ONE OF THE ELEMENTS that flows through every living thing in creation and becomes one of the earliest symbols in the Bible is blood. In fact, it is so prevalent I hesitate to call it a metaphor for fear that that may belittle it. That is, some may think of a metaphor as just a ‘cartoon’, a caricature, a picture in a child’s primer, to be used and forgotten on the path to greater understanding.
But blood is far more than that.
As with all of these biblical metaphors, blood deserves more than a single post. But for now, we’re just going to get a sampling.
The Bible Gets Right to the Point
Within the first four chapters of the Bible, we are introduced to blood—and its connection to life and sacrifice—not once but twice.
After Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God’s one commandment, “… the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife” (Genesis 3:21). It may take the reader a moment to realize that this was the first sacrifice, as animals don’t give up their skins unless their blood is shed. And this skinning was for the sole purpose of covering Adam’s newly realized nakedness.
One short chapter later, Cain spills the blood of Abel (Genesis 4:10) because Cain would not spill the blood of a sacrificial animal, hoping (or pretending) that an offering of fruit would be sufficient for that part of worship they understood at the time. Was he unknowingly repeating his parents’ mistake, thinking plants could ‘cover’ him, instead of blood?
The blood that Cain then spills (that of Abel his brother) echoes through scripture, from the Old Testament book of Genesis (Genesis 4:10), to the New Testament gospels (Luke 11:51), and the letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 12:24)
Blood is Everywhere.
Again, from the Old to the New Testament, blood is life and life is blood: “The life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11), “The blood is the life” (Deuteronomy 12:23). “Whoever drinks my blood has eternal life” (John 6:54). Sometimes it speaks of the value of human life—as in murder. On the flip side, it speaks of what it takes to redeem human life—as in salvation.
The image of blood is connected with other metaphors, such as the color red: “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:8). We would think that sins would be colored black—the opposite of white. But the prophet uses red. Does this imply blood-red? There is no other usage of the color to symbolize sin. It more likely depicts the stain of sin. “Red” and “scarlet” are two types of dyes that were much-prized in the ancient Middle East. But the second type was actually “double-dyed,” that is, even more indelible than the first.
Modern medicine knows that blood transmits oxygen and nutrients to the cells and carries away waste products. When that fluid is drained, the organism dies. “The life is in the blood.” This, of course, would be meaningless to some nonsanguinated race of aliens but, as we’ll see, all metaphors in scripture are used by our Maker to communicate to us within our context, within the world in which he made us.
So, is it the pervasiveness of the element that is the point? Or, is it because it can so easily be spilled and lost? Or, is it because it can actually be shared as a life-giving fluid? Or, is it that it leaves such an indelible stain? Well, take your choice!
To end on a personal note, I am undecided about poetically expanding the metaphor into a ‘fountain of blood’, an image frequent both in hymns and Renaissance paintings. If my Bible concordance is accurate, that phrase only occurs in scripture when referring to menstruation. Along with that, the image is regularly maligned as grotesque or foolish by those who don’t see its tenuous connection to atonement. In fact, in the days of the COVID epidemic, the phrase “I’m covered in the blood of Jesus” was being used by some believers as an excuse for not taking health precautions. The statement—and the belief behind it—was (rightly) ridiculed.
Some would say the image is only appropriating the words of Revelation 7:14, but the judgment-day setting of that verse is so different than this present-day usage. Again, this author prefers to avoid using the phrase, which is never used in scripture to refer to salvation, in favor of something more understandable to the biblically uninitiated.