Genesis 9:3-4 (3) "Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you: I give all to you as I gave the green plant. (4) Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.” (NAS)
The WT only has their members read verse 4, and as a good JW they only read what they are told. See the blog “Why do you see JW’s studying their WT magazines and rarely the Bible?” here that has WT quotations used to control their members.
In Genesis 9 Noah has just survived the flood and God tells Noah, just as I gave the green plants to you to eat, I am now giving you all animal life to eat. Except, you are not to eat the blood. The blood must be removed, ensuring the animal is dead.
Leviticus 17:12-16 (12) "Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, 'No person among you may eat blood, nor may any alien who sojourns among you eat blood.' (13) "So when any man from the sons of Israel, or from the aliens who sojourn among them, in hunting catches a beast or a bird which may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth. (14) "For as for the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life. Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, 'You are not to eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.' (15) "When any person eats an animal which dies or is torn by beasts, whether he is a native or an alien, he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and remain unclean until evening; then he will become clean. (16) "But if he does not wash them or bathe his body, then he shall bear his guilt." (NAS)
It is easy to see why the WT has their members stop reading after v. 14. Verse 15-16 prescribe the punishment for eating blood or as the WT says, for having a blood transfusion. The punishment. That person must wash their clothes, bath and in the evening they will be clean. Far from the WT telling their people that they will lose their eternal life if they take a blood transfusion.
Acts 15:29 “that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell." (NAS)
Acts 21:25 "But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication." (NAS)
It is clear from the context that the instructions were against eating and drinking blood. At this time in history there were many pagan religious practices that involved eating and drinking blood and/or strangling an animal to keep more of its blood in its meat. This is what the Bible speaks against, not blood transfusions.
Americans were in shock when Jim Jones and over 900 of his followers committed suicide in the jungles of Guyana in 1978. But how many JW’s have died one at a time refusing blood transfusions. It is one thing to refuse a transfusion because of medical reasons and quite another to have that decision made for you by the WTBTS.
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