UNIVERSITY OF SAINT MARY OF THE LAKE

MUNDELEIN SEMINARY

UNDERSTANDING THE SACRAMENTS

IN THEIR COVENANTAL CONTEXT

A PAPER SUBMITTED TO

FR. BRENDAN LUPTON

DT510 - THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN THOUGHT I

THE LITURGICAL INSTITUTE

BY MR. JEREMY J. PRIEST

MUNDELEIN, ILLINOIS

15 DECEMBER 2014

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In the patristic period the rites of the New Covenant were

spoken of in highly covenantal terms. Moreover, for over 1500

years the continuity between Old and New Testament rites was

expressed in terms of “Old Testament Sacraments” and “New

Testament Sacraments.”1 Over the centuries, however, this

understanding has waned to the point that the word sacrament has

lost most if not all of its covenantal connotation. Today, when

the word sacrament is used most people understand it as holy

thing, or sign. While important, it leaves out the connection

with salvation history and specifically, the covenantal

significance that Jesus gave the rituals. Additionally, failing

to see the continuity of divine action that God initiated from

the dawn of creation and has brought in the fullness of time in

Jesus and even to the present day in the Church impoverishes our

understanding of God and his plan and purpose. This paper will

explore the biblical concept of covenant with an eye to

demonstrating the covenantal character of the sacraments in the

mystagogical catechesis of a few of the Eastern fathers and the

1 Amond the many are Augustine (Contra Faustum 32.14), Hugh of St. Victor, Aquinas (STh., I-II q.101), Luther (Luther’s Works, v. 32, p. 18), Calvin (Institutes IV, xiv, 20).

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Byzantine rite.2 I will do this by first showing the basis for

covenant renewal in the weekly Sabbath. I will then discuss

covenant making and covenant renewal and how these take place in

the context of the post-Exilic Temple cult. It will next be shown

how Jesus establishes New Covenant rituals, particularly in the

Eucharist. Finally, it will be seen how the covenantal character

of these rituals is drawn out in the Eastern fathers.

The word Sabbath is derived from the Hebrew word, šabbāt (

־־־־־־ meaning “cease,” “rest,” “complete rest,” or “desist.”3 ,(־־

Many scholars understand the seven-day creation of Genesis 1–2 to

be a covenant,4 and indeed, the seventh day is itself treated in

Scripture as the weekly occasion for covenant renewal:

And the Lord said to Moses, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you… Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a

2 Scott Walker Hahn, “Sacrament,” Catholic Bible Dictionary, ed. Scott Walker Hahn (New York: Doubleday Religion / Image: 2009): 789.

3 Bryan C. Babcock, “Sabbath,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2013, 2014).

4 This is a minority view, yet those who advocate it are not insignificant.The great biblical scholar “Roland de Vaux (Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions [New York: McGraw-Hill, 19611]) comments: ‘Creation is the first action in the history of salvation; once it was over, God stopped work, and he was then ableto make a covenant with his creature.… The “sign” of the Covenant made at the dawn of creation is the observance of the sabbath by man (cf. Ez 20:12, 20)’ (481).” Cited in Scott W. Hahn, Kinship by Covenant: A Canonical Approach to the Fulfillment of God’s Saving Promises (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2009), 95n20.

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Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore thepeople of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed’” (Exodus 31:12–14, 15–17).5

As this passage from Exodus indicates, the Sabbath’s meaning is

even here inextricably linked with creation: it is the “seventh

day” (Gen. 2:2–3/Ex. 31:15,17); when God “rested” (Gen. 2:2–3/Ex.

31:17); a day which is “holy” (Gen. 2:3/Ex. 31:15). In this

passage the Sabbath is clearly rooted in creation and associated

with a “covenant” that is unending, “forever” (Ex. 31:16). As

Pope Benedict XVI pointed out, these concepts of creation and

covenant are linked:

According to rabbinic theology, the idea of the covenant—theidea of establishing a holy people to be an interlocutor forGod in union with him—is prior to the idea of the creation of the world and supplies its inner motive. The cosmos was created, not that there might be manifold things in heaven and earth, but that there might be a space for the “covenant”, for the loving “yes” between God and his human respondent.6

5 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Ex 31:12–17. Emphasis, mine.

6 Joseph Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth: Part Two: Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2011), 78.

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The celebration of the Sabbath in biblical history is the renewal

of the covenant with God:

Exodus 31:16–17 (NRSV) speaks of sabbath keeping as “a perpetual covenant” and “a sign forever” between God and thepeople of Israel, while Leviticus 24:8 (NRSV) speaks of sabbath observance as “a covenant forever” between God and Israel. In later prophetic books we read about keeping the sabbath as a form of holding fast God’s covenant (Is 56:6) and of the sabbath itself as a “sign” between God and Israel(Ezek 20:12, 20).7

And in what did the celebration of the Sabbath consist?

The sequence of “six working-days” and a “seventh [sabbath] rest-day” indicates universally that every human being is toengage in an imitatio Dei, “imitation of God,” by resting on the “seventh day.” “Man” (ʾādām), made in the imago Dei, “image of God,” (Gen 1:26–28) is invited to follow the Exemplar in an imitatio Dei, participating in God’s rest by enjoying the divine gift of freedom from the labors of humanexistence and thus acknowledging God as his Creator.8

By “acknowledging God as his Creator,” man was weekly enacting

the “right ordering of [his] mind to God”9 in such a way that

renewed covenantal relations with God. Indeed, even those who are

not members of the covenant people, “the Gentile (‘foreigner’) as

well as the eunuch, show their commitment to the covenant Lord by

7 Leland Ryken et al., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 747.

8 Gerhard F. Hasel, “Sabbath,” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 851.

9 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province; Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009), I-II q.102 a.3 ad 1.

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keeping the Sabbath.”10 When Israel committed itself to idolatry

in Egypt, God renewed the Sabbath as the covenant sign because

Israel had exchanged God’s “rest” in true Sabbath worship for the

slavery of false worship in Egypt.11

Renewing covenants was a way of life between God and his

people. It should be noted that rather than simply a contract

(exchanging goods and services), a covenant was a way of

connecting persons, extending kinship to non-family members by

means of a ritualized oath formula.12 The different aspects of a

covenant can all be seen in the Sinai covenant of Exodus 24:3-11:

The familial bond is illustrated by the shared meal between Godand the elders of Israel on Mount Sinai (Ex 24:9–11). The legally binding oath is expressed by the solemn words of the people followed by the sprinkling of blood, a ritual self-curse (Ex 24:7–8) that binds them to obey all the legal obligations enunciated in Exodus 20–23. A liturgical ritual servesas the context for swearing the oath: sacrifices offered at an altar in a sacred place (Ex 24:4–5) while invoking the name of the Lord (Ex 24:7–8).13

10 Walter A. Elwell, Evangelical Commentary on the Bible (vol. 3; Baker reference library; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1995), Is 56:3.

11 “Unlike in Exodus 20 and 31, the reason for observing the sabbath in Deuteronomy 5:15 is that Yahweh has redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt.” See P. A. Barker, “Sabbath, Sabbatical Year, Jubilee,” Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 697.

12 Scott W. Hahn, Kinship by Covenant: a Canonical Approach to the Fulfillment of God’s Saving Promises (New Haven;  London: Yale University Press, 2009), 170.

13 Hahn, “Covenant,” 171.

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Covenant renewal made up the heart of Temple worship. Since the

Temple was built on Mount Moriah, the site of Abraham’s sacrifice

of Isaac, the Temple “sacrifices, and perhaps the offering of all

sacrifice, were intended as a memorial of Isaac’s self-oblation.

Their only purpose was to remind God of the merit of him [Isaac]

who bound himself upon the altar.”14 Geza Vermes makes the point

that the purpose of the morning and evening sacrifices (tamid cf.

Exodus 29:38-42) was in order that “when Israel offers the

perpetual sacrifice upon the altar . . . God may remember the

Binding of Isaac.”15 Covenant renewal worship happened when the

oath was enacted anew. Thereby, the gift of covenant kinship,

with its duties and privileges, was entered into again through a

renewed ritualized oath, usually taking the form of a sacrifice.

Hence the common phrase from the Old Testament and the ancient

Near East, “to cut a covenant,” was understood as making “a

14 Geza Vermes, “Redemption and Genesis XXII: The Binding of Isaac and theSacrifice of Jesus,” The Sacrifice of Isaac: Studies in the Development of a Literary Tradition, ed. Eli Yassif (Jerusalem: Makor Publishing, 1979), 209.

However, “It may be that it was only after the destruction of the temple that the sacrifice of Isaac came to be interpreted as an archetype of the Tamid-offering and its atoning function (Davies and Chilton 1978). We should therefore be cautious.” See Hans-Josef Klauck, “Sacrifice and Sacrificial Offerings: New Testament,” ed. David Noel Freedman, trans. Reginald H. Fuller,The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 891.

15 Vermes, 210.

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bloody sacrifice as part of the covenant ritual ... [that is]

then . . . eaten in the covenant meal.”16 This ritual oath, the

cutting of a covenant, so characterized covenant renewal

ceremonies that “in biblical idiom,” the entire ceremony “can

even be called, an ‘oath’ (ʾālâ).”17 As Scott W. Hahn puts it, “a

covenant was a familial bond established by a legally binding oath sworn

during a liturgical ritual.”18 A covenant sacrifice was almost always

included as a way of sealing the covenant oath.

Jeffery J. Meyers summarizes the five-fold biblical pattern

of the covenant action in this way:

1) God takes hold. 2) God separates and makes something new. 3) God speaks. 4) God grants ritual signs and seals.5) God arranges for the future.19

For example, God takes hold of the dust of the earth, separates

the dust from the ground in order to create man, informs Adam of

the terms of the covenant (he is to till and guard the garden), 16 Elmer B. Smick, “282 ־־־,” ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr.,

and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 128.

17 R. A. Taylor, “Form Criticism,” Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 340.

18 Scott Hahn, ed., Catholic Bible Dictionary (New York; London; Toronto; Sydney; Auckland: Doubleday, 2009), 170.

19 Jeffrey J. Meyers, The Lord’s Service: The Grace of Covenant Renewal Worship (Moscow,ID: Canon Press, 2003), 40.

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sets forth the Trees of the Garden as the signs of the covenant,

and creates woman as a covenant partner so that covenant renewal

can take place. It is important to note that God is the

initiator, setting forth who the covenant partners will be, the

terms of the covenant, the signs, and the means for covenant

renewal. The narrative of the covenant with Israel on Sinai is a

good example:

1) God takes hold of Israel through Moses.2) God separates them out of Egypt in order to set apart His

chosen people (the Exodus).3) God speaks, setting the terms of the covenant (Ex. 20–

23).4) God seals the covenant with sacrifice (Ex. 24:3–11) and

designates the observance of the Sabbath as the sign of the covenant (Ex. 31:12–18).20

5) God arranges for the renewal of the covenant through the tabernacle.

It is important to note that the original terms of the covenant

(3) did not envision a Levitical sacrificial system. Rather, in

the terms of this covenant (Ex. 20–23), a more classical

understanding of worship was envisioned—“that is, with altars

made of natural materials and reared in various places (Ex.

20 “Unlike in Exodus 20 and 31, the reason for observing the sabbath in Deuteronomy 5:15 is that Yahweh has redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt.” See P. A. Barker, “Sabbath, Sabbatical Year, Jubilee,” Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 697.

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20:24–26), coupled with a simple calendar of feasts that followed

the rhythms of the agricultural seasons (Ex. 23:14–17).”21 In

this arrangement, the tabernacle was seen as the mobile temple,

analogous to the altars of the patriarchs, by which Israel would

daily and weekly renew the covenant.

However, as the remainder of the Exodus narrative tells us,

the first Mosaic Covenant was short-lived. The covenant was

almost immediately broken by the idolatrous worship of the golden

calf (Ex. 32–33). While the covenant was renewed in Exodus 34, it

was not the same:

Significant changes mark the renewed covenant. Israel remains a priestly nation, but its priesthood is restructured and ordination is limited to the tribe of the Levites. The worship rituals are at once punitive, penitential, and pedagogical, reminding Israel of their sin,calling them to renounce the gods of Egypt, and teaching thepeople to offer themselves and their very best to God.22

Aquinas notes that the new sacrificial system was not given by

God until after the golden calf:

[T]he precepts about the sacrifices were not given to the Jewish people until after they had fallen into idolatry, by worshipping the molten calf: as though those sacrifices were

21 Scott Hahn, ed., Catholic Bible Dictionary (New York; London; Toronto; Sydney; Auckland: Doubleday, 2009), 796.

22 Scott Hahn and Mark Shea, Exodus (ed. Jennifer Phelps; Catholic ScriptureStudy; Charlotte, NC: Catholic Scripture Study International, 2007), 285.

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instituted that the people, being ready to offer sacrifices,might offer those sacrifices to God rather than to idols.23

After the golden calf, God “bound them with the second

legislation and laid heavy burdens upon them and a hard yoke upon

their neck.”24 This second legislation is differentiated from the

first (essentially, the Ten Commandments and a simple sacrificial

system) not by lack of sacrifices, but by the multiplication and

necessity of sacrifices and ordinances. The third century Didascalia

Apostolorum describes God’s second legislation this way:

[H]e laid upon them continual burnt offerings as a necessityand caused them to abstain from meats through distinction ofmeats. Indeed, from that time were animals discerned, and clean flesh and unclean, from that time were separations, and purifications, and baptisms and sprinklings. And from that time were sacrifices, and offerings, and tables. From that time were burnt offerings, and offerings, and showbread, and the offering up of sacrifices, and firstlings, and ransoms, and he-goats for sin, and vows, andmany other amazing things. For because of the multitude of sins there were laid upon them customs unspeakable.… Indeed,the second legislation was imposed for the making of the calf and for idolatry.25

23 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province; Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009), I-II q.102 a.3 resp.

24 Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch, Exodus: With Introduction, Commentary, and Notes (Second Catholic Edition.; The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible; San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012), 69.

25 Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch, Exodus: With Introduction, Commentary, and Notes (Second Catholic Edition.; The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible; San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012), 69.

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Aquinas argues that there were two reasons for the establishment

of these sacrifices: to prevent idolatry and to order rightly the

minds of the Israelites to God.26

The institution of the “second legislation” was brought

about because of the violation of the covenant through idolatry.

The terms of the renewed covenant (in many ways co-terminus with

Leviticus) multiplied sacrifices and complicated covenant

renewal. Renunciation of idolatry, already part and parcel of

covenant renewal, came to the fore:

For example, A. Weiser describes how “the renunciation of the gods was a constituent part of the ritual of the covenant cult,” and how “the dissociation from the deities and their worshippers … is in keeping with that repudiation of foreigngods. They are the prerequisite, and, as it were, the negative aspect of the affirmation of faithfulness to Yahwehthat is made in the covenant act of worship [my emphasis].”27

If Israel was to dwell in the hands of the all-holy God (the

purpose of the tabernacle), then idolatry had to be dealt with in

a more radical way than previously.

In terms of renouncing idolatry, ancient Jewish sources

“clearly understood that God commanded Israel to sacrifice to him

26 STh., I-II q.102 a.3 ad 1–2.27 Scott W. Hahn, Kinship by Covenant: A Canonical Approach to the Fulfillment of God’s Saving

Promises (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2009), 47.

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the animals that were worshiped in the Egyptian cult as gods:

Hathor under the form of a cow, and Aries under the form of

sheep.”28 Hence, Moses himself recognized that “the offerings we

shall sacrifice to the LORD our God are an abomination to the

Egyptians” (Ex. 8:26). Since Israel had become accustomed to

worshipping these Egyptian gods, offering up these animals was

akin to an alcoholic smashing bottles of rum to show his

faithfulness to sobriety. In a similar way, regular sacrifice

formed Israelite minds in the bloody logic of the covenant. At

the level of covenant renewal, the slaughtering of animals for

sacrifice indicated the blessings and curses set forth in the

terms of the covenant. On the one hand, the “life blood” of the

animal “symbolized the new relationship that bound the two

parties together.”29 On the other hand, killing of the animal

“symbolized the curse of death that the covenant threatened to

impose on any partner who dared to violate its stipulations.”30

This right ordering of minds meant that the sacrificial rites

28 Scott Hahn, A Father Who Keeps His Promises: God’s Covenant Love in Scripture (Cincinnati, OH: Servant Books; St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1998).

29 Scott Hahn, ed., Catholic Bible Dictionary (New York; London; Toronto; Sydney; Auckland: Doubleday, 2009), 795.

30 Scott Hahn, ed., Catholic Bible Dictionary (New York; London; Toronto; Sydney; Auckland: Doubleday, 2009), 795.

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took on the character of formation for the people. In this way

the shedding of blood in rites of covenant renewal called forth

repentance from ways the covenant was not lived well, asked a

renewing of the oath upon which the covenant was based, and

expressed the union of kinship that the life-blood symbolized.

The entirety of Israel’s sacrificial system revolved around

covenant renewal. The sacrifices of the “second legislation” are

many, but can be grouped into three categories: the Purification

Offering, the Ascension Offering, and the Peace Offering.31

Jeffery J. Meyers proposes that these sacrifices have a three-

fold formational logic of cleansing, consecration, and communion

that ordered these sacrifices of covenant renewal.32 As Meyers

puts it,

Just as every sacrificial animal passed through three “zones” and underwent three major “operations” on its way upthe altar and into the presence of God, so also the human worshiper travels the same sacrificial pathway up the “holy mountain” into God’s presence.33

31 Meyers, 80–81. I am indebted here to Meyers and follow him in these points concerning the

pedagogy of the sacrificial offerings.32 Meyers, 79. 33 Meyers, 78.

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The Purification Offering was focused on repairing the violations

of covenant (e.g. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement). According to

the terms of the covenant oath, the Israelite who violated the

covenant deserved death. Instead, the animal in the Purification

Offering took the place in death of the person who had violated

the covenant, thus dealing with the guilt (if imperfectly). The

Ascension Offering emphasized consecration to God in that the

offering was turned into smoke and ascended fully into the glory-

cloud presence of God. Here, the giving and receiving of the

sacrifices emphasize the renewing of the covenant oath. Lastly,

the Peace Offering is not only completely burned up, so “there is

cleansing and consecration, but the focus in this offering is on

the common meal that the worshiper enjoys with Yahweh, the

priests, and his family by means of the sacrifice.”34 In each of

these sacrifices an aspect of covenant renewal is emphasized: sin

and idolatry are renounced (Purification Offering); the covenant

partners renew their consecration to each other with man offering

sacrifice and God receiving the sacrificial gift (Ascension

Offering); and the covenant partners share in a covenant meal,

34 Meyers, 80–81.

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signifying kinship (Peace Offering). The new covenant rituals,

established by Jesus, take on a new clarity in the light of the

pattern of covenant renewal sketched above.

Yet, were the sacrifices of the Temple’s covenant renewal

sacrifices accepted by Jesus? There are reasons to suspect that

they were not. Many scholars believe that Jesus’ cleansing of the

Temple (recorded in all four Gospels: Mt. 21:10–17; Mk. 11:11,

15–17; Lk. 19:45–46; Jn. 2:13–17) was the event that most

directly led to his trial, crucifixion and death. Jewish scholar

Jacob Neusner argues not only the plausibility of Jesus’

rejection of the Temple’s covenant renewal sacrifices, but also

posits Jesus’ aim to replace them with new rites of covenant

renewal:

[The overturning of the money-changers’ tables] would have provoked astonishment, since it will have called into question the very simple fact that the daily whole offering [known as the tamid] effected atonement and brought about expiation for sin, and God had so instructed Moses in the Torah. Accordingly, only someone who rejected the Torah’s explicit teaching concerning the daily whole offering could have overturned the tables—or, as I shall suggest, someone who had in mind setting up a different table, and for a different purpose: for the action carries the entire message, both negative and positive.… The overturning of themoneychangers’ tables represents an act of rejection of the most important rite of the Israelite cult, the daily whole-

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offering, and, therefore, a statement that there is a means of atonement other than the daily whole offering, which is now null. Then what was to take the place of the daily whole-offering? It was to be the rite of the Eucharist: table for table, whole-offering for whole-offering.35

Whether or not Jesus was specifically rejecting the Temple’s

covenant renewal sacrifices, it seems clear that he had in mind

the establishment of a different practice of covenant renewal.

The Last Supper scenes in the synoptic gospels (Mt. 26:28;

Mk. 14:24; Lk. 22:20) constitute the only place where Jesus uses

the word covenant (διαθήκη). So, the only place where Jesus uses

the word covenant (διαθήκη) is in the context of a ritual.

Significantly, Jesus even uses the words “blood of the covenant”

(τὸ αἷμά μου τῆς διαθήκης), which are only found elsewhere in the

Scriptures at the sealing of the Sinai covenant where Moses says,

“Behold, the blood of the covenant” (Ἰδοὺ τὸ αἷμα τῆς διαθήκης)

(Ex. 24:8).36 Not only do these words draw one’s mind to the Book

of Exodus, but, as Joel B. Green notes,

35 Jacob Neusner, “Money-Changers in the Temple: The Mishnah’s Explanation,” New Testament Studies 35 (1989): 287–290 (here 289–90, emphasis added). Cited in Brant Pitre, “Jesus, the New Temple, and the New Priesthood,”ed. Scott W. Hahn, Letter & Spirit: Temple and Contemplation: God’s Presence in the Cosmos, Church, and Human Heart 4 (2008): 67–68.

36 Septuaginta: With Morphology (electronic ed.; Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1979), Ex 24:7–8.

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At…a meal rich with the imagery of Passover and exodus, he intimated that the new exodus, God’s decisive act of deliverance, was coming to fruition in his death, the climaxof his mission. Moreover, he developed the meaning of his death in language and images grounded in the constitution ofIsrael as the covenant people of God (Exod 24:8), the conclusion of the exile (see Zech 9:9–11), and the hope of anew covenant (Jer 31:31–33), so as to mark his death as the inaugural event of covenant renewal.37

As Green indicates, this is the “inaugural event of the covenant

renewal” wherein Jesus institutes the signs of the covenant and

the means of covenant renewal: “Take, eat; this is my body.”…

“Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant,

which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt.

26:26-28). Not only that, but Jesus also indicates that the

actions of this supper are to be the means of the renewal of the

covenant: “Do this (τοῦτο ποιεῖτε) in remembrance (ἀνάμνησιν) of

me.” Both the words “τοῦτο ποιεῖτε” and the word “ἀνάμνησις” that

Jesus uses here (used also in St. Paul’s account of the supper in

1 Cor. 11:24–25) have deep connotations for covenant renewal.

Brant Pitre, in an article discussing Jesus as the new Temple and

his institution of a new priesthood, emphasizes how these words

point toward the establishment of a ritual of covenant renewal: 37 Joel B. Green, “Death of Christ,” ed. Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, The New

Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2006–2009), 71.

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Thus, with Jesus’ command to the disciples to “do this”—to offer his body and his blood in the form of bread and wine—he is commissioning them to perform a priestly action. Should there be any doubt about this, as Jeremias noted longago, the injunction to “do this” was “an established expression for the repetition of a rite.” When this background is combined with the fact that Jesus’ terminologyof “remembrance” (anamnesis) was also linked to the repetition of the “Passover sacrifice” (compare the Septuagint translation of Exod. 12:14), it strains credulityto suggest that he did not see himself as instituting a sacrificial rite to be repeated by his priestly circle of disciples.38

That Jesus intended to establish a sacrifice of covenant renewal

seems clear, not only from New Testament evidence, but by the

early Church’s tradition of Eucharistic celebration.

The rite of this sacrificial covenant meal that Jesus

established calls to mind the sacrifice of the Peace Offering,

referred to above. The focus, of course, is on the communal meal

that emphasizes the kinship bond that is effected by the

covenant. Those participating in the covenant renewal of the

Peace Offering did so by bringing their offering and by partaking

of the fruit of the offering in the communal meal. St. Paul says

this of the Eucharist in 1 Cor. 11:16,18:

38 Brant Pitre, “Jesus, the New Temple, and the New Priesthood,” ed. Scott W. Hahn, Letter & Spirit: Temple and Contemplation: God’s Presence in the Cosmos, Church, and Human Heart 4 (2008): 80.

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The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participationin the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not aparticipation in the body of Christ?...Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participantsin the altar?

So it is that when people engage in the ritual action of

partaking of Jesus’ body and blood in the Eucharistic covenant

renewal sacrifice, they renew their participation in the

covenant. This ritual action of reception renews the covenant

oath. This may seem strange. Oath swearing is generally conceived

of as a verbal action. However, covenant renewal regularly took

the form where the covenant partner would swear the oath by a

ritual action. For example, by walking between the halves of the

bodies of animals that had been cut in two: saying, in effect,

“If I prove false to the terms of this covenant, may I become

like these animals.” This sort of swearing was to take an oath

through a ritual action. As St. Paul describes it, partaking of

the Eucharist is a similar oath-swearing action:

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks

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judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.39

So, falsely swearing in this ritual oath is the spiritual

equivalent of perjury. George Mendenhall comments that, like St.

Paul, “a vast number of early Christians seem to have understood

the Eucharist in some context associated with oath taking,

specifically oath taking with respect to Christ.”40

Unfortunately, without a background in Old Testament covenant

renewal ceremonies, St. Paul’s description of Eucharistic

communion as an oath-swearing ritual falls on deaf ears.

Having seen the covenant renewal rituals in biblical history

and specifically Jesus’ enactment of the Eucharistic covenant, it

becomes clear that the covenant renewal rites of the Church, the

sacraments, are the same rites that were instituted by Jesus and

have been celebrated in the Church from New Testament times until

today, in ritual continuity with the covenantal rites of the Old

Testament. This continuity is bolstered by the social and cultic

context of the surrounding cultures: “The ‘oath sacrifice’

39 The Holy Bible (Revised Standard Version; Second Catholic Edition.; San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006), 1 Co 11:27–30.

40 George E. Mendenhall and Gary A. Herion, “Covenant,” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 1198.

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appears in contexts of covenant-making (and renewal) ranging all

the way from the second-millennium Hittite treaties into

Hellenistic and Roman periods.”41 Moshe Weinfeld explains:

Most surprising is the similarity between the clauses of a loyalty oath from the Roman period in which the vassals pledge to revere the Caesar more than themselves and their sons, and the similar clauses in the Hittite documents…It isdifficult to contend that such a full overlapping with the Near Eastern loyalty oaths is purely coincidental, and it isour opinion that the oath of loyalty to the Roman Emperor [the sacramentum] has its roots in an ancient Near Eastern tradition.42

While each geographical area and society had its own culture,

concerns, and practices, it is notable that “this formal

similarity between Iron Age Near Eastern, Roman imperial, and

early Christian concepts of ‘covenant’ facilitated the

communication of early Christianity in the non-Palestinian

environment of Mediterranean civilization.”43

Such a covenantal context continued to obtain in A.D. 112

when the Roman governor Pliny the Younger wrote a letter of

inquiry to Emperor Trajan describing his understanding of

41 Hahn, “Covenant,” 56.42 Moshe Weinfeld, “The Loyalty Oath in the Ancient Near East,” Ugarit-

Forschungen 8 (1976): 385. Cited in Scott Hahn, Swear to God: The Promise and Power of the Sacraments (New York: Doubleday, 2005), 216.

43 George E. Mendenhall and Gary A. Herion, “Covenant,” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 1198.

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Christian practices. Pliny used the phrase, se sacramento obstringere:

literally, they “bound themselves by an oath (sacramentum).”44

Pliny’s use of sacramentum poses a difficulty because its

referent is unknown. However, Mendenhall asserts that “the

reference is almost certainly to the Eucharist ritual, which

perhaps as early as the first century was already being

identified as a sacramentum,”45 or covenant oath. Although there is

no way of knowing for certain what Pliny was referring to, this

is a plausible hypothesis. What we do know is that Pliny was

deeply concerned with associations and their tendency to create a

locus for insurrection among the people. R.L. Wilken notes that

even associations of firemen were suspect and discouraged from

forming because, as the Emperor Trajan said, “ . . . whenever

people assemble for a common purpose . . . they soon turn into a

political club (hetaeria).”46 That Pliny makes note of this

sacramentum is most instructive in this regard because it draws

attention to their association and the perceived seditious

44 Pliny, Letters, Vols. 1 & 2 (ed. T. E. Page et al.; trans. William Melmoth; vol. 2; The Loeb Classical Library; London; New York: William Heinemann; The Macmillan Co., 1931), 403–405.

45 Mendenhall and Herion, 1198.46 Robert Louis Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them (New Haven: Yale

University Press, 1984), 12.

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character of oaths: “The Roman persecution of Christians

indicates that Roman imperial officials took a dim view of their

subjects’ swearing oaths of loyalty to anyone but the emperor.”47

From Pliny’s description it is presumably an oath “to Christ, as

to a god,” or at least an oath to the God of Israel—either way,

to someone other than the Roman emperor!48

The oath that the Roman soldier took upon enrolling in the

Legion was known as the sacramentum. Such an oath was sworn to

the emperor as to a god, and meant “a radical change of life and

a binding dedication to the service of the emperor.”49 Upon

taking the oath/sacramentum one was bound to remain faithful to

whatever military post or task that was assigned to him.

Moreover, it entitled the soldier to special privileges of Roman

law, including “the relative legal immunity soldiers enjoyed,

[and] having the right to trial before a military court in which

civilians were unlikely to find justice.”50 In short, the

47 Mendenhall and Herion, 1198.48 Pliny, 403.49 T. R. Hobbs, “War,” ed. David Noel Freedman, Allen C. Myers, and Astrid

B. Beck, Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000), 1366.

50 Daniel G. Van Slyke, “Sacramentum in Ancient Non-Christian Authors,” Antiphon 9.2 (2005): 204.

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sacramentum was deeply embedded into the military and legal areas

of Roman culture and beyond.

It should be no surprise that the Latin word sacramentum

first appears in Christian writings with Tertullian51 (who was

thought to have been a lawyer) and within the Vulgate translation

of the Scriptures. Indeed, sacramentum grew more prevalent in

translating the Greek μυστήριον than the Latin transliteration

mysterium. Daniel G. Van Slyke cites Christine Mohrmann’s proposal

that “ . . . the earliest Christians preferred sacramentum to

mysterium precisely because the former was free of the pagan

cultic connotations that plagued the latter.”52 This argues

against Dom Odo Casel’s argument, again cited by Van Slyke, “that

sacramentum took on the content that the Greek mysterion had with

relation to pagan ‘religious mysteries,’ and for this reason was

adapted by ancient Christians.”53

As noted, Tertullian was the first of the Christian writers

to use the word sacramentum, and he used it regularly in his

51 Roger S. Kirkpatrick, “Sacraments,” Dictionary of the Apostolic Church (2 Vols.), ed. James Hastings (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1916–1918), 425.

52 Van Slyke, 20453 Ibid., n.204.

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writings. Tertullian “likened baptism to the sacramentum militia:”54

as the Roman soldier swore an oath to his emperor, so the

Christian, in baptism, swore an oath to his God. This is more to

the point when we consider that “the ancient baptismal rite

itself already included the explicit renunciation of Satan . . .

something which has the value of a real oath.” Thus Tertullian

could say, ‘We have been called to the militia of God . . . when

we reply in the words of the sacramentum.’”55 Meredith G. Kline

concludes: “As an oath-sign of allegiance to Christ the Lord,

baptism is a sacrament in the original sense of sacramentum in

its etymological relation to the idea of consecration, and more

particularly in its employment for the military oath of

allegiance.”56 Liam Walsh sums it up: “To call a Christian rite a

sacramentum in that sense was to say that it was a commitment to

the service of the true God, an entry into the company of other

Christians and an initiation into the secret, sacred truth they

shared about life and death and eternity.”57 Could this naming of

54 Vagaggini, 77.55 Ibid., 77.56 Meredith G. Kline, By Oath Consigned (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968), 81.

Cited in Scott W. Hahn, Kinship by Covenant: A Canonical Approach to the Fulfillment of God’s Saving Promises (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2009), 57.

57 Walsh, 15.

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the rites by the Latin word sacramentum/oath be analogous to the

biblical practice of naming the entire covenant ceremony by the

word “‘oath’ (ʾālâ)”?58

At this point in the tradition, sacramentum began slowly to

become synonymous with μυστήριον until they were practically

interchangeable by the end of the fourth century. But, in the

centuries that followed, they settled into subtle distinctions:

e.g., it is often said that the word sacrament emphasizes the

outward sign and the word mystery emphasizes the inward reality of

the New Covenant rituals that Jesus gave us. Yet, the peculiar

character that the Latin language writers like Tertullian

identified in the rites when he called them sacramenta was still

operative. As Walsh notes, “There is an element of contract or

covenant in the rite. It is referred to in the explanations of

the rite of renouncing Satan. A new contract is being made with

Christ, in place of the one that bound people to Satan.”59

The Eastern Fathers, while obviously not making use of the

Latin sacramentum, nevertheless emphasize the covenantal

58 R. A. Taylor, “Form Criticism,” Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 340.

59 Ibid., 22.

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character of the rites, particularly baptism. St. Cyril of

Jerusalem, in Mystagogical Catechesis I, spoke of how, in this

renunciation of Satan, “ . . . you trample underfoot your entire

covenant [διαθἠκην] with him.”6061 In Cyril’s description the one

being baptized renounced a “former treaty with Hell” and “this

change of allegiance” was enacted by turning from west (the

darkness of Satan’s realm) to east (the realm of Christ the

Light) and making a profession of belief in the Trinity.

Important to note here is Cyril’s use of the Greek word διαθἠκην,

which is used predominantly in both in the Old Testament (352x)

and New Testament (48x) to render the Hebrew word for covenant

(berît). With regard to the rites of initiation, however, this use

of διαθἠκη is rare. When the idea of covenant is rendered in the

texts of the initiation rites explored here, the preferred Greek

word is συνθήκη—for example, in The Apostolic Constitutions where “the

chrism” is “the seal of the covenants [συνθηκῶν].”62 Whatever

meaning the word had in translating from Hebrew into Greek, the

instances of this word in the Greek texts of the deuterocanonical60 E.C. Whitaker, Documents of the Baptismal Liturgy (rev. and enl ed.;

Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003) 31. 61 Cyril of Jerusalem, “Catéchèses mystagogiques” (SC 126; Paris: Cerf,

1988), 98.62 Whitaker, 37.

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books are all rendered into English as agreement, covenant, pact, term,

treaty, each translation lending itself to the concepts of

covenant and agreement.

In his Baptismal Instructions,63 St. John Chrysostom develops the

covenantal theme with regard to the renunciation of Satan and

adherance to Christ: “I turn now to these sacraments [μυστηρἰον]

and the covenant [συνθηκῶν] between yourself and the Lord.”64 To

accomplish the entrustment of “ones affairs to another, it is

necessary” he says “for a contract [γραμματεῖα] to be signed

between the two parties.”65 Γραμματεῖα referred to a “bond,

document, [or] contract” that could describe “a list in which

Athenian citizens were enrolled” or “a will/testament.”66

Chrysostom asserts that such a contract is only signed “with the

spirit of God” and by “the words that you pronounce,” so that

“the agreement [συνθἠκας/covenant] spoken by your lips remains

indelibly before God.”67 So the God to whom people were joined

promised to keep faith by keeping the person’s word before him.

63 Ibid., 40-46.64 Ibid., 44.65 Ibid., 45.66 Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, et al., A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford:

Clarendon Press, 1996), 358.67 Whitaker, 45.

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Then, the priest will approach “each in turn and demand your

contracts and confessions,” as each repeats, “I renounce

[αποτασσομαι] you, Satan.” In the post-apostolic Fathers this

denunciation “denotes ‘full separation.’”68 Chrysostom then

describes how those to be baptized personally pledged themselves

[συντασσομαι] to Christ, using a Greek word that is related to an

array of soldiers. After the renunciation Chrysostom asks if they

have “seen the terms [τα γραμματεια] of the contract

[συνθηκῶν],”69 so that they understand clearly to whom and to

what they have given themselves.

This covenant/contract, Chrysostom says, is what makes them

soldiers: “Since you have confessed his sovereignty over you and

pronounced the words by which you pledge [συνετάξω] yourself to

Christ, you are now a soldier [στρατιὠτην] and have signed on for

a spiritual contest.”70 The root word for pledge is συντἀσσω and

means “to put in order together, especially as a military term,

draw up, put in array.”71 Because they have “made the 68 Gerhard Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich, and Geoffrey William Bromiley,

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1985), 1:34.

69 Whitaker, 45.70 Ibid.71 Henry Liddell, Robert Scott, et al., A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford:

Clarendon Press, 1996), 1725.

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covenant . . . and contract” and pledged themselves to Christ,

they have become soldiers for “a spiritual contest.” The bishop

“anointed you on the forehead with spiritual myron [μὐρω],

placing a seal [τἠν σφραγῖδα] on your head.”72 Not only that, but

in renouncing Satan, they have “changed their allegiance and

publicly enlisted [συνταγἠν] with Christ.”73 And by accepting the

anointing they “armor” all their limbs and render themselves

“invulnerable to any weapons of the Enemy.”74

The last example of the covenantal character of baptism is

from the Byzantine rite as represented in the Barberini

Euchologion.7576 “The renunciation [αποταξις] and act of adherence

[συνταξις]” are the same words seen previously from Chrysostom

regarding the covenantal formulas of renunciation and

adherence.77 The completion of their instruction marks the

occasion of their redemption, where they will “publish before

Christ the contract of faith [τῆς πὶστεως . . . γραμματεῖον].”78

72 Whitaker, 45.73 Ibid.74 Ibid., 46.75 Whitaker, 109-123. 76 S. Parenti and E. Velkovska, L’Eucologio Barberini, gr. 336, Bibliotheca

‘Ephemerides Liturgicae’ Subsidia, Rome, 1995.77 Whitaker,109.78 Ibid., 110.

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Here the rite makes an allusion to the baptism/death themes of

Romans 6:1–3 and the will/testament/covenant themes of Hebrews

9:15–19, both of which use διαθηκη for will/covenant: “When men

are about to die they make a will and assign someone else as heir

of their possessions: tomorrow night you will die unto sin: now

make and ordain a will [ποιεῖτε διαθηκην].”79 This is no ordinary

action, but rather a ritual action that accomplishes something

real: “Take care . . . how you renounce [αποτασσεσθε] the enemy

and accept [συντασσεσθε] the Creator . . . Behold you have

renounced [απεταξασθε] the devil and adhered [σθνετἀξασθε] to

Christ. The contract is fully written. The Master preserves it in

heaven. Study the articles of your agreement [συνθὴκας]:

remember, it is brought forth at the day of judgment . . . [when]

you must then acknowledge the bond [τὸ χειρογραφον] which you

have written.”80 This bond or “promissory note”81 is also

referenced in a covenantal context in Colossians 2:14 where

Christ cancels the bond against us.

79 Ibid., 110.80 Ibid., 111.81 Kittel, Friedrich, and Bromiley, 1312.

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Seen in the light of the continued use of covenant-legal

language and soldier metaphors in the baptismal liturgies and

catechesis of these Eastern writers and rites, the meaning of the

Western term sacramentum becomes more clearly recognizable as

referring in particular to the covenantal character of the rites

Jesus gave us. This clarity comes from seeing the rites of

covenantal ratification and renewal where one covenant is

renounced and another is entered. Though the sacraments are much

more than a repetition of Old Testament covenant renewal rites,

their continuity with the Old Testament rituals reveals a

neglected aspect of their character: these are rites in which we

bind ourselves and are bound to the Lord Jesus by oath. It makes

sense at this point to ask why this understanding waned over the

centuries. Certainly, as ties to semitic culture waned over the

first few centuries, people became less familiar with covenant

renewal language embedded in both Old and New Testaments. Also,

the sacramental controversies of the West played a part,

especially Augustine’s engagement with the Donatist heresy, as it

solidified Augustine’s rendering of the meaning of sacramentum as

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predominantly “sign.”82 In addition, the predominance of infant

baptism versus adult conversion may have lessened the emphasis on

the covenantal character of the rites: when an infant’s parents

are making the decision for him, the covenantal change of

allegiance takes on less emphasis. Perhaps with the

reconstitution of the catechumenate in the RCIA there will be a

renewal in our experience of the covenantal character of the

sacraments.

82 C. P. Price, “Mysteries and Sacraments,” in A. J. Hultgen and B. Hall (eds.), Christ and His Communities (Cincinnati: Forward Movement Publications, 1990), pp. 124–139, at 138.

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Works Cited

Cyril of Jerusalem. “Catéchèses mystagogiques.” SC 126; Paris: Cerf, 1988.

Hahn, Scott, ed. Catholic Bible Dictionary. New York; London; Toronto; Sydney; Auckland: Doubleday, 2009.

Hahn, Scott W. Kinship by Covenant: a Canonical Approach to the Fulfillment of God’s Saving Promises. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2009.

Kirkpatrick, Roger S. “Sacraments.” Dictionary of the Apostolic Church (2 Vols.) ed. James Hastings. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1916–1918.

Kittel, Gerhard, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, eds. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964.

Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, et al. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

Mendenhall, George E. and Gary A. Herion. “Covenant.” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. ed. David Noel Freedman. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

Meyers, Jeffrey J. The Lord’s Service: The Grace of Covenant Renewal Worship. Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2003.

Parenti, S. and E. Velkovska, L’Eucologio Barberini, gr. 336, Bibliotheca ‘Ephemerides Liturgicae’ Subsidia, Rome, 1995. 

Pliny. Letters, Vols. 1 & 2. ed. T. E. Page et al. trans. William Melmoth. The Loeb Classical Library. London; New York: William Heinemann; The Macmillan Co., 1931.

Price, C.P. “Mysteries and Sacraments.” Christ and His Communities. ed. A. J. Hultgen and B. Hall. Cincinnati: Forward Movement Publications, 1990.

Smick, Elmer B. “282 ־־־.” Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke. Chicago: Moody Press, 1999.

Taylor, R. A. “Form Criticism.” Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003.

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Van Slyke, Daniel G. “Sacramentum in Ancient Non-Christian Authors.” Antiphon 9.2. 2005.

Vermes, Geza. “Redemption and Genesis XXII: The Binding of Isaac and the Sacrifice of Jesus.” The Sacrifice of Isaac: Studies in the Development of a Literary Tradition. ed. Eli Yassif. Jerusalem: Makor Publishing, 1979.

Whitaker, E.C. Documents of the Baptismal Liturgy. rev. and enl ed. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003.

Wilken, Robert Louis. The Christians as the Romans Saw Them. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984.

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