Acts 15:22-23, 28-29 (ESV), 22 “Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas … 23 with the following letter: ‘The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. … 28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.’”
Thus the apostles, the elders, and the church in Jerusalem with the guidance of the Holy Spirit wrote that Christian believers should not eat blood.
This requirement refers back to the covenant God made with Noah after the flood. Genesis 9:1, 4, 9-10 (ESV), 1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. … 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. …Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth.’ ”
Christians are doubly instructed not to eat blood because they are part of Noah’s offspring under the Noahic covenant and were also directed to abstain by the apostles.
