Augustine: Metaphor in Scripture

What is that which forbidding to eat blood says, “The life of all flesh is its blood” (Lev. xvii. 11). . . . It remains, therefore, that since that mediator, who in all those sacrifices offered for sins was prefigured, makes an atonement for our life; that may be called life which signifies life. A thing which is a sign is accustomed to be called by the name of the tiling which it signifies; as it is written, “The seven ears are seven years,” for he did not say they “signify seven years,” “and the seven kine are seven years,” and many things of this kind. Hence there is that which is said, “The rock was Christ.” For he did not say “the rock signified Christ,” but, as it were, was this very thing, though indeed it was not this in substance, but in signification. So also the blood, because on account of a certain vital substantiality it signifies the life, is in sacraments called the life. . . . Modes of speech also must be considered by that which contains being used for that which is contained, that since life is held in the body by blood, for if it is shed it departs, by it life may be more suitably signified, and blood takes its name. As the place in which the church is assembled is called a church (Eph. v. 27; 1 Cor. xi. 22). It is also written, “He sheddeth blood who withdraweth the hire of the labourer” (Eccles. xxxiv. 24 or 27). He called blood hire, since in it life is sustained, which is called by the name of blood.

(Translation by John Harrison as presented at pp. 14-15 of Letter to the Rev. E.B. Pusey on His Unfair Treatment of the Testimony of the Fathers – London 1877)

A thing which is a sign is accustomed to be called by the name of the thing which it signifies; as it is written, “The seven ears are seven years,” for he did not say they “signify seven years,” “and the seven kine are seven years,” and many things of this kind. Hence there is that which is said, “The rock was Christ,” but he did not say, “The rock signified Christ,” etc.

(Translation by William Lockett as presented at pp. 125-126 of The Church of Rome – London 1907)

A thing which is a sign is wont to be called by the name of the thing of which it is a sign: and so it is written, The seven ears are seven years; for it is not said, They signify seven years: and the seven kine are seven years; and there are many examples of the same kind … For it is not said, The rock signifies Christ, but words are used as if the rock was that which in substance it is not, but which it only signifies; and similarly blood, because (on account of a kind of vital substance in it) it is a sign of life, is, in sacramental language called life.

(Translation by John MacNaught, M.A. as presented at p. 173 of Coena Domini – London, 1878)

The thing which signifieth is wont to be called by the name of that thing which it signifieth, as it is written, “The seven ears are seven years.” It saith not, They signify seven years. And, “Seven kine are seven years;” and many other like. And so said St Paul, that “the stone was Christ,” and not, that it signified Christ, but even as it had been he indeed, which nevertheless was not Christ by substance, but by signification” &c.

(Translation by Thomas Becon, S.T.P., as presented at p. 282 of the Catechism of Thomas Becon – Cambridge 1844)

De verbis: Anima omnis carnis sanguis eius est?

1. Quid est quod prohibens edendum sanguinem dicit: Anima omnis carnis, sanguis eius est? Quem totum locum sic explicat: Et homo, homo filiorum Israel, aut de proselytis qui appositi sunt in vobis, quicumque ederit omnem sanguinem; et statuam faciem meam super animam quae manducat sanguinem, et perdam illam de populo suo. Anima enim omnis carnis, sanguis eius est. Et ego dedi illum vobis exorare pro animabus vestris: sanguis enim eius pro anima exorabit. Propterea dixi filiis Israel: Omnis anima ex vobis non edet sanguinem; et proselytus qui appositus est in vobis, non edet sanguinem. Numquidnam si animam pecoris sanguinem dicimus, etiam anima hominis sanguis putanda est? Absit. Quomodo ergo non ait: Anima omnis carnis pecoris sanguis eius est; sed: Anima, inquit, omnis carnis sanguis eius est? In omni utique carne, etiam hominis caro deputatur. An quia vitale aliquid est in sanguine, quia per ipsum maxime in hac carne vivitur, qui in omnibus venis per corporis cuncta diffunditur, ipsam vitam corporis vocavit animam, non vitam quae migrat ex corpore, sed quae morte finitur? Qua locutione dicimus istam vitam temporalem esse, non aeternam; mortalem, non immortalem: cum sit immortalis animae natura, quae ablata est ab Angelis in sinu Abrahae; et cui dicitur: Hodie mecum eris in paradiso; et quae in tormentis ardebat inferni. Secundum istam ergo significationem, qua perhibetur anima etiam haec temporalis vita, dixit apostolus Paulus: Non enim facio animam meam pretiosam quam mihi; ubi se ostendere voluit et mori paratum pro Evangelio. Nam secundum significationem qua anima dicitur illa quae migrat ex corpore, magis eam pretiosam faciebat, cui tantum meritum conquirebat. Sunt et aliae huiusmodi locutiones. Vita itaque ista temporalis maxime sanguine continetur in corpore. Sed quid est quod ait: Dedi vobis eum ad altare Dei, exorare pro anima vestra; tamquam anima pro anima exoret? Numquid sanguis pro sanguine, quasi de nostro sanguine solliciti simus, cum pro anima nostra volumus exorari? Absurdum est hoc.

2. Sed multo est absurdius ut sanguis pecoris exoret pro anima hominis, quae mori non potest: cum manifeste Scriptura testetur in Epistola ad Hebraeos, illum sanguinem victimarum nihil profuisse ad exorandum Deum pro peccatis hominum; sed significasse aliquid quod prodesset. Impossibile est enim, inquit, sanguinem hircorum et taurorum auferre peccata. Restat itaque ut quoniam pro anima nostra exorat Mediator ille, qui omnibus illis sacrificiis quae pro peccatis offerebantur praefigurabatur, illud appelletur anima quod significat animam.

3. Solet autem res quae significat eius rei nomine quam significat nuncupari; sicut scriptum est: Septem spicae, septem anni sunt; non enim dixit, septem annos significant: et: Septem boves, septem anni sunt; et multa huiusmodi. Hinc est quod dictum est: Petra erat Christus: non enim dixit: Petra significat Christum, sed tamquam hoc esset, quod utique per substantiam non hoc erat, sed per significationem. Sic et sanguis quoniam propter vitalem quamdam corpulentiam animam significat, in sacramentis anima dictus est. Verum si quisquam putat animam pecoris esse sanguinem, non est in ista quaestione laborandum. Tantum ne anima hominis, quae carnem humanam vivificat, et est rationalis, sanguis putetur, valde cavendum est, et hic error modis omnibus refutandus. Quaerendae etiam locutiones, quibus per id quod continet, significetur id quod continetur, ut quoniam anima sanguine tenetur in corpore (nam si fuerit effusus abscedit), per ipsum aptius significata sit anima, et eius nomen sanguis acceperit. Sicut ecclesia dicitur locus quo Ecclesia congregatur. Nam Ecclesia homines sunt, de quibus dicitur: Ut exhiberet sibi gloriosam Ecclesiam. Hoc tamen vocari etiam ipsam domum orationum, idem apostolus testis est, ubi ait: Numquid domus non habetis ad manducandum et bibendum? an ecclesiam Dei contemnitis? Et hoc quotidianus loquendi usus obtinuit, ut in ecclesiam prodire, aut ad ecclesiam confugere non dicatur, nisi qui ad locum ipsum parietesque prodierit vel confugerit, quibus Ecclesiae congregatio continetur. Scriptum est etiam: Et effundens sanguinem, qui fraudat mercedem mercenarii. Mercedem sanguinem dixit, quoniam ea sustentatur vita, quae nomine sanguinis appellatur.

4. Sed cum Dominus dicat: Nisi manducaveritis carnem meam, et biberitis meum sanguinem, non habebitis in vobis vitam; quid sibi vult quod a sanguine sacrificiorum, quae pro peccatis offerebantur, tantopere populus prohibetur, si illis sacrificiis unum hoc sacrificium significabatur, in quo vera fit remissio peccatorum: a cuius tamen sacrificii sanguine in alimentum sumendo, non solum nemo prohibetur, sed ad bibendum potius omnes exhortantur, qui volunt habere vitam? Quaerendum igitur quid significet, quod homo prohibetur in Lege sanguinem manducare, eumque Deo fundere iubetur. Nam de animae natura, cur per sanguinem significata sit, quantum in praesentia satis visum est, diximus.

- Augustine, Questions in Leviticus, Book III, Question 57, On the words: The life of all flesh is his blood (Section 3 is the focal point)