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{"id":16059,"date":"2014-05-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=1002"},"modified":"2014-05-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T00:00:00","slug":"flesh-bone-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/05\/flesh-bone-blood\/","title":{"rendered":"Flesh, Bone, Blood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

Gil Anidjar (Blood: A Critique of Christianity<\/a>) makes the surprising claim that while \u201cthere may be a deep link between sacrifice and kinship, indeed, between blood and covenant, it is simply a fact that for the Old Testament, flesh and bone \u2013 never flesh and blood \u2013 signify the basis of elementary communal identity (45). He cites Adam\u2019s first words to Eve (Genesis 2:24), Laban\u2019s appeal to Jacob (Genesis 29:14), Joseph\u2019s brothers (Genesis 37:27), and the men of Israel to David (2 Samuel 5:1).<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right: The phrase \u201cflesh and blood\u201d is not used for kinship. And the alternative phrase, flesh and bone, suggests to Anidjar a different basis and structure of kinship: \u201c\u2018flesh and bone\u2019 mark contemporaneity rather than form the substance of a link between and across generations\u201d (45). Flesh and bone signify \u201chorizontal contiguity\u201d and militate against \u201chierarchical distinctions\u201d (46).<\/p>\n

Far from signalling continuity, he argues, blood is a sign of disruption, \u201cinvoking images of violence, death, and contamination.\u201d Blood is not, as many translations of Leviticus 17 have it, life, but \u201cultimately closer to death\u201d and like death a \u201cgreat equalizer.\u201d It purifies not because it marks continuity but because it \u201cfollows the logic of interruption\u201d (47).\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the Hebrew imagination, blood is blood is blood: \u201cthere is no difference between bloods. Blood is blood and is thus affected by its place and usage. But all creatures, insofar as they are created, \u2018have\u2019 blood. Blood is not property and only doubtfully substance. Like death, it is a great leveler\u201d (49).<\/p>\n

Anidjar goes on to blame the positive valuation of \u201cpure blood\u201d on Christianity. But I think he misses the important continuity between Old and New. Though \u201cnatural\u201d blood is not a sign of generational continuity or status privilege in the Hebrew Bible, covenant blood functions as a mark of community. \u201cFlesh and bone\u201d is the marker of natural brotherhood; but Israelites are all brothers because they are together sprinkled with the \u201cblood of the covenant.\u201d Just as in the New Testament, the blood the binds is not natural blood but the blood of a sacrificial victim.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"