---
title: "Clarke"
description: "flesh, or bear his iniquity, 15, 16. NOTES ON CHAP. XVII. Verse Leviticus 17:4. And bringeth it not unto the door — As sacrifice was ever deemed essential"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/leviticus/17"
---

*flesh, or bear his iniquity*, 15, 16.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVII.

Verse [Leviticus 17:4](../../../kjv/leviticus/17/4). ***And bringeth it not unto the door*** — As *sacrifice* was ever deemed essential to true religion, it was necessary that it should be performed in such a way as to secure the great purpose of its institution. God alone could show how this should be done so as to be pleasing in his sight, and therefore he has given the most plain and particular directions concerning it. The Israelites, from their long residence in Egypt, an idolatrous country, had doubtless adopted many of their usages; and many portions of the Pentateuch seem to have been written merely to correct and bring them back to the purity of the Divine worship.
That no blood should be offered to idols, God commands every animal used for food or sacrifice to be slain at the door of the tabernacle. While every animal was slain in this sacrificial way, even the daily food of the people must put them in mind of the necessity of a sacrifice for sin. Perhaps St. Paul had this circumstance in view when he said, *Whether therefore ye eat or* *drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God*, [1 Corinthians 10:31](../../../kjv/1-corinthians/10/31); and, *Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the* *Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him*.
While the Israelites were encamped in the wilderness, it was comparatively easy to prevent all abuses of this Divine institution; and therefore they were all commanded to bring the *oxen, sheep*, and *goats* to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, that they might be slain there, and *their blood* *sprinkled upon the altar of the Lord*. But when they became settled in the promised land, and the distance, in many cases, rendered it impossible for them to bring the animals to be slain for domestic uses to the temple, they were permitted to pour out the blood in a sacrificial way unto God at their respective dwellings, and to cover it with the dust; see [Leviticus 17:13](../../../kjv/leviticus/17/13), and [Deuteronomy 12:20-21](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/12/20-21).
***Blood shall be imputed unto that man*** — Having poured out the blood improperly, he shall be considered as guilty of *murder*, because that blood, had it been properly and *sacrificially* employed, might have made atonement for the *life* of a man.

Verse [Leviticus 17:7](../../../kjv/leviticus/17/7). ***They shall no more offer their sacrifices unto**********devils*** — They shall not sacrifice לשעירים *lasseirim*, to the *hairy ones*, to *goats*. The famous heathen god, *Pan*, was represented as having the posteriors, horns, and ears of a goat; and the *Mendesians*, a people of Egypt, had a deity which they worshipped under this form. Herodotus says that all goats were worshipped in Egypt, but the *he-goat* particularly. It appears also that the different ape and monkey species were objects of superstitious worship; and from these sprang, not only *Mendes* and *Jupiter Ammon*, who was worshipped under the figure of a *ram*, but also *Pan* and the *Sileni*, with the innumerable herd of those imaginary beings, *satyrs, dryads, hamadryads*, c. c., all *woodland* gods, and held in veneration among the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.
***After whom they have gone a whoring.*** — Though this term is frequently used to express *idolatry*, yet we are not to suppose that it is not to be taken in a *literal* sense in many places in Scripture, even where it is used in connection with idolatrous acts of worship. It is well known that *Baal-Peor* and *Ashtaroth* were worshipped with unclean rites and that public prostitution formed a grand part of the worship of many deities among the Egyptians, Moabites, Canaanites, Greeks, and Romans. The great god of the two latter nations, *Jupiter*, was represented as the general corrupter of women and of *Venus, Flora, Priapus*, and others, it is needless to speak. That there was public prostitution in the patriarchal times, [Genesis 38:21](../../../kjv/genesis/38/21). And that there was public prostitution of women to goats in Egypt, see Herodotus, lib. ii., c. 46, p. 108, edit. Gale, who gives a case of this abominable kind that took place in Egypt while he was in that country. See also many examples in *Bochart*, vol. ii., col. 641; and [Leviticus 20:16](../../../kjv/leviticus/20/16).

Verse [Leviticus 17:11](../../../kjv/leviticus/17/11). ***For the life of the flesh*****is*****in the blood*** — This sentence, which contains a most important truth, had existed in the Mosaic writings for 3600 years before the attention of any philosopher was drawn to the subject. This is the more surprising, as the nations in which philosophy flourished were those which especially enjoyed the Divine oracles in their respective languages. That the blood actually possesses a *living principle*, and that the life of the whole body is derived from it, is a doctrine of Divine revelation, and a doctrine which the observations and experiments of the most accurate anatomists have served strongly to confirm. The proper *circulation* of this important fluid through the *whole* human system was first taught by Solomon in figurative language, [Ecclesiastes 12:6](../../../kjv/ecclesiastes/12/6); and discovered, as it is called, and demonstrated, by Dr. Harvey in 1628; though some Italian philosophers had the same notion a little before. This accurate anatomist was the first who fully revived the Mosaic notion of the *vitality* of the blood; which notion was afterward adopted by the justly celebrated Dr. John Hunter, professor of anatomy in London, and fully established by him by a great variety of strong reasoning and accurate experiments. To support this opinion Dr. Hunter proves: -
1. That the blood unites living parts in some circumstances as certainly as the yet recent juices of the branch of one tree unite with that of another; and he thinks that if either of these fluids were dead matter, they would act as *stimuli*, and no union would take place in the animal or vegetable kingdom; and he shows that in the nature of things there is not a more intimate connection between *life* and a *solid* than between *life* and a *fluid*.
2. He shows that the blood becomes *vascular*, like other living parts of the body; and he demonstrated this by a preparation in which *vessels* were clearly seen to arise from what had been a *coagulum* of blood; for those vessels opened into the stream of the circulating blood, which was in contiguity with this coagulated mass.
3. He proves that if blood be taken from the arm in the most intense cold that the human body can suffer, it will raise the thermometer to the same height as blood taken in the most sultry heat. This is a very powerful argument for the *vitality* of the blood, as it is well known that living bodies alone have the power of resisting great degrees of heat and cold, and of maintaining in almost every situation while in health that temperature which we distinguish by the name of *animal heat*.
4. He proves that blood is capable of being acted upon by a stimulus, as it coagulates on exposure to the air, as certainly as the cavities of the abdomen and thorax become inflamed from the same cause. The more the blood is alive, i. e., the more the animal is in health, the sooner the blood coagulates on exposure; and the more it has lost of the living principle, as in cases of violent inflammation, the less sensible it is to the stimulus produced by being exposed, and coagulates more slowly.
5. He proves that the blood preserves life in different parts of the body. When the *nerves* going to any part are *tied* or *cut*, the part becomes paralytic, and loses all power of motion, but it does not mortify. But let the *artery* be cut, and then the part dies and *mortification* ensues. It must therefore be the *vital* principle of the *blood* that keeps the part *alive*; nor does it appear that this fact can be accounted for on any other principle.
6. He thinks this *vitality* farther proved from the case of a person who was brought to St. George's hospital for a simple fracture of the *os humeri*, and who died about a month after. As the bones had not united, he injected the arm, and thus found that the coagulated blood which filled the cavity between the extremities of the fractured bones was become *vascular*, and in some places very much so, which vessels, had it been dead matter, it never could have produced.
This system has been opposed, and arguments have been adduced to prove that the principle of *vitality* exists not in the *blood* but in the *nervous system*. But every argument on this ground appears to be done away by the simple consideration that the whole nervous system, as well as every other part of the body, is originally derived from the blood; for is it not from the blood of the mother that the fetus has its being and nourishment in the womb? Do not all the nerves, as well as the brain, c., originate from that *alone*? And if it be not *vital* can it give the principle of *vitality* to something else, which then exclusively (though the effect of a cause) becomes the principle of vitality to all the solids and fluids of the body? This seems absurd. That the human being proceeded originally from the blood admits of no doubt and it is natural and reasonable to suppose that as it was the cause under God which generated all the other parts of the body, so it still continues to be the principle of life, and by it alone all the wastes of the system are repaired. Two points relative to this subject are strongly asserted in Divine revelation, one by MOSES, the other by ST. PAUL.
1. *Moses* says, *The* LIFE *of the flesh is in the* BLOOD, [Leviticus 17:11](../../../kjv/leviticus/17/11). This has been proved by the most indisputable facts.
2. *St. Paul* says, *God hath made of* ONE BLOOD *all nations of* *men*, [Acts 17:26](../../../kjv/acts/17/26). And this is demonstrated, not only from there being only one pair from whom all the nations of men have been derived, but also from the fact that every human being, from the first-born of Eve to the present hour, has been formed out of and supported by the mother's blood; and that from the agency of this fluid the human body, after being born into the world, has its increment and support.
The reason given by God for the law against eating blood is perfectly conclusive: *I will set my face* *against that soul that eateth blood - for the* LIFE (נפש *nephesh*) *of the flesh is in the* BLOOD, *and I have given it to you upon the* *altar, to make an atonement for your souls* (נפשתיכם naphshotheychem, your LIVES:) *for it is the blood* (because it is the LIFE, נפש *nephesh*) *that maketh an atonement for the soul* (בנפש bannephesh, for the *life*; for the word is the same in all these cases.) By transgression a man forfeits his LIFE to Divine *justice*, and he must *die*, did not *mercy* provide him a *substitute*. The *life* of a *beast* is appointed and accepted by God as a *substitute* for the sinner's *life* (in reference to the *life* of *Christ*, which was to be given for the *life* of the *world*;) but as this *life* is in the BLOOD, and as the *blood* is the grand principle of *vitality*, therefore the *blood* is to be poured out upon the altar: and thus the *life* of the *beast* becomes a substitute for the *life* of the *man*.
And it is well worthy of being remarked, that Christ not only *died* for sinners, but our redemption is everywhere attributed to his BLOOD, and the *shedding of that blood*; and that on the altar of the cross, this might make an atonement for the *lives* and *souls* of men, he not only *bowed his head, and gave up the ghost*, but his side was opened, the pericardium and the heart evidently pierced, that the *vital fluid* might be poured out from the *very* *seat of life*, and that thus the *blood*, which is the *life*, should be poured out to make an atonement for the *life* of the *soul*.
The doctrine of *Moses* and *Paul* proves the truth of the doctrine of *Harvey* and *Hunter*; and the reasonings and experiments of *Harvey* and *Hunter* illustrate and confirm the doctrine of *Moses* and *Paul*. - Here then is a farther proof of the truth and authority of Divine revelation. [Genesis 9:4](../../../kjv/genesis/9/4); Dr. J. Corrie's *Essay on the Vitality of the Blood*; and the article *Blood*, in the *Encyclopaedias*.

Verse [Leviticus 17:14](../../../kjv/leviticus/17/14). ***Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh*** — Independently of the moral reasons given above, we may add,
1. That blood, being highly *alkalescent*, especially in hot climates, is subject to speedy putrefaction.
2. That it affords a gross nutriment, being very difficult of digestion, so much so that *bull's blood* was used in ancient times as poison, "Its extreme viscidity rendering it totally indigestible by the powers of the human stomach."
3. It is allowed that when blood was used in this country in great quantities, the *scurvy* was more frequent than at other times.
4. It appears from history that those nations who lived most on it were very fierce, savage, and barbarous, such as the *Scythians, Tartars, Arabs* of the desert, the *Scandinavians*, &c., &c., some of whom drank the blood of their enemies, making cups of their sculls!

Verse [Leviticus 17:15](../../../kjv/leviticus/17/15). ***That which died*****of itself,*****or that which was torn*** — Because, in both cases, the blood was retained in the body; hence the council at Jerusalem forbade *things strangled* as well as *blood*, because in such beasts the blood was coagulated in the veins and arteries. See [Acts 15:28-29](../../../kjv/acts/15/28-29).
Every thing considered, surely there is as little *propriety* in eating of blood as there is necessity to do it. They who will do otherwise must bear their iniquity. If blood eating be no offence, then they have no sin to answer for. The principal subjects of this chapter have been already so amply handled in the notes, that there is no need to add any thing by way of reflection or improvement.

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