ContradictionsReading order 324Bible context 4 min read
Is it OK to eat blood?
Jesus' demand that people drink his blood stands against prohibitions on consuming blood, including an apostolic instruction to abstain.
- Textual conflict
- Weak tension
- The alleged conflict needs substantial assumptions, such as treating an omission as a denial or figurative language as literal.
- Importance
- Major
- A major event or claim with wider implications.
The conflict requires reading John's life-and-indwelling language as literal blood consumption under the ordinary dietary prohibition rather than a religious figure.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Jesus requires drinking his blood for life
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
John 6:53-56
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:John 6
God's law and the apostles require abstention from blood
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
Genesis 9:4
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)