and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls,
for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”
Leviticus 17:11
The History
Let the blood… this procedure used to be the solution to almost every medical problem.
Considered one of medicine’s oldest practices, bloodletting is thought to have originated around 3,000 years ago in ancient Egypt. It spread to Greece, where physicians who lived in the third century B.C. believed that all illnesses stemmed from an overabundance of blood or “plethora”. In fact, whether you were a Greek suffering from fever or an Egyptian with a migraine, your doctor would likely have tried bloodletting before any other treatment.
In the second century A.D., the influential Galen of Pergamum expanded on Hippocrates’ earlier theory that good health required a perfect balance of the four “humors” which were blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Galen’s writings and teachings made bloodletting a common technique throughout the Roman Empire.
Before long the practice flourished in India and the Arab world and spread through Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In medieval Europe, bloodletting became the standard treatment for everything from plaque and smallpox to epilepsy and gout. Ancient medical texts abound with special instruction and detailed charts indicating the parts of the body to be bled for different diseases.
There were several methods of bloodletting. Most commonly, the patient was cut with a knife or sharpened piece of wood, usually in the median cubital vein at the elbow, with the blood flowing into a vessel below. This is referred to as venesection. Sometimes the skin was scraped with a cube-shaped brass box containing multiple small knives, referred to as scarification, and was followed by cupping which involved placing a dome-shaped glass over the skin and extracting the air by suction, promoting the flow of blood through the wounds. Leeches were also used for bloodletting.
Throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, most physicians of note recommended bloodletting and adjusted their medical theories to provide explanation for its merit. At the end of the eighteenth century and in the early nineteenth century, the practice of bloodletting reached a high point. (1)
The daily application of the therapy, followed by numerous recoveries, provided all the proof physicians needed that bloodletting was effective… the science was settled.
In 1836, the prominent American physician, J.J. Jackson stated that, “If anything may be regarded as settled in the treatment of diseases, it is that bloodletting is useful in the class of diseases called inflammatory.” (2)
The American physician, Benjamin Rush (1746-1813), who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, unabashedly promoted vomits, purges and salivation along with the procedure of bleeding. Rush is notorious in medical history for his resorting to massive bleedings during the epidemics of yellow fever at the end of the 18th century.
In 1793, Rush told a crowd of people that, “I treat my patients successfully by bloodletting, and copious purging with calomel and jalop and I advise you, my good friends, to use the same remedies.” “What?” called a voice from the crowd, “Bleed and purge everyone?” “Yes,” said the doctor, “bleed and purge all Kensington.” (3)
Bloodletting was so much the standard-of-care that it was practiced in all layers of society including amongst the religious and royalty.
Even Jewish communities were drawn into adopting bloodletting, though perhaps less rigorously than other cultures. Bloodletting is frequently mentioned in the Talmud (the central religious texts of Jews auxiliary to the Bible) and is mentioned in other late Hebrew literature also. It was recommended for specific ailments and performed not by a physician but by a skilled functionary called an unman or gara. (4)
In medieval times, bloodletting was practiced in monastic communities across Europe, such as those in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. One of the main reasons bloodlettings were so widely practiced in these communities was to deplete the energy of monks so they did not give in to temptation.
Several monastic customaries devote an entire chapter to the practice of bloodletting, revealing some interesting information. First, bloodletting was a routine practice done for healthy monks… you were not allowed to have a bloodletting if you were ill or fasting, such as during Advent. Second, the monasteries prohibited bloodletting during the harvest season when work requirements were much higher. During the remainder of the year, however, if you were a monk, you might pop along into the warming-house in the late morning or early afternoon, having had a snack in the refectory first.
Significant amounts of blood might be let numerous times throughout a calendar year. Accounts suggest that monks might lose up to four pints of blood during a letting. In fact, monks were so weakened by the experience that they needed to spend several days recuperating: “On the third day after the bloodletting, the monk joined the rest of the community for some of the offices and might start doing a spot of light reading.” (5)
In 1163 a church edict prohibited monks and priests, who often stood in as doctors within the community, from performing bloodletting and secularized medicine (treating the physical body apart from the soul) and clearly stated that the church abhorred the procedure. The edict, along with other factors, served as a catalyst for the separation of physical health from spiritual health.
Partly in response to this injunction, barbers began offering a range of services that included bloodletting, tooth extractions, lancing and even amputations, along with the standard trim or shave. In fact, the modern striped barber’s pole hearkens back to the bloodstained towels that would hang outside the offices of these “barber-surgeons”.
(I bet you’ll never look at a barber’s pole the same way again!)
(In)Famous bleedings
When the King of England, Charles II (1630-1685), suffered a seizure his physician immediately withdrew sixteen ounces of blood from his arm, followed by another eight ounces from cupping. He endured a regimen of emetics, enemas, purgatives, and mustard plasters followed by more bleeding from the jugular veins. He had more seizures and received further treatment. In total, King Charles II had twenty-four ounces of blood let before he finally succumbed to death on February 6, 1685.
America’s first president, George Washington (1732-1799) was another unfortunate, albeit famous recipient of the practice. After riding in snowy weather, the evening before, Washington woke one morning with a bad sore throat, fever, and symptoms of respiratory distress. An avid proponent of bloodletting, Washington asked to be bled the next day, and physicians drained an estimated five to seven pints of blood from his body in less than sixteen hours. Washington died on December 14, less than forty-eight hours after his symptoms developed; his medical treatment aroused a lot of controversy, particularly the bloodletting.
When one considers the history of bloodletting… and yet lives in the 21st century, it is difficult to fathom how the practice could have persisted so long. Bloodletting was being practiced wholesale without understanding of hygiene or infection and in very unsanitary conditions without anesthetics or modern antiseptics. Countless lives were lost due to anemia, secondary infection and excessive loss of blood following the procedure.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, influential physicians such as Andreas Vesalius (6) (1514-1564) and William Harvey (1578-1657) had exposed the significant errors of ancient understanding of anatomy and physiology. Yet, the practice continued for another 200 years.
Thankfully, the tide eventually did begin to turn. Physicians like Dr. Hughes Bennett (1812-1875) of Edinburgh and Dr. Pierre Louis (1787-1872) of Paris were skeptical of the practice and began to analyze the statistics following the procedure. Bennett observed that patients with pneumonia had improved outcomes that paralleled the decreased usage of bloodletting for that illness. To his dismay, Louis’s statistical analyses showed that bloodlettingincreased, rather than decreased, mortality.
In America, physician J.J. Jackson of the Massachusetts General Hospital doubted Louis’s results… but found similar results with his own patients when he did a statistical comparison. (7)
As observed in previous posts, medical orthodoxy is often difficult to overcome. Thankfully, statistics and fresh observation were starting to prove that for thousands of years phlebotomy had been successful to accomplish two things: (1) It increased mortality among patients with systemic diseases such as pneumonia, and (2) It convinced millions of physicians and their patients that it was saving lives.
After 1830, the practice gradually declined until, by the beginning of the 20th century, it had all but disappeared. However, in some areas such as China and the Middle East, people still practice a form of bloodletting today. (8)
Of course, modern medicine now largely understands how flawed this “treatment” really was. Blood is fundamental for life. It carries out a wide range of extremely complicated functions.
The most important function of blood, and there are about a thousand such important functions… is to facilitate cellular respiration. The blood delivers oxygen, minerals, and nutrients to every cell of every organ and tissue while removing carbon dioxide and other metabolic waste. Without this function, in a matter of just 2-3 minutes cells begin to die. Without the flow of blood through the body, death is imminent.
A Brief Sidenote: Even while they were still practicing bloodletting, doctors began to experiment with blood transfusions. Early experiments in the seventeenth century involved transfusions of animal blood into humans, usually with disastrous results. Today we understand that different blood types have a different molecular structure in the red blood cells. We also understand that human blood is not interchangeable with animal blood. If a patient is given blood of the wrong type, it can cause a reaction that can be fatal, because the patient’s immune system attacks the foreign blood cells as invaders.
A Biblical Lens
Centuries before modern medicine understood that blood carries vital oxygen to every cell of the body, the Bible clearly states that the blood is crucial to human and animal life. If they only would have read and considered Leviticus 17:14 which states, “For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life,”... Perhaps this bleeding practice would not have persisted for centuries!
In Hosea 4:6 we read that, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” For a very long time, in the case of bloodletting, people were perishing physically, as well as spiritually, from not knowing or applying the Word of God.
Blood, of course, is incredibly significant throughout all of Scripture. The first mention of it is in Genesis 4:10 when God speaks to Cain following the murder of his brother Abel. God tells Cain “Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” And then God sentences Cain to wander the earth as punishment for his sin in shedding Abel’s blood.
In Genesis 9 when God first approves of eating meat for Noah and his family, He prohibits eating any meat that hadn’t been properly bled out. God gives Noah everything that lives and moves for food but states plainly in verse 4, “But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.”
God continues, demanding accountability for any murder of a human being for “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.” (Genesis 9:6) God designed blood to sustain physical life and the life of man is precious to God.
Blood is nutrient rich so many primitive cultures would consume it. But God commanded even animal blood to be spilled on the ground (Lev. 17:13): Consuming it was strictly forbidden. God commands His people, “None of you may eat the blood, nor may any foreigner residing among you eat blood” (vs. 12) and, “Whoever eats it shall be cut off” (vs.14).
Today, of course, we understand that there are many diseases that can be transmitted through contact with blood including AIDS, Hepatitis, and mad cow disease. In fact, applicable to both animals and humans, we can accurately state that “the lifestyle is in the blood.”
In Leviticus 15:28 and Numbers 19:11, God commands the Israelites to avoid contact with the blood of others and to cleanse themselves when exposed to it. Today, physicians and first responders take great precaution to protect themselves from other people’s blood in emergency and healthcare situations.
In the New Testament, the injunction to abstain from consuming blood is renewed in the decree of the council of Jerusalem to Gentile believers. In Acts 15:29, the apostles and elders urge the new believers to “… abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.”
The Biblical restrictions were put in place to protect Israel and identify them as a chosen people of God, separate from the pagan world around them. The proper sacrifice of animals and disposing of blood, respecting blood, and not mutilating oneself, as commanded in the Bible, limited the Israelites involvement with the heathen around them, separating them from their ungodly, often demonically influenced neighbours and “setting them apart” to the one true God.
In the case of the New Testament Gentile believers, idol worship, consumption of blood and immorality were inextricably linked in the society surrounding Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, where this message was delivered. By abstaining from these things, the young Gentile believers were encouraged and strengthened to stand in their new faith in Jesus and to be separate from the pagan world around them.
The above restrictions surrounding blood, given to the people of God centuries ago, have proven to be both practical and useful…and far advanced of medical or scientific understanding. God’s design is that our physical life is sustained through our blood.
More importantly though, blood is an integral part of God’s design of salvation. In Leviticus 17:11 God explicitly states, “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”
The shedding of innocent blood is the remedy for sin and the heart of the gospel message. First, God provided the temporary remedy of an innocent animal, and then, Jesus provided the permanent one with his own blood shed for us on the cross. Hebrews 9:22 summarizes that “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Our eternal spiritual life is only sustained through the shed blood of Christ.
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,
we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus, his Son,
purifies us from all sin.”
1 John 1:7
Then and Now (Digging Deeper…)
The Bible teaches about both righteous and wicked practices related to the proper use of blood. History reveals not only the flawed medical thinking but also the religious perversion surrounding the shedding of blood.
To be clear, the true religion came first. All pagan religions are a corruption of the original which is why you often see fragments of Biblical truth in false religions. In the true religion, God provided animals for sacrifice to cover sin until Jesus came to make the permanent sacrifice. But the mythos of separation from “the gods” are observed in most ancient cultures. It comes as no surprise then, that as blood is at the center of the salvation story, it is also central to the practice of false religion.
The Word of God in 1 Kings 18 gives a detailed example of blood letting by the prophets of Baal. In verse 28, it recounts that “And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.” Verse 28 describes this devil-worshipping, self-mutilation, bloodletting was “…after their manner…”. In other words, bloodletting was a common ritual among the prophets of Baal.
It's also evident from other scriptures that cutting of the flesh or bloodletting was common practice among the pagan, wicked nations. In Leviticus 21:5 we read, “They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.” In Deuteronomy 14:1 we read, “You are the children of the Lord your God: you shall not cut yourselves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.”
In the Bible we also see that the cutting and mutilating of oneself was associated with possession by demons. In Mark chapter 5, we read of the demon possessed man who was tormented, “And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones” (vs.5). (Thankfully, Jesus healed the man and restored him to both spiritual and physical heath.)
In medieval times, as hairdressers lanced veins in an attempt to cure Europe’s ailments, peoples in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica used bloodletting for a very different purpose. For the ancient Maya, bloodletting rituals (called ch'ahb') were a way that nobles communicated with their gods and royal ancestors. The word ch'ahb' means "penance" in the Mayan Ch'olan language. The bloodletting practice usually involved only the highest nobles who would perforate their own body parts including their tongues, lips, and genitals. Both men and women practiced these types of sacrifices.
Ritual bloodletting, along with fasting, tobacco smoking, and ritual enemas, was utilized by the royal Maya in order to provoke a trance-like state in which they reportedly experienced visions of deities or their ancestors: The trances were used to petition for rain, good harvests, and success in warfare, among other needs and desires.
Though usually carried out in private, in secluded temple rooms on the top of pyramids, public blood letting ceremonies were also held in honour of special occasions such as a birth, death, marriage and the beginning or end of war, and masses of people attended them. These public displays were used by the rulers to demonstrate to their people their ability to communicate with the gods. (9)
The significance of blood in God’s design of creation and salvation is clearly apparent but at the same time, the devil has twisted the concept of blood as part of his scheme to kill, steal and destroy. This is evidenced in satanic rituals and deviant practices both evident in the pages of history and practiced today.
Under the definition of “Satanism”, the Encyclopedia of American Religions, lists bloodletting among the activities still performed by Satanists. “In this branch of Satanism… one can expect to find these individuals engaged in grave robbery, sexual assaults, and the ritual blood letting…” (10)
Throughout history the cutting of the flesh and bloodletting are rituals performed to unleash demonic and supernatural powers. Because the "life of the flesh is in the blood" (they believe the scriptures!) the blood is highly valued in the occult as the "power source".
The Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult, defines blood as follows: "BLOOD (occult; Satanism). The vitalizing or life-giving agent used in the sacrament of the BLACK MASS. Blood is believed to provide power and life and therefore plays a central part in ritualistic sacrifices." (10)
The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft states that, "blood: called the "river of life", blood is identified with the soul and is the vehicle that carries the vital energy of the universe through the body. In magic, blood is revered and feared for the miraculous power it possesses and confers. Blood that is let is believed to unleash power." (11)
Far from antiquated, Satanism is a growing religion even within Canada. (12) Satanic and pagan practices involving bloodletting are still carried out today all over the world. (13)
Even in contemporary culture, the letting and consuming of blood is being used to restore youth and vitality. Celebrity Kim Kardashian made waves in 2013 when she revealed her use of a now popular new facial treatment. “Vampire facials” involve drawing blood from a client’s body, placing it in a centrifuge, then reapplying it to the face, supposedly to promote cell renewal. Despite the pain, risks of infection and hefty price tag, the treatment remains popular among the rich. (14)
The drinking of blood is gaining popularity in the mainstream, due in part to a study conducted by University College of London and published in Nature in 2013 which found that the blood of young mice transfused into older mice increased energy levels in the older mice. (15) A quick google search reveals all you need to know about the modern-day controversy.(16)
But everything old is new again… as this practice, too, has ancient roots. Historian, Richard Sugg, who literally wrote the book on these things (Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Middle Ages to the Falun Gong), says the earliest documented cases of consuming human blood for health come from ancient Rome. Pliny the Elder, the 1st century naturalist, describes spectators descending on wounded or slain gladiators “to quaff the warm, breathing blood from man himself, and, as they apply their mouth to the wound, to draw forth his very life.”
Modern historians believe the Romans borrowed their blood-drinking practices from even older Etruscan rituals, and many of their ideas surrounding blood’s supposed medicinal and magical values from Greek physician-philosophers. Later records suggest that cultures far outside of the Roman sphere of influence, such as China, almost certainly had their own distinct medicinal human blood consumption traditions, as well.
Historic accounts reveal that both Louis XI of France and Pope Innocent VIII drank the blood of young boys for their health in the late 15th century. (17) Historical records reveal recipes for things as disgusting as “blood jam” (1679): This 17th-century recipe recommended using fluid drained from “persons of warm, moist temperament.” (18) Consistent accounts of people in Germanic and Scandinavian countries flocking to executions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the hopes of catching some spilled blood to consume suggest that in some places consuming of blood was common.
The Romans and many later European cultures consumed human blood to treat epilepsy as they believed it was a disease of the soul and that an infusion of blood from a young, healthy body would mitigate it. In fact, most of the records of human hematophagy (feeding on blood) in Europe come not from antiquity, but from the early modern era.
Even figures we now consider the forefathers of modern, empirical science endorsed human blood consumption. Robert Boyle, the Irish naturalist and innovative chemist, was reportedly obsessed with the idea that the essence within blood could act as a borderline panacea.
Of course, all this sounds disgusting: History consistently reveals the faulty medical thinking, superstition and religious perversion surrounding the shedding of blood. But it is apparent that the consuming of blood for medicinal reasons was trending even while the letting of blood was practiced by our ancestors.
Conclusion (?).
The Biblical concept of “the life is in the blood” is another example where God’s Word has proven to be practically true centuries before medicine and science caught on.
The ancient medical practice of bloodletting did not have its roots in truth and in fact, appears to stand in direct opposition to it. Sadly, if people would have heeded the Biblical text, given to the Israelites through Moses, and reiterated to the New Testament church, countless lives spanning centuries may have been spared.
The medical procedure of bloodletting appears to have more in common with false religion then true worship of God, no matter who practiced it, and it is difficult to completely divorce the letting of blood as a medical procedure from a climate of consuming blood, idolatry and superstition.
Historically, bloodletting originated amongst the pagan nations, yet it was accepted and practiced by most of the world, even by many who were religious and “godly”. Was it really just a misguided medical practice that held on long after it was outdated? Or was the medical procedure of bloodletting a direct example of syncretism with pagan religion and idolatry?
We can be thankful that, on the most part, modern medicine has abandoned the abhorrent practice of bloodletting. But we need to remain diligent even today, to take every thought and every ideology captive to the Word of God. Over and over, the Bible proves itself as the source of truth and wisdom that transcends time.
Yikes! I have a friend who talked about royals consuming the blood of babies in an effort to remain young. I guess it's not as far-fetched as I thought! :'(
No, unfortunately.
Yikes! I have a friend who talked about royals consuming the blood of babies in an effort to remain young. I guess it's not as far-fetched as I thought! :'(