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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.
WILLIAMS: THE EUCHARIST IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 97 that which we can only have in heaven to be an unwarranted moving of the “not yet” into the “already” which the Hebrews text would not allow. “Approaching the throne of grace by faith” is understood by Williamson to refer merely to a subjective hope and perseverance towards the “bliss of glory” which such faith has as its object. In this way, Williamson, though recognizing in theory the “already, but not yet” character of the Christian faith, nevertheless comes close in practice to playing the two concepts off against each other; the “not yet” is not so if one has a “foretaste” of it in the “already”. Williamson, therefore, views faith and cultic activity to be mutually exclusive. Because “according to Hebrews, the Gospel always comes as a promise, to be received in faith, it can never be anticipated materially in a sacramental cultus.” 16 Through such faith, to be sure, “the worshipper has direct access to the throne of grace.” 17 Nevertheless, faith always points to a hope of things in the future which are not now seen; “there is no suggestion anywhere in the epistle that at regular intervals, in eucharistic worship, the believer anticipates on earth what will be his fully only in heaven.” 18 However, it must be asked what kind of “direct access” to the throne of grace a worshipper can have if on earth he only “anticipates … what will be his fully in heaven.” Although Williamson does not directly answer this question, one might presume that he would agree with Attridge that “entering boldly into the throne of grace” in 4:16 is to be understood as an “encompassing image for entering into a covenant relationship with God.” 19 Along with this is the sense that the believer may have help from God in his “life of active love and goodness” 20 and that he is able to approach God with his prayers with the confidence that they will be heard. Attridge notes how prose,rcomai is to be understood in a “forensic context”, while the parallel term evggi,zomen of 7:19 in “approaching the throne of grace” is understood as referring “not as a description of a Christian cultic act, but a relationship of God through Christ that displaces the cult of the older.” 21 For both Williamson and Attridge, the strong language of entering and drawing near to God is no more than powerfully evocative language for describing the believer’s status and relationship with God. However, does the author of Hebrews intend just “highly metaphorical” and “complex symbolism” 22 in 10:19 when he says that “we have confidence 16 Williamson 312. 17 Williamson 310. 18 Williamson 310. 19 H. W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1989) 141. 20 Williamson 310. 21 Attridge 204. 22 Attridge 284.
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