Sunday, October 1, 2023

Albert Vanhoye on Hebrews 13:10

  

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)