Covenant and Sacrifice in the Letter to the Hebrews

by John Dunnill

• ISBN13: 9780521020626
• ISBN10: 052102062X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-10-06
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Among the problems which Hebrews poses for interpretation, its use of sacrificial terminology must cause it to seem remote and obscure. Although the recent work of social anthropologists on the nature of religious systems has been applied by Old Testament scholars to the laws and symbols of the Pentateuch this is the first sustained study of Hebrews to take account of these theories. Building on the work of such writers as Mary Douglas, Victor Turner, and Claude L_vi-Strauss, Hebrews is approached here as a 'structure of symbols', in which the symbol-system of the Old Testament covenant is re-presented and transposed. Motifs explored by the author include sacred time and space; liminality; the sacrificial function of blood, death, oaths, and blessings; and the narrative traditions of election and exclusion. Dr Dunnill assesses Hebrews, not as an argument, but as an act of symbolic communication expressing the possibility of direct communion with God.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction: Hebrews and historical criticism

Part I. Sociology: 1. The New Covenant community

Part II. Structuralism: 2. Hebrews and structural analysis

3. Sacrifice and Covenant in the Old Testament

Part III. Renewing the Covenant: 4. A liturgy for the day of salvation

5. The narratives of the Covenant

6. The testing of the Son of God

7. The necessity of blood

8. Worship in the New Covenant

Conclusion

Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography.