Acts 15:20

Does this passage indicate that it is a sin to receive a blood transfusion?

PROBLEM: The ability of modern medicine to sustain life by blood transfusion is a common practice that has no doubt been used by Christians. However, this verse is used by some religious groups, such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, to claim that blood transfusions are against God’s will.

SOLUTION: This passage is talking about the OT restriction against eating or drinking blood (Genesis 9:3-4; cf. Acts 15:28-29). However, a blood transfusion is not “eating” or “drinking” blood. This is clear from several facts.

Fourth, it is clear that this OT passage is not primarily concerned with the eating of blood. Rather, it is primarily concerned with the fact that the life is in the blood. Leviticus 17:10-12 makes this plain:

The prohibitions in Genesis 9:3-4 and Leviticus 17:10-12 were primarily directed at eating flesh that was still pulsating with life because the lifeblood was still in it. But, the transfusion of blood is not eating flesh with the lifeblood still in it.

Finally, the prohibition in Acts was not necessarily given as a law by which Christians were to live, for the NT clearly teaches that we are not under law (Romans 6:14; Galatians 4:8-31). Rather, the Jerusalem counsel may have been advising Gentile Christians to respect their Jewish brethren by observing these practices, thereby not giving offense “either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God” (1 Corinthians 10:32). In any event, the restriction can in no way be construed as a prohibition against blood transfusions.