Leviticus 17:10 vs John 6:53

putting these two passages together raises a thousand questions.
here is a first one:

• why does the Law say 'you shall not eat blood' yet Jesus the Christ say 'drink my blood' ?

John 6:35 and 6-48a

Easy..

Leviticus is talking about physical Blood

John is talking of spiritual blood of Jesus which is the Atonement of Jesus.. People have to accept and trust in the Atoning blood of Jesus that saves..

hmm

is it typical for God to say a physical thing is abominable but the spiritual counterpart is necessary & righteous?
like, is wickedness used as a symbol of goodness?

The law is fulfilled in Christ.
Notice in the law what it says about life being in the blood.
There is a correlation here. When Jesus says to drink his blood. It is to consume the life of Jesus. So when we drink the wine we drink the life of Jesus poured out for us. His life going into us.

The Scripture about eating blood is referring to the blood of animals that men eat in this earthly life.

The Scripture about drinking the blood of Jesus, is speaking of the spiritual drinking of His blood: not drinking His ACTUAL blood. Much like being "buried with Him and raised with Him" in water baptism is symbolic, NOT REALITY.

That is how I see Scripture

The law is not to consume the blood of mortal sacrificial animals (meant for the altar of God), who merely pointed to the real life eternal sacrificial Lamb. For eternal life, we do not consume the blood of mortal sacrificial animals, but our sinful human body altars spiritually consumes the blood of Him to which it points, the life eternal sacrificial Lamb, Christ Yeshua, that was slain on the altars of our sinful hearts and minds:


Leviticus 17 (ESV)

11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood


John 6 (ESV)

54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life (accepts Christ Yeshua's life blood offering on his heart's and mind's altar), and I will raise him up on the last day.


Hebrews 8 (ESV)

10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."

This is why I reject mere symbolism. It's more than just symbolism, and than spiritual, there is some material reality to it. But I also say what is spiritual is more real than the material.

Blood can be eaten when cooked and allowed to solidify, many cultures eat the blood of animals.

Wickedness is not the spiritual counterpart of goodness They are opposites

Kind of an interesting philosophical idea of evil is that rather than being an opposite that it is a lack of good. If you compare to light being good and dark being evil. Darkness is a lack of light, and isn't a thing unto itself.

When Jesus said that at the last supper, He was speaking sybolicaly

ly.........He held the BREAD and said 'this is my body'
He held the wine and said 'this is my blood'

Did those elements turn into flesh and blood? NO.

The Law was speaking literally about the consumption of blood (which is also forbidden to Christians).

Christ was speaking metaphorically and spiritually about drinking His blood. The blood of Christ washes our souls spiritually from all sin and guilt. And the blood of Christ keeps on cleansing the believer of all sins, as they are confessed. This is supernatural and spiritual, but the Jews took this literally, and were revolted by assuming that Christ was encouraging cannibalism.

Good question.

Consider why God gave the law to not eat flesh with blood in the first place. I guess there are a number of reasons. One might be that the drinking of blood was akin to the pagan rituals which were going on around the Israelites during the time and God wanted His people to be separate from them.

Here's something interesting though. In the old testament, the Israelites were under the Old Covenant which meant that they were under Mosaic law.

When Jesus came, he created a new covenant. This is why instead of doing away with the law, he fulfils it. The new dispensation of grace is clear in the words of Christ. There's a nice parallel between the "do not" laws of the OT and the invitation to "partake" of the blood and body of Christ.

I think Jesus said these words to make this distinction clear.

Jesus perfect spiritual flesh is His teachings..

Jesus perfect Spiritual blood is His atoning sacrafice for the forgiveness of our sins..

these are in contrast to worldly flesh and blood which are corrupt..

Jesus also said for us to be..

Matthew 10: KJV
16 "¶ Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."

So the symbol of a serpent was used to represent satan in the garden so it is akin to a Wicked symbol but Jesus also used the serpent as a symbol of wisdom..

In order to understand Leviticus 17:10 we must read Leviticus 17:11,

11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. 12 Therefore I say to the Israelites, “None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner residing among you eat blood.”

It is about the sacrificial system that is a symbol of Christ. The sacrificial system was a preview of Christ, they were to sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sins, just as we are to give our sins to Jesus who sacrificed His blood for us.

Thank you all for the interest and replies - haven't had time to read through and think about them yet but God willing, i will this evening.

Until Christ lived His life as a man and was crucified, until the covenant was improved with the new covenant, man was told of the ways of the Lord through physical commands. As Lev. 17-10 and 11 tells us blood was given on the altar by God for sin. We are now told directly through the spirit about life and blood, We know Christ is our life blood, it is through Christ we are given eternal life. They were told through symbols of this. We are told directly in our hearts.

should we read 'He separated the light from the darkness' as He 'separated the light from the absence of light' ?
or, 'if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness' as 'thy whole body shall be full of absence of good' ?

__________________________________________________

i'm not sure it still makes sense that way. it kind of leads to a definition of sin as 'lack of righteousness' - as though it is at the crux a non-existent thing - but we know wickedness is expressed with real thoughts, intents and actions. it wasn't 'lack of goodness' that entered the world, but something existent: sin.

this relates to the OP -- because one of the natural questions from comparing 'do not eat blood' and 'drink My blood' centers on whether there is a difference between the blood of all ordinary mortal beings, and the blood of the God-Man Jesus Christ.

• is there something in His blood that makes it different than the blood of other living beings?
  • making His 'good' to consume and all other 'evil' to consume?
• is there something in the blood of all other living beings that is not present in His blood?
  • making His 'good' to consume and all other 'evil' to consume?

one potential avenue of answer is that He is sinless; "in Him there is no darkness"