LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Concordia Lutheran Seminary

96 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW XII
Williamson 10 advance plausible interpretations of Hebrews which do not
require any reference to the Eucharist whatsoever.
General agreement seems to exist on both sides of this issue that the
crucial text for the discussion of the Eucharist in Hebrews is 9:1-14. 11
Comparing and contrasting the Old and New Covenants, these verses
describe the inadequacies of the Old which find completion in the New.
Thus, while the gifts and sacrifices being offered in the Old Covenant are
“not able to clear the conscience” (9:9), Christ “cleanses our conscience
from acts which lead to death” (9:14). Furthermore, in the Old Covenant
“the way of the Most Holy Place” is “not yet disclosed” (9:8), while Christ
Himself enters and opens it “once and for all” (9:12).
Important to this discussion is precisely what is inadequate about the Old
Covenant and how it is corrected by the New. It is clear that 9:10 finds
inadequate the various ceremonial external regulations, such as “food and
drink and various ceremonial washings” which the Old Covenant required to
be followed. In view of this, R. Williamson strongly suggests the possibility
that the new Covenant abolishes not only the specific cultic regulations of
the Old Covenant but all cultic activity as well. “One of the distinctive
emphases of Hebrews may well be,” says Williamson, “a view … that the
sacrifice of Christ was of a kind that rendered obsolete every form of cultus
that placed a material means of sacramental communion between God and
the worshipper.” 12 The central problem of the Old Covenant was the
necessity for its cultus to be practised “again and again” (9:26), since it
never could accomplish a complete purification for sins. However, Christ’s
“once for all” sacrifice accomplishes what the Old Covenant could not,
effecting an “objective deed which utterly transforms man’s position in
relation to God.” 13
Implicit in this is a particular view of Hebrews’ eschatology. Williamson
recognizes that the book of Hebrews understands the Christian as a “pilgrim
whose pilgrimage left them somewhere between the ‘already’ and the ‘not
yet’.” 14 In the “already” of this life, the “not yet” of the bliss of glory is only
an “object of faith and hope”. 15 Williamson gives the impression that he
understands a Eucharistic participation, or even “anticipation” on earth of
10
R. Williamson, “The Eucharist and the Epistle to the Hebrews”, New Testament Studies 21
(1974-75): 300-12.
11
Williamson, for example, in his analysis of “six particular passages” which are used to
argue for a Eucharistic Hebrews, spends the most time discussing 9:1-14, while J. Swetnam
has written two full papers on this verse alone. It is also perhaps noteworthy that A. Van
Hoye’s detailed outline puts 9:11 at the very heart and centre of the epistle.
12
Williamson 310.
13 Williamson 310.
14 Williamson 312.
15 Williamson 310.