αἷμα

There is a verse in Leviticus that most modern Christians have never carefully read, but that the New Testament writers had memorized.

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, 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, ESV)

Three ideas are concentrated in one verse, and the New Testament’s theology of blood is built on all three. Blood is life. Blood is given by God Himself for atonement. The blood works atonement because it carries the life — the life given in exchange for the life forfeited by sin. This is the conceptual structure behind every New Testament use of the Greek word for blood — haima — in connection with the cross, the atonement, and the Lord’s Supper.

When Christ took the cup at the Last Supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for many” — touto to potērion hē kainē diathēkē en tō haimati mou — He was reaching for a structure of sacrificial-covenantal blood-theology that ran from Leviticus through Exodus 24 through the prophets to the cross He was about to bear. The blood would be poured out at Calvary the following day. The blood would now be given in the cup for His church to drink as long as the world stands.

This is the chapter on haima, the third in the four-chapter Supper cluster. The chapter on sōma covered the body. This chapter covers the blood. The next chapter covers the bread. The chapter after that covers the communion all three create. The four together describe what happens at the table where Christ is given.

The Word

αἷμα (haima), pronounced HIGH-mah. A neuter noun, third declension. The family includes the verb haimorrhoeō (αἱμορροέω, “to suffer a flow of blood, to hemorrhage” — used of the woman in Matthew 9:20) and the noun haimatekchysia (αἱματεκχυσία, “shedding of blood” — used only at Hebrews 9:22). The English word hematology descends from this Greek root, and to a Greek ear haima was the ordinary word for the red substance in veins, whether human or animal.

The lexical field is wide. Haima in ordinary Greek usage covered:

• Physical blood, in human or animal bodies.
• The blood of sacrificial victims, especially in religious contexts.
• Blood as the substance of life — the carrier of life-force, on the common ancient view.
• Kinship and family connection — “of one blood” as the standard idiom for shared descent.
• Bloodshed and violence — the language of killing.

The New Testament inherits this whole range and adds a specific theological deployment: the blood of Christ. The dominant New Testament use of haima is the blood Christ shed at the cross and the blood Christ gives in the cup of the Supper. Theologically, these are not two bloods. They are one blood, with one source (Christ Himself), one purpose (atonement), and two locations of delivery (the cross historically, the cup sacramentally).

The Old Testament background is essential. Leviticus 17:11 is the most concentrated statement: blood is the bearer of life; blood is given by God for atonement; the blood atones because it carries the life. The entire Old Testament sacrificial system depends on this theology. The Day of Atonement blood (Lev 16). The Passover blood on the doorposts (Exod 12). The covenant blood Moses sprinkled on the people at Sinai (Exod 24:6–8 — “behold, the blood of the covenant”). The peace offerings, the sin offerings, the guilt offerings. Blood at every turn. The Old Testament had a system in which sin required death, the death of the sinner was averted by the death of a substitute, and the blood of the substitute was the means by which the substitution was applied.

The New Testament’s haima picks up this entire structure and applies it to Christ. Christ is the once-for-all sacrifice (Hebrews — see Chapter 31 on anamnēsis); His blood is the blood of the new covenant (the institution words); His blood propitiates the wrath of God against sin (Chapter 20 on hilastērion); His blood is the means by which the new covenant (Chapter 14 on diathēkē) is ratified. Every New Testament use of haima in connection with the cross is reading off the Levitical theology of blood-as-life-given-for-atonement.

Range of Meaning

In its New Testament usage, haima covers:

• Physical blood, in ordinary medical or descriptive contexts. The woman with the flow of blood (Mark 5:25), Pilate washing his hands of innocent blood (Matt 27:24), the field of blood (Acts 1:19).
• Bloodshed and violence. The blood of the prophets, the blood of innocent martyrs, the blood-guilt of nations.
• The sacrificial blood of Old Testament victims. Hebrews 9 and 10 use haima extensively in this connection.
• The blood of Christ. The dominant theological use, covering several distinct but related dimensions: sacrificial (the propitiating, atoning blood), covenantal (the blood that ratifies the new covenant), cleansing (the blood that washes from sin), redemptive (the blood that purchases the slaves of sin), eschatologically victorious (the blood by which the saints overcome — Rev 12:11).
• The blood of Christ in the Supper. The institution words and 1 Corinthians 10:16, 11:25–29.

The last two senses are not separate. The blood given in the cup is the same blood that was shed on the cross. The Supper does not produce additional blood; the Supper delivers the once-shed blood to the participant. This is the same logic that ran through Chapter 31 on anamnēsis: the once-for-all sacrifice is made present at the table; the historical event is delivered through the means Christ instituted.

Where You’ll Meet It

“And he said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.’” (Mark 14:24, ESV)

The shortest of the institution sayings on the blood. Mark’s version. The verb is the same estin that ran through the previous chapter on sōma. This is my blood of the covenant. The cup contains the blood. The blood is covenantal — the blood that seals the new diathēkē Christ is establishing. The “poured out for many” anticipates the cross of the following day. The same blood that will be poured out at Calvary is the blood being given in the cup at the table the night before.

“For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28, ESV)

Matthew’s version, which adds the explicit purpose: for the forgiveness of sins. The connection to aphesis (Chapter 23) is direct. The blood is the means; the forgiveness is the purpose; the cup is the delivery. The Supper carries the forgiveness Christ won at Calvary into the mouth of the believer at the table.

“And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.’” (Luke 22:20, ESV)

Luke’s version. The “for you” — hyper humōn — connects to Chapter 22 on hyper. The cup is poured out for you specifically. The new covenant is in my blood. Luke joins what some traditions have tried to separate: the cup, the pouring out, the substitution, the covenant, the blood. All in one verse, all in the present tense of the table.

“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:16–17, ESV)

Paul’s interpretation. Treated in the previous chapter, but the cup-blood pair deserves its own attention here. Koinōnia — participation, sharing, communion — names what the cup does. The cup is a participation in the blood of Christ. Not a symbol of the blood. Not a memorial of an absent blood. A participation, a sharing-in, an actual partaking of the blood of the one who shed it for us. This will return in Chapter 35 on koinōnia; for now, the connection between the cup and the blood is direct and material.

“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 11:27, ESV)

The warning text, treated also in the previous chapter. Worth quoting here for the blood side. The unworthy participant is guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. The blood is there. The unworthy drink it. The seriousness of the warning depends on the blood actually being present. If the cup were merely wine with symbolic significance, “guilty concerning the blood” would lose its weight. The Lutheran reading: the blood is present; the cup contains what Christ said it contains; the warning is exactly as serious as Paul makes it.

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace…” (Ephesians 1:7, ESV)

The wider Pauline blood-theology. Redemption is through his blood. The forgiveness is the substance of the redemption. The grace is the source. Every Pauline blood-passage runs this same structure: blood is the means; salvation in some specific dimension (justification, redemption, propitiation, reconciliation, forgiveness, peace) is the result; grace is the source.

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13, ESV)

The relational dimension. The blood brings near. The believer who was far off — outside the covenant people, alienated from God — has been brought near by the blood. The blood is not only the means of atonement (transactional) but the means of incorporation (relational). The same blood that paid the price brings the bought one into the family.

“Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” (Hebrews 9:22, ESV)

The sober verse. Hebrews makes the Levitical theology of blood absolutely explicit. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. The verb is haimatekchysia — “shedding of blood,” the noun built directly from haima. The author of Hebrews has been arguing throughout chapters 8–10 that the old covenant’s sacrificial system pointed to and was fulfilled in Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice. The principle remains: forgiveness requires blood. Christ’s blood was the cost. The cup is the delivery.