blood guilt
Killer's moral burden
Blood guilt is the state of moral culpability that comes from causing someone's death, whether directly through violence or indirectly through negligence or betrayal.
The concept appears prominently in religious and legal contexts, where it suggests a stain or burden that demands expiation or punishment.
In biblical usage, blood guilt could extend to an entire community if a murderer went unpunished.
The king's blood guilt passed to his descendants.
- culpabilityDeserving blame for wrongdoing
- murderDeliberate unlawful killing
- sinViolation of divine law
- original sinInherited spiritual corruption
- mortal sinGrace-destroying spiritual offense
manslaughter · homicide · remorse · conscience · Cain · mark of Cain · shame · repentance · covenant · wrongdoing · sacrifice · accountability · divine wrath · Lady Macbeth · restitution · reparation · vendetta · eye for an eye
- guiltremorseful, contrition, remorse, culpability, mea culpa
- Mosaic lawMoses, Mosaic law, Ten Commandments, tablets of stone, commandment
- blood lorebloodletting, ritual purity, animal sacrifice, purification rites, purification rituals
- OresteiaOresteia, Orestes, Electra, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon
- Senecan tragedySeneca, Medea, Phaedra, Oedipus, Agamemnon
- Torah lawsTen Commandments, Sabbath observance, kosher laws, dietary laws, tefillin
blood guiltinnocence
Freedom from wrongdoing
blamelessness · guiltlessness · clean hands · clear conscience · exoneration
blood guiltabsolution
Formal clearing of guilt
atonement · purification · expiation · cleansing · redemption