Letter 46

Isidore of PelusiumUnknown|isidore pelusium
From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk
To: An unnamed recipient
Date: ~410 AD
Context: Isidore explains why the Old Testament law prescribed blood sacrifice.

You ask why the law entrusted its sacrifices to blood, when blood seems repulsive rather than holy. The answer is that the law was addressing people steeped in Egyptian customs, who were accustomed to worship animals. By commanding the sacrifice of the very creatures they venerated, God was weaning them from idolatry step by step. He met them where they were and led them forward. The blood of bulls and goats never actually took away sin — it pointed ahead to the blood that would: the blood of Christ, the true sacrifice, which fulfilled what the old sacrifices could only symbolize.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.