Jesus, the Light of the world, can appeal only to those who have the faculty of sight. Where the faculty of sight is impaired or destroyetl, how- ever clearly the light may shine, there is no vision. This obscuration of the spiritual orb is what is called ' judicial blindness.' The phrase implies that there never can be such radical defect of vision without personal guilt in the person so affected. It is a penalty of sin, the judgment that comes tlirough neglecting the light (cf. Jn 9^). Inasmuch as Jesus is the true Light that lighteth every man tliat Cometh into the world, there is in human nature, as such, the capacity of spiritual vision ; but this capacity, either by disuse or perversity, may be so radically corrupted as to be impervious to the light. And when this is so, the sinner rushes to tis doom heedless of the plainest warn- ings. This is a truth always recognized in the Gospels. St. John in his Prolo<'ue .says that the Light shineth in darkness, but uie darkness com- prehended it not (cf. Mt6~'-). It is the meaning of the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, a sin unforgivable, inasmuch as it does not recognize itself as sin, and thus renders impossible that repentance which is the condition of forgiveness (but see art. BLASPHEMY). A. Millek.
BLOOD (c^, Aram, kc't, Gr. ar/ia).— Underlying the use of the term ' blood ' in the Gospels is its root conception, as contained in the OT. This root conception is clearly seen, c.qr., in Lv 17"- " 'The life ('soul' rrj) of the Jicsh is in the blood . . . it is the blood that inalieth atonement bu reason of the life. . . . For as to the life of all flesh, the blood thereof is all one with the life thereof . . . for the life of all flesh is tlu; blood thereof The close connexion between 'life' and ' blood '—amounting even to identification — was doubtless realized by man from very early times ; for constant experience taught him tliat loss of blood entailed weakness, while great loss resulted in death, i.e. the departure of life. This would have been noticed again and again in everydav life, whether in hunting, or in slaughtering (botli for food and sacrifice), or in battle.* This belief was by no means confined to the Hebrews, but
* Cf. H. L. Strack, Der BlutaWnjlauie in der Meiuchheit*,
was universal in ancient times, just as it is now among primitive races.* The reiterated prohibi- i tion with regard to the eating of hlood contained I in the Hebrew Code was due, firstly, ti> the fact that God had made use of it as a means of atone- ment, and that tlierefore it ought not to be used for any other purpose ; and, secondly, Itecause it was believed to contain the soul or life. In the one case, the prohibition is due to the holy char- acter of blood ; t in the other, to its essential nature,^ it being the centre from which animal life in all its various forms emanated. Blood was therefore holy from the Divine point of view, be- cause God had sanctified it to lioly uses ; and it was holy from man's point of view, both because it had been ordained as a means of atonement in the sight of God, and because human life, of wliicli blooil was the essence, was sacred to Him.
In the Gospels one or other of these conceptions underlies the use of the word 'blood.' Its use may be briefly summarized tlius :
1. Blood in its material sense, e.r/., the woman with the issue of blood (Mk p,'Lk 8"). The power which went out from Christ stayed the flow of the woman's blood ; it is implied (Jlk 5^ dXXd AiaXXov fi's rb xf'po" eXBovira) that this outflow was the ebbing-out of her life. The ancient concep- tion is, therefore, plainly present here.
2. Blood used in the sense of life {i.e. poured out in death). It is interesting to observe that in all the Gospel passages in whicli blood is used as synonymous with life, the reference is either to an OT occurrence, or else to Christ as fulfilling OT types. The passages are the following : Jit SS** 'We should not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets'; '23^ 'That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zachariali son of Barachiali, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar,' cf. Lk IP'; Mt 21* 'I have betrayed innocent blood'; 27« ' the price of blood ' ; 27"' the field of blood ' ; 27*" ' I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man'; 27" 'His blood be upon us.' In each of these passages the meaning of blood as implying life is sufficiently clear.
3. In Lk 13' occurs a reference to ' the Galilseans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices.' There is no reference to this event either in Josephus (although there is mention of a similar occurrence in Ant. XVII. ix. 3) or elsewhere ; but the meaning appears to be that they «ere oH'eriug up their usual sacrifice in the ordinary course, when they were fallen upon and butchered by the Komaii soldiery, probably as a punishment for some act of revolt [the restlessness of the Galiheans was notorious, cf. Ac 5^].