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 a draining of the blood.<\/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,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"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":8697,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-work-at-mcdonalds-or-sell-twinkies\/","url_meta":{"origin":60871,"position":4},"title":"Is it wrong to work at McDonald’s or sell Twinkies?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If it is clearly wrong from a biblical standpoint to work in the tobacco industry is it also wrong to work at a McDonalds or sell Twinkies? If I Corinthians 6:19 is prohibiting substances that are harmful to the body (besides sexual sin), then you can just as well\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":16930,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-help-me-with-some-arguments-from-a-messianic-jew\/","url_meta":{"origin":60871,"position":5},"title":"Can you help me with some arguments from a Messianic Jew?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a friend who was a Christian and recently left the Church of Christ to join a group of people who call themselves Messianic Jews.\u00a0 My friend, and many other people, were told by the person who they call the rabbi of that group that everyone in 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":[]}],"_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}]}}