{"id":19355,"date":"2009-07-05T21:08:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-06T02:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=19355"},"modified":"2020-01-30T21:12:44","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T03:12:44","slug":"since-lobsters-and-crabs-are-cooked-whole-does-that-violate-the-law-not-to-eat-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/since-lobsters-and-crabs-are-cooked-whole-does-that-violate-the-law-not-to-eat-blood\/","title":{"rendered":"Since lobsters and crabs are cooked whole, does that violate the law not to eat blood?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

Some foods like lobster and crab are cooked “as-is” without having the blood removed from the animal.\u00a0 Does this violate Acts 15:20 which instructs Christians not to eat blood?<\/p>\n

Thank you for your devotion to the scriptures and teaching others.<\/p>\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

This is a question I never considered before and never heard discussed. Thank you for the interesting time in study and meditation.<\/p>\n

Lobsters and crabs are in a family of animals with external shells that serve as the skeleton of the animal (exoskeleton). Most insects fall into this same category.<\/p>\n

In the Old Testament, lobsters and crabs were unclean food because they did not have scales and fins (Leviticus 11:10). But not all life with exoskeletons were off-limits. “Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that creeps on all fours: those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth. These you may eat: the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind<\/em>” (Leviticus 11:21-22). I’m not an expert in these matters but as far as I know, these insects are cooked whole.<\/p>\n

Life with exoskeletons have an open circulatory system. They do not have blood vessels; they don’t even have blood cells. Other similar systems function in these life-forms instead. This system is called\u00a0hemolymph<\/a>. Since the circulation system is open, as soon as the shell is cracked, the liquid we would consider equivalent to blood runs out. People don’t notice because the liquid is clear and most just consider it to be water. Thus when you pull the meat from the lobster’s tail, the hemolymph runs out, leaving you just the meat.<\/p>\n

This is vastly different from invertebrates with closed circulatory systems. If the meat is cooked without first draining the blood, the blood is trapped inside the meat.<\/p>\n

Therefore, I would be inclined to conclude that eating shellfish, such as lobsters and crabs cooked whole, are not a violation of avoiding foods with the blood still in them.<\/p>\n\t

Response:<\/h2>\n

Thank you very much for your detailed response on this. Very interesting! I appreciate the knowledge that I can use in more correctly serving God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: Some foods like lobster and crab are cooked “as-is” without having the blood removed from the animal.\u00a0 Does this violate Acts 15:20 which instructs Christians not to eat blood? Thank you for your devotion to the scriptures and teaching others. Answer: This is a question I never considered before and never heard discussed. Thank…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[768,240,241],"class_list":["post-19355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-blood","tag-diet","tag-food"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20541,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-far-should-a-christian-go-in-making-sure-meat-was-properly-prepared\/","url_meta":{"origin":19355,"position":0},"title":"How far should a Christian go in making sure meat was properly prepared?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How far does God expect Christians to go in determining if meat has been properly prepared for consumption (i.e. the blood has been drained and the animal has not been strangled)?\u00a0 I know that I Corinthians 10:25-31 talks about not asking questions for (the other person's) conscience' sake, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16984,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/even-if-jesus-existed-why-did-he-last-eat-herbs-and-fruit\/","url_meta":{"origin":19355,"position":1},"title":"Even if Jesus existed, why did he last eat herbs and fruit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Wrong on\u00a0ALL counts. So if he did exist, and some\u00a0doubt it now, why did he lastly eat herb and fruit , reiterating genesis 1\/29--perhaps he really was veggie -YOU\u00a0don't know You obviously don't understand communion then. And god allowed carrion when he spoke to Noah, I am sure. Any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54740,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-christians-eat-animals-caught-in-a-trap\/","url_meta":{"origin":19355,"position":2},"title":"Can Christians eat animals caught in a trap?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please, sir, can Christians eat animals caught with a trap? Answer: There are no rules about how an animal is obtained. What is required is that the meat is processed such that blood is drained from the meat. \"For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44206,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-misused-verses-in-did-jesus-eat-meat\/","url_meta":{"origin":19355,"position":3},"title":"You misused verses in “Did Jesus Eat Meat?”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was just reading\u00a0Was Jesus a Vegetarian? Did Jesus Eat Meat? on your website, and I came across this passage: \"It is true that in the beginning, mankind only ate vegetables (Genesis 1:29-30). However, this was changed when Noah departed the ark. \"Every moving thing that is alive shall\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21911,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-can-animals-be-used-for-food-but-not-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":19355,"position":4},"title":"Why can animals be used for food, but not men?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If\u00a0\"Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs\" according to\u00a0your post on PETA's statement that Jesus did not eat meat - what prevents people from eating each other?\u00a0 I am a vegetarian who eats fish.\u00a0 I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70847,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-werent-the-israelites-allowed-to-eat-fat\/","url_meta":{"origin":19355,"position":5},"title":"Why weren’t the Israelites allowed to eat fat?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: First, I wanted to say thank you for all that you do! Your articles are very helpful in learning the truth of God's word. I am contacting you today because I saw a discussion for which I did not have an answer. It concerns Leviticus 3:17, \"It shall be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}