shows how the old law is a prefiguration of the new and therefore how

it is fulfilled in the realities of the new covenant. In this perspective,

the eucharistic celebration, too, will be seen as a fulfillment of such
Old Testament types as Melchizedek, the manna, and the various
kinds of sacrifice. This method is especially suited to shedding light on
the salvific value of the Eucharist.11 The historical method, on the other
hand, brings to light relationships between the New Testament liturgy
and the Old Testament rites, as it tries to show how the Christian lit-
urgy derives from the Jewish liturgy: in what forms and ritual struc-
tures, by what avenues and with what transformations.
First, we will have to see what the origin was of the Jewish ritual
meal, then bring out the connection between the liturgy of the Jewish
meal and the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper. Study of the Jewish ritual
meal and its origins leads us to the area of Jewish sacrifices, and
therefore we must look first of all at these.

1. The Jewish Ritual Meal and Sacrifice

In the time when ritual slaughter of animals was practiced, every
meal was a religious event and in some way connected with sacrifice.
It was the Deuteronomic reform that introduced the practice of the
nonreligious slaughter of animals; the result was a clear differentia-
tion between sacrifice with its sacred meal and the “secular” meal,
taken solely for nourishment.12 This reform gave rise to the special
­liturgy of the Jewish ritual meal, which was traced back to the divine
command given in Deut 8:10: “You shall eat your fill and bless the
Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.” It is not the
prayer that sanctifies the meal; on the contrary, the meal itself, being
the expression of the divine gift of the land, has its own sacral char-
acter that calls for the presence of prayer. It is God who is blessed,
and not the meal. Since every meal, as such, stems from God’s gift, it
follows that all meals should be celebrated with prayer. The purpose

11
E. Mazza, “L’interpretazione del culto nella chiesa antica,” in Celebrare il mis-
tero di Cristo. Manuale di Liturgia 1 (Rome, 1993) 229–79.
12
It is incorrect to speak, in connection with Israel, of either a “sacred meal” or
a “secular meal.” In Israel, meals were neither sacred nor secular but religious;
this fact requires us to move beyond the category of the sacred and speak directly
of a relationship with God. For this interpretation of the concepts of the sacred
and the profane see J.-P. Audet, “Le sacré et le profan. Leur situation en christian-
isme,” NRT 79 (1957) 33–61.

12