But you will not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Gen. 9:4.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, “No one among you will eat blood, nor will any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.” Lev. 17:11, 12.
It seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. Acts 15:28, 29.
God permitted Noah, being a just man, to eat of every animal, but not of flesh with the blood. Justin Martyr (c. 160, E), 1.204.
The blood . . . is the bond of union between soul and body. Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.529.
When faint with hunger, [the Scythian] asks his horse for sustenance; and the horse offers his veins, and supplies his master with all he possesses—his blood. To the nomad, the horse is at once conveyance and sustenance. . . . Perish, then, the savage beast whose food is blood! For it is unlawful for men, whose body is nothing but flesh elaborated of blood, to touch blood. For human blood has become a partaker of the Word. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.277.
The apostle says, “All other things buy out of the meat market, asking no questions,” with the exception of the things mentioned in the catholic epistle of all the apostles “with the consent of the Holy Spirit.” This is written in the Acts of the Apostles, and it was conveyed to the faithful by the hands of Paul himself. For they indicated “that they must of necessity abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from fornication.” Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.427.
Blush for your vile ways before the Christians, who do not have even the blood of animals at their meals of simple and natural food. We abstain from things strangled and from things that die a natural death. . . . To clench the matter with a single example, you tempt Christians with sausages of blood, just because you are perfectly aware that the thing by which you thus try to get them to transgress they hold unlawful. Tertullian (c. 197, W), 3.25.
“But flesh in the blood of its own soul you will not eat.” For even by this very fact, that He exempts from eating that flesh only the soul of which is not eliminated through blood, it is clear that He has conceded the use of all other flesh. Tertullian (c. 213, W), 4.104.
So much do we shrink from human blood, that we do not use the blood even of edible animals in our food. Mark Minucius Felix (c. 200, W), 4.192.
Scripture has also added its authority to a second opinion, when it says, “You will not eat the blood, because the life of all flesh is its blood. And you will not eat the life with the flesh.” In this, it indicates most clearly that the blood of every animal is its life. Origen (c. 225, E), 4.286.
He, then, eats in faith who believes that the food to be eaten has not been sacrificed in the temples of idols and that it is not strangled, nor is it blood. But he who is in doubt about any of these things does not eat in faith. Origen (c. 245, E), 9.441.
It seemed good to the apostles of Jesus and the elders assembled together from Antioch (and also, as they themselves say, to the Holy Spirit) to write a letter to the Gentile believers, forbidding them to partake of those things from which alone they say it is necessary to abstain: namely, “things offered to idols, things strangled, and blood.” . . . As to things strangled, we are forbidden by Scripture to partake of them because the blood is still in them. Now, blood is said to be the food of demons, especially the odor arising from blood. Perhaps, then, if we were to eat strangled animals, we might have such spirits feeding along with us. And the reason that forbids the use of strangled animals for food is also applicable to the use of blood. Origen (c. 248, E), 4.650.
[The soul] is contained in the material of the blood. Lactantius (c. 304–313, W), 7.209.
If any bishop, presbyter, or deacon (or indeed anyone of the priestly category) eats flesh with the blood of its life, or that which is torn by beasts, or which died of itself—let him be deprived. For the law itself has forbidden this. But if he is one of the laity, let him be suspended. Apostolic Constitutions (compiled c. 390, E), 7.504.