Ancient blood

Feder summarizes the scholarly consensus on the use of blood in Mesopotamian ritual, which, he says, “has little in common with the expiatory use of blood in the Bible.”

He elaborates: “In Mesopotamian rites, blood is usually associated with chthonic deities. In numerous cases, blood is applied to the door posts as a prophylactic means of repelling demons. The blood is intended to satisfy their blood lust so that they will not attack the ritual patron. Similarly, foundation rituals required the smearing of the foundation stones with blood in order to appease the infernal deities for the invasion of their territory. These apotropaic and propitiatory uses must be distinguished from the use of blood to remove metaphysical evil (impurity, sin, etc.) in the Hittite and biblical evidence. In other Meopotamian rituals, blood is also applied to a patient’s body in order to heal epilepsy and other illnesses.” He finds only one text where blood is used in a manner closer to Israel’s: the zukru festival of Emar, where “After eating and drinking, they rub all of the stones with oil and blood.” He compares this to the consecration of the altar in the ordination rites of Exodus 29 and Leviticus 8-9, but concludes that the rite is not the same: “the Emar blood rite repeats itself over the course of the festival,” and it seems that the blood is not a consecration but “preparation for the passage of Dagan between the stones” (an interesting item in itself – a birth? a Passover of sorts?)

Greek evidence for expiatory blood is much stronger.

“One of the earliest references to a blood rite is found in Heraclitus’ . . . criticism of a practice of washing away bloodguilt with blood. This theme finds abundant expression in the tragedies, in which a murderer washes his hands in blood, usually that of a pig, to cleanse himself from guilt.” Blood is used to heal, and can “exorcise the demonic Erinyes from the patient’s body by appealing to their blood lust.” Greek temples and cities were purified with blood: “These rites involved the encircling of the area with a pig in order to absorb the impurity followed by the sprinkling of its blood. The body of the pig was either burned or disposed of at a crossroads.” Yet, the ritual details of Greek blood rites are obscure, and Feder concludes that we cannot know from our evidence “whether the blood served a propitiatory, purificatory, or apotropaic function.”

More generally, we are left with “the impression that the blood rite reflects a unique southern Anatolian/northern Syrian phenomenon.”