The Instructor 1.6.47
Summary: The Word is called food, flesh, bread, blood, wine, and milk; Christ's flesh, the heavenly bread, nourishes to incorruption, and Abel's pleading blood prefigures his.
Greek text · Stählin 1:118
Ἀλλὰ γὰρ αὖθις ἡμῖν σαφέστερον τοῦτο ἐν τῷ Περὶ ἀναστάσεως δηλωθήσεται. ἐπεὶ δὲ εἶπεν »καὶ ὁ ἄρτος, ὃν ἐγὼ δώσω, ἡ σάρξ μού ἐστιν«, σὰρξ δὲ αἵματι ἄρδεται, τὸ δὲ αἷμα οἶνος ἀλληγορεῖται, ἰστέον οὖν, ὅτι ὡς ἄρτος εἰς κρᾶμα καταθρυβεὶς τὸν οἶνον ἁρπάζει, τὸ δὲ ὑδατῶδες ἀπολείπει, οὕτως καὶ ἡ σὰρξ τοῦ κυρίου, ὁ ἄρτος τῶν οὐρανῶν, ἀναπίνει τὸ αἷμα, τοὺς οὐρανίους τῶν ἀνθρώπων εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν ἐκτρέφων, ἀπολείπων δὲ μόνας ἐκείνας εἰς φθορὰν τὰς σαρκικὰς ἐπιθυμίας. οὕτως πολλαχῶς ἀλληγορεῖται ὁ λόγος, καὶ βρῶμα καὶ σὰρξ καὶ τροφὴ καὶ ἄρτος καὶ αἷμα καὶ γάλα, ἃ πάντα ὁ κύριος εἰς ἀπόλαυσιν ἡμῶν τῶν εἰς αὐτὸν πεπιστευκότων. μὴ δὴ οὖν τις ξενιζέσθω λεγόντων ἡμῶν ἀλληγορεῖσθαι γάλα τὸ αἷμα τοῦ κυρίου· ἦ γὰρ οὐχὶ καὶ οἶνος ἀλληγορεῖται; »ὁ πλύνων«, φησίν, »ἐν οἴνῳ τὴν στολὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν αἵματι σταφυλῆς τὴν περιβολὴν αὐτοῦ·« ἐν τῷ αἵματι τῷ αὐτοῦ κοσμήσειν λέγει τὸ σῶμα τοῦ λόγου, ὥσπερ ἀμέλει τῷ αὐτοῦ πνεύματι ἐκθρέψει τοὺς πεινῶντας τὸν λόγον. ὅτι δὲ τὸ αἷμα ὁ λόγος ἐστίν, μαρτυρεῖ τοῦ Ἄβελ τοῦ δικαίου τὸ αἷμα ἐντυγχάνον τῷ θεῷ· οὐ γὰρ τὸ αἷμα ἄν ποτε προήσεται φωνήν, μὴ οὐχὶ ὁ λόγος νοούμενος τὸ αἷμα· τύπος γὰρ ὁ δίκαιος ὁ παλαιὸς τοῦ νέου δικαίου καὶ τὸ αἷμα τὸ ἐντυγχάνον τὸ παλαιὸν ὑπερεντυγχάνει τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ νέου.
English · Claude translation
But this will be shown more clearly in our work On the Resurrection. Since he said, “And the bread which I will give is my flesh,” and flesh is watered with blood, and blood is figuratively called wine, we must know that, as bread crumbled into a mixture of wine and water soaks up the wine and leaves the watery part, so the flesh of the Lord, the bread of heaven, drinks up the blood, nourishing to incorruption those of humankind who are heavenly, and leaving to corruption only the fleshly desires. So the Word is spoken of figuratively in many ways: as food, flesh, nourishment, bread, blood, and milk; the Lord is all these for the enjoyment of us who have believed in him. Let no one, then, be surprised that we say the Lord's blood is figuratively called milk. Is it not also figuratively called wine? “Washing his robe in wine,” it says, “and his garment in the blood of the grape.” He says that he will adorn the body of the Word with his own blood, just as he will nourish with his own Spirit those who hunger for the Word. And that the blood is the Word is witnessed by the blood of righteous Abel pleading with God; for the blood would never have uttered a voice unless it is understood as the Word. For the righteous man of old is a type of the new Righteous One, and the old blood that pleads, pleads on behalf of the new blood.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- Clement's On the Resurrection is lost (or was never written).
- The quotations are John 6:51 and Gen 49:11; the allusions are Gen 4:10 and Heb 12:24. The image of bread soaking up wine refers to the mixed cup of the Eucharist (wine with water).
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.6.47 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/6/47/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.6.47 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/6/47/).
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