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Mark 14:24
ESV And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
NIV "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many," he said to them.
NASB And He said to them, 'This is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many.
CSB He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
NLT And he said to them, 'This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many.
KJV And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.
NKJV And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.

What does Mark 14:24 mean?

In the Bible, spiritual life is represented by bread (John 6:22–71) and water (John 4:13–14), but blood is the deepest metaphor God uses. As the physical life of an animal is in its blood (Leviticus 17:11; Genesis 9:4), God uses the sacrifice of blood to restore spiritual life. During the last of God's ten plagues against Egypt, the Israelites covered their door posts and lintels with the blood of the Passover lamb. God passed over the homes marked with blood and left them unscathed while the firstborns of the houses of the Egyptians died (Exodus 12:1–32).

Earlier that day, the disciples sacrificed the Passover lamb so Jesus and the disciples could commemorate the original event (Luke 22:8). Now, Jesus uses wine as a visual representation of the blood He will spill. God will accept Jesus' sacrifice and apply it to the sin-soaked death that lives in us. The impact of spiritual death will "pass over" those of us who accept Jesus' blood: His sacrifice on our behalf. No more blood needs to be shed for forgiveness from God (Hebrews 7:27).

But the disciples don't apply the wine on their foreheads as the Israelites painted the lambs' blood on their doorframes. They ingest it. Eating blood is especially taboo in Jewish culture. God's prohibition pre-dates the Mosaic Law: it is in the few laws God gave Noah directly after the flood (Genesis 9:4). This may be why Jesus tells the disciples that the wine represents His blood after they have finished drinking. By drinking the "blood," they symbolize that Jesus' healing power goes inside them. They are not whitewashed tombs that only appear to be clean (Matthew 23:27). They are renewed from the inside-out, given new hearts (Ezekiel 11:19).

This is the new covenant. The blood sacrifices performed on the altar of the temple covered the sins of the people, but only God can turn hearts (Jeremiah 31:31–33).
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