What is it about the blood

[petra22]

What is it about the blood of a human being that is so primal, so primitive, so elementary that God requires it to atone for man’s fall? Why blood? Is there something written in the bible or earlier ancient writings that explains this? It nags at me that it is the key to something long lost and buried in ancient tradition and I don’t know what it is. Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated.

I keep singing “Rock of Ages” in my mind and can’t let it go… the blood draws me. …“may the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed be for sin a double cure, save from wrath and make me pure…”

 

[TimothyH]

For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life. (Leviticus 17:11)

-Tim-

 

[GEddie]

Blood is life; the body can live after a brief stoppage of breathing, or come back from cardiac arrest, but cannot survive a total loss of blood.

21st-century medicine understands why this is so; the blood gets the breath and biochemicals from where they are obtained to where they are needed.

Because blood is life, it is the symbol for the soul (which is spiritual life). Only life can answer for life.

ICXC NIKA

 

[sirach2v4]

As primitive as it may seem, it is still timely today. We see “bloodshed” all the time, far more often than we ought.

For self-defense, the shedding of blood by patriot soldiers shows the high cost of our freedom, etc.

The shedding of blood is unmistakably a sign of the taking or giving of a life, the most precious thing we have, even in a non-religious context. But, the shedding of one Man’s blood for the sins of all is the ultimate image of God’s love for us.

In the Hebrew scripture Deut 6:4, the pledging of all our “soul” refers to our renewing our commitment to the covenant, even to the shedding of our blood and the loss of our life, if necessary.

I always wonder if I’m ready and willing to make that sacrifice.

 

[Miserissima]

This thread may help:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=12233735

When a ewe loses a lamb, and a different lamb loses its mother, the blood of the dead lamb is put on the live lamb so that it smells like the lamb who died.

The ewe will think of this new lamb as her own by its scent, and will adopt it, treating it as her own.

We are adopted into God’s family by blood of Jesus, the last sacrifice in atonement for humanity’s sins. His bloid “covers” us, and makes us participants in the New Covenant.

In the OT, God instructed the Israelites to paint their lintels with lamb’s blood to avoid the Angel of Death from visiting their homes; this prefigured Christ’s blood to cover our souls.

We don’t need blood on our doorposts as Christ conquered death. We need Christ’s blood to “cover” our souls because our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Our bodies are just shelters for our souls, like the houses sheltered the Istaelites.

The Israelites were spared physical death by using lamb’s blood as they were commanded. We are now all spared spiritual death by accepting the Blood of the Lamb poured out for us.

 

[wildfood]

What is it about the blood of a human being that is so primal, so primitive, so elementary that God requires it to atone for man’s fall? Why blood? Is there something written in the bible or earlier ancient writings that explains this? It nags at me that it is the key to something long lost and buried in ancient tradition and I don’t know what it is. Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated.

I keep singing “Rock of Ages” in my mind and can’t let it go… the blood draws me. …“may the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed be for sin a double cure, save from wrath and make me pure…”

It’s not so much human blood as God’s own blood.

God himself atoned for our sins.

 

[petra22]

It’s not so much human blood as God’s own blood.

God himself atoned for our sins.

Wildfood, I’ve been thinking about this so obvious fact about it being God’s own blood…
How blessed is the human race that God desired to become part of it to save it…
Why don’t we feel more elevated? More special? I don’t think we appreciate this enough. God loves us so much and we often can’t see it! Too distracted by the beauty of the world that He made… would that we could see what He has done for us by His blood!