Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: Philosophical and Theological Papers 1958-1964

Titel: Philosophical and Theological Papers 1958-1964

Stichwort: Erlösung; Opfer - Wortgebrauch: Septuaginta, klassisches Griechisch

Kurzinhalt: One meaning was used uniformly in the Septuagint, and the other in classical Greek. In classical Greek the word hilaskesthai means to placate the gods,

Textausschnitt: 15a First of all, the death of Christ is conceived as a sacrifice. That conception is recurrent in St Paul. 'Christ our Pasch has been sacrificed' (1 Corinthians 5.7). Again, 'Christ offered himself up as a sacrifice of sweet odor' (Ephesians 5.2). It occurs, implicitly at least, in the statements in the synoptic Gospels and in 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, on the institution of the Eucharist: 'This is my body which is given for you; this is my blood which is to be shed for you for the remission of sin.' But above all it is in the Epistle to the Hebrews that the death of Christ is presented as a sacrifice. Chapters 1 to 3 are devoted to presenting the new mediator between God and man. And a contrast is set up with Moses, who gave the old law. Chapters 5 and 7 are concerned with the new priesthood, chapter 8 with the new covenant, the new testament, chapters 9 and 10 with the sacrifice of the new law, which is the sacrifice of the death of Christ and the perpetual intercession of Christ for us before God. To go into details of the conception of the death of Christ as a sacrifice would be an enormous task. I could not even begin to enumerate the texts of the scripture relevant to it. But it is a conception of which no doubt whatever can be entertained by a Catholic. (Fs)

15b However, the precise sense in which there is a sacrifice raises a question that has to do with the meaning of the Greek word hilaskesthai. On the meaning of that word, C.H. Dodd, a professor at Cambridge University, in The Journal of Theological Studies, about 1931, drew attention to the fact that the usage of the word in classical Greek was quite different from that in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint. The root of the word permitted two different meanings. One meaning was used uniformly in the Septuagint, and the other in classical Greek. In classical Greek the word hilaskesthai means to placate the gods, to avert their anger or vengeance. In the Septuagint, hilaskesthai conveys the meaning of something that removes sin, that puts aside a barrier that prevents man's access to God. As you can see, the nuance in the different meanings of hilaskesthai has considerable difference of implications for religious thought and religious feeling. The implications for the interpretation of the New Testament in some aspects are quite certain, in others less so. A clear example of hilaskesthai used in the sense of the removal of sins occurs in Hebrews 2.17, where it is stated that Christ became priest in order to hilaskesthai the sins of the people - in the Vulgate propitiaret delicta populi. Hilaskesthai is an action exercised upon sin, and that is the Septuagint meaning of the word. It is not an action exercised upon the feelings of a god, as in the rites of pagan Greece. (Fs) (notabene)
16a Another point to be noted about the interpretation or understanding of the redemption, the death and resurrection of Christ, in terms of sacrifice is that, on the one hand, the connection of sacrifice with liturgy, with prayer, with the piety of the people of God makes it an extremely helpful mode of thought, an aspect of the intelligibility of the death and resurrection of Christ, while on the other hand, because sacrifice is not traditionally, not in any but the most barbarous religions, human sacrifice - but the sacrifice of Christ is in his own blood - clearly the notion of sacrifice is not an intelligibility that exhausts the meaning of the redemption. A ritual meaning such as is connoted, a liturgical meaning such as is suggested, by the name 'sacrifice,' while it conveys enormously the aspect of personal relations between the sinner and God, still does not exhaust the meaning of the reality, insofar as Christ's sacrifice was not simply a ritual act, but his own suffering and death and glorious resurrection.