Given by: the angel of the presence to Moses on Sinai, recounting God's command to Noah's household. Given to: Israel, taught that even in eating there is a line marking the sacredness of life.

Surrounding peoples used blood freely in ritual and diet; the prohibition set Noah's line, and later Israel, apart as those who treated life as belonging to God and not to be casually consumed.

But flesh, with the life thereof, with the blood, ye shall not eat; for the life of all flesh is in the blood, lest your blood of your lives be required. At the hand of every man, at the hand of every (beast) will I require the blood of man.

God permits flesh for food but forbids consuming the blood, because the life is in the blood — a boundary that teaches reverence for the life God alone owns.

Jubilees 6:7

Your Spirit

Loves God

Loves Neighbor

Your Body

Moral Behaviour