NOTES for Lev 7:1-38

The Old Testament very often repeats the prohibition against consuming blood. It was first included as a fundamental condition of God's covenant with Noah and was later confirmed in the Mosaic law in the chapter we are reading. On the one hand, it protected people from certain manifestations of paganism and primitive savagery. That is precisely why, like every departure from faith in the one God, violation of this law was punished so harshly. Every transgressor was expelled, which under the conditions of nomadic life in the wilderness was equivalent to death. But the meaning revealed to us when we read the New Testament is far more important. This prohibition prepares us for the imperishable food—the Flesh and Blood of Christ.