Clement Of Alexandria: Unless You Drink My Blood

Clement of Alexandria: All are symbols, when He said: Eat ye my flesh, and drink my blood s distinctly by metaphor the drinkable properties of faith and the promise.

In part one of chapter IV, Clement of Alexandria he said: We who are baptized, having wiped off the sins which obscure the light of the Divine Spirit. Clement then shows that the "gift of the Spirit" is the ability to discern the Word once we have turned to Christ.

Now, eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood is related to eating and drinking the Word of Christ which He defined as "spirit and life" (John 6:63)

The Roman Catholic Church teaches "Transubstantiation." The bread of the Eucharis and wine (for the priest only) is transformed into the literal flesh of Christ and the wine becomes the actual blood of Christ.

In "consubstantiation," the presence of Jesus is "with" the elements.

Clement shows that the early belief was that we memoralize the Lord's death.

A tombstone memoralizes a loved one: a tombstone represents our love: a tombstone is not the actual person or our love.

Of the Church in Backwater Rome:

"From the East it had obtained the Scriptures and their authentication, and from the same source was deriving the canons, the liturgies, and the creed of Christendom. The universal language of Christians is Greek.

"To a pagan emperor who had outgrown the ideas of Nero's time, it was no longer Judaism; but it was not less an Oriental superstition, essentially Greek in its features and its dress. "All the churches of the West," says the historian of Latin Christianity, "were Greek religious colonies. Their language was Greek, their organization Greek, their writers Greek, their Scriptures and their ritual were Greek. Through Greek, the communications of the churches of the West were constantly kept up with the East.

"Thus the Church at Rome was but one of a confederation of Greek religious republics rounded by Christianity."

"Now this confederation was the Holy Catholic Church. Introduction of Clement of Alexandria

Eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the gods was a common ritual in paganism. However, David prophesied:

(Michtam of David.)

PRESERVE me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust. Psalm 16:1

my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee; Psalm 16: 2 O

But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. Psalm 16: 3

Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips. Psalm 16: 4

The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. Psalm 16: 5

When the drink offering was blood or wine it was POURED OUT at the altar!

The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. Psalm 16: 6

I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons. Psalm 16: 7

I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Psalm 16: 8

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. Psalm 16: 9

For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Psalm 16: 10

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16: 11

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Backing up two paragraphs from Chapter VI we hear Clement speaking of the true spiritual way of eating and drinking of the Lord and His Word.

Of this the apostle himself shall testify, calling as he does the Jews heirs according to the first covenant, and us heirs according to promise: Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors, till the time appointed by the father. So also we, when we were children, were in bondage under the rudiments of the world: but when the fulness of the time was came, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons " Gal. iv. 1-5. by Him.

See how He has admitted those to be children who are under fear and sins; but has conferred manhood on those who are under faith, by calling them sons, in contradistinction from the children that are under the law: "For thou art no more a servant," he says, "but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God." Gal. iv. 7.

What, then, is lacking to the son after inheritance? Wherefore the expression, "When I was a child," may be elegantly expounded thus: that is, when I was a Jew (for he was a Hebrew by extraction) I thought as a child, when I followed the law; but after becoming a man, I no longer entertain the sentiments of a child, that is, of the law, but of a man, that is, of Christ,

whom alone the Scripture calls man, as we have said before. "I put away childish things."

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But the childhood which is in Christ is maturity, as compared with the law. Having reached this point, we must defend our childhood. And we have still to explain what is said by the apostle:

"I have fed you with milk (as children in Christ), not with meat; for ye were not able, neither yet are ye now able." 1 Cor. iii. 2.

For it does not appear to me that the expression is to be taken in a Jewish sense; for I shall oppose to it also that Scripture, "I will bring you into that good land which flows with milk and honey." Ex. iii. 8. A very great difficulty arises in reference to the comparison of these Scriptures, when we consider.

For if the infancy which is characterized by the milk is the beginning of faith in Christ, then it is disparaged as childish and imperfect.

How is the rest that comes after the meat, the rest of the man who is perfect and endowed with knowledge, again distinguished by infant milk?

Does not this, as explaining a parable, mean something like this, and is not the expression to be read somewhat to the following effect: "I have fed you with milk in Christ; "and after a slight stop, let us add, "as children," that by separating the words in reading we may make out some such sense as this:

I have instructed you in Christ with simple, true, and natural nourishment,-namely, that which is spiritual: for such is the nourishing substance of milk swelling out from breasts of love. So that the whole matter may be conceived thus:

As nurses nourish new-born children on milk, so do I also by the Word, the milk of Christ, instilling into you spiritual nutriment.

A mature believer continues to drink milk but is also able to eat meat.

Thus, then, the milk which is perfect is perfect nourishment, and brings to that consummation which cannot cease. Wherefore also the same milk and honey were promised in the rest. Rightly, therefore, the Lord again promises milk to the righteous, that the Word may be clearly shown to be both, "the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end; " Rev. i. 8. the Word being figuratively represented as milk.

Something like this Homer oracularly declares against his will, when he calls righteous men milk-fed. [Iliad, xiii. 6. S.] So also may we take the Scripture:

"And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ; " 1 Cor. iii. 1.

so that the carnal may be understood as those recently instructed, and still babes in Christ.

For he called those who had already believed on the Holy Spirit spiritual, and those newly instructed and not yet purified carnal; whom with justice he calls still carnal, as minding equally with the heathen the things of the flesh:

"For whereas there is among you envy and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? " 1 Cor. iii. 3.

"Wherefore also I have given you milk to drink," he says; meaning, I have instilled into you the knowledge which, from instruction, nourishes up to life eternal.

But the expression, "I have given you to drink", is the symbol of perfect appropriation.

For those who are full-grown are said to drink, babes to suck.

"For my blood," says the Lord, "is true drink." John vi. 55.

In saying, therefore, "I have given you milk to drink," has he not indicated the knowledge of the truth, the perfect gladness in the Word, who is the milk? And what follows next, "not meat, for ye were not able,"

may indicate the clear revelation in the future world, like food, face to face.

"For now we see as through a glass,"

the same apostle says, "but then face to face." 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

Wherefore also he has added, "neither yet are ye now able, for ye are still carnal," minding the things of the flesh,-desiring, loving, feeling jealousy, wrath, envy. "For we are no more in the flesh," Rom. viii. 9. as some suppose. For with it [they say], having the face which is like an angel's, we shall see the promise face to face. How then, if that is truly the promise after our departure hence, say they that they know "what eye hath not known, nor hath entered into the mind of man,"

who have not perceived by the Spirit,

but received from instruction "what ear hath not heard," Cor. ii. 9. or that ear alone which "was rapt up into the third heaven? " 2 Cor. xii. 2-4. But it even then was commanded to preserve it unspoken.

But if human wisdom, as it remains to understand, is the glorying in knowledge, hear the law of Scripture: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might; but let him that glorieth glory in the Lord." er. ix. 23; 1 Cor. i. 31; 2 Cor. x. 17.

But we are God-taught, and glory in the name of Christ. How then are we not to regard the apostle as attaching this sense to the milk of the babes?

And if we who preside over the Churches are shepherds after the image of the good Shepherd, and you the sheep,

are we not to regard the Lord as preserving consistency in the use of figurative speech, when He speaks also of the milk of the flock?

And to this meaning we may secondly accommodate the expression, "I have given you milk to drink, and not given you food, for ye are not yet able," regarding the meat not as something different from the milk, but the same in substance.

For the very same Word is fluid and mild as milk, or solid and compact as meat. And entertaining this view, we may regard the proclamation of the Gospel, which is universally diffused, as milk; and as meat, faith, which from instruction is compacted into a foundation, which, being more substantial than hearing,

is likened to meat, and assimilates to the soul itself nourishment of this kind.

Elsewhere the Lord, in the Gospel according to John, brought this out by symbols, when He said: "Eat ye my flesh, and drink my blood; " John vi. 34. describing distinctly by metaphor

the drinkable properties of faith and the promise,
by means of which the Church,

like a human being consisting of many members, is refreshed and grows, is welded together and compacted of both,-of faith, which is the body, and of hope, which is the soul; as also the Lord of flesh and blood.

For in reality the blood of faith is hope, in which faith is held as by a vital principle. And when hope expires, it is as if blood flowed forth; and the vitality of faith is destroyed.

If, then, some would oppose, saying that by milk is meant the first lesson"-as it were,

the first food-and that by meat is meant those spiritual cognitions to which they attain by raising themselves to knowledge,

let them understand that, in saying that meat is solid food, and the flesh and blood of Jesus, they are brought by their own vainglorious wisdom to the true simplicity.

For the blood is found to be an original product in man, and some have consequently ventured to call it the substance of the soul. And this blood, transmuted by a natural process of assimilation in the pregnancy of the mother, through the sympathy of parental affection, effloresces and grows old, in order that there may be no fear for the child.

Blood, too, is the moister part of flesh, being a kind of liquid flesh; and milk is the sweeter and finer part of blood. For whether it be the blood supplied to the foetus, and sent through the navel of the mother, or whether it be the menses themselves shut out from their proper passage, and by a natural diffusion, bidden by the all-nourishing and creating God, proceed to the already swelling breasts, and by the heat of the spirits transmuted, [whether it be the one or the other] that is formed, into food desirable for the babe, that which is changed is the blood. For of all the members, the breasts have the most sympathy with the womb.

When there is parturition, the vessel by which blood was conveyed to the foetus is cut off: there is an obstruction Of the flow, and the blood receives an impulse towards the breasts; and on a considerable rush taking place, they are distended, and change the blood to milk in a manner analogous to the change of blood into pus in ulceration. Or if, on the other hand, the blood from the veins in the vicinity of the breasts, which have been opened in pregnancy, is poured into the natural hollows of the breasts; and the spirit discharged from the neighbouring arteries being mixed with it, the substance of the blood, still remaining pure, it becomes white by being agitated like a wave; and by an interruption such as this is changed by frothing it, like what takes place with the sea, which at the assaults of the winds, the poets say, "spits forth briny foam." Yet still the essence is supplied by the blood.

In this way also the rivers, borne on with rushing motion, and fretted by contact with the surrounding air, murmur forth foam. The moisture in our mouth, too, is whitened by the breath. What an absurdity is it, then, not to acknowledge that the blood is converted into that very bright and white substance by the breath! The change it suffers is in quality, not in essence. You will certainly find nothing else more nourishing, or sweeter, or whiter than milk. In every respect, accordingly, it is like spiritual nourishment, which is sweet through grace, nourishing as life, bright as the day of Christ.

The blood of the Word has been also exhibited as milk. Milk being thus provided in parturition, is supplied to the infant; and the breasts, which till then looked straight towards the husband, now bend down towards the child, being taught to furnish the substance elaborated by nature in a way easily received for salutary nourishment. For the breasts are not like fountains full of milk, flowing in ready prepared; but, by effecting a change in the nutriment, form the milk in themselves, and discharge it. And the nutriment suitable and wholesome for the new-formed and new-born babe is elaborated by God, the nourisher and the Father of all that are generated and regenerated,-as manna, the celestial food of angels, flowed down from heaven on the ancient Hebrews. Even now, in fact, nurses call the first-poured drink of milk by the same name as that food-manna. Further, pregnant women, on becoming mothers, discharge milk. But the Lord Christ, the fruit of the Virgin, did not pronounce the breasts of women blessed, nor selected them to give nourishment; but when the kind and loving Father had rained down the Word, Himself became spiritual nourishment to the good. O mystic marvel!

The universal Father is one, and one the universal Word; and the Holy Spirit is one and the same everywhere, and

one is the only virgin mother.

I love to call her the Church.

This mother (church), when alone, had not milk, because alone she was not a woman. But she is once virgin and mother-pure as a virgin, loving as a mother.

And calling her children to her, she nurses them with holy milk, viz., with the Word for childhood. Therefore she had not milk; for the milk was this child fair and comely, the body (church) of Christ, which nourishes by the Word the young brood, which the Lord Himself brought forth in throes of the flesh, which the Lord Himself swathed in His precious blood.

O amazing birth! O holy swaddling bands! The Word is all to the child, both father and mother and tutor and nurse.

"Eat ye my flesh," He says, "and drink my blood." John vi. 53,54.

Such is the suitable food which the Lord ministers, and He offers His flesh and pours forth His blood, and nothing is wanting for the children's growth.

O amazing mystery l We are enjoined to cast off the old and carnal corruption, as also the old nutriment, receiving in exchange another new regimen, that of Christ, receiving Him if we can, to hide Him within; and that, enshrining the Saviour in our souls, we may correct the affections of our flesh.

But you are not inclined to understand it thus, but perchance more generally.

Hear it also in the following way. The flesh figuratively represents to us the Holy Spirit; for the flesh was created by Him.

The blood points out to us the Word, for as rich blood the Word has been infused into life; and the union of both is the Lord, the food of the babes-the Lord who is Spirit and Word.

The food-that is, the Lord Jesus-that is, the Word of God, the Spirit made flesh, the heavenly flesh sanctified. The nutriment is the milk of the Father, by which alone we infants are nourished. The Word Himself, then, the beloved One, and our nourisher, hath shed His own blood for us, to save humanity; and by Him, we, believing on God, flee to the Word, "the care-soothing breast" of the Father. And He alone, as is befitting, supplies us children with the milk of love, and those only are truly Messed who suck this breast.

If God has the "power" to make Himself Flesh, then He has the Power to Make his Word Spirit and Life:

What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? John 6:62

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 6:63

Wherefore also Peter says: "Laying therefore aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisy, and envy, and evil speaking, as new-born babes,

desire the milk of the word, that ye may grow by it to salvation;

if ye have tasted that the Lord is Christ." 1 Pet. ii. 1-3

And were one to concede to them that the meat was something different from the milk, then how shall they avoid being transfixed on their own spit, through want of consideration of nature? For in winter, when the air is condensed, and prevents the escape of the heat enclosed within, the food, transmuted and digested and changed into blood, passes into the veins, and these, in the absence of exhalation, are greatly distended, and exhibit strong pulsations; consequently also nurses are then fullest of milk.

And we have shown a little above, that on pregnancy blood passes into milk by a change which does not affect its substance, just as in old people yellow hair changes to grey. But again in summer, the body, having its pores more open, affords greater facility for diaphoretic action in the case of the food, and the milk is least abundant, since neither is the blood full, nor is the whole nutriment retained. If, then, the digestion of the food results in the production of blood, and the blood becomes milk, then blood is a preparation for milk, as blood is for a human being, and the grape for the vine. With milk, then, the Lord's nutriment, we are nursed directly we are born; and as soon as we are regenerated, we are honoured by receiving the good news of the hope of rest, even the Jerusalem above, in which it is written that milk and honey fall in showers, receiving through what is material the pledge of the sacred food. "For meats are done away with," 1 Cor. vi. 13. as the apostle himself says; but this nourishment on milk leads to the heavens, rearing up citizens of heaven, and members of the angelic choirs.

And since the Word is the gushing fountain of life, and has been called a river of olive oil, Paul, using appropriate figurative language, and calling Him milk, adds: "I have given you to drink;" 1 Cor. iii. 2. for we drink in the word, the nutriment of the truth. In truth, also liquid food is called drink; and the same thing may somehow be both meat and drink, according to the different aspects in which it is considered, just as cheese is the solidification of milk or milk solidified; for I am not concerned here to make a nice selection of an expression, only to say that one substance supplies both articles of food.

Besides, for children at the breast, milk alone suffices; it serves both for meat and drink. "I," says the Lord, "have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me." John iv. 32-34.

You see another kind of food which, similarly with milk, represents figuratively the will of God. Besides, also, the completion of His own passion He called catachrestically (mixed metaphor) "a cup," Matt. xx. 22,etc. when He alone had to drink and drain it.

Thus to Christ the fulfilling of His Father's will was food; and to us infants, who drink the milk of the word of the heavens, Christ Himself is food. Hence seeking is called sucking; for to those babes that seek the Word, the Father's breasts of love supply milk.

Further, the Word declares Himself to be the bread of heaven. "For Moses," He says, "gave you not that bread from heaven, but My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is He that cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world.
And the bread which I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." John vi. 32,33,51.

Here is to be noted the mystery of the bread, in as much as He speaks of it as flesh, and as flesh, consequently, that has risen through fire, as the wheat springs up from decay and germination; and, in truth, it has risen through fire for the joy of the Church, as bread baked. But this will be shown by and by more clearly in the chapter on the resurrection.

But since He said, "And the bread which I will give is My flesh," and since flesh is moistened with blood, and blood is figuratively termed wine,

we are bidden to know that, as bread, crumbled into a mixture of wine and water, seizes on the wine and leaves the watery portion,

so also the flesh of Christ, the bread of heaven absorbs the blood; that is, those among men who are heavenly, nourishing them up to immortality, and leaving only to destruction the lusts of the flesh.

Thus in many ways the Word is figuratively described, as meat, and flesh, and food, and bread, and blood, and milk. The Lord is all these, to give enjoyment to us who have believed on Him. Let no one then think it strange,

when we say that the Lord's blood is figuratively represented as milk.

For is it not figuratively represented as wine? "Who washes," it is said, "His garment in wine, His robe in the blood of the grape." Gen. xlix. 11. In His Own Spirit He says He will deck the body of the Word; as certainly by His own Spirit He will nourish those who hunger for the Word.

And that the blood is the Word, is testified by the blood of Abel, [Matt. xxiii. 35. S.] the righteous interceding with God.

For the blood would never have uttered a voice,

had it not been regarded as the Word:

for the righteous man of old is the type of the new righteous one; and the blood of old that interceded, intercedes in the place of the new blood.

And the blood that is the Word cries to God, since it intimated that the Word was to suffer.

Further, this flesh, and the blood in it, are by a mutual sympathy moistened and increased by the milk. And the process of formation of the seed in conception ensues when it has mingled with the pure residue of the menses, which remains. For the force that is in the seed coagulating the substances of the blood, as the rennet curdles milk, effects the essential part of the formative process. For a suitable blending conduces to fruitfulness; but extremes are adverse, and tend to sterility. For when the earth itself is flooded by excessive rain, the seed is swept away, while in consequence of scarcity it is dried up; but when the sap is viscous, it retains the seed, and makes it germinate. Some also hold the hypothesis, that the seed of an animal is in substance the foam of the blood, which being by the natural heat of the male agitated and shaken out is turned into foam, and deposited in the seminal veins. For Diogenes Apollionates will have it, that hence is derived the word aphrodisia.

From all this it is therefore evident, that the essential principle of the human body is blood. The contents of the stomach, too, at first are milky, a coagulation of fluid; then the same coagulated substance is changed into blood; but when it is formed into a compact consistency in the womb,

by the natural and warm spirit by which the embryo is fashioned, it becomes a living creature.

Further also, the child after birth is nourished by the same blood. For the flow of milk is the product of the blood; and the source of nourishment is the milk; by which a woman is shown to have brought forth a child, and to be truly a mother, by which also she receives a potent charm of affection.

Wherefore the Holy Spirit in the apostle, using the voice of the Lord, says mystically, "I have given you milk to drink." 1 Cor. iii. 2. For if we have been regenerated unto Christ, He who has regenerated us nourishes us with His own milk, the Word; for it is proper that what has procreated should forthwith supply nourishment to that which has been procreated.

And as the regeneration was conformably spiritual,

so also was the nutriment of man spiritual.

[Note: If the wine is turned back into the literal blood, the spiritual purpose of the death of Christ is defeated.]

In all respects, therefore, and in all things, we are brought into union with Christ, into relationship through His blood, by which we are redeemed; and into sympathy,

in consequence of the nourishment which flows from the Word; and into immortality, through His guidance:-

"Among men the bringing up of children

Often produces stronger impulses to love than the

procreating of them."

The same blood and milk of the Lord is therefore the symbol of the Lord's passion and teaching. Wherefore each of us babes is permitted to make our boast in the Lord, while we proclaim:-

"Yet of a noble sire and noble blood I boast me sprung." [Il., xiv. 113]

And that milk is produced from blood by a change, is already clear; yet we may learn it from the flocks and herds. For these animals, in the time of the year which we call spring, when the air has more humidity, and the grass and meadows are juicy. and moist, are first filled with blood, as is shown by the distension of the veins of the swollen vessels; and from the blood the milk flows more copiously. But in summer again, the blood being burnt and dried up by the heat, prevents the change, and so they have less milk.

Further, milk has a most natural affinity for water, as assuredly the spiritual washing has for the spiritual nutriment. Those, therefore, that swallow a little cold water, in addition to the above-mentioned milk, straightway feel benefit; for the milk is prevented from souring by its combination with water, not in consequence of any antipathy between them, but in consequence of the water taking kindly to the milk while it is undergoing digestion.

And such as is the union of the Word with baptism,

is the agreement of milk with water;

for it receives it alone of all liquids,

and admits of mixture with water,

for the purpose of cleansing,

as baptism for the remission of sins.

And it is mixed naturally with honey also, and this for cleansing along with sweet nutriment. For the Word blended with love at once cures our passions and cleanses our sins; and the saying,

"Sweeter than honey flowed the stream of speech," [Il., i. 248.]
seems to me to have been spoken of the Word, who is honey. And prophecy oft extols Him "above honey and the honeycomb.' [ Ps. xix. 10.]

Furthermore, milk is mixed with sweet wine; and the mixture is beneficial, as when suffering is mixed in the cup in order to immortality.

For the milk is curdled by the wine, and separated, and whatever adulteration is in it is drained off.

And in the same way, the spiritual communion of faith with suffering man, drawing off as serous matter the lusts of the flesh, commits man to eternity, along with those who are divine, immortalizing him.

Further, many also use the fat of milk, called butter, for the lamp, plainly indicating by this enigma the abundant unction of the Word, since He alone it is who nourishes the infants, makes them grow, and enlightens them.

Wherefore also the Scripture says respecting the Lord," He fed them with the produce of the fields; they sucked honey from the rock, and oil from the solid rock, butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs; " [Deut. xxxii. 13,14.] and what follows He gave them. But he that prophesies the birth of the child says: "Butter and honey shall He eat.' [Isa. vii. 15]

And it occurs to me to wonder how some dare call themselves perfect and gnostics,

with ideas of themselves above the apostle, inflated and boastful,
when Paul even owned respecting himself,

"Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forth to those that are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus.' [Phil. iii. 12-14.]

And yet he reckons himself perfect, because he has been emancipated from his former life, and strives after the better life, not as perfect in knowledge, but as aspiring after perfection.

Wherefore also he adds, "As many of us as are perfect, are thus minded," [Phil. iii. 15.] manifestly describing perfection as the renunciation of sin, and regeneration into the faith of the only perfect One, and forgetting our former sins.

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