^a Gk. ἀλίσγημα. Cf. Dn. 1:8 LXX: And Daniel purposed in his heart, that he would not defile [ἀλισγέω] himself with the king's table, nor with the wine of his drink... [Brenton].

^b Note Gk. εἴδωλον here, and εἰδωλόθυτος in Acts 15:29 and 21:25. Syntactically, this verse is ambiguous as to whether idols are one of four pollutions (i.e., τῶν εἰδώλων, τῆς πορνείας, τοῦ πνικτοῦ, and τοῦ αἵματος all being dependent on τῶν ἀλισγημάτων), or the pollutions of idols is its own thing (i.e., τῶν εἰδώλων alone being dependent on τῶν ἀλισγημάτων). (See B-Greek: Acts 15:20 The extent of ἀπὸ / ἀλισγημάτων.) If the former, then idolatry itself is a pollution. But Acts 15:29 and 21:25 say εἰδωλόθυτος, which specifically means something sacrificed or offered (-θυτος) to idols (εἰδωλο-) and is always used in the context of something that is eaten. Therefore, the phrase τῶν ἀλισγημάτων τῶν εἰδώλων [the pollutions of idols] should be understood as being directly equivalent to εἰδωλοθύτων and therefore the prohibition specifically about food sacrificed or offered to idols.

^c Gk. πνικτός, smothered, choked, drowned, or suffocated (thing). On smothering possibly being a direct reference to infanticide, see David Instone-Brewer, Infanticide and the Apostolic Decree of Acts 15. Infanticide was abhored by the Jews [Tacitus, The Histories: (5.5) ... It is a crime among them to kill any newly-born infant], but prevalent in Greek and Roman culture up until the fourth century, when Christian opposition prevailed. The accepted method was exposure [ἔκθεσις or ἀπόθεσις] to the elements, but in actual practice included smothering and drowning as described by Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE-c. 50 CE) in his Special Laws III: (114) And as for their murders and infanticides they are established by the most undeniable proofs, since some of them slay them with their own hands, and stifle the first breath of their children, and smother it altogether, out of a terribly cruel and unfeeling disposition; others throw them into the depths of a river, or of a sea, after they have attached a weight to them, in order that they may sink to the bottom more speedily because of it. (115) Others, again, carry them out into a desert place to expose them there... [Yonge]. The Didache [Teaching of the Twelve Apostles] also saw fit to include an express prohibition against it: (2.2) ... οὐ φονεύσεις τέκνον ἐν φθορᾷ οὐδὲ γεννηθὲν ἀποκτενεῖς [you shall not abort a child or commit infanticide (Holmes)]. Note: πνικτός, smothered [adjective], vs. πνίγω, to smother [verb], indicates a specific application rather than the general action.

^d Encyclopedia Judaica: In the Bible there is an absolute prohibition on the consumption of blood.... It is the only prohibition (coupled with murder) enjoined not on Israel alone but on all men (Gen. 9:4). Gen. 9:1-6: And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. (2) The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. (3) Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. (4) But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood. (5) And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. (6) Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image (ESV).