08_Biblica_2_AM_C_Swetnam_Layout 1 30/01/13 13:18 Pagina 605 08_B 605 THE MEANING OF toi/j avkou,sasin HEBREWS 4,2 AT that the lo,goj of Heb 4,12 is the o` lo,goj th/j avkoh/j of Heb 4,2, the inter- pretation that it is the word of Scripture is clearly untenable, given the su- periority of God’s speaking in a son, as indicated in Heb 1,1-2. What is indicated is that the Word in the sense of the Johannine prologue is, pos- sibly, the lo,goj of o` lo,goj th/j avkoh/j. In the context of the above argumentation, Heb 13,7 is particularly sug- gestive: Mnhmoneu,ete tw/n h`goume,nwn u`mw/n( oi[tinej evla,lhsan u`mi/n to.n logon tou/ qeou/( w-n avnaqewrou/ntej th.n e;kbasin th/j avnastrofh/j mimei/sqe , thn pi,stin. The present writer has argued that chap. 13 can be plausibly . interpreted in a way which evokes both the tôdâ ceremony of the Old Tes- tament liturgy 15 and the rite of the Latin Mass 16. In this interpretation Heb 13,7 refers to the celebrants of the Christian Eucharist as “leaders” because they are leading the Christians on their new, spiritual exodus to God’s rest of eternal life (cf. Heb 2,1-4). The lo,goj they “speak” (lale,w) is the Word, i.e., Christ himself. This interpretation explains the otherwise rather arbi- trary introduction in the following verse of “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and for the ages”. The word “same” (auvto,j) alludes to the auvto,j of Heb 1,12, where it indicates in the context the unchanging nature of Christ as God. In Hebrews the verse refers to the unchanging nature of the Eu- charistic Christ, whether “spoken” by the leaders in the past (13,7), the pres- ent (13,17), or the future. The implication that they are deceased suggests that they probably belonged to the first generation of Christians 17. The ex- plicit mention of “faith” (pi,stij) reminds the addressees of the necessary condition for their being linked with the leaders. A plausible case can be made, then, based on the use of the word lo,goj in Hebrews, that the lo,goj of o` lo,goj th/j avkoh/j at Heb 4,2, refers to Christ Himself in the Eucharist. 3) The precise force of the phrase mh. sugkekerasme,nouj th// pistei would , seem to depend in no small measure on the connotations of the word sugkerannumi. In classical Greek the word is used of mixing substances, such , In support of the evocation of the tôdâ ceremony as a background for 15 the Christian Eucharist cf. J. RATZINGER, Das Fest des Glaubens.Versuche zur Theologie des Gottesdienstes (Einsiedeln 1981) 47-54. Ratzinger has nothing to say about a possible relation between the tôdâ ceremony and He- brews 13. But his comments about the value of the tôdâ ceremony for under- standing the Christian Eucharist are clear: “ … der enge Zusammenhang zwischen Todaopfer und Eucharistie, zwischen Todafrömmigkeit und Chris- tologie, scheint mir vollkommen gesichert” (54). For the views of the present writer on Hebrews 13 cf. J. SWETNAM, “A 16 Liturgical Approach to Hebrews 13”, Letter and Spirit 2 (2006) 159-173; ID., “A Liturgical Approach to Hebrews 13”, The Incarnate Word 1 (2006) 3-17 (a shorter but clearer version of the previous article by the same name). Cf. ATTRIDGE, Hebrews, 391. 17 © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati