“Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood” (Genesis 9:4, RSV)
‘This is the first of several Scripture verses that Jehovah’s Witnesses use to argue in support of the Watchtower society’s ban on blood transfusions. The organization teaches that a blood transfusion is the same as eating blood, because it resembles intravenous feeding. The society accordingly prohibits blood transfusions for its followers. A witness who accepts a transfusion can expect to be summoned before a judicial committee to be put on trial behind closed doors for violation of “God’s Law.” The punishment, if found guilty, is “disfellowshiping,” whereby the individual is shunned by family and friends who are forbidden even to greet the offender.
Jehovah’s Witnesses feel very strongly about this issue. They will die rather than accept a transfusion to replace blood lost in an operation or accident. And they follow this same course with respect to their minor children. Most Witnesses carry a signed card in their wallet or purse, stating their refusal to accept blood and instructing emergency medical personnel not to administer a transfusion if the Witness is found unconscious. The card is a legal document, signed by the JW and countersigned by two others.
JW’s recognize that they are unique among religious people in their stand on blood transfusions, although it does not occur to them that this very fact shows that the doctrine does not really derive from the Bible. No one else who attempts to follow the Bible as a guide in life has come up with a ban on transfusions—and even the Watchtower organization did not promulgate the doctrine until 1944.
Most Jehovah’s Witnesses are unaware that their leaders have had a history of introducing other medical prohibitions and then later changing their mind. In 1967, for example, they prohibited organ transplants. Followers were expected to choose blindness rather than accept a cornea transplant, or to die rather than submit to a kidney transplant. But then, in 1980, the leaders reversed the teaching and allowed transplants once again (see The Watchtower, 11/15/67, pp. 702-704; Awake! 6/8/68, pg. 21; and The Watchtower, 3/15/80, pg. 31). In addition, between the years 1931 and 1952, JW’s had to refuse vaccinations for themselves and their children because the organization taught them: “Vaccination is a direct violation of the everlasting covenant that God made….” (The Golden Age, 2/4/31, pg. 293)
Even though Witnesses will attempt to quote Scripture to support their position on blood transfusions, the real reason for their stand is blind obedience to the Watchtower Society. If the organization lifted its prohibition tomorrow, witnesses would freely accept transfusions—just as they did an about face when the vaccination ban was lifted in 1952 and when the ban on organ transplants was rescinded in 1980.
“And you must not eat any blood in any places where you dwell, whether that of fowl or that of beast. Any soul who eats any blood, that soul must be cut off from his people” (Leviticus 7:26-27).
This text is frequently quoted in support of the Watchtower society’s ban on blood transfusions. Even though the verse specifically forbade Israelites to eat the blood of fowl or beast, Jehovah’s Witnesses stretch its meaning to include medical administration of human blood to save life—a thought obviously not intended when Moses recorded God’s words. Leviticus discusses at great length the divinely ordained arrangements for animal sacrifices by the Jewish priesthood, and the blood played a major role in those sacrifices as a foreshadow of the precious blood of our Savior, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Any attempt to read these verses as a prophetic ruling on the pros and cons of modern medical procedures totally ignores the context of the passage.
When discussing Leviticus 7:26-27 with Jehovah’s Witnesses, you might bring up the fact that orthodox Jews of today, who still scrupulously observe the regulations for kosher butchering and bleeding of meat, have no religious objection to blood transfusions. Therefore, the original Hebrew text does not even hint at the interpretation that the Watchtower imposes on it.
If a Jehovah’s Witness still insists that he must refuse blood transfusions on account of Leviticus 7:26-27, the next move would be to show him Leviticus 3:17, which says: “You must not eat any fat or any blood at all” (NWT). Ask him to explain why Watchtower leaders tell him to refuse blood transfusions but allow him to eat fat. Are they not simply pulling words out of context from Jewish dietary laws?”[1]
It is clearly obvious that Jehovah’s Witnesses follow a mixed-up cult that proclaims ‘truth’, and then changes its mind. Blood transfusions therefore, when applied with all safety precautions taken, save lives.
[1] JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES ANSWERED VERSE BY VERSE, David A. Reed; 1986; Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506; pp. 22-23,29-30
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