scholarly journals Covenants as an echo of the Eucharist. Typos of Lord’s Supper in the Old Testament

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-44
Author(s):  
Sergiy Victorovich Sannikov

The article uses typological understanding of the Lord's Supper to analyze Old Testament text. Intertextual hermeneutics, which connects the lexical units of various parts of texts for comprehensive understanding allowed to see an echo of the Eucharist in Old Testament. One of the most expressive prototypes or typos of the Lord's Supper in the Old Testament is the idea of the Covenants and changing of the covenants. The author analyzes the concept of testament and all cases of using this term in Old Testament texts, and concludes that the word “berith” in the biblical text cannot be identified only with the concept of contract, agreement or union. Also, it cannot be identified only with the concept of law, command or statute. The Testament should be taken holistically, combining different meanings of this concept. In this way, the “berith” describes the idea of a specific agreement, which has the character of a bloody decree. Therefore, on the basis of biblical ideas, the concept of a covenant in a broad sense can be presented as a relationship between God and people, which can be described as a God-initiated contract of a personal-corporate nature, which provides for mutual obligations. This kind of relationship is characterized by a fixed immutability and is accompanied by signs, evidence and a special memory procedure. Therefore, in the Old Testament period, we can confidently talk only about the Covenant with Noah, Abraham and Moses, who were revealed and showed their inner, spiritual essence in the New Testament of Jesus Christ. Only in these cases did the signs of covenant relations in the narrow sense be revealed, namely: God's initiative, personal-corporate relations, the invariability and obligatory commemorativeness are caused. Other ancient covenants do not contain a complete religious component and are not eucharistic prototypes. An important sign of the typos of the Lord's Supper in the Old Testament is the blood of the covenant. All covenants were accompanied by the shedding of sacrificial blood, which indicated the sacrifice of Christ and its echo in the Eucharistic cup. This emphasizes the difference between “berith” as a covenant and “berith” as a commandment or statute. Bloodless covenant are not testaments in the full biblical sense of the word. The idea of a testament as a bloodline expresses the highest seriousness of mutual testamentary obligations. That is, a Testament is an inviolable contract, the non-fulfillment of which threatens death. An additional feature of the testament, as shown in the article, was the theophanic Presence. It manifested itself not only at the time of the covenant, but also in an invisible way throughout its validity. The establishment of a covenant relationship has always been associated with theophany and could not have been otherwise, because the covenant is always personal, so God considered it necessary to show a personal presence at this crucial time. The author proves that in all pre-Christian covenants there is a single prototype line that was revealed in Jesus Christ. By the faith and merit of the ancestor, his descendants enter into the covenant and enjoy the benefits and blessings of their predecessor, as well as inherit all his obligations to God. The people of the New Testament enjoy all the benefits and advantages not because of their own merits, but only because of the merits of Jesus. The sign of entering into the Covenant of Jesus is water baptism (Col. 2: 11-13), which, as an external action, plays the role of a spiritual sign that indicates spiritual circumcision as a clipping of all sins. Thus, the intertextual analysis of the New Testament and Old Testament texts revealed the typos of Lord's Supper and shows the Christ as a single one, who determines the conditions of the covenants and makes it valid.

2010 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Dariusz Kasprzak

Neither the Apostles nor any Christian minister is admitted to use the priest’s title in the text of the New Testament. Nevertheless, in the New Testament we can perceive the development of the doctrine of the priest ministry in the early Church. Albert Vanhoye maintains that the lack of the term “priest” in the New Testament suggests the way of understanding of the Christian ministry, different from this in the Old Testament. It can’t be considered as a continuation of Jewish priesthood, which was concentrated mainly on ritual action and ceremonies. In the first century the Church developed the Christology of priesthood (Hbr) and ecclesiology of priesthood (1 P). Early Christians focused first on the redemptive event of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and Jesus as the mediator of a new covenant. Only then the religious communities adopted the priest’s title for their ministry.In the early years of the Church, all the ministries were regarded as a charismatic service among the Christian communities. In their services the early Christians followed Jesus Christ sent by God to serve. The Holy Spirit sent by God in the name of Jesus bestowed the spiritual gifts upon the Church (1 Kor 12–13). Consequently the disciples of Jesus and their successors could continue his mission. The Twelve Apostles’ ministry was the very first and most important Christian ministry. It was closely connected to the service of Jesus Christ himself. The Apostles were sent by the authority of Jesus Christ to continue his mission upon earth and they preached the Good News of the risen Christ. The Apostolicity was the fundamental base for every Church ministry established in different Christian communities. Successive ministries were established in order to transmit the teaching of Jesus Christ and to lead the community. For the early Christians the priesthood was not an individual privilege. It had rather the community character.


MELINTAS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-39
Author(s):  
Staniselaus Eko Riyadi

Violence is a crime condemned by religions, but religions in the world are apparently involved in some kind of violence. It has been considered problematic that some scriptural texts are showing violent acts that seem to be ‘authorised’ by God, even ‘allowed’ by God, or celebrated by the people. How should we understand such problematic texts? Is there any violence authorised by God? Christianity has been dealing with the interpretation of violent acts in biblical texts from the Old Testament as well as from the New Testament. This article suggests that violence in the biblical texts must be understood within the context of defining religious identity of Israel among the other nations that have their own gods. Scriptures do not promote violence, but has recorded the historical experiences of Israel in their confrontation with other nations. Therefore, violence in the biblical texts cannot be referred to as a sort of justification for any violent acts by religions in our multireligious and multiethnic society.


1995 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Van Staden

Taking cognizance of the fact that language - especially metaphorical language - can be expressive of deeplying cultural or religious symbol sets in man, the study explores the  possible original content of the syntagma εἰΚὼν ΤΟῦ θεΟῦ in both the Old and the New Testament. It is argued that there is a definite shift in the symbol set of which the concept (metaphor) 'image of God' is expressive. Whilst the Old Testament usage of the term probably attests to the conviction that humankind is part of the genus God and may even resemble him physically, the New Testament substitutes Jesus Christ for man as the primary carrier of the 'image of God'. Humankind in general does not reflect that image any more. It is only to be found in those who through faith in Jesus Christ regain the image of God. Our thesis is that the concept of 'image' is to be regarded as much an ethical injunction as it is an ontological state-ment. The faith of adherents to the community of believers finds expres-sion in distinctive behavior - that is, in conduct that clearly identifies them as reflecting the image of God.


1960 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Ragnar Bring

In The New Testament the word ‘Law’ is largely equivalent to what we today call the Old Testament. But there are exceptions to this use of the term. The Law sometimes designates the Pentateuch. This is the case in the liturgy of the Synagogue. But for the Jews the term ‘Law’ also could include their entire religious tradition. It governed the daily life of the people—not only in matters of what we call worship, morality, ethics or religion but also in matters legal, social and political. Additions to the commandments found in the Pentateuch and the commentaries that had been added and still were being added, were not thought to be something foreign to the law. It was thought that they simply applied what the Scriptures said. The phrase ‘it has been said to them of old times’ is often understood as being merely a formula of disapproval, since in the Gospels Jesus criticised these rules. But their original purpose was to continue the tradition of which the Scriptures were the core. Their contemporary significance was manifest in the constantly renewed discussion of how they were to be interpreted and applied. For this purpose casuistic rules were needed, that took into account all the concrete situations of life. Thus a lawabiding Jew could always know how he had to act.


1996 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
G. M. Booy

Isaiah 52:13-53:12: Prediction or word of comfort? The New Testament frequently applies this poem to Jesus Christ as well as to the receiving and proclamation of the gospel. It is possible to regard the New Testament’s use as criterium for the interpretation of Isaiah 52:13-53:12 and to understand it therefore as a direct prediction of Jesus Christ. Such an interpretation, however, degrades the Old Testament and ignores the meaning which the Isaiah-text has in its historical and literary context.


Author(s):  
Gerald O’Collins, SJ

‘Saving truth’ is a more biblical and positive term than ‘inerrancy’ or freedom from error. Rather than being identified with biblical inspiration, the truth of the Scriptures is a major consequence of inspiration. It is close to the notion of the divine faithfulness and reliability. A progressive approach to biblical truth acknowledges that truth is to be found primarily in the whole Bible. Jesus Christ is the Truth, attested prophetically in the Old Testament and apostolically in the New. Ultimately biblical truth is something to be lived and practised. A closed list of inspired and authoritative books (which determine the Church’s faith and practice), the canon was constituted by maintaining the inherited Scriptures and accepting the New Testament on the basis of their apostolic provenance (taken in a broad sense), orthodox teaching (or adherence to the ‘rule of faith’), and wide and consistent usage in the Church’s liturgy and teaching.


1972 ◽  
Vol 26 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 81-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred C. Rush

AbstractBeginning with Osee, Yahweh's relationship with Israel is described in terms of marriage. The basic, underlying theme is the love of the husband that overcomes the infidelities of his spouse, his covenanted people.1 This marriage theme of love later finds many nuanced expressions in the Old Testament.2 The Church, as the Spouse of Christ, is the continuation and fulfillment of the Old Testament theme.3 "Since the Church of the New Testament succeeds the Synagogue of the Old Testament, it naturally takes over not only the general idea of the People of God, but also the metaphorical language of bridal mysticism in the prophetic books; God unites himself with Redeemed mankind with the tenderness and constancy of a lover."4


1985 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hughes Oliphant Old

The Old Testament psalms of praise, which expressed the awe and joy of being in the presence of God, presented the early Christians both text and model for the expression of their joy that in Jesus Christ God had revealed himself.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 105-121
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Gotchold

The paper discusses the issue of the desire for truth in Plato’s Republic, Book VII, and the Old and New Testaments with regard to Girard’s theory of mimetic desire, the scapegoat mechanism and the founding murder. Both Plato and the Bible describe outstanding individuals – Anax, Moses and Jesus – who attain truth. This causes communal envy, leading to the outbreaks of mimetic violence. However, neither Plato nor the Old Testament allow the founding murder to happen. Consequently, they depict communities which deal with strict laws and suppressed violence. It is only in the New Testament that mimetic violence fi nds its outlet in the sacrifi cial killing of Jesus Christ.


Author(s):  
Mogens Müller

In the lecture The Septuagint and Biblical Theology. Some Observations the author tries to evalue the meaning of the Septuagint in the context of Biblical theology. The Old Testament cannot be understood per se, isolated from the people or congregations for which it was Holy Scripture. It only survived in its reception, ie. in an interpretation. This process can be detected already in the OT, but also and distinctly in the literature which has been termed "rewritten Bible". It is in this connection that the relevance of the Septuagint for Biblical theology must be s een, because it consists not merely of a translation, but also of an interpretation. And in the context of biblical theology Scripture is not what may be reconstructed as an Ur-text,  but the text actually included in the  New Testament. It was precisely the New Testament reception of the Septuagint that made it a valid expression of the OT, namely as the Bible of hte Greek-speaking part of Judaism in a period where even Palestinian Judaism was heavily influenced by Hellenism.


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