Blood (Gen 4:11)
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11 … to take your brother's blood from your hand. לָקַ֛חַת אֶת־דְּמֵ֥י אָחִ֖יךָ מִיָּדֶֽךָ׃
As we pointed out last time, our story does not treat Cain’s killing of Abel the way a murder mystery might. Did he kill him on purpose? How? How did he dispose of the corpse? In the context of Genesis 1–4 — not the story’s original context — did Cain really understand what death meant? The biblical text does not even ask, let alone answer, any of these questions. Instead, vv. 10–11 twice mention דמי־אחיך d’mei aḥikha ‘your brother’s blood’. The ground has opened its mouth to swallow that blood, and the blood itself has called out to YHWH from the ground — thereby becoming a character in the story. Let’s talk about it.
Abel’s blood (in vv. 10 and 11) is the first place in the Bible that the word dam occurs. In fact, it is plural in both cases, as it is (for no reason that is obvious to me) about five dozen times in the Bible. In rabbinic Hebrew, the plural damim can refer to a monetary value, but I suspect this comes from the root דמה d-m-h ‘resemble’, meaning “the equivalent” or something of the kind.
Is dam meant to resonate with adam or adama? To my ear, it isn’t; but I don’t insist it’s impossible. That resonance is clearly intended in Gen 9:6a, which we will be discussing one of these years (given here in the NJPS translation with my insertion):
Whoever sheds the blood of man [dam ha-adam],
By man [b’adam] shall his blood [damo] be shed
Since we don’t know how Cain killed Abel, we don’t even know whether he did literally shed Abel’s blood. That, however, is clearly not the point in Genesis 9, where the issue is murder, not shedding blood (which might happen accidentally or even beneficently in a health-care setting). That is because, as Lev 17:14 tells us, “the life of all flesh—its blood is its life.” The “life” here is the néfesh, which we saw repeatedly in Genesis 1, and which in Gen 2:7 seemed to be connected with breath. In Lev 17:14, and frequently elsewhere, it is blood — דם dam — that is the essence of life.
That is perhaps the reason why blood is an essential part of the ritual when an animal is sacrificed. Leviticus 1, which details the basics of such a sacrifice, presents them this way:
Lev 1:3 If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall make his offering a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, for acceptance in his behalf before the LORD. 4 He shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, that it may be acceptable in his behalf, in expiation for him. 5 The bull shall be slaughtered before the LORD; and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall offer the blood, dashing the blood against all sides of the altar which is at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. 6The burnt offering shall be flayed and cut up into sections. 7 The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and lay out wood upon the fire; 8 and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall lay out the sections, with the head and the suet, on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar. 9 Its entrails and legs shall be washed with water, and the priest shall turn the whole into smoke on the altar as a burnt offering, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the LORD,
10 If his offering for a burnt offering is from the flock, of sheep or of goats, he shall make his offering a male without blemish. 11 It shall be slaughtered before the LORD on the north side of the altar, and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall dash its blood against all sides of the altar …
14 If his offering to the LORD is a burnt offering of birds, he shall choose his offering from turtledoves or pigeons. 15 The priest shall bring it to the altar, pinch off its head, and turn it into smoke on the altar; and its blood shall be drained out against the side of the altar. [NJPS translation]
These are “burnt offerings,” meaning that the entire animal is “turned into smoke” that will rise to heaven as “a pleasing odor” for YHWH. First, however, the blood must be removed and “dashed” (or “drained” if it is a bird offering) against the side of the altar. We can speculate that the blood, which does not merely symbolize life but is the substance that provides life (that’s why plants do not “live” or “die” in the Bible) essentially belongs to God. Applying it to the altar is one way of returning that life to God.
Why not simply allow it to burn with the rest of the animal? Symbolically, what is put on top of the altar is God’s “meal,” the bread and meat and wine and oil with which the divine king of kings is supplied as any earthly king would be. And eating blood is, according to Jacob Milgrom in his Anchor Bible commentary to Leviticus, “the major theme of an entire chapter, Leviticus 17, where its centrality is certified not only by its length but by its unique wording:”
Lev 17:10 If any individual of the house of Israel or any alien who resides among them ingests (lit., “eats”) any blood, I will set my face against the person who ingests blood, and I will cut him off from his kin.… 12 Therefore I say to the Israelite people: No person among you shall ingest blood, nor shall any alien that resides among you ingest blood.… 14 And I say to the Israelite people: you shall not ingest the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Anyone who ingests it shall be cut off. [Milgrom’s translation]
We’ll say more about this when we get to Genesis 9, where the larger context of the prohibition to shed human blood first introduces the prohibition to eat the blood of any creature. For now, we’ll return to the story of Cain, where the “reprise” of Genesis 3 will continue with bad news for this (former) agriculturalist.