by Giuseppe Monno
Referring to Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 17:10–14, and Acts 15:29, Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that blood transfusion is not permissible. However, this interpretation misinterprets these biblical texts.
Sacred Scripture forbids the consumption of blood as food. In Genesis 9:4 it is written: “But you shall not eat flesh with life, that is to say blood in it.” Leviticus 17:10–14 reaffirms that blood, as the seat of life, must not be consumed; and Acts 15:29 renews this prescription by exhorting believers to “abstain from blood.”
In all these passages, the context is clear: the prohibition concerns the eating of blood as food, not its medical use in order to save life. The theological meaning of the commandment is respect for life, which belongs to God and is, in biblical language, symbolically identified with blood.
A blood transfusion, however, is not an act of nourishment or dietary intake, but a medical treatment to save life. Therefore, it not only does not contradict the biblical principle, but rather fully realizes its deepest intention: the protection of human life.
In the light of the New Testament, moreover, the distinction between pure and impure in matters of food is overcome. Jesus teaches: “Do you not see that whatever goes into someone from outside cannot make that person unclean, because it goes not into the heart but into the stomach and passes out into the sewer?” Thus he declared all foods clean (cf. Mark 7:18–19). This shows that true purity concerns the heart, not food.
This teaching is not contradicted by Acts 15:29, where the apostles exhort believers to abstain from blood: this is a disciplinary and pastoral provision, linked to the context of the early Church, and not an absolute moral principle.
Even more profoundly, Christ gives his own blood as a sign and instrument of life: “Drink from this, all of you; for this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (cf. Matthew 26:27–28 and parallels). Blood, therefore, is not presented as something to be avoided in itself, but as a principle of life given by God.
It follows that applying the biblical prohibitions concerning blood to blood transfusion means extending the meaning of the texts beyond their context and purpose. Sacred Scripture forbids the ritual consumption of blood as food, not the medical use of blood to save life.
Therefore, in the light of a correct biblical and theological interpretation, blood transfusion is not contrary to the will of God, but is a legitimate means of safeguarding and serving human life.