Eucharist and Covenant: Discerning the Lord's Supper in Old Testament Sacraments (original) (raw)
Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the SBL, Denver, CO, 18 November, 2018
As a growing number of scholars have noted, standard explanations of the Antioch incident in Galatians 2 have often glossed over key difficulties. This paper will argue that Peter’s detractors should be taken more seriously as theologians and should not be merely cast aside as scandalized puritans. This paper offers an account of their view that builds upon suggestions made previously by D. Hare and B. Chilton. First, as we know from the Corinthian correspondence, in this early period the eucharist had yet to be separated from the celebration of the communal meal, making it likely that it was part of the meal at Antioch (Sanders, 2015). Second, as many have noted, the Last Supper account in 1 Corinthians 11 includes a number of details suggestive of an awareness of the meal’s paschal setting (Pitre, 2015). Moreover, that Jesus’ death was linked to Passover is clearly attested in 1 Corinthians 5. In light of this it seems significant that while Gentiles were allowed to enter the temple and participated in Jewish life in general, the Torah explicitly bars the uncircumcised from eating the Passover meal (cf. Exod 12:48). Application of this principle on the part of Jerusalem Christians to participation in the Lord’s Supper would make the most sense of the data found in Galatians, which indicate that the controversy about Peter impinged on both the question of communal eating and on the question of circumcision.