Deuteronomy 12:23
Only beware of this, that thou eat not the blood, for the blood is for the soul: and therefore thou must not eat the soul with the flesh:
Open Deuteronomy 12:23 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Hoc solum cave, ne sanguinem comedas : sanguis enim eorum pro anima est, et idcirco non debes animam comedere cum carnibus :
- Septuagint (Swete)
- πρόσεχε ἰσχυρῶς τοῦ μὴ φαγεῖν αἷμα, ὅτι αἷμα αὐτοῦ ψυχή· οὐ βρωθήσεται ἡ ψυχὴ μετὰ τῶν κρεῶν·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- רַ֣ק חֲזַ֗ק לְבִלְתִּי֙ אֲכֹ֣ל הַדָּ֔ם כִּ֥י הַדָּ֖ם ה֣וּא הַנָּ֑פֶשׁ וְלֹא תֹאכַ֥ל הַנֶּ֖פֶשׁ עִם הַבָּשָֽׂר
Haydock's commentary
Soul. See Genesis ix. 4. Blood maintains the life of animals, and it would seem cruel to begin to eat them before they were perfectly dead. But the obligation of this positive law has long ago ceased, as it was intended chiefly for the Jews.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian An Answer to the Jews, Of Sacrifices
So, again, we show that sacrifices of earthly oblations and of spiritual sacrifices were predicted; and, moreover, that from the beginning the earthly were foreshown, in the person of Cain, to be those of the “elder son,” that is, of Israel; and the opposite sacrifices demonstrated to be those of the “younger son,” Abel, that is, of our people. For the elder, Cain, offered gifts to God from the fruit of the earth; but the younger son, Abel, from the fruit of his ewes. “God had respect unto Abel, and unto his gifts; but unto Cain and unto his gifts He had not respect. And God said unto Cain, Why is thy countenance fallen? hast thou not, if thou offerest indeed aright, but dost not divide aright, sinned? Hold thy peace. For unto thee shalt thy conversion be and he shall lord it over thee. …