Eating meat with Blood

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Justice
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Eating meat with Blood

Post by Justice »

In the book of Acts, it says the following:

"For it seemed good for the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: That you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keeps yourself from these, you will do well."

While I am a vegetarian, this is a commandment not to eat meat with blood in it. Though in Russia and Poland there are many meats which have blood still in them. Is this commandment still in effect? or does this have a different interpretation?

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Maria
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Re: Eating meat with Blood

Post by Maria »

Justice wrote:

In the book of Acts, it says the following:

"For it seemed good for the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: That you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keeps yourself from these, you will do well."

While I am a vegetarian, this is a commandment not to eat meat with blood in it. Though in Russia and Poland there are many meats which have blood still in them. Is this commandment still in effect? or does this have a different interpretation?

We must understand the context in which Acts was written. Acts was the Acts of the Apostles, the early history of the Church starting from Pentecost. From the very beginning, the early Church largely consisted of Jewish converts, but the Apostles were sent to all the nations with the command of Christ to baptize all. To avoid scandalizing the Christian converts from Judaism, the Gentile converts in Antioch were told to "abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality."

Since the Church was conciliar, the Holy Apostles and then later their successor bishops would come together in Holy Councils to discuss matters and to make decisions for the good of the Church with prayers offered to the Holy Spirit. Centuries later, as the Church expanded into the Slav countries, and with conciliar approval these converts were allowed to continue eating their traditional foods, such as blood sausage as long as that food was not offered to idols. "Blood" was the key word for if an animal were to be killed in a sacrificial offering and its blood were to be offered to idols, then that would be a serious problem. However, if a native people did not have the tradition of offering blood to idols, then there would be no problem.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

Justice
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Re: Eating meat with Blood

Post by Justice »

At first glance it sounded like Judaizing to me. Thank you for clearing this up Maria.

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