Augustine of Hippo (354–430CE) wrote: "The observance of pouring out the blood which was enjoined in ancient times upon Noah himself after the deluge, the meaning of which we have already explained, is thought by many to be what is meant in the Acts of the Apostles, where we read that the Gentiles were required to abstain from fornication, and from things sacrificed, and from blood, that is, from flesh of which the blood has not been poured out."<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/140632.htm Augustine's Contra Faustum 32.13]</ref>
According to Bruce Metzger's ''Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament'': "the Apostolic Decree [15.29,15.20,21.25] ... contain many problems concerning text and exegesis"; "it is possible ... (fornication means) marriage within the prohibited Levitical Degrees (Lv 18.6-18), which the rabbis described as "forbidden for porneia," or mixed marriages with pagans (Nu 25.1; also compare 2 Cor 6.14), or participation in pagan worship which had long been described by Old Testament prophets as spiritual adultery and which, in fact, offered opportunity in many temples for religious prostitution"; "An extensive literature exists on the text and exegesis"; NRSV has things polluted by idols, fornication, whatever has been strangled, blood; NIV has food polluted by idols, sexual immorality, meat of strangled animals, blood; Young's Literal Translation has pollutions of the idols, whoredom, strangled thing, blood; Gaus' ''Unvarnished New Testament'' has pollution of idolatrous sacrifices, unchastity, meat of strangled animals, blood; New American Bible has pollution from idols, unlawful marriage, meat of strangled animals, blood.
Karl Josef von Hefele's commentary on canon II of Gangra] notes: "We further see that, at the time of the Synod of Gangra, the rule of the Apostolic Synod with regard to blood and things strangled was still in force. With the Greek Orthodox, indeed, it continued always in force as their Euchologies still show. Theodore Balsamon also, the well-known commentator on the canons of the Middle Ages, in his commentary on the sixty-third Canons of the Apostles, expressly blames the Latins because they had ceased to observe this command.
What the Latin Church, however, thought on this subject about the year 400, is shown by St. Augustine in his work Contra Faustum, where he states that the Apostles had given this command in order to unite the heathens and Jews in the one ark of Noah; but that then, when the barrier between Jewish and heathen converts had fallen, this command concerning things strangled and blood had lost its meaning, and was only observed by few. But still, as late as the eighth century, Pope Gregory the Third, 731 CE, forbade the eating of blood or things strangled under threat of a penance of forty days.
