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Proleptic Recapitulation: Passover, Eucharist and God's saving acts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
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We may speak casually of ‘salvation history’ and look for patterns in the Bible which bear out a claim that the sacred writers saw a movement toward a particular goal, the fullness of revelation in Christ Jesus (cf. Heb 1:1—2). Such a view can influence how we interpret both the Old Testament itself and its relationship to the New Testament. These interpretations may range from a searching out of phrases and themes which may then be applied to the New Testament—giving the impression that the New Testament author created a patchwork of sources—to a searching for patterns of God’s grand design which is manifested in the sweep of the Bible, irrespective of the time, place, or particular interest of the biblical author. What is proposed here is an examination of a mode of relating the past to the present which can be found throughout the Old Testament and to see how this relationship in a cultic context has far-reaching implications for the understanding of both the Christian Eucharist and the Jewish Passover in relation to one another and to the memory of God’s saving acting.
A frequent pattern in the Bible is the recapitulation of origins to explain new beginnings. This is reflected in various ways.
One is to use the imagery of creation to describe a new creation. For example, the author of Gen 6—9 describes the punishment of the human race in terms of a return to chaos and a re-emergence of dry land from the waters as in Gen 1. One finds other references back to the days of creation throughout the Old Testament literature, where both the imagery of Gen 1—2 as well as extra-biblical myths (some unknown) are used.
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- Copyright © 1990 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
1 Hermann Gunkel had already noted this phenomenon with respect to certain apocalyptic texts in Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit and Endzeit, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1895.Google Scholar
2 See Clifford, R. J. ‘The Hebrew Scriptures and the Theology of Creation’, Theological Studies 46 (1985) 507–523CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3 But which appears in various forms in 1 Enoch.
4 Cf. Clifford, R.J. Hebrew Scriptures, 510.
5 See Noth, M. ‘The Re‐presentation’ of the Old Testament in Proclamation' (translation of 1952 German original by J.L. Mays), in Westermann, C, Essays in Old Testament Interpretation (translation of Problems alttestamentlicher Hermeneutik, München: Kaiser, 1960Google Scholar), London: SCM, 1963, 76–88.
6 ‘And when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water … the waters coming down from above stood up and rose up in a heap far off … and the people passed over opposite Jericho. … And when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up on dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before ‘(Josh 3:15–16, 4:18). Compare ‘And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left’ (Exod 15:22). (All biblical quotations are from the RSV)
7 We are naturally not concerned here with the historical realities of the conquest but with the way in which the past is perceived and formalized. On the probable antiquity and cultic origins of such summary formulae as Deut 26:5–9, Josh 24:2–13 see Noth, M. überlieferungsgeschichte des Pentateuch, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1948, 48–67Google Scholar.
8 For such a view see Rad, O. von. Old Testament Theology: Vol. II, The Theology of Israel's Prophetic Traditions (Translated by D.M.G. Stalker from Theologie des Alten Testaments: Bd. II, Die Theologie der prophetischen überlieferungen Israels, München: Kaiser, 1960) Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 104.Google Scholar
9 It is made up, possibly, of the conflation of two celebrations–an agricultural feast (the Unleavened Bread) and a nomadic feast (the offering of a lamb from the flocks–the Pesah proper). See Vaux, R. de, Les Institutions d l'Ancien Testament: II, Institutions militaires; institutions religieuses, Paris: Cerf, 1960, 383–394Google Scholar.
10 Rad, G. von. OT Theology II, 104.
11 ‘Then the Creator of all things gave me a commandment, and the one who created me assigned a place for my tent. And he said, “Make your dwelling in Jacob, and in Israel receive your inheritance.” From eternity, in the beginning he created me, and for eternity I shall not cease to exist. In the holy tabernacle I ministered before him, and so I was established in Zion’ (Sir 24:8–10).
12 The ‘fulfilment prophecies’ of Matthew's gospel should probably be seen in this light.
13 Here we have an analogy to the ‘merism’. an important feature of Hebrew poetics, by which the naming of extremes implies the inclusion of what comes in between.
14 It makes no difference that the Passover is an annual celebration while the Eucharist has developed into a daily celebration (at least in the Latin Church).
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