The next sentence (10) is surprising
and has caused much discussion. It is surprising because, coming after a
criticism of alimentary observances, it itself expresses an alimentary
prohibition, imposed on «those who pay worship at the tent» and does not hold
for «us», that is to say for Christians. The truth is that the author does not
explicitly say that this prohibition does not hold for «us», but his sentence
says it implicitly, because it says that «we have an altar» and points out that
we ourselves have the right to eat from that altar. To eat from an altar means
obviously to eat the flesh of victims offered on that altar. In the first
letter to the Corinthians, after speaking of «communion in the blood of Christ»
and «in the body of Christ» (1 Cor 10:16), Saint Paul, asks the following
question about «Israel according to the flesh»: «Are not those who eat the
sacrifices in communion with the altar?» (1 Cor 10:18).
What is «the altar» that «we have»?
Because there is a question of «eating» from this altar, some think that this
altar represents the eucharist, but the answer to them is that at the Last
Supper there was no altar, there was only a «table» (Luke 22:21) and, in
sacrificial worship, it is correct to distinguish altar and table properly. In
the first Letter to the Corinthians, after speaking of being «in communion with
the altar», by «eating the sacrifices» (1 Cor 10:18), Saint Paul speaks quite
naturally of the «table» on which it is eaten (10:21), because it was not eaten
on the altar, it was eaten at a table (see 1 Cor 8:10). It seems preferable
therefore to identify the altar with the cross of Jesus, the place where he
offered his sacrifice, while recognizing that the verb «to eat» then alludes to
the eucharistic table, where Jesus says: «Take, eat, this is my body» (Matt
26:26), the breaking of bread showing that this gift of communion comes from
the altar of the cross, for it is the sign of his generous death. (Albert
Vanhoye, A Different Priest: The Letter to the Hebrews [trans. Leo
Arnold; Rhetorica Semitica; Miami: Convivium Press;2011], 413–414)
