Leviticus 17:11—The Blood for Atonement   

“You are not to eat the blood of an animal… For the soul of a living is in its blood; and I set it upon you to be as an atonement on the Altar to forgive your sins, for the blood that’s in the living will forgive. Therefore, I said unto the children of Israel ‘no one of yours should eat the blood…’”

Claim: A key resource for Christian evangelists, Leviticus 17 reflects a fundamental Christian doctrine. In the Temple Era, forgiveness was indeed accessible through sacrificing the animal-offerings and that is how the “blood” was used for atonement. But nowadays, when there is no Temple, which blood shall forgive? It must be the blood of Jesus at the Cross, which was forgiveness for mankind as Paul declared.

Response: For starters, the verses are speaking of an animal’s blood of a sacrifice, not Jesus’! In addition, it’s forbidden to sacrifice outside of the Temple,^[i] and Kohanim must do the sacrificing (not Romans).^[ii] Jesus was also forbidden as a sacrifice for he was a blemished animal,^[iii] for they have beaten him well before his crucifixion,^[iv] and also through being circumcised (see Philippians 3:2, that it’s a blemish to be circumcised).

So, they right away insist that it’s not to be taken literally, but the blood of Jesus sort of represents the blood of the sacrifice. But they can’t pull the string on both sides—either take the verse to its fullest meaning or drop it. If it’s “representing” an “idea”—then that’s already belief of the Christians, not proof! The stereotype response of missionaries to any objections to their dear Leviticus 17 is the following counterattack: “Well, how then is there atonement nowadays?”

In reality, the Torah doesn’t say that only through blood is there atonement, but that through blood there is atonement, and it is therefore forbidden to be consumed.[1] But obviously there is another method to be used at times when there’s no Altar, and that is—repentance. Most Mitzvos are dependent on several factors (e.g. the giving of a divorce-document[v] is only if one’s wife is not liked). Similarly, the sacrifices and blood atonement are also dependent on the existence of an Altar.

Issues with the Christian atonement theory:

• How were the dwellers of Babylonia, Persia, and all of Diaspora in the times of the Second Temple (before Jesus’ times) to be forgiven for their sins without the ability to sacrifice?
• In the Torah, it mentions incense as a tool for forgiveness as well^[vi], with no blood involved.
• Tzedaka (charity) is also a means for forgiveness.^[vii]
• The sin-sacrifice (including the blood) is only prescribed for the unintentional transgressor;^[viii] how can the intentional sinner be granted forgiveness?
• I Kings 8:46-50 says explicitly that without a sacrifice there’s also atonement! It is during a public prayer King Solomon is praying at the grand-opening of the First Temple, that the following was said: “When they sin against You—for there is no man who does not sin—and You are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and their captors carry them off to an enemy land, near or far; and then they take it to heart in the land to which they have been carried off, and they repent and make supplication to You in the land of their captors, saying: ‘We have sinned, we have acted perversely, we have acted wickedly,’ oh, give heed in Your heavenly abode to their prayer and supplication, uphold their cause, and pardon Your people who have sinned against You for all the transgressions that they have committed against You. Grant them mercy in the sight of their captors that they may be merciful to them.”

It is clear from other places that a sacrifice without repentance is a disgust to God.^[ix] It is clear from other places that repenting is a means of forgiveness (especially when there’s no Altar).^[x]

On this that it is said by missionaries that it’s impossible to keep all the commandments, they therefore must be abolished, I give three quick answers: (1) The Law of Moses “is very close to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can fulfill it.” ^[xi] (2) “For there is no righteous man on earth that did good and never sinned”^[xii]—thus failure is expected in the system. (3) “For seven times a righteous will fall yet rise, but a wicked will stumble in his evil.”^[xiii]

In addition and in closure, even if we are to assume that the blood is indeed the only path to atonement—who is to say that it is through Jesus? Perhaps it is through the suffering of oneself for blood (perhaps we must scratch ourselves), or through the suffering and blood of Rabbi Akiva who suffered at the hands of the Romans to death in an act of Martyrdom. Or maybe it is through the blood of the Holocaust victims. As a matter of fact, there were many historical figures who had torturous deaths, as their followers claim “for the sake of forgiving sins.”

[1] I.e. the point of the verse isn’t to inform us how there is forgiveness. The objective of the passage is to tell us the reason it is forbidden to eat animal blood.

[i] Deuteronomy 12:5-14.

[ii] Numbers 18:4.

[iii] Leviticus 22:20.

[iv] Matthew 27:26, Mark 15:15-19.

[v] Deuteronomy 24:1.

[vi] Numbers 17:12-13.

[vii] Exodus 30:15-16, Numbers 31:50. See Proverbs 10:2, 21:3 as well regarding Tzedaka forgiving sins.

[viii] Numbers 15:27.

[ix] See I Samuel 15:22, Isaiah 1:11-19, Hosea 6:6, Amos 5:22-24, Proverbs 15:8, 21:3, 27.

[x] See I Kings 8:46-50, Isaiah 55:7, Jeremiah 36:3, Ezekiel 18:21, 22, 27, 36, Psalm 37:27, 51:18-19, 141:2, II Chronicles 7:14.

[xi] Deuteronomy 30:11-14.

[xii] Ecclesiastes 7:20.

[xiii] Proverbs 24:16.