Leviticus 7:22–27

Leviticus 7:22 — The Divine Commission: The repeated formula "Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying" is not mere literary convention. In Leviticus, it marks the solemn initiation of binding divine legislation. Each such utterance underscores that these prohibitions are not ritual customs invented by priests but direct commands of the living God, bearing His full authority.

Leviticus 7:23 — The Prohibition of Fat (ḥēleb): The Hebrew word here is ḥēleb, the hard, internal suet fat that surrounds the organs — kidneys, liver, and intestines — of sacrificial animals (bull, sheep, goat). This is distinct from šûmān, the fat marbled into muscle meat. The ḥēleb was precisely the portion commanded to be burned on the altar (Lev. 3:3–5), rising as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. To eat it, therefore, would be to claim for oneself what was reserved for God. The three animals listed — bull, sheep, goat — are exactly those designated for the peace offering (šělāmîm) and the burnt offering, grounding this prohibition firmly in the sacrificial liturgy.

Leviticus 7:24 — The Permitted Uses of Forbidden Fat: This verse introduces a careful pastoral distinction. The ḥēleb from animals that died of natural causes (nēbēlâh) or were torn by beasts (ṭěrēpâh) — animals that are ritually unfit for sacrifice anyway — may be put to secular use: rendered for lamp oil, leather conditioning, or cooking vessels. But it may never be eaten. The prohibition is not about the fat as physically dangerous; it is about what the fat means when consumed. Fat was understood in the ancient Near East as the richest, most vital portion of an animal — the first fruits of its flesh — and therefore it belonged to God as the supreme acknowledgment of His lordship over creation.

Leviticus 7:25 — The Penalty of Karet: The phrase "cut off from his people" (kārēt) is among the most severe sanctions in the Mosaic law. Scholars debate whether it denotes human execution, divine premature death, excision from the covenant community in this life, or exclusion from the world to come — the rabbinic tradition leaned toward the last. In Catholic interpretation, the kārēt penalty dramatizes the theological truth that deliberate violation of sacred boundaries places one outside the covenant relation with God. The soul who appropriates for himself what belongs to God alone ruptures the bond of communion.

Leviticus 7:26 — The Universal Prohibition of Blood: While the fat prohibition was tethered to sacrificial species, the blood prohibition is absolute and universal: "any blood, whether it is of bird or of animal, in any of your dwellings." The geographical expansion — "in any of your dwellings" — indicates this law follows Israel wherever she goes; it is not limited to the sanctuary precincts. The reason is given explicitly in Leviticus 17:11: "the life (nephesh) of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life." Blood is the seat of life, and life belongs categorically to God. To consume blood is to usurp divine prerogative over life itself.

Leviticus 7:27 — Karet for Blood: The penalty of being cut off is repeated for blood consumption, matching the severity assigned to the fat prohibition. The doubling of the kārēt formula across these two prohibitions — fat and blood — suggests they operate as a paired theological unit: together they declare that the most vital portions of a creature, its ḥēleb (richness) and its nephesh (life-breath), are God's alone.

Typological Sense: At the level of the sensus plenior, these prohibitions cast a long shadow toward the Eucharist. The very blood that Israel was forbidden to consume is precisely the blood that Christ commands His disciples to drink (John 6:53–56). The prohibition was not arbitrary; it was a pedagogy preserving the category of blood as sacred, life-giving, and atoning — so that when the New Covenant blood was finally offered, the Church would understand its infinite weight. Origen (Homilies on Leviticus) saw the dietary laws as shadows whose substance is Christ, and Augustine taught that the Old Testament is "unveiled" in the New. The fat, too — the richest portion offered to God — finds its antitype in Christ's total self-offering, in which nothing is held back from the Father.

Catholic tradition reads these verses on multiple levels simultaneously, consistent with the fourfold sense of Scripture articulated by St. John Cassian and systematized in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (§115–119).

At the literal level, the Church has always recognized the genuine moral and ritual seriousness of these Mosaic statutes. St. Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologiae (I-II, q. 102, a. 6), argued that the prohibition of blood had both moral and ceremonial dimensions: morally, it restrained cruelty and reminded Israel that life is God's gift; ceremonially, it distinguished Israel from pagan peoples who consumed blood in idolatrous rites.

At the typological level, the fat-and-blood pairing points directly to the Eucharist. The Catechism teaches that the Eucharist is the fulfillment of all Old Testament sacrifices (CCC §1366). What the Law prohibited Israel from consuming — the blood of animals — the New Law commands Christians to receive: the precious Blood of Christ, which truly atones. The prohibition was a guardian of the sacred category, ensuring that when the true Blood arrived, its gravity would be recognizable.

The Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:29), interestingly, retained the blood prohibition for Gentile converts — a transitional measure acknowledging the deep theological symbolism of blood even in the early Church's pastoral discernment.

Church Fathers including Origen, Cyril of Alexandria, and John Chrysostom all interpreted the blood prohibition as a providential preparation for the Eucharistic mystery. Chrysostom wrote that God forbade the blood of animals to make the Blood of Christ all the more awesome and transformative when finally revealed.

The kārēt penalty theologically anticipates the language of mortal sin: a deliberate rupture of covenant communion with God that, without repentance, results in spiritual death (CCC §1033, §1874).

These verses challenge the contemporary Catholic to reflect on the concept of reserved sanctity — the idea that some things are simply not ours to take. In a culture that insists on the sovereignty of personal appetite and autonomy, Leviticus declares that certain realities belong to God alone and cannot be consumed at will. Fat represented abundance and richness; blood represented life. God's claim on both is a claim over the totality of existence.

For the Catholic today, the most immediate application is Eucharistic awe. The very Blood that Israel was solemnly forbidden to touch is the Blood that Christ presses upon us: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you" (John 6:53). This reversal is not a contradiction but a completion. If ancient Israel learned to treat blood as unutterably sacred, the Catholic at Mass should feel that same weight — not familiarity or routine — when receiving the chalice. The old prohibition schools us in reverence for what the new gift actually is.

Concretely: examine how you approach the Eucharist. Do you receive with the gravity befitting One whose Blood was set apart even from the dawn of the covenant? Leviticus is, among other things, a call to recover a sense of the holy.