Signs of the Eucharist in Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus

Abraham and Melchizedek - by Juan Antonio de Frías y Escalante (1633-1670)

As discussed in an earlier post, An important work (Jesus and the Jewish roots of the Eucharist #1), and in the short series tagged Jewish roots, I have explored the specifically Jewish character of the Eucharist. Christians understand many of the language, symbols and rituals of the Old Testament as foreshadowing or prefiguring the Eucharist. This understanding arises in the light of Christ and the New Testament, rather than from the conscious intention of the ancient authors themselves.

In this post, I briefly consider several passages from the Pentateuch - the Torah, or the first five books of the Bible - that Christians have traditionally associated with the Eucharist.

In Genesis14:18 we read:

King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High.

Catholic tradition has long seen Melchizedek's offering of bread and wine as a foreshadowing of the Eucharist. These are the very elements used by Jesus at the Last Supper, when he speaks of the cup as the ‘new covenant in my blood’ (Luke22:20).  This connection is reflected in the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I), whose core elements are attested by the late fourth century and whose overall form was substantially fixed by the sixth century. Shortly after the consecration, the priest prays:

Be pleased to look upon these offerings with a serene and kindly countenance and to accept them, as once you were pleased to accept the gifts of your servant Abel the just, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the offering of your high priest Melchizedek, a holy sacrifice, a spotless victim.

The sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis22 is likewise regarded by many scholars as a foreshadowing of Christ's sacrifice and therefore, indirectly, of the Eucharist. Abraham is tested in his obedience to God, but God provides a substitute victim on the mountain, where Isaac had carried the wood for his own sacrifice.

In Exodus12, the institution of the first Passover centres on a lamb without blemish whose blood saves God's people. The lamb is then eaten in a ritual memorial of God's saving action. Christians have traditionally understood the Passover as a type of Christ’s sacrifice and of the Eucharist. Christ is the true Paschal Lamb who takes away the sins of the world and the Eucharist is our sacramental participation in his one sacrifice. When Jesus declares, ‘This is my body’ (Matthew26:26), he identifies himself as the true sacrificial offering. Through his blood we are delivered and redeemed, a reality foreshadowed in the Passover and fulfilled on the Cross. In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we remember, celebrate and partake of this saving mystery.

In Exodus 16, God gives manna from heaven to sustain his people in the wilderness. In John6:32, Jesus declares:

it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

In the Book of Leviticus (7:11-15), the manna thus becomes a sign pointing beyond itself to Christ, the true Bread from Heaven.  The thanksgiving sacrifice (todah) includes bread offered in gratitude for God's deliverance. Many Catholic writers have noted the similarity to the Eucharist, whose very name derives from the Greek word for ‘thanksgiving’. The Eucharist is the Church's supreme act of thanksgiving to God for the salvation accomplished in Christ.

The Bread of the Presence (or ‘showbread’) is described in Leviticus24:5-9 in the following text:

You shall take choice flour, and bake twelve loaves of it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf. You shall place them in two rows, six in a row, on the table of pure gold. You shall put pure frankincense with each row, to be a token offering for the bread, as an offering by fire to the Lord. Every sabbath day Aaron shall set them in order before the Lord regularly as a commitment of the people of Israel, as a covenant for ever. They shall be for Aaron and his descendants, who shall eat them in a holy place, for they are most holy portions for him from the offerings by fire to the Lord, a perpetual due.

Scholars and holy persons have often seen in the Bread of the Presence a foreshadowing of Christ, the true Bread from Heaven, who nourishes his people in the New Covenant.

For Christians today, these Old Testament signs and figures find their fulfilment in Jesus Christ. In the Blessed Sacrament, Catholics believe that Christ is truly present—the sacramental presence of the risen Lord who continues to feed and sustain his people under the appearances or signs of bread and wine.

Tomorrow, please God, I will consider the miracle of bread for the journey in the story of Elijah as well as a significant prophecy in the Book of Malachi.