Dear Father, In reading the Bible I get the impression that blood for the Jews had a significance which went well beyond what it would mean for us Christians. Why was that and what were some of the implications?
You are correct in what you say, and there are a number of important implications. The basis of the Jewish outlook is that blood was regarded as the life of the being. For example, in the book of Leviticus we read: “If any man of the house of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people … For the life of every creature is the blood of it” (Lev 17:10, 14).
Because of this, there was an absolute prohibition on the consumption of blood, so meat could not be eaten with the blood still in it. The blood had to be drained from the animal or bird before the flesh was eaten, following the kosher regulations still in force today. We see this too in the New Testament, when the apostles and elders meeting in Jerusalem decided to tell the Christians in Antioch that among the few things to be demanded of Gentile converts was that they were to “abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled” (Acts 15:29). Naturally, the prohibition of eating blood was only for that particular time, as blood was not forbidden for Christians in later times.
Read the article by Fr John Flader in The Catholic Weekly.