Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Heath Curtis" <heathboc AT hotmail.com>]

Gordon, Ben and others,

In a recent message concerning Exodus 24:8 Ben Crick gave a long and well 
thought out reply concerning the interpretation of Ex. 24:8 and resources 
where different traditions exegete the passage.

However, I would like to note that some of his statements were a little off 
base.  For example, Mr. Crick gave the impression that all Christians 
believe that the wine in the Eucharist merely represents the Blood of 
Christ. That is not so.  The Roman Catholic, East Orthodox and Lutheran (my 
own tradition) all believe that through a miracle wrought by Christ's Words 
of Institution the wine becomes the Blood of Christ and the bread the Body 
which Christians receive. And we mean it, it's not a metaphor.  Check out 
Luther's Small Catechism or the Catechism of Rome (1994) or the latest Greek 
Orthodox Catechism.

What does this have to do with Ex. 24:8 you say?  Quite a lot when you 
consider that what we are talking about here is modes of interpretation.  
One view, especially identified with the Lutheran tradition, is the 
Christological view of the Old Testament.  In this view every part and 
parcel of the OT refers in some way to Christ. (Cf. John 5:39 and Luke 24) 
This has profound effects for interpreting the Torah.  Thus in this schema, 
Ex 24:8 and in fact the entire sacrificial system of ancient Israel point to 
the Messiah's ultimate sacrifice on the cross.  The Pesach meal figures the 
Eurcharist where Christians truly do receive the very Body and Blood of the 
true Lamb.  So, Gordon and others, when you are struggling with interpreting 
the OT, don't forget another major tradition among the others: the 
Christological Approach.  A good resource is the volume on Exodus in any one 
of these series: The People's Bible (Concordia Publishing House), Popular 
Commentary (Kretzmann) or the Lenski commentary.

Hope this helps.
Heath R. Curtis
Student: Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MDiv
        Washington Univ., MA-Classics

PS: If this thread is veering too far off the course set for b-hebrew, 
please reply to me off-list - HRC
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