BLOOD -- WTS Questions and Sound Answers 12
Does the Bible say Abel never ate flesh with its blood?
The WTS writes:
"Abel never ate flesh with its blood, which is its soul or life. Abel was a God-fearing man, and the divine permission for mankind to eat the flesh of the lower animals and birds and fish had not yet been given. Likewise, Noah and his fellow flood survivors had not eaten flesh before the deluge, for the same reason. With full respect for the precious value and meaning of blood, God now permitted mankind to eat the flesh of animals and birds, but not along with the blood of the creature eaten." -- Anonymous, Innocence by Respect for Sacredness of Blood, The Watchtower, Watchtower Bible & Tract Society, Inc. 1959 11/1: 646 (Underlining added)
So the WTS asserts that Abel never ate flesh. Do we find in the Bible a statement that Abel never ate animal flesh with its blood? No. So how does the WTS try and substantiate its claim?
According to the WTS, mankind had not been given divine permission as of Abel's time to eat the flesh of lower animals, whether that flesh was living or dead. (Whether the Bible agrees is discussed below.) The WTS (and the Bible) also depicts Abel as God-fearing. Therefore, the WTS proposes that Abel never ate flesh with its blood. This is another hasty induction in WTS teaching. This is because the absence of specific permission does not substantiate that a particular act was never engaged in. For example, when it comes to food items, there is no indication of specific divine permission to drink water. But we know every living human (including Abel) consumes water. So the absence of specific permission to eat the flesh of lower animals is no more conclusive evidence that Abel never ate flesh (as the WTS suggests) than the absence of specific permission to drink water is conclusive evidence that Abel never drank water!
Abel Kept Animals, Knew How to Butcher, and He Knew God's Word
The Bible depicts Abel as a man who kept animals in a flock. It also depicts him as a man that knew how to butcher/dress animal flesh because he made distinction of parts (i.e. "fatty pieces"). If Abel had never eaten animal flesh then why would he have kept flocks of sheep and learned how to butcher their flesh, and also to determine the choice/best pieces? The WTS' proposition does not address this question. Abel knew what happened to dead carcasses because God had provided the instruction. Abel knew that dead carcasses became dirt/dust. Also, without a doubt Abel had observed that carcasses fertilized vegetation around their decaying bodies. Abel also would have known that without dirt/dust you do not have vegetation. This cycle was a way for Abel to know that dead carcasses helped grow vegetation just as he would have known that water and dirt grow vegetation. Here the text of Genesis 2:7 and 3:14, 19 prove interesting.
Dust is Dead Flesh and Dead Flesh is Dust
"And Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul." -- Genesis 2:7
"And Jehovah God proceeded to say to the serpent: "Because you have done this thing, you are the cursed one out of all the domestic animals and out of all the wild beasts of the field. Upon your belly you will go and dust is what you will eat all the days of your life." -- Genesis 3:14
"For dust you are and to dust you will return." -- Genesis 3:19
From this information Abel would have known that human flesh was made of dust and that after death the flesh returned to the dust. To this end, a dead body was synonymous with dust. As the scripture above says, "dust you are." Would Abel have had any reason to think that dust was a food item? Look again at the text quoted above of Genesis 3:14.
"Dust" is Food
God instructed the serpent that he would eat "dust," the serpent was assigned dust as a food item. Abel must have been fully aware of this instruction from God that dust could serve as a food item. Had Abel experimented with eating dirt/dust -- like many children have -- then he would have learned what most children decide, that dirt is not too tasty or satisfying. However, if Abel was the studious man the WTS asserts he was(1) then he had reason to at least experiment with dead carcasses as food because 1) God had indicated "dust" as a food item, 2) God had equated dust with dead flesh, 3) God had not forbidden this food item like he did the "tree of life" and 4) dead carcasses grow the vegetables God had given specific permission to eat. (Genesis 1:29-30) Given God's express permission (edict!) for the serpent to eat "dust" as a food item then Abel had probably also witnessed a serpent doing just that. Do serpents eat dirt? Not that I am aware of. But, do serpents eat carrion (dead flesh)? Yes.(2)
Noteworthy here is specific language of the Noachian Decree. In part it says:
"Every moving animal that is alive may serve as food for YOU. As in the case of green vegetation, I do give it all to YOU. Only flesh with its soul-its blood-YOU must not eat." -- Genesis 9:3 NWT (Underlining added)
With these words God addresses not dead animals but rather "every moving animal that is alive." Further, God directs Noah that he can only eat these animals after killing them because verse 4 says Noah cannot eat the flesh with its soul. The Bible and the WTS teaches that "soul" stands for "life." So verse 4 is an instruction that Noah can only eat animals after taking their life, that is after killing them.
Permission Required?
The interesting aspect of the Noachian Decree is that at no point does it give specific permission to eat carrion, as though specific permission would've been required then or at any other time. This is of note because we know that today it is common for animals to eat carrion. This is true despite the Genesis statement from God that animals were given specific permission to eat vegetation. So the question is: if the absence of specific permission demonstrates that God's creatures "never ate flesh with its blood" then at why do we see God's creatures eating carrion without any record of permission to do so?
We know God took care to record his permission for animals to eat vegetation just as he took time to record his permission for humans to eat vegetation. If 1) we assume animal creatures do what God intends them to do at any given time, and 2) since nowhere does God take care to record his permission to animals to eat carrion then we must 3) assume it was already God's intention that carrion serve as food for whatever (or whoever) wanted it. As evidenced by His statement to the serpent, God had already acknowledged "dust" as a food item, and He also equated "dust" with dead flesh.
So, does the Bible say Abel never ate flesh with its blood? No.
To the contrary, there is reason to believe that Abel did eat flesh, that is flesh of dead animals. If true then Abel ate flesh along with its blood because in most instances it is impossible to significantly drain blood from animals after only a short time from death.
Of course, we have no conclusive evidence that Abel at flesh that he found dead. But, according to the Genesis account, we do have evidence that carrion (flesh of dead animals) was a food item as early as the time of Adam and Eve's sin. Therefore it is untrue that the only food item God acknowledged and permitted to animals was green vegetation. If Genesis 1:29-30 is incomplete in respect to the diet of animals then what cause do we have to conclude that it is complete as to the diet of humans?
Marvin Shilmer
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Reference:
1. WTS literature depicts Abel as a thinking person. In one instance the WTS says of Abel that he "gave much thought" to an issue. (See: Anonymous, Discerning the Principle Reflects Maturity, The Watchtower, Watchtower Bible & Tract Society, Inc. 1997 10/15: 28) In another instance WTS literature speaks of "Abel's spiritual insight" (See: Anonymous, Brothers Who Developed Different Attitudes, The Watchtower, Watchtower Bible & Tract Society, Inc. 2002 1/15: 21)
2. See excerpt from The Snake: An Owner's Guide To A Happy Healthy Pet by Lenny Flank, 1997 at http://www.anapsid.org/prekill2.html