The official doctrine of the Jehovah’s Witnesses (formally referred
to as the "Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society", herein abbreviated
"Watchtower Society) regarding the use
of blood transfusions to oppose blood transfusions based upon the
belief that the Bible prohibits the taking of blood, combined with the view
that somehow the blood has spiritual significance (the belief that the "soul" is
found in the blood) and thus that the taking in of
blood from another person could affect their eternal destiny. This doctrine is
based in part upon the understanding of Jehovah’s Witnesses that this verse
from Isaiah prohibits intake of blood in any form:
Gen 9:4
4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
NKJV
The Watchtower Society teaches that the reference in this verse to
not eating blood actually means that they are not permit to intake blood in any way.
The Watchtower Society further extends the meaning of this reference to include human blood
in addition to animal blood, even though human blood is not mentioned in the
context, and they equate the reference to “life” to
mean "soul". In fact the New World Translation(5) of the Bible issued by the
Watch Tower Society changes the word to read “soul” instead of "life".
The Watchtower Society also interprets Acts 15:29 as prohibiting blood transfusions:
Acts 15:28-29
28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon
you no greater burden than these necessary things: 29 that you abstain from
things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual
immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.
NKJV
This
article will examine each of these interpretations by looking at what
scripture has to say regarding these points in context.
Let us first deal with the verse from Genesis 9:4.
Gen 9:4
4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
NKJV
The context of this verse indicates that it was directed towards Noah and his family after they had
come out of the ark on to dry land, and represents one of the dietary laws
of the Old Testaments. This was one of the laws which was fulfilled when Christ came, shed his blood, and rose again,
fulfilling the prophetic significance of many of the Old Testament laws.
Acts 10:12-16
12 In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild
beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 13 And a voice came to him,
"Rise, Peter; kill and eat." 14 But Peter said, "Not so, Lord!
For I have never eaten anything common or unclean." 15 And a voice spoke
to him again the second time, "What God has cleansed you must not call
common." 16 This was done three times. And the object was taken up into
heaven again.
NKJV
Further, as stated previously in this article, the reference here is to animal blood, which is eaten,
not human blood that is used in a blood transfusion. There is no credible
medical publication anywhere, which would equate a blood transfusion with
eating blood.
As for the argument as to whether the blood carries the soul in it, let’s
look at the context of this verse, by looking at what scripture says
immediately following:
Gen 9:5-7
5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the
hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand
of every man's brother I will require the life of man. 6 "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man
his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man. 7 And as for you,
be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it."
NKJV
The context is that the word “life” does not actually mean life,
because it is referring to life and death. The word use for life in this
context is “nephesh” which means a breathing creature, or literally, that it is
alive, not that it has a soul. (Reference: Strong Concordance). Further, if we
were to interpret it as “soul”, this would suggest that the animals (which the verse
refers to in context) have souls. Thus in context, this verse means exactly what it says. It refers
to the eating of animal blood, and cannot in any way be taken to refer to blood
transfusions, or to suggest that a man’s soul is in the blood.
Let's cross reference Genesis 9:4 to Leviticus 3:17 which states:
Lev 3:17
17 'This shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations
in all your dwellings: you shall eat neither fat nor blood.' "
NKJV
If the Watch Tower Society were using a consistent approach to
interpretation, they would ban the eating of fat as well as blood based upon
this verse. Yet we have never heard of a prohibition by the Watchtower
Society against eating fat.
The Watch Tower Society also does not prohibit eating meat which has blood in
it, which is in fact what Genesis 9:4 specifically speaks about. It is interesting to know that the Jews meticulously drain
the blood out of all their meat, yet accept blood transfusions. Thus they do
not equate transfusions with eating. Though we should not base our understanding
of scripture upon the interpretation of any specific group, the fact that
the Jews, to whom this was written and in whose language this was originally
written, do not understand the word "life" the way that the Watch Tower
Society does is worthy of note.
In yet
another inconsistency in the application and interpretation of scripture, the Watch Tower Society does permit a Jehovah’s Witness to use, at their
own discretion, constituent parts of the blood, but not the whole blood itself.
Here is a quote from http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7277/37, which is
a website maintained by the Jehovah’s Witnesses:
"The other policy change came in the form of an article in the 15 June
2000 issue of the official magazine Watchtower.11 After defining the
"primary components" of blood (red and white blood cells, platelets,
and plasma) that must be refused, the article stated that "beyond that,
when it comes to fractions of any of the primary components, each Christian,
after careful and prayerful meditation, must conscientiously decide for
himself." Although some of these fractions, such as albumin and globulin,
had already been considered a matter of personal decision, this new policy
declared that "fractions of any of the primary components" are now
acceptable. One of the most noteworthy points of this change is that the
fractions or parts derived from prohibited cellular components are now
permitted. The new policy cites interferons and interleukins as examples, but
the most profound impact will be seen when and if haemoglobin based blood
substitutes are introduced into general use. As recently as 1998 two
representatives of the Watchtower Society wrote to a journal for researchers of
blood substitutes stating that "[Jehovah's Witnesses] do not accept
hemoglobin which is a major part of red blood cells . . . According to these
principles then, Jehovah's Witnesses do not accept a blood substitute which
uses hemoglobin taken from a human or animal source."12 As haemoglobin
based blood substitutes are now used in clinical trials with some success, this
reversal of the ban on haemoglobin may have a major impact on the medical care
of patients who are Jehovah's Witnesses who may participate in such trials.13
"
It appears that the
Watch Tower Society also believes that under some circumstances, blood
products are okay, so they obviously do not even interpret either Genesis 9:4
or Lev 3:17 to be an absolute prohibition against the intake of blood. Further, how did they determine which part of the
blood it is in which the soul resides? I have also been advised by Jehovah's
Witnesses that since the Bible makes no clear
statement about the immediate re-infusion of a patient's own blood during
surgery, a medical process known as blood salvaging, the use of such treatments
is a matter of personal choice. Of course the Bible makes no statement about
infusion of the blood at all, but that does not appear to have impacted the doctrinal
position of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Let’s now look at Acts 15:29
Acts 15:28-29
28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon
you no greater burden than these necessary things: 29 that you abstain from
things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual
immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.
NKJV
There are some questions regarding the interpretation of Act
15:29. If you look at the context, it was a reaction against those who would
try to force legalism on the Gentiles, and it was a decision made by the
council to provide some guidance in this matter. Further, the reason for this
prohibition was not to enforce legalism (as shown earlier - this was the exact
opposite of the intent) but rather to avoid offending Jewish Christians (Acts
15:19-23). Thus, it was not a matter of the “soul” being in the blood, and thus
an impact on our eternal destiny, but rather we are not to be a stumbling block
to our brother in Christ.
The doctrine of the Jehovah’s Witnesses prohibiting blood
transfusions is not found in scripture. They are mis-using verses which refer
to the eating of animal blood. The verse to which they refer, refer to eating
of the blood, which they do not prohibit.
The Watch Tower Society further is inconsistent in their interpretation
and application of these verses and their own interpretation of the verses.
References:
1)
http://www.watchtower.org
2)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7277/37
3)
New
World Translation (NWT) of the Holy Scriptures, Copyright 1961, Watchtower Bible and
Tract Society of Pennsylvania.
The New World Translation of the Bible is a translation put out by the
Watchtower Society which has been modified to support
the doctrines of the Watchtower Society.
4)
Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance
with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994,
Biblesoft
and International Bible Translators, Inc.