12. -Hebrews 9:19-20
"19For when, as the Law directed, Moses had recited all the commandments to the people, he took the blood of the calves, with water, scarlet wool, and marjoram, and sprinkled the law-book itself and all the people, 20saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God has enjoined upon you." " [NEB]
At the core of this writer's theology lies the new covenant established by Christ's sacrifice, a sacrifice which takes place in heaven....presented without the slightest glance toward Jesus' own establishment of the new covenant by the words he spoke over the bread and wine at the Last Supper.
The mythical scene in 1 Cor. 11:23f which Paul presents to his congregation as a product of personal revelation see the section "Learning of a Sacred Meal" in Supplementary Article No 6: The Source of Paul's Gospelhas apparently not yet reached the community of the Epistle to the Hebrews.) ..We might point out that the turn of the 2nd century Christian document known as the Didache (Teaching) also shows a stunning silence on Jesus' establishment of the Eucharist.
1. Silences in passage/challenge to a historical Jesus:
Jesus established the Eucharist, verbally describing the new covenant at the Lord's Supper.
2. Relevancy within context:
Re the Hebrews passage: The context seems pretty relevant to the Eucharist tradition to me. The author of Hebrews was comparing the sacrifice of Christ as the new high priest with the old method of animal sacrifice under the Levite high priests. Contrary to Doherty's statement, he could have possibly avoided calling attention to it since in making this comparison the author had plenty of other material to work with already. The question is whether he excluded it because he didn't know about it or not.
In 1 Cor 4:17, Paul writes: "For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church." It is clear from what Paul writes in 1 Cor 11 that the manner in which the Corinthians were honoring the tradition of the Lord's Supper was of great concern to him. Timothy was a very close companion of Paul, and Paul was sending him to Corinth, and we see from 2 Cor 1:19 that he did go there. We can conclude with great certainty that Timothy knew and adopted the same tradition that Paul taught.
In Hebrews 13:23 the author writes "23Take notice that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom, if he comes soon, I will see you." Hebrews was likely written after Paul's epistle to the Corinthians, and it is clear that the author of Hebrews personally knew Timothy, and traveled with him. Borrowing from Doherty's language, I would ask: How could Timothy have "possibly avoided calling attention" to such an important tradition of the faith to his personal companion in the ministry, the author of Hebrews who clearly was very knowledgeable in the faith? It is most likely that this author knew about the Lord's Supper and the words about the new covenant, but just didn't mention them.
Re 1 Cor 11: As Doherty points out, Paul mentions the Last Supper, and the words about a new covenant in 1 Cor 11. Doherty's contention that Paul's version was "revelation" is questionable. For purposes of this analysis, let it suffice that it exists, and as far as the new covenant is concerned, it matches the gospel version.
Re the Didache: The Didache is silent about the words regarding a new covenant. However it is clear in the Didache that the Eucharist is extremely important. The context is one of how the Church is to prepare for prior and how it is to pray during the partaking of the Eucharist, not one of it's origins or a retelling of events. As such, I don't see a strong context for indicating that Jesus established it.
In chapter 9, regarding the Eucharist is the following: 9:5 "And let none eat or drink of your Eucharist but such as have been baptized into the name of the Lord, for of a truth the Lord that said concerning this, "Give not that which is holy unto dogs." " The Didache says this is a command concerning the Eucharist. That may be an interpretation, but if taken literally, this is evidence for institution of the Eucharist by "the Lord" himself, who the Didache gives credit in just the prior chapter for establishing the Lord's prayer in his gospel.
It is true that the prayer in chapters 9 and 10 doesn't reference the words normally attributed to Jesus regarding his sacrifice to establish a new covenant. Included in the prayer is a thanks for "knowledge, faith and immortality made known through Jesus thy Son".(10:2) Immortality is certainly related to death. How did Jesus make immortality known to them? It also includes "thou hast given spiritual meat and drink, and life everlasting, through thy Son." This is very similar to "this is my blood" and "this is my body", "broken for you". In addition, the Didache teaches approaching the Eucharist with purity, as those who partake are offering up a sacrifice to God: 14:1 "But on the Lord's day, after that ye have assembled together, break bread and give thanks, having in addition confessed your sins, that your sacrifice may be pure." The connection of physical meat and drink with spiritual meat and dring, the remembering Christ with thanks, the close connection with sacrifice, and immortality made known through Jesus all can certainly be interpreted as indications that the Eucharist in the Didache reflects the themes also found in Paul's Eucharist, though the explicit quotations of Jesus are not repeated.
Doherty's argument is that the event didn't happen because it was Paul's creation as evidenced by the absence of Paul's version in Hebrews (already addressed) and the differences with the Didache (also addressed). If the Didache was truly the "teaching of the twelve apostles" it is unlikely that they would have adopted the story of the Lord's Supper from Paul. Two separate accounts of an extremely important Eucharist tradition, in addition to the 3 in the synoptic argues for some historical basis.
A final comment Of Hebrews, Doherty writes "At the core of this writer's theology lies the new covenant established by Christ's sacrifice, a sacrifice which takes place in heaven." There is nothing in Hebrews that says Christ was sacrificed in heaven. He mentions a heavenly reign, but not a sacrifice in heaven. He does say that Jesus took on "the same nature" of flesh and blood (2:14), and "he had to be made like his brethren in every respect"(2:17), that it "is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah"(7:14), that he would "appear a second time", and that "Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood."(13:12) There is little reason to conclude that these are references to Jesus' life as something other than as a man on earth.
3. Related information in other early writings:
I know of no others in the earliest writings Doherty uses here.
4. Conclusion
The author of Hebrews probably knew of and approved of Paul's version of the Lord's Supper, though he didn't mention it in his comparison of animal sacrifice with Jesus'. The Didache focuses more on proper conduct than theological interpretation but it still has a number of strong indications that Jesus may have established the Eucharist as he did the Lord's prayer, and that it was to be regarded with great reverence and personal sacrifice, likely as a reflection of his own righteousness and sacrifice as more clearly illustrated in Paul's version.
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