THBS210: The Canonical Gospels S00152525, Joseph W. Moloney The literary heritage of the apostolic Church represented by the books of the New Testament is so closely and organically related to the Eucharist that one is entitled to state that all New Testament Scripture has a Eucharistic provenance… [In particular, we can detect a direct] relationship connecting the structure and content of the canonical gospels with the Eucharistic celebrations of the early Church. (Adapted from Denis Farkasfalvy. Inspiration and Interpretation: A Theological Introduction to Sacred Scripture. Washington, DC, USA: Catholic University of America Press, 2012. 63, 65). The Provenance of the Gospels: Eucharist, Liturgy & Sacrifice Joseph W. Moloney The Eucharist is an inexhaustible mystery. In this essay I study it from the angle that it is the object and theme on which the Gospels are written. It would be a mistake to think the Synoptic genre is just that of a historical narrative, a catechetical instruction, or a mere compilation of oral accounts. So rather, I discuss the ways in which these Gospels are a unique literary genre spawned out of, and written for, the liturgical setting of the early Church’s Eucharistic assemblies. I argue that the Last Supper and the Eucharist are intimate to, and inseparable from the Passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus and that it is through the Eucharist that the early Church commemorated these events. What is sometimes minimalized in Scripture study is that a participation in the celebration of the Eucharist is a participation in these events for the Church. St Paul says as much: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?”(RSV).1 If these events are the most significant events in the life of Christ, and the Eucharist is the persistent and enduring theme perpetuating these events in the life of the worshipping community, then it is no surprise to think that the Gospels have a “Eucharistic provenance” as Denis Farkasfalvy suggests. I argue further that if the Eucharist was the summit of the early Church’s liturgies then it logically follows that the Synoptics would have the Eucharist as their apogee as well. To understand the praxis of the Synoptics, therefore, it is valuable to assess them in light of their liturgical origin and the ecclesiastical setting they were written and intended for. I will demonstrate that this is the case, by highlighting many of the events of the Gospels as being laden with Eucharistic imagery, symbols and liturgical pointers. I will further reveal the way in which 1 1 Cor 10:16 1|P age THBS210: The Canonical Gospels S00152525, Joseph W. Moloney Malachi anticipates the Eucharistic and liturgical character of the Gospels. Finally, it important to state that my intention is to weave a thread through the whole essay establishing the three hermeneutical concepts for understanding the Gospels as being: sacrifice, liturgy and the Eucharist, and to argue that all three are intertwined and at the heart of the meaning of early Church’s experience and beliefs. Denis Farkasfalvy claims that the Gospels undoubtedly link the Last Supper as the first Eucharist to the Passion claiming that it is their “theological overture”. This is supported by St Paul who draws the link between the Last Supper and the events of the Passion by beginning the narrative: “on the night he was handed over”.2 It is a generally accepted premise that the Last Supper cast a shadow forward and links the Eucharist to the Passion. That said, the task remains to prove that the rest of the Gospel prior to the Last Supper is also Eucharistic in provenance. There are a number of stories in the Gospels that are clearly and intentionally linked to the Eucharist. The most obvious examples are the Feeding stories, which in all six of the narratives has well known and attested Eucharistic overtones, including the similarity of the words of blessing over the food and the provision of bread and flesh – Eucharistic elements. Similarly, we should consider that wherever the identity of Jesus is raised in the Gospels, it consistently has a Eucharistic anchor and vice versa when passages are clearly Eucharistic, they are tied to the identity of the Messiah. For example while the central theme of the Feeding of the Multitudes story in Luke is undoubtedly Eucharistic, it is also especially related to the identity of Jesus. This is demonstrable in the broader context of Luke in the way that this story is the focal point of a “sandwich” of inquiry into the identity of Jesus: by Herod, then the people and the Apostles and finally revealed in the Transfiguration.3 Similarly relating to the identity of Jesus, on the Road to Emmaus the point at which the Apostles recognised Christ was in the breaking of the bread – again linking the Eucharist with Christ’s Identity. Another story that has a very clear Eucharistic theme is the Wedding at Cana. In this story, we can admit the claim of the Catholic Church today and similarly the early Church, that it is the priest - in the person of Christ - who performs a similar miracle converting both the Eucharistic elements of water and the wine 2 Denis Farkasfalvy, The Eucharistic Provenance of the New Testament Texts, In Kereszty, Roch A. Rediscovering the Eucharist: Ecumenical Conversations, 29. 3 Lk 9:28-36 2|P age THBS210: The Canonical Gospels S00152525, Joseph W. Moloney into the Blood of Christ during the Mass. While not all modern Christian denominations agree to this, it is difficult to dispute that this is what the early Church believed. St Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of St John the Apostles and ordained by St Peter, amongst other Fathers, testifies to this in the second century saying: “Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions … They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ”.4 Given this is what the early Church taught and believed on the testimony of a man taught by St John, it’s reasonable to assume that it is not insignificant that Jesus’s first public miracle involves the use of two of the Eucharistic elements – water and wine and involved a miraculous changing of the substance of one to another. We can also marvel at the poetry of Scripture as the story clearly parallels Moses’ miracle converting water to blood, which was also the first of the plague miracles.5 In fact, much of the Old Testament also has a Eucharistic provenance, and while that is not in the scope of this essay, it is worth recognising that Malachi, as the bridging book between the New and Old Testament, is both concerned with liturgy and Eucharistic sacrifice. Stepping back now, canonically, Jon Jordan6 argues strongly for the Eucharistic links between the Old and New Testament in the Book of Malachi. He argues that Malachi establishes the expectation of a coming Messiah, but also highlights that it is very Eucharistic and concerned with liturgy. It is liturgical because it is focused on the polluted sacrifices of the Temple, and Eucharistic because it prophesises that there will be a new pleasing universal ‘sacrifice’.7 However, can we say from Malachi alone that this sacrifice is Eucharistic? Yes. In the proceeding verses to the Malachian prophecy, the Lord castigates the priesthood for “offering polluted food upon my altar” and then in the next verse, remarkably equates the altar to a 4 St Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans, Ch 6. Ex 7:19 – “And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.” 6 Jon R. Jordan, “For We Offer To Him His Own: Eucharist and Malachi in the New Testament and Early Church”, Thesis Paper, Mar 14. www.rts.edu/Site/Virtual/Resources/Student_Theses/201403-Jordan-Jon.pdf 7 Mal 1:11 – “For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.” 5 3|P age THBS210: The Canonical Gospels S00152525, Joseph W. Moloney table!8 St Paul then specifically uses Malachi’s “the table of the Lord” phrase exactly in 1 Corinthians 10:14– 22, thematically framing his Eucharistic language. Add to this that all of Malachi is principally concerned with liturgical matters in the Temple. Malachi 1-3 revolves around the prophet castigating the priests for their reckless sacrifice and impropriety in the sanctuary. To tie the Malachian themes back into our topic, we can see that while Malachi is concerned with liturgy and sacrifice, the Synoptics and the New Testament largely is geared and written for liturgy and about the one sacrifice. Malachi as a liturgically focused text helps frame the New Testament with the Book of Revelations being it’s compliment – it also is a liturgically charged book, speaking of: an altar (8:3), robed clergymen (4:4), candles (1:12), incense (5:8), manna (2:17), chalices (ch. 16), Sunday worship (1:10), prominence of the Blessed Virgin Mary (12:1-6), the “Holy, Holy, Holy” (4:8), the Gloria (15:3-4), the Sign of the Cross (14:1), the Alleluia (19:1, 3, 6), the readings from Scripture (chs. 2-3).9 In fact, according to Pope Benedict XVI, the last book of the Bible is a kind of “archetypal liturgy” for us on Earth and it was considered as such in the early Church.10 Is it any wonder with Malachi and Revelations ‘bookending’ the New Testament in such magnificent liturgical and Eucharist imagery, that the hermeneutical key to the Gospels should be liturgical and Eucharistic? It is Bultmann who readily admits that the “Gospels were produced as the cultic (that is, the needs of common worship), if one considers that the high point in Christian life was the gathering of the community for worship”.11 The Gospels, and the New Testament at large, is liturgical in nature, containing: greetings, prayers, hymns and blessings, such that they were meant to be read to Christian communities during their assemblies which were associated and would culminate in the Eucharist. Richard Horseley argues that scholars need to move away from “the modern print-cultural definition of Scripture” and focus more on the oral and ecclesiastical nature of the texts.12 Mark’s Gospel in particular, demonstrates a number of 8 Mal 1:6b-7 – “You say, ‘How have we despised thy name?’ By offering polluted food upon my altar. And you say, ‘How have we polluted it?’ By thinking that the Lord’s table may be despised.” 9 Scott Hahn. The Lamb’s Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth, New York: Doubleday Publishing, 1999, 66-67. 10 Joseph Ratzinger. Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith, 110 In Kwasniewski, Peter, “The Book of Revelation: Guide to Catholic Worship”, The New Liturgical Movement, Dec 2014. http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2014/12/the-book-of-revelation-guide-to.html#.VWP5D_mSx8F 11 Rudolph Bultmann. “The Study of the Synoptic Gospels,” Form Criticism: Two Essays in New Testament Research, trans. and ed. C.F. Grant, (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1962), 64. In Roch A. Kereszty, Rediscovering the Eucharist: Ecumenical Conversations, 34. 12 Richard A. Horsley, “Oral and Written Aspects of the Emergence of the Gospel of Mark as Scripture”, Oral Tradition, Vol. 25, Is. 1, 2010, 96. http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/25i/horsley 4|P age THBS210: The Canonical Gospels S00152525, Joseph W. Moloney qualities that would indicate that it was probably written and intended to be an oral performance for early Church liturgies. In fact, the whole New Testament has so many liturgical qualities that Oscar Cullman concludes that the authors of Scripture all anticipated (in varying degrees) that their writings would and should be read to the assembled Christian communities during worship.13 St Justin Martyr in 155AD describes a Christian liturgy where “all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits”. After this, he describes how the presider delivers a homily before the elements of bread, wine and water are brought in, clearly describing the Offertory and the Eucharistic convocations. The liturgy described in the Didache reinforces and expands on the work of St Justin in greater detail, but the fundamentals are the same. So here we have primary source evidence demonstrating the liturgical link between the Scriptures and Eucharist in the early Church liturgy. However, we can go back further and find similar connection between Scripture, liturgy and the Eucharist. Scripture itself testifies to us of a similar Eucharistic event in Acts 20:7 as St Paul writes that: “when we were gathered together to break bread,” he “talked to them”. It is not unreasonable to assume that in other gatherings where St Paul was not present, his letters and those of the other Apostles were read in place of his teaching them himself. Of course, if St Paul was using Scripture in worship and combining the Eucharistic sacrifice of the once slain lamb - Jesus, than this would seem entirely natural given his Jewish heritage and liturgical formation in the Temple, where both such similar events occurred continually. Our standard view of the Gospels is rooted in the assumptions of a print/publication based culture, where we “assume that it was ‘written’ by an ‘author’ on the basis of written sources”.14 However, we’d do better to recognise the oral character of the Gospels and Church at the time, and also the liturgical and Eucharistic setting within which they developed. In doing so, we reveal that the Gospels don’t just contain the doctrines of the Eucharist but are also a reflection of the Eucharistic liturgical practices of the early Church which is the seedbed for the Gospels – this, then should be our hermeneutical key. This fact must lead us to recognise that the Synoptics are pointing to the Eucharist, just as the liturgical celebrations of the early 13 Oscar Cullman, Early Christian Worship, London: SCM Press, 1953, 24, In Roch A. Kereszty, Rediscovering the Eucharist: Ecumenical Conversations, 28. 14 Horsley, “Oral and Written Aspects of the Emergence of the Gospel of Mark as Scripture”, 96. 5|P age THBS210: The Canonical Gospels S00152525, Joseph W. Moloney Church anticipated the Eucharist after the reading of Scripture in their liturgy. That the Eucharist is the underlying theme of the Mass and the Gospels is therefore, not a surprising revelation, but should be anticipated and I would go so far as to say the hermeneutical key to understanding the Gospels and life of Christ. 6|P age THBS210: The Canonical Gospels S00152525, Joseph W. Moloney Bibliography Bultmann, R. “The Study of the Synoptic Gospels,” Form Criticism: Two Essays in New Testament Research, trans. and ed. C.F. Grant, (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1962), 64. In Roch A. Kereszty, Rediscovering the Eucharist: Ecumenical Conversations. Cullman, Oscar. Early Christian Worship, London: SCM Press, 1953, 24, In Roch A. Kereszty, Rediscovering the Eucharist: Ecumenical Conversations. Didache, Translated by M.B. Riddle. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm Farkasfalvy, Denis. “The Eucharistic Provenance of the New Testament Texts”, In Kereszty, Roch A. Rediscovering the Eucharist: Ecumenical Conversations. Guyette, Frederick W. “Sacramentality in the Fourth Gospel: Conflicting Interpretations,” Ecclesiology Vol. 3 Iss. 2 (2007) London: Sage Publications, 235-250. DOI: 10.1177/1744136607073351 Hahn, Scott. The Lamb’s Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth, New York: Doubleday Publishing, 1999. Horsley, Richard A. “Oral and Written Aspects of the Emergence of the Gospel of Mark as Scripture”, Oral Tradition, Vol. 25, Is. 1, 2010, 96. http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/25i/horsley Jordan, Jon R. “For We Offer To Him His Own: Eucharist and Malachi in the New Testament and Early Church”, Thesis Paper, Mar 14. www.rts.edu/Site/Virtual/Resources/Student_Theses/201403Jordan-Jon.pdf Ratzinger, Joseph. Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith, In Kwasniewski, Peter, “The Book of Revelation: Guide to Catholic Worship”, The New Liturgical Movement, Dec 2014. http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2014/12/the-book-of-revelation-guideto.html#.VWP5D_mSx8F Rust, R. “The Oral and the Written Gospel: Hermeneutics of Speaking and Writing in the Synoptic Tradition, Mark, Paul and Q”, Theology Today, Vol. 40 Iss. 03, 1983, 380-381. St Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans, Ch. 6. Trans Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1. Ed Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885. Rev. for New Advent by Knight, Kevin. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0109.htm. 7|P age