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Jesus’ Eucharist Substitutes Animal Sacrifice with Bread and Wine, Not His Own Flesh and Blood. By Prof. Bruce Chilton. Ed. Dr. Chapman Chen

Writer's picture: Chapman ChenChapman Chen

Updated: Nov 24, 2024




Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Bard College Bruce Chilton (2011) offers compelling ideas about the words Jesus spoke during the Last Supper concerning the Eucharist: “This is my body [the bread]; this is my blood [the wine],” which appear with slight differences in Mark 14:22–24, Matthew 26:26–28, Luke 22:19–20, and 1 Corinthians 11:24–25. Traditionally, these words are understood as Jesus referring to his own body and blood. However, Chilton interprets them in the context of Temple sacrifices, suggesting that Jesus was protesting the vulgar nature of the traditional animal sacrifices involving flesh and blood of an innocent creature. Jesus thus presents bread and wine as a substitute for the Temple sacrifice—bread as a substitute for the body, and wine as a substitute for the blood.

 

On the other hand, Paul the anti-vegan apostate, to borrow Dave Thompson’s (2024) words, “made Jesus into the very thing he was protesting” – “a flesh eating, blood magic superstition of vicarious human sacrifice!” The idea that the Vegan Eucharist was turned into a cannibalistic cult by Paul was already put forth by Prof. James Tabor in his 2012 book, Paul and James.


Below please find a relevant excerpt from Chilton’s (2011) article, "The Eucharist and the Mimesis of Sacrifice.":-


But why did they finally arrest Jesus? The texts of the Last Supper provide the key; something about Jesus’ meals after his occupation of the Temple caused Judas to inform on Jesus. Of course, “Judas” is the only name that the traditions of the New Testament have left us. We cannot say who or how many of the disciples became disaffected by Jesus’ behavior after his occupation of the Temple.

 

However they learned of Jesus’ new interpretation of his meals of fellowship, the authorities arrested him just after the supper we call last. Jesus continued to celebrate fellowship at table as a foretaste of the kingdom, just as he had before. But he also added a new and scandalous dimension of meaning. His occupation of the Temple having failed, Jesus said of the wine, “This is my blood,” and of the bread, “This is my flesh” (Matt 26:26, 28 = Mark 14:22, 24 = Luke 22:19-20 = 1 Corinthians 11:24-25 = Justin, 1 Apology 66.3).

 

In Jesus’ context, the context of his confrontation with the authorities of the Temple, his words had one predominant meaning. He did not mean to say, “Here are my personal body and blood”; that is an interpretation that only makes sense at a later stage. Jesus’ principal point was rather that, in the absence of a Temple that permitted his view of purity to be practiced, wine was his blood of sacrifice, and bread was his flesh of sacrifice. In Aramaic, “blood” and “flesh” (which may also be rendered as “body”) can carry such a sacrificial meaning, and in Jesus’ context, that is the most natural meaning. The meaning of “the Last Supper,” then, actually evolved over a series of meals after Jesus’ occupation of the Temple. During that period, Jesus claimed that wine and bread were a better sacrifice than what was offered in the Temple: at least wine and bread were Israel’s own, not tokens of priestly dominance. 

 

No wonder the opposition to him, even among the Twelve (in the shape of Judas, according to the Gospels) became deadly. In essence, Jesus made his meals into a rival altar, and we may call such a reading of his words a ritual or cultic interpretation. This second type of Eucharist offered wine and bread as a mimetic surrogate of sacrifice.


 

Source:

Chilton, Bruce (2011). "The Eucharist and the Mimesis of Sacrifice." In Ann W. Astell, Sandor Goodhart, Sacrifice, Scripture, and Substitution: Readings in Ancient Judaism and Christianity. Christianity and Judaism in antiquity series, 18. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2011. https://nwcu.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2010-CHILTON-Eucharist-Mimesis-Sacrifice.pdf#:~:text=Eucharist%20and%20the%20Mimesis%20of%20Sacrifice.%20Each%20act%20of%20Eucharist

 

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