Prompt #13 (Blood Is Thicker Than Water): Familial Love

Masks

After I read the prompt #13: Blood is thicker than water, I began to wonder of the origin of this idiom until I discovered that it isn't the full phrase at all. Instead, it's a shortened version.

The origin of the phrase is: blood of the covenant is thicker than water of the womb.

Interesting enough, those two phrases have completely different meanings, and the modern phrase that we know today was completely diverged from the original, turning into an alternative meaning.

In fact, they are completely opposite.

Before I researched the origins of the idioms, for what I understood, I thought that the one who wrote the meaning of the prompt was wrong, and I felt bothered about it. Hence, I decided to do some research.

I thought at first the idiom of blood is thicker than the water meant that a close relationship with friends or others unrelated by blood was more important than the relationship of the family.

I got confused with those two idioms because I mistakenly mixed them up.

After some little research, everything is cleared up for me.

For the meaning of the blood of the covenant is thicker than water of the womb, I will quote R' Richard Pustelniak, a congregatuonal leader from the Jewish community in the House of Living Stones, who stated, "My relationship with those to whom I am joined in covenant is to be considered of more value than the relationship with a brother with whom I may have shared the womb."

Next is that blood is thicker than water; the weekly prompt already explained it as family relationships are much stronger than the other relationships.

The prompt asks us if we agreed that family blood ties were far more important than others.

In my opinion, my answer is that I agree to disagree.

In my country, the Philippines, we have a family culture of close family relationships, or close-knit relationships.

It is one of the core traditional values that we have, and the other ones are respecting the elderly and having a strong religious faith that is intertwined.

Those traditional values and the individual behaviors, such as wanting to fulfill personal desires, sometimes clashed with each other.

For example, the ones who are related by blood got ostracized by their family because of their different ideals, values, and personal desires, and the ones who can support them are either their close friends or for those who are not related by blood.

In conclusion, the two idioms blood is thicker than water and blood of the covenant is thicker than water of the womb are closely intertwined in history and origin, and those two phrases are equally important in our lives.

It depends on our circumstances.

They may contradict each other, but the most important thing that they covered up is love, trust, kindness, and a sense of belongingness with one another.

You can't always choose your family, but you have choices about where you belong.