Everything that moves, everything that is alive, is yours for food. Earlier I gave you the green plants, but now I give you everything for food. But you must not eat meat that still has blood in it, because blood gives life. — Genesis 9:3-4
I will be against any citizen of Israel or foreigner living with you who eats blood. I will cut off that person from the people. This is because the life of the body is in the blood, and I have given you rules for pouring that blood on the altar to remove your sins so you will belong to the Lord. It is the blood that removes the sins, because it is life. So I tell the people of Israel this: “None of you may eat blood, and no foreigner living among you may eat blood.”
If any citizen of Israel or foreigner living among you catches a wild animal or bird that can be eaten, that person must pour the blood on the ground and cover it with dirt. If blood is still in the meat, the animal’s life is still in it. So I give this command to the people of Israel: “Don’t eat meat that still has blood in it, because the animal’s life is in its blood. Anyone who eats blood must be cut off. — Leviticus 17:10-14
Both clean and unclean people may eat this meat, but be sure you don’t eat the blood, because the life is in the blood. Don’t eat the life with the meat. — Deuteronomy 12:22-23
Yes, Father Orthoduck found himself ruminating about vampires again! It must be because Father Orthoduck is in the process of reading Never Ceese by Sue Dent. Nevertheless, it struck Father Orthoduck that there is a very strong Old Testament basis for the vampire’s habit of drinking blood. Stokerbramwell had earlier commented that there were Eucharistic (Lord’s Supper) themes in the drinking of blood by the vampire. And, there is some truth in that. However, Father Orthoduck thinks that there is actually a better explanation for the drinking of blood by vampires. Please read the verses above.
Father Orthoduck noticed that a vampire can drink either the blood of humans or the blood of animals in order to stay alive. This is not surprising since the verses above point out that any animal that lives has its life in the blood, and that includes human beings. Whether the vampire drinks human or animal blood, the vampire gains life from the blood. This makes sense, since a vampire is undead. It is not truly alive, and the only way to maintain its vitality, the only way to avoid truly dying is by taking in fresh infusions of life on a regular basis. Since life is found in the blood, the vampire must drink someone’s or some animal’s blood on a regular basis. The Old Testament prohibitions against drinking blood come from the idea that one should not take in some other being’s life force to supplement one’s own. Mind you, Father Orthoduck does not think that this means that the Old Testament is against blood transfusions, as that is a voluntary donation of blood in order to save a life, and Jesus (yes, New Testament) said some rather strong things about healing on the Sabbath. Father Orthoduck thinks that principle would also apply to “giving” life force voluntarily to someone in medical need.
Nevertheless, this is not directly Eucharist imagery, since any animal’s blood will suffice. Why, then, does a vampire prefer human blood? The explanation “given” in the books is that the life force of human blood is stronger and of a higher quality than the life force of animal blood. There the argument would be that since humans are created in the image of God, they do, indeed, carry a stronger life in them than animals do, who are not created in the image of God. Ultimately, human beings have been raised up to incredible heights by the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has in some sense sanctified humanity by taking on human flesh. So, the Psalmist, looking ahead can say:
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. — Psalm 8:3-5
Following that vein of thinking, if a vampire drinks blood to gain life force, it also explains why a human who drinks too much vampire blood becomes a vampire. The vampire sucks the blood of the human to gain life. But, when the human, in return, is forced to drink the vampire’s blood, the human gains unlife. The vampire essentially comes very close to killing the human, by feeding on him/her, and then replaces the “life in the blood” with its own unlife in the blood. But unlife is not life, and the person who becomes a vampire is left in the terrible and constant thirst that is typical of a vampire. Unlife is not the opposite of life. Unlife is deficient life.
Finally, as one hymn says:
Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood;
Would you o’er evil a victory win?
There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.
I got mentioned by name! I feel honored.
You know, the King James Version of that passage is actually quoted from in both the Hamilton/Deane stage version of Dracula as well as the 1931 Universal movie. “The blood is the life.” That’s the abhorrent thing about vampires in the older stories. They slowly steal life from their victims. You find, in some other cultures, similar creatures that feed on other vital substances, or sometimes even as nebulous a concept as “life force.” But in the end, it all comes down to the fear of having one’s life siphoned off, bit by bit, by something evil. As old and basic a fear as disease itself.
The reason why the vampire thirst for blood is so different from the Eucharistic self-offering of Christ is precisely in that Christ’s blood gives eternal and abundant life, without any depletion in Christ’s own life. It is not a destructive consumption, but rather the reality that we are partaking of something that is even more alive than we are. Christ is not “undead”, but is abundant life, and when we are transformed by this life, we are not consumed, but become ever so much more ourselves in Christ.
Nicely phrased!