What does the Bible say about blood transfusions?
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The Bible does not directly address modern medical blood transfusions, but it teaches reverence for blood as representing life while not forbidding life-saving medical care. Genesis 9:4 and Leviticus 3:17 prohibit eating blood, and Acts 15:20, 29 asks Gentile believers to abstain from blood in the context of fellowship and idolatrous pagan practices. These commands concern consuming blood as food and honoring its sacrificial significance, not receiving a transfusion. Christians should therefore exercise conscience, seek wise medical counsel, and thankfully receive lawful means of preserving life, loving God and neighbor in all things.
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Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible
- Acts 15:20
but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood.
- Genesis 9:4
But flesh with the life of it, the blood of it, you shall not eat.
- Acts 15:29
that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, from which if you keep yourselves, it will be well with you. Farewell."
- Leviticus 3:17
"'It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings, that you shall eat neither fat nor blood.'"
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