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Blood symbolizes life, and the giver of all life is God. That's why blood is sacred and, in a way, reserved for God alone. Back when the Temple in Jerusalem still stood (ultimately demolished by the Romans in 70 {{small|CE}}), the Temple's altar was regularly sprinkled with calf or lamb blood as a sacrifice of atonement. And since the blood was meant as a gift for God, it was off-limits to humans. Hence, the strict and oft-repeated Biblical ban on drinking blood. When broken, it was punishable by God himself setting his face against the perpetrator: I see you, see what you did, and won't forget it.