---
title: Acts 15:29
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-15-29/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-15-29.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Acts 15:29
testament: NT
section: Acts
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Acts 15:29

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.  Farewell.

## JW Usage

JWs cite Acts 15:29 — "keep abstaining from ... blood" — as the scriptural basis for refusing whole-blood transfusions. The decree is read as a permanent, universal command binding on all Christians. For decades it was also applied to the four main components (red cells, white cells, plasma, platelets); since September 2026 accepting those from another person has been a matter of personal conscience, while the refusal of whole blood is "unchanged." Under the earlier policy many Witnesses, including children with treatable cancers, refused treatments that are now a personal choice.

## Protestant Usage

Acts 15:29 lists four items: abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. Three of the four are food-related — the context is dietary, not medical. A transfusion does not enter the stomach; it is a tissue transplant. Even Orthodox Jews, who take dietary blood laws far more seriously than any Christian group, have no objection to blood transfusions. The Watchtower's 2026 changes rest on the reasoning that the Bible does not comment: in March on "the use of a person's own blood in medical and surgical care", in September on the four main components. That logic applies equally to whole-blood transfusion. If red cells, white cells, plasma and platelets may each be accepted, no verse explains why the four together may not. Before 1945 the Watchtower had no blood policy at all. Vaccinations were "a violation of the everlasting covenant" in 1931 but are now fine. Organ transplants were "cannibalism" in 1967 but are now a personal choice. People died following each version that was later reversed. Jesus said "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" (Matthew 12:7) — refusing blood to let someone die sacrifices the reality (life) for the symbol (blood).

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Blood Transfusions](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/blood-transfusion.md) — Acts 15:28-29 — "Abstain from Blood" [Authority]
- [Acts 15 — A One-Time Council, Not a Standing Body](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/acts15-one-time-not-template.md) — The Jerusalem meeting never reconvened, never legislated again, never appointed successors [Authority]
- [The Apostolic Decree's Four Items](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/blood-acts15-apostolic-decree.md) — Acts 15:29 vs 1 Corinthians 8 — Paul's Own Hermeneutic [Practice]
- [What Is Still Forbidden?](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/blood-still-forbidden.md) — Four components, whole blood, and the line no verse draws [Authority]