Step 4 of the Abrahamic Covenant:
Mix Blood
This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
Genesis 17:10
The fourth step in the covenant ceremony was to mix blood. Each partner raised his right arm. Then they cut the palms of their hands and brought them together. As they did this, their blood intermingled, representing becoming one life. Then they swore allegiance to each other.
People have always believed that the intermingling of blood is the intermingling of life. Do you remember doing this as a kid? Or perhaps you knew someone else who did it. You both would squeeze your eyes shut and prick your fingers, then smear them together and swear friendship forever.
In Leviticus 17:11, God said, ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood… So, to intermingle blood is to intermingle life. When the covenanting partners mixed their blood together, they each, symbolically put off the old nature of self, and put on the new nature of the blood covenant partner. They were two who were becoming one.
This part of the covenant ceremony is never explicitly mentioned in the Bible by any other than God when he required the blood of the foreskin to seal the Abrahamic Covenant. Historical sources indicate that in ancient Eastern cultures, the practice of cutting themselves and mixing their blood was a known custom. This custom was probably practiced in Biblical covenant ceremonies, such as the covenant between David and Jonathan in 1 Samuel 18.
Even with its omission, the Bible describes the results of the blood covenant ceremony as a deeply profound, life-sharing union. In the Old Testament, the focus of the blood covenant is mostly on the sacrificial animals, and in the New Testament, it is on the atoning blood of Jesus Christ for establishing this deeply significant relationship with God.
References:
The Holy Bible: King James Version
The Miracle of the Scarlet Thread by Richard Booker
©2025 Chandra Hronchek