BLOOD

First Reading Gn 9:3-6

God’s Covenant with Noah

The incidence occurred after the Big Flood where everything began afresh. It was a new beginning. A new world order so to speak.

God gave human being the power over all living creatures. “Every creature shall be yours to eat; I give them to you as I did the green plants.” Man were first depicted as vegetarians, becoming carnivorous only after the flood.

The strict command given by God was “Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.” Because a living being dies when it loses most of its blood, the ancient regarded blood as the sign of life, and therefore sacred. It is comparable to the ritual laws of the Mosaic code, the Jews considered it binding on all men, because it was given by God to Noah, our ancestor. The early Christian Church retained it for a time.

In the covenant, we are reminded that all human beings are God’s creation. All human has been made in the image of God therefore human beings are sacred & holy. All human beings were instructed not to shed the blood of man, if anyone violent this, by man shall his blood be shed.