Was eating blood only wrong because it was associated with idolatry?<\/a>\u00a0We’ve also been teaching this in our local congregation, and I agree with everything that you wrote here.<\/p>\nAs mentioned, I’m doing my research because I came across a question that I am not able to answer just yet. Here in the Philippines, we have a popular “dish” called Balut. It’s a boiled, unhatched duck egg. I’ve always taught and stood that it is also forbidden because of the blood in it. Recently, I received a question: What about anchovies? In preparing those tiny fish for cooking, we don’t bleed them one by one. Same with other similar animals. I understand this may be a strange question to you, brother, since we do have weird dishes here (we make patties out of those anchovies!\ud83d\ude05) than what you have over there in the States.<\/p>\n
I hope you will be able to shed some light on this for me from the Scriptures, I want to grow more in my knowledge and rightly divide the word of truth concerning items like these.<\/p>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
Balut is made from a developing bird’s egg. Since the embryo in the egg has a beating heart, even though it has not developed enough to live outside of the egg, it is still life with blood. The cooking process is no different than cooking a strangled animal — the blood is not drained. “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood<\/strong> and from things strangled<\/strong> and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well<\/em>” (Acts 15:28-29).<\/p>\nWith anchovies, it depends on how the fish is processed. Typically, they are gutted, and sometimes the heads are removed. Both would cause blood to drain.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Hello brother, I read this post as part of my research and study: Was eating blood only wrong because it was associated with idolatry?\u00a0We’ve also been teaching this in our local congregation, and I agree with everything that you wrote here. As mentioned, I’m doing my research because I came across a question that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","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],"class_list":["post-60871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-blood"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29024,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-abstain-mean-we-have-the-freedom-to-choose-to-follow-or-not\/","url_meta":{"origin":60871,"position":0},"title":"Does “abstain” mean we have the freedom to choose to follow or not?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day brother Jeffrey, I need your help with this translation of Acts 15:20-29 because I do not have the knowledge to read this. I just came across one preacher who said the word \"abstain\" means to choose not to partake. We have the freedom to choose to follow\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":13698,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-eating-blood-only-wrong-because-it-was-associated-with-idolatry\/","url_meta":{"origin":60871,"position":1},"title":"Was eating blood only wrong because it was associated with idolatry?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been here a week and a half in Chile but having a discussion already with people. What is your opinion of eating or drinking the blood of an animal? Here they have a thing where they kill a lamb and then cook its blood in some spices\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":5044,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-donating-blood-or-organs-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":60871,"position":2},"title":"Is donating blood or organs wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is donating blood bad? Is donating it sinful if someone needs it right away to live? What about donating organs when someone is in need? What about allowing the government to relinquish your organs after your death? This is a big problem within the confines of our youth. There\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":46938,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-indulge-in-food-and-drink-at-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":60871,"position":3},"title":"Is it wrong to indulge in food and drink at worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it wrong for members of the church to indulge in food and drink while worship is happening? We have this problem, and I need an answer with Scripture, please. Thank you. Answer: I've noticed that people like to make rules instead of citing the Scriptures. It is that\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":6906,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-bring-coffee-to-services\/","url_meta":{"origin":60871,"position":4},"title":"Is it wrong to bring coffee to services?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: First off, I\u2019d like to thank you for your dedication to presenting the valuable information available on this website.\u00a0I know that God will continue to bless your efforts. As for my question, it\u2019s sort of an offshoot of the use of the building and eating in the building. I\u2019ve\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":24055,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-my-objection-to-clapping-during-singing-be-respected-as-a-weaker-brother\/","url_meta":{"origin":60871,"position":5},"title":"Should my objection to clapping during singing be respected as a weaker brother?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I recently came across your web site and have done some reading in your Question and Answer section which I have found most interesting. I attend a church of Christ of considerable size. Several, maybe 10-25 members clap in our song service to \"upbeat\" songs, but not all songs.\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\/60871","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=60871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}