substitute for the sinner’s life (in reference to the life of Christ, which was to be given for the life of the world😉 but as this life is in the BLOOD, and as the blood is the grand principle of vitality, therefore the blood is to be poured out upon the altar: and thus the life of the beast becomes a substitute for the life of the man.
And it is well worthy of being remarked, that Christ not only died for sinners, but our redemption is everywhere attributed to his BLOOD, and the shedding of that blood; and that on the altar of the cross, this might make an atonement for the lives and souls of men, he not only bowed his head, and gave up the ghost, but his side was opened, the pericardium and the heart evidently pierced, that the vital fluid might be poured out from the very seat of life, and that thus the blood, which is the life, should be poured out to make an atonement for the life of the soul.
The doctrine of Moses and Paul proves the truth of the doctrine of Harvey and Hunter; and the reasonings and experiments of Harvey and Hunter illustrate and confirm the doctrine of Moses and Paul. – Here then is a farther proof of the truth and authority of Divine revelation. See Clarke on Ge 9:4; Dr. J. Corrie’s Essay on the Vitality of the Blood; and the article Blood, in the Encyclopaedias.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Of the flesh, i.e. of living creatures.
Is in the blood, i.e. it depends upon the blood, is preserved and nourished by it, and is extinguished when the blood is gone. And this law was given to the Jews, and hard-hearted people, as they are oft said to be, that by this restraint from the blood of brute creatures they might be wrought to the greater abhorrency of taking away the life of a man.
It is the blood that maketh an atonement; typically, and in respect of the blood of Christ, which it represented, by which the atonement is really made, Heb 9:12. So the reason is double:
1. Because this was the eating up of the price or ransom of their own lives, which in construction was the destroying of themselves.
2. Because this was ingratitude and irreverence towards that sacred blood of Christ which they ought to have in continual veneration.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. the life of the flesh is in theblood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonementfor your soulsGod, as the sovereign author and proprietor ofnature, reserved the blood to Himself and allowed men only one use ofitin the way of sacrifices.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For the life of the flesh [is] in the blood,…. The animal life or soul, the life and soul of every creature, and even the animal life and soul of man; agreeably to which our famous Dr. Harvey, who found out the circulation of the blood, says of it, that it is the principal part which first appears in generation; is the genital part, the fountain of life the first that lives, and the last that dies; the primary seat of the soul or life, from whence motion and pulsation take their rise; in which the innate heat is produced the vital spirit is generated and the life consists i; and therefore it is spread all over the body, and according to the condition that it is in, such is the health and such the diseases of the body; yea, the affections of the mind, such as fear, shame, joy, and anger are discovered by it. Hence Antoninus the emperor, more than once, calls the soul a vapour or exhalation arising out of the blood k; and the sentiments of various Jewish writers agree herewith: says Aben Ezra, it is a truth, that the soul or life, with which man lives, is in the blood of the heart; so says Jarchi the soul or life depends upon the blood; and Ben Gersom observes, that the blood is the vessel of the soul to carry in it the fundamental heat, and food to the parts of the body; and hence the animal only dies when the blood is removed;
and I have given it unto you to make an atonement for your souls: that being the life of the creature, was given for theirs to preserve them alive, and secure them from death their sins deserved; and so the Targum of Jonathan is, for the sins of the soul; which shows that these sacrifices were vicarious, in the room of men, and for the life of them, and to atone for them; and is the reason given why blood should not be eaten, at least while these typical expiatory sacrifices were used. Ben Gersom seems to intimate, as if it was only the blood of those that was forbidden: his words are, hence we learn says he, that they were not guilty of cutting off, but on account of the blood, which, according to its way was put upon the altar; and this was the blood of the soul as it saith the blood of the bullock, and the blood of the goat; but the blood that was pressed out, and the blood of the members they were not guilty of cutting off, on account of them:
for it [is] the blood [that] maketh an atonement for the soul; so here was life for life, soul for soul as Aben Ezra expresses it; it was a vicarious sacrifice and atonement, typical of the sacrifice and atonement of Christ, in the room and stead of his people, there being no atonement, no remission of sins without shedding of blood; and the reason of the prohibition of eating blood was to direct to that blood as the atonement for sin, and to keep up a reverence of it, and a value and esteem for it; but now seeing that blood has been shed and atonement made by it, the end of the law is answered, and the reason of it ceased, and so the law itself; and as Christ’s blood is now to be eaten in a spiritual sense, the eating of blood in a literal sense, properly dressed, is lawful. And indeed, as before observed the law concerning it was never binding upon Gentiles, only on Jews and proselytes.
i De Generatione Animal. Exercitat. 51. p. 302, 303, &c. k De Seipso, l. 5. sect. 25. & l. 6. sect. 11.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(11) For the life of the flesh is in the blood.Better, for the soul of the flesh is in the blood. The word here rendered life in the Authorised Version occurs twice more in this very verse, and is in both instances properly translated soul. Though it is immaterial whether the word in question is translated life or soul, it is essential that it should be rendered uniformly throughout the passage. By translating it differently in the first clause, the Authorised Version has unnecessarily increased the difficulty of the verse. This clause assigns the reason why blood must not be eaten. It is the principle of vitality, it constitutes the soul of animal life. Hence blood and life are used interchangeably in the Scriptures. Thus, when the Psalmist exclaims, what profit is there in my blood (Psa. 30:9), he uses it for life.
I have given it to you upon the altar.For the sake of emphasis, the words in the original denoting upon the altar are placed first in the Hebrew, and the Authorised Version follows this order. It is however better to translate this clause, For I have ordained it upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. Because it is the principle of life, therefore God has ordained it to be offered upon the altar as an expiation for the offerers life.
For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.Better, for it is the blood that maketh atonement by means of the soul. As the blood of the victim is identical with its life, and represents the soul of the animal, hence God has appointed it as a substitute for the sinners life. Thus the life of the sacrifice atones for the life of the offerer. Hence the remark of the Apostle, without shedding of blood there is no remission (Heb. 9:22).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. The life in the blood Literally, “the nephesh (soul) of the flesh.” The soul has a double sphere of life. It is both animus, the subject of all the activities of knowing, feeling, and willing, and anima, the principle of animal life vitalizing the blood and operating in nutrition and respiration. In 1628 Dr. Harvey discovered the vitality of the blood, for the circulation of the blood results from a living principle inhering in it. This wonderful discovery of anatomical science had been standing as an open secret in the Mosaic writings three thousand years, overlooked by science in her pride and disbelief of revelation. This is more surprising when we read Solomon’s beautiful announcement of the same truth in Ecc 12:6. The Bible, when rightly understood, never contradicts science.
I have given it for your souls Jehovah has not only devised the scheme of an atonement, but he gives the blood which is demanded to perfect this scheme. He not only saves through sacrifice, but he affords the victim. “Behold the Lamb of God” the Lamb which God requires, and which he accepts, himself provides. The atonement originates with the Father. Joh 3:16. He is not, as some blasphemously portray him, an inexorable Shylock demanding his pound of flesh. The blood which he demands he gives. How widely different the divine scheme from human attempts at propitiation, in which the god to be appeased is to be bought off by costly sacrifices. God provides his own means of propitiation, so that all boasting is excluded, for we are saved by grace through faith in the one God-given, atoning sacrifice. “The death of Christ,” says Delitzsch, “was a conscious act of loving free-will, the central act of his own self-sacrifice, the solution of the enigma, ‘I have given it,’ in which the saints of the Old Testament had to rest their implicit faith.”
Atonement for the soul All the versions, except the Revised Version, have missed the great truth revealed in the Hebrew, “it is the blood that maketh atonement BY REASON OF THE LIFE.” is plainly an instrumental preposition, and not to be rendered , instead of, as the Seventy, nor pro, for, as the Vulgate, nor fur, as Luther. See extensive discussion in the Introduction, (6.) Men are redeemed from death only by the price of a life. Jesus gave his life a ransom for the world. Says Kalisch, “It is impossible to doubt that the doctrine of vicarious sacrifice was entertained by the Hebrews The animal dies to symbolize the death deserved by the offerer on account of his sins.” The apparent discrepancy between this verse and Heb 10:4; Heb 10:11, is removed when, with Outram, we regard the blood as a “condition of pardon,” and with Ebrard and Alford, “not the instrument of complete vicarious propitiation, but an exhibition of the postulate of such propitiation.” See concluding note.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Reason Why Abstaining From Blood Is So Vital ( Lev 17:11-12 ).
Lev 17:11
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your persons. For it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life.”
And the reason for this provision, which was permanent and binding, and permitted of no exception, was because ‘the life of the flesh is in the blood’, the blood uniquely represents the life. It was the life principle of the animal, and no human being should seek to partake of an animal’s life principle. It belonged solely to God.
But God had in His goodness provided that that life principle might be laid out in death on the altar in order to make atonement for the people. The life of that part of creation that God had provided as food for men, and as suitable for sacrifice, was offered in lieu of the lives of the sons of men. For the blood atones precisely because it represents the life laid out in death. Such continual sacrifice resulted in continual substitution for, and atonement for, sin, as the death of others provided by God was in this way constantly used to purify the sin of Israel and atone for it.
Lev 17:12
“Therefore I said to the children of Israel, No one of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.”
That is why no permanent resident of Israel, whether homeborn or sojourner (permanent alien resident) would be permitted to partake of blood. The blood was the life of the animals, could only be given to God in death, was laid out in death for man’s sins, and was the sacred symbol of God’s atoning work. It was thus not available for man’s use.
So constantly the people of God had the reminder of their own sin, and of the death which was the consequence of sin, and of the atonement that God had made available for them, in each domestic animal that was slain. So too must we daily and continually remind ourselves of the One Who was slain for us, that we might be forgiven and find reconciliation with God, and live out our lives to please Him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Lev 17:11. For the life of the flesh is in the blood In Gen 9:4 the eating of blood is forbidden. Dr. James upon his plan observes, that it was prohibited for reasons of health, as blood is extremely subject to an alcaline putrefaction, and the juices formed from it are highly alcalescent, and subject to putrefy. For the same reason all animals whatever, killed without being suffered to bleed sufficiently, are improper food. It is well known to common observers, that the more succulent and juicy the flesh of animals is, the more subject it is to putrefaction. But, besides these reasons of health, another is assigned in the text for the prohibition of blood; which is considered not only as the seat of life, (being that to the body which oil is to the lamp,) but also as the appointed means of atonement; as the ransom for the forfeited lives of sinful men. It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul; and this, says Dr. Beaumont, as typifying his blood, who is so often spoken of in the New Testament as the grand atonement for human transgressions, and as cleansing from all sin; Heb 10:19. 1Jn 1:7. Some have supposed, that another design of the prohibition might be, to raise in the minds of the Israelites an abhorrence of the practice of some idolaters, who drank the blood of the victim as it came reeking from the wound; and that, not only of animal, but, shocking to think! of human sacrifices. And further it may be observed, that blood was by the heathens employed to various superstitious purposes. The magicians, in their inchantments, constantly used it; for ghosts were supposed to be extremely fond of blood, as we learn from a variety of passages in heathen authors: in particular, when Homer describes Ulysses descending to the infernal regions to consult the ghost of Tiresias, he is represented as standing by a trench full of blood, with his sword drawn in his hand, to keep off the ghosts from meddling with him; when Tiresias appearing, says to him, “retire from the trench, and sheath thy poniard, that I may drink the blood, and disclose to thee the hidden truths of futurity.” See the 11th Book of the Odyssey, and Mr. Pope’s notes, at the beginning.
For it is the blood that maketh an atonement Spencer paraphrases, this verse thus, “whereas the blood is the life and soul of animals, I have appointed it for the price of your souls, and for most holy use. I have separated it to make an expiation for your sins: therefore honour it with a religious abstinence from it; and do not serve that upon your tables, which I have reserved sacred to my altar. It is not suited to the dignity thereof that you should put the blood to vulgar use, to which you owe my forgiveness, and your own lives; that you should nourish, as it were, your own bodies with the life and safety of your souls.” It is the blood that maketh atonement: the blood of the sacrifice, says Clarke, sacramentally and typically, and of Christ really.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Lev 17:11 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.
Ver. 11. And I have given it to you. ] I have set it apart for a sacred use: therefore you may not make food of that which is a figure of Christ.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
For. This verse, with Luk 24:39. 1Co 15:50 and Heb 13:20, forms a strong chain of truth against the “Mass”.
make an atonement. See note on Exo 29:33.
soul. Hebrew. nephesh, because the soul is the life. Thus a life is substituted for a life. Hence Heb 9:22.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
altar
(1) The value of the “life” is the measure of the value of the “blood.” This gives the blood of Christ its inconceivable value. When it was shed the sinless God-man gave His life. “It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats could take away sins” Heb 10:4.
(2) it is not the blood in the veins of the sacrifice, but the blood upon the altar which is efficacious. The Scripture knows nothing of salvation by the imitation or influence of Christ’s life, but only by that life yielded up on the cross.
blood
The meaning of all sacrifice is here explained. Every offering was an execution of the sentence of the law upon a substitute for the offender, and every such offering pointed forward to that substitutional death of Christ which alone vindicated the righteousness of God in passing over the sins of those who offered the typical sacrifices Rom 3:24; Rom 3:25; Exo 29:36.
atonement
(See Scofield “Exo 29:33”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
the life: This sentence, which contains a most important truth, had existed in the Mosaic writings for more than 3,000 years, before the attention of any philosopher was drawn to the subject. That the blood actually possesses a living principle, and that the life of the whole body is derived from it, is a doctrine of revelation, and a doctrine which the experiments of the most accurate anatomists have served strongly to confirm. The proper circulation of this important fluid through the whole human system was first taught by Solomon in figurative language – Ecc 12:6, and discovered, as it is called, and demonstrated by Dr. Harvey in 1628; though some Italian philosophers had the same notion a little before. This accurate anatomist was the first who fully revived the Mosaic notion of the vitality of the blood; which was afterwards adopted by the justly celebrated Dr. John Hunter, professor of anatomy, and established by him, by a great variety of strong reasoning and accurate experiments. Lev 17:14
I have: Lev 8:15, Lev 16:11, Lev 16:14-19, Mat 20:28, Mat 26:28, Mar 14:24, Rom 3:25, Rom 5:9, Eph 1:7, Col 1:14, Col 1:20, Heb 9:22, Heb 13:12, 1Pe 1:2, 1Jo 1:7, 1Jo 2:2, Rev 1:5
Reciprocal: Exo 30:15 – give less than Lev 17:10 – that eateth Num 31:50 – an atonement Deu 12:23 – the blood is Deu 12:27 – thy burnt Eze 44:7 – the fat Hos 9:4 – their bread 1Jo 5:6 – blood
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lev 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, and by which the atonement is really made. So the reason is double. 1st, Because this was eating the ransom of their own lives, which in construction was the destroying themselves. 2d, Because it was ingratitude and irreverence toward that sacred blood of Christ, which they ought to have had in continual veneration.