Day 27: Blood on the Head

A common phrase that turned up when I did a search of all the Bible verses with the word blood was "blood on their head," or variations like the "blood will be upon you," or "blood will rest on his house." This phrase seems connected to the concept of blood-vengeance, so that every time innocent blood is shed, it "remains on" the head of the murderer until that murderer is put to death. I Kings 2 is a place where this phrase is mentioned often as Solomon is beginning his reign as king. "Blood on the head" is a figurative way of describing the concept of "blood-guilt," which doesn't go away until the blood-shedder and sometimes his whole household also gets "their heads brought down with blood into Sheol." In Leviticus 20, it seems that the death sentence "your blood is upon you" is even declared for violations that are not murder. Here's an example: (Lev 20:9) "All who curse father or mother shall be put to death; having cursed father or mother, their blood is upon them." That also helps reassure the people who must stone and execute the guilty person. They don't have to fear having the blood they shed now put on their heads. Because they are executing a guilty person, the blood stays on the head of the one they are putting to death.

This figure of speech usually shows up as a second or third-person reference, that is, blood be on YOUR or THEIR head. But this phrase shows up once in the first-person when a crowd of people say, "Let the blood rest on us and our children!" That is in the end of Matthew 27 when Pilate (not wanting to get the "blood on his hands") publicly makes a show of washing his hands from any responsibility from the coming bloodshed of Jesus. So the people who had called out Hosanna a few days earlier now willingly take on blood-guilt, if there should turn out to be any, for the death of this carpenter/teacher who says he is the Messiah. There wouldn't be blood-guilt, I'm guessing, if Jesus were truly a blasphemer, only if he were actually innocent of all charges that the chief priests of the temple council were bringing forward. So the people were saying, if this Jesus is guilty, his blood will be on his own head, and if he is innocent, crucify him anyway and we're willing to accept the blood-guilt and pass the blood-guilt on to our descendants.