Early Christian Teaching on Christ’s Blood

Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians Direct teaching

Let us look stedfastly to the blood of Christ, and see how precious that blood is to God, which, having been shed for our salvation, has set the grace of repentance before the whole world.

Origen, Commentary on Matthew Supporting witness

A man, therefore, could not give anything as an exchange for his own life, but God gave an exchange for the life of us all, the precious blood of Christ Jesus, 1 Peter 1:19 according as we were bought with a price, 1 Corinthians 6:20 having been redeemed, not with corruptible things as silver or gold, but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even of Christ.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book V Supporting witness

By His own blood he redeemed us, as also His apostle declares, “In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the remission of sins.” And as we are His members, we are also nourished by means of the creation (and He Himself grants the creation to us, for He causes His sun to rise, and sends rain when He wills).

Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness

This slain lamb has been made, according to certain hidden reasons, a purification of the whole world, for which, according to the Father's love to man, He submitted to death, purchasing us back by His own blood from him who had got us into his power, sold under sin.

Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians Supporting witness

On account of the Love he bore us, Jesus Christ our Lord gave His blood for us by the will of God;

Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians Supporting witness

And thus they made it manifest that redemption should flow through the blood of the Lord to all them that believe and hope in God.

Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians Supporting witness

Let us reverence the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood was given for us;

Clement of Alexandria, Fragments Supporting witness

Ver. 7. And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son, he says, cleanses us.

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

...His soldiers! As it is written in the Psalms, when the Holy Spirit both speaks to us and warns us: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Precious is the death that has bought immortality at the cost of blood, that has received the crown through the completion of its virtues. How Christ rejoiced in it! How willingly He both fought and conquered in such servants of His, as the protector of their faith, giving to believers as much as the one who receives believes that he receives. He was present in His own contest. He lifted up, strengthened, and encouraged the champions and defenders of His name. And He who once conquered death on our behalf always conquers it in us. "But when they deliver you up," He says, "do not be anxious about what you shall speak. For it shall be given to you in that hour what you shall speak. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you." Matthew 10:19-20. The present struggle has given proof of this saying. A voice filled with the Holy Spirit came from the martyr’s mouth when the most blessed Mappalicus said to the proconsul in the middle of his torments, "Tomorrow you shall see a contest." And what

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness

...lso. The flesh figuratively represents the Holy Spirit to us, for the flesh was created by Him. The blood points us to the Word, for the Word, like rich blood, has been poured into life. And the union of both is the Lord, the food of infants — the Lord who is Spirit and Word. This food, that is, the Lord Jesus, is the Word of God, the Spirit made flesh, the heavenly flesh made holy. The nourishment is the Father's milk, by which alone we infants are fed. The Word Himself, then, the beloved One and the One who nourishes us, has shed His own blood for us to save humanity. And through Him, we who believe in God flee to the Word, the Father's breast that soothes our cares. And He alone, as is fitting, gives us children the milk of love. And only those who drink from this breast are truly blessed. Therefore Peter also says, "Laying aside all malice, and all deceit, and hypocrisy, and envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the milk of the word, so that by it you may grow to salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is Christ." And if someone were to grant them that solid food was something different from milk, then how would they avoid being impaled on their own spit,

Hippolytus, Exegetical Fragments Supporting witness

And Christ, too, when He suffered on the cross, delivered us from accusations and sins, and washed us in His own blood most pure.

Hebrews 9:14 Background

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching

...is disciples, saying, "Drink all of this; for this is my blood of the New Testament, which shall be shed for many, for the remission of sins. I say to you, I will not drink from now on of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink new wine with you in the kingdom of my Father." Matthew 26:28-29 In this passage we find that the cup which the Lord offered was mixed, and that what He called His blood was wine. From this it is clear that the blood of Christ is not offered if there is no wine in the cup, nor is the Lord's sacrifice celebrated with a proper consecration unless our offering and sacrifice correspond to His passion. But how shall we drink the new wine of the fruit of the vine with Christ in the kingdom of His Father, if in the sacrifice to God the Father and of Christ we do not offer wine, nor mix the cup of the Lord according to the Lord's own tradition?

Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching

neither can His blood by which we are redeemed and quickened appear to be in the cup, when in the cup there is no wine whereby the blood of Christ is shown forth, which is declared by the sacrament and testimony of all the Scriptures.

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

Whence it appears that the blood of Christ is not offered if there be no wine in the cup, nor the Lord's sacrifice celebrated with a legitimate consecration unless our oblation and sacrifice respond to His passion.

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

For if any one offer wine only, the blood of Christ is dissociated from us;

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

John 15:1 the blood of Christ is assuredly not water, but wine;

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching

and when he gives it, say, The blood of Christ, the cup of life;

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

...ter, sanctified it, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink all of this, for this is my blood, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins. Do this in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show my death until I come. Therefore, remembering His passion, death, resurrection from the dead, return into the heavens, and His future second appearing, in which He is to come with glory and power to judge the living and the dead, and to repay everyone according to his works, we offer to You, our King and our God, according to His constitution, this bread and this cup. We give You thanks through Him, because You have counted us worthy to stand before You and to sacrifice to You. And we beg You to look mercifully upon these gifts set before You, O God, who stand in need of none of our offerings. Accept them, to the honor of Your Christ, and send down Your Holy Spirit upon this sacrifice, the Witness of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, that He may show this bread to be the body of Your Christ, and the cup to be the blood of Your Christ, so that those who partake of it may be strengthened for piety, may obtain the remission of their sins, may be del

Early Liturgies, Divine Liturgy of St. James Supporting witness

O Lord, You have given us sanctification through sharing in the all-holy body and precious blood of Your only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Give us also the grace of Your good Spirit, and keep us blameless in the faith. Lead us to perfect adoption and redemption, and to the coming joys of eternity. For You are our sanctification and light, O God, and so are Your only begotten Son and Your all-holy Spirit, now and ever, and to all eternity. Amen.

Early Liturgies, Liturgy of Adaeus and Maris Supporting witness

The precious blood is signed with the holy body of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Early Liturgies, Liturgy of Adaeus and Maris Supporting witness

The holy body is signed with the propitiatory blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Early Liturgies, Divine Liturgy of St. Mark Supporting witness

And this cup the blood of the new testament, of the very Lord, and God, and Saviour, and universal King Christ Jesus.

Early Liturgies, Divine Liturgy of St. Mark Supporting witness

O Lord, You have given us sanctification by letting us partake of the all-holy body and precious blood of Your only begotten Son. Give us the grace and gift of the All-holy Spirit. Enable us to live blameless lives, and guide us to perfect redemption, adoption, and the everlasting joys of the world to come. For You are our sanctification, and we give glory to You, the Father, and the Son, and the All-holy Spirit, now, from now on, and forevermore.

Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho Direct teaching

... prophesied by the patriarch Jacob, 'He shall wash His garments with wine, and His vesture with the blood of the grape,' meant that He would cleanse those who believe in Him with His own blood. The Holy Spirit referred to those who receive remission of sins through Him as His garments; He is always present in power among them, and will be visibly present at His second coming. The Scripture mentions the blood of the grape deliberately because Christ's blood comes not from human lineage, but from the power of God. Just as God, not man, produces the blood of the vine, Scripture predicted that the blood of Christ would come not from human lineage, but from the power of God. This prophecy, gentlemen, which I repeated, proves that Christ is not merely human in origin, born in the ordinary way of humanity."

Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho Supporting witness

but, as might have been expected, this was that saving bath of the olden time which followed those who repented, and who no longer were purified by the blood of goats and of sheep, or by the ashes of an heifer, or by the offerings of fine flour, but by faith through the blood of Christ, and through His death, who died for this very reason, as Isaiah himself said, when he spake thus: ‘The Lord shall make bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the nations and the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book V Supporting witness

But now, by means of communion with Himself, the Lord has reconciled man to God the Father, in reconciling us to Himself by the body of His own flesh, and redeeming us by His own blood, as the apostle says to the Ephesians, “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins;” and again to the same he says, “Ye who formerly were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ;” and again, “Abolishing in His flesh the enmities, [even] the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances.” And in every Epistle the apostle plainly testifies, that through the flesh of our Lord, and through His blood, we have been saved.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book V Supporting witness

...e with Noah, “For your lifeblood I will require a reckoning, from every beast;” and again, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” Similarly, the Lord said to those who would later shed His blood, “All righteous blood shall be required that is shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, All these things shall come upon this generation.” He thus indicates the culmination in His own person of the shedding of blood from the beginning, of all the righteous people and prophets, and that through Himself there would be a reckoning for their blood. Now this blood could not be required unless it also had the capacity to be saved; nor would the Lord have summed up these things in Himself unless He had become flesh and blood in the manner of the original formation of man, saving in His own person at the end what had perished in Adam at the beginning.

Barnabas, The Epistle of Barnabas Supporting witness

For to this end the Lord endured to deliver up His flesh to corruption, that we might be sanctified through the remission of sins, which is effected by His blood of sprinkling.

Tertullian, Against Marcion Typology

and as He was to suffer therein, He represents the bleeding condition of His flesh under the metaphor of garments dyed in red, as if reddened in the treading and crushing process of the wine-press, from which the labourers descend reddened with the wine-juice, like men stained in blood.

Hippolytus, Treatise on Christ and Antichrist Typology

In the blood of what grape, then, but just His own flesh, which hung upon the tree like a cluster of grapes?— from whose side also flowed two streams, of blood and water, in which the nations are washed and purified, which (nations) He may be supposed to have as a robe about Him.

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Typology

...l who have written on their foreheads the sign of blood, that is, the sign of the cross on which He shed His blood. For the forehead is the top of the doorway in man, and the wood sprinkled with blood is a symbol of the cross. Finally, the killing of the lamb by the very people who do it is called the Passover feast, from the word paschein, because it is a figure of the passion, which God, knowing the future beforehand, gave through Moses to be celebrated by His people. But at that time the figure was effective in the present for turning away danger, so that it may be seen how great the power of the truth itself will be for protecting God's people in the greatest crisis of the whole world. But in what way, or in what place, all who have marked on the highest part of their body this sign of the true and divine blood will be safe, I will show in the last book.

Justin Martyr, The First Apology Typology

For this “washing His robe in the blood of the grape” was predictive of the passion He was to endure, cleansing by His blood those who believe on Him.

Hippolytus, Exegetical Fragments Typology

And in the blood of the grape, trodden and giving forth blood, which means the flesh of the Lord, he cleanses the whole calling of the Gentiles.

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness

but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

Exodus 24:8 Background

And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.