Cefalea vs Mal de Altura Agudo
CONCLUSIONES Y RECOMENDACIONES
1. Passover and Yom Kippur
1. 1 Introduction
In the previous chapter, we reviewed a number of scholarly analyses of Paul’s usage of
sacrificial imagery in his soteriological statements. Although they disagree on various points,
most of them agree on one particular point: some terms in Paul’s statements are related to
annual Jewish feasts or convocations, such as Passover and Yom Kippur. The most obvious
example is the term /%&B), which is clearly associated with the Passover feast and the feast of
Unleavened Bread (cf. 1Cor 5:6–8). As regards Yom Kippur, Paul does not explicitly mention it
in his letters. However, since *$)&+,-#(. is a technical term that largely signifies the “mercy
seat” in Greek versions of Jewish scriptures,203 for those who were familiar with the Pentateuch,
the use of this word would have evoked the Yom Kippur imagery. Four out of five scholars
whom we reviewed closely (Davies, Newton, McLean, and Finlan) acknowledge that the Yom
Kippur motifs (either or both the blood-sacrificial ritual and/or scapegoat ritual) play an
important role in Paul’s thought. Indeed, many other Pauline scholars point out that the Yom
Kippur rite constitutes an important background to Paul’s soteriology.204 Hence, we have
There are, of course, some exceptions, as Kraus explains, ‘Andererseits wird jedoch gern übersehen,
daß *$)&+,-#(. nicht nur die Übersetzung für '#%& im Jerusalemer Tempel darstellt, sondern in der
Ausgabe des Symmachus in Gen 6,16 die Arche gemeint ist, in Am 9,1 LXX ein Sühneort im Betheler Heiligtum und in Ey 43,14 (ter). 17.20 LXX die ,#+2, d.h. ein Teil des Altarkorpus des im Zentrum der neuen Tempelanlage stehenden Brandopferaltars’ (1991, 157).
E.g., T. W. Manson 1945; C. K. Barrett 1971, 128; Gese 1981, 115; Dunn 1988, 172, 180; Kraus 1991; Fitzmyer 1992, 349-50; Campbell 1992, 130-3; Stuhlmacher 1994, 59; Schreiner 1998, 192-5; Bailey 1999; Moo 2000, 129; N. T. Wright 2002, 476-7.
reasonable grounds for assuming that Paul employs both Passover and Yom Kippur motifs in
his accounts of Jesus’ death. In what follows, we shall explore how first century Jews perceived
the meaning of Passover and Yom Kippur respectively, in order to gain insight into Paul’s use
of these motifs.
1. 2 Methodological Remarks
It is important to clarify how our research is to be conducted. As regards the feast of Passover,
we must first examine the main sources of knowledge of this feast for first century Jews.
Stowers comments, ‘Paul and his readers may have understood the cult either through their own
reading of the scriptural sources or through a knowledge of the temple cult as it operated in the
first century or through a combination of scripture and current practice’.205 For first century
Jews, these two mediums would have been inseparable, for a recitation of the holy scriptures
was an essential part of the Passover feast (cf. Exod 12:26–27). Hence, we shall first examine
how the scriptures themselves explain Passover, and then consult the writings from the first
century CE, which give descriptions of the activities of the people during the Passover feast.
With regard to Yom Kippur, its dual character should be noted. While Yom Kippur was
one of the annual Jewish holy convocations (cf. Lev 23:27; Num 29:7), it also constituted an
essential part of the sacrificial system in the book of Leviticus (cf. Lev 16:2–34). The Jewish
scriptures provide relatively little on this convocational aspect. Thus, in order to know how first
century Jews observed the Yom Kippur convocation, we must rely mainly on the extra-biblical
sources. It is beyond our purpose, though, to make a comprehensive survey of all the Second
Temple sources that explicitly or implicitly refer to the Yom Kippur convocation, such as has
recently been conducted by Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra.206 Instead, we shall focus on some
significant texts that provide insights into this convocation.
The Jewish scriptures give detailed accounts of Yom Kippur as a Temple rite, but there is
almost no text from the first century CE that explains how this rite was conducted in the Temple.
The observation of the entire procedure of the Yom Kippur rite was only available to a high
priest, who alone entered the holy of holies (cf. Lev 16:17). Hence, it was through the book of
Leviticus that first century Jews gained the whole picture. Therefore, the best way to explore
how first century Jews understood the Yom Kippur rite is to consider how they read and
understood Leviticus 16. Though the Mishnah contains much information about this rite, it may
be problematic to use it as our primary source. It must be remembered that the Second Temple
had been demolished long before the compilation of the Mishnah. E. P. Sanders thus warns,
‘The problem with using the Mishnah is that there is very seldom this sort of reference to pre-70
practice that allows us to make critical distinctions: not only are we often reading
second-century discussions, we may be learning only second-century theory’.207 Nevertheless,
the Mishnah is chronologically closer to the Second Temple period than the rest of the Tannaitic
literature. Hence, while our primary source must be the scriptures, it would be beneficial to
consult the Mishnah with reservations.
Stökl Ben Ezra 2003. Sanders 1992, 104.
2. Passover
2. 1 The Passover event in the Exodus story
According to the Jewish scriptures, the origin of the Passover feast is found in the Exodus
narrative. The Passover event is one of the climactic moments within the Exodus story, and the
purpose of observing the Passover feast for subsequent generations is to commemorate this
historic event (cf. Exod 12:26–27). Concerning the original Passover event, two points are
important to our study of Paul’s texts, and thus deserve particular attention.
First, the Exodus event is predicated on God’s faithfulness to his covenantal promise to the
patriarchs. According to the book of Exodus, God’s redemptive action was initiated by his
remembrance of the covenant with the patriarchs (cf. Exod 2:24). More than four hundred years
before the Exodus, God made a covenant with Abraham, and foretold him that his descendants
would be enslaved and oppressed in the land of Egypt, and that God would rescue them from
their predicament (cf. Gen 15:13–16). The Passover event is the fulfilment of God’s promise to
Abraham (cf. Gen 15:14a; Exod 12:12).208
Second, it is vital to note that the slaughtering of lambs in this event had virtually no
connection with the sin or guilt offering – sin was not forgiven, nor was purification effected.
Not a single sin of Israel is mentioned in the Passover narrative. There was neither penitence nor
confession of sins prior to the act of slaughter (cp. Ezra 9:3–5), and no declaration of
forgiveness was pronounced to the congregation. Whereas God commanded all the Israelites to
eat the meat of the slaughtered lambs (cf. Exod 12:8), this instruction is incongruous with the
practice of the sin offering. In fact, there is not a single stipulation that permits the
offerer/offender to eat the meat of the animal sacrificed for sin in the Jewish scriptures (cf. Lev
4:1–6:13, 6:14–7:7). Hence, it is justifiably claimed that lambs were not sacrificed for the
atonement for sins in the Passover event. Instead, the blood of the paschal lambs served an
apotropaeic end, functioning as a “sign” that marked the Israelite households out to protect them
from the plague that would strike the Egyptians (Exod 12:13).209 The Passover event was the
time of the judgement on “all the gods of Egypt” (Exod 12:12).210
2. 2 The Passover feast in the first century CE
Next, in order to consider how first century Jews observed the Passover feast, we shall consult
three sources: Philo, Josephus, and the Mishnah.
Philo provides a detailed account of the Passover feast in the first century CE. He states
that in the time of the Passover feast all the Jews slaughtered lambs with their own hands (cf.
Spec Law 2.145; QE 1.10). Philo’s report is corroborated by the Mishnah’s account, which
states that the whole congregation of Israel slaughtered the paschal lambs in the Temple court,
and the priests focused on the blood manipulation on this occasion (m. Pesahim 5.5–6). Philo
stresses that this feast was celebrated in an exceedingly jubilant mood of thanksgiving (cf. Spec
Law 2.146). According to Philo, each household took on the high dignity of the Temple,
wherein the roasted meat of the paschal sacrifices was consumed: ‘On this day every
dwelling-house is invested with the outward semblance and dignity of a temple’ (Spec Law
As Gilders discusses, ‘The blood is identified as an apotropaic agent. It achieves an instrumental effect, warding off destruction, because Yahweh sees it’ (2004, 44).
2.148).211 This account implies that for at least some diaspora Jews the locus of the Passover
feast did not lie in the act of slaughtering in the Temple, but in the Passover meal in each
household.212
Whilst the Passover feast was designed to re-enact the historic Passover event (cf. Exod
12:25–27), first century Jews did not imitate the act of putting the blood of the paschal lamb on
the two doorposts and the lintel of the house (cf. Exod 12:7). According to the Mishnah, the
priest dealt with the blood of the paschal sacrifices and tossed it on the base of the altar in the
Temple (m. Pesahim 5.5–6).213 If this Mishnah’s account preserves the actual practice
conducted in the Second Temple era, this implies that the apotropaeic element had been omitted
from the Passover ritual. Moreover, it seems that the Passover sacrifice was clearly
distinguished from the sin offering in the late Second Temple period. The Mishnah declares: ‘If
on the Sabbath a man slaughtered a Passover-offering under some other name, he is thereby
liable to a Sin-offering’ (m. Pesahim 6.4). In other words, whilst it was not permitted to make
ordinal offerings, such as the sin offering, on the Sabbath, the Passover offering overrode the
sabbatical regulations (cf. m. Pesahim 6.1–6). Since there would have been no necessity for
rabbis to invent such an instruction,214 this Mishnaic account may well reflect the actual
practice in the late Second Temple period. Notably this is yet another piece of evidence against
Gray states, ‘later still, certainly by the first century A. D., the victim was still slain in the Temple enclosure, its blood and fat were conveyed to the altar, but the meal was eaten by small companies in the houses of Jerusalem’ (1925, 371). See also Routledge 2002, 208-22.
This point is also suggestive to our study of 1 Corinthians.
The significance of this type of blood manipulation (tossing it on the base of the altar; cf. Lev 3:2) is variously interpreted, such as a preventive measure aginst human consumption of the blood, or the symbolic action of returning the blood to its owner (i.e., God). See Gilders 2004, 86-96. Whatever significance it may have, it is important to note that this act is distinguishable from ‘the act of conveying the blood to the altar’ (Gilders, ibid., 107). Cf. Lev 4:4–7; 9:9.
categorising the paschal lamb as a sacrifice for sins.
By the recitation of the scriptures during the Passover meal, Jews would have naturally
recalled the collective memory of the Exodus event in Egypt. The feast of Unleavened Bread
had virtually coalesced with the Passover feast in the first century CE (Exod 13:5–8, cf. Spec
Law 2.158), and the purpose of this feast was also to commemorate the Exodus event (cf. Exod
13:7–8). Hence, the ultimate goal of the vernal feasts as a whole was to evoke gratitude for the
Exodus event, the great deliverance from the state of slavery. Pesahim conveys the essence of
the Passover feast for ancient Jews:
In every generation a man must so regard himself as if he came forth himself out of Egypt, for it is written, And thou shalt tell thy son in that day saying, It is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt. Therefore are we bound to give thanks, to praise, to glorify, to honour, to exalt, to extol, and to bless him who wrought all those wonders for our fathers and for us. He brought us out from bondage to freedom, from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning to a Festival-day, and from darkness to great light, and from servitude to redemption; so let us say before him the Hallelujah.215
Through participating in the Exodus event by observing this feast, Jews experienced God as the
liberator. It would not be surprising, therefore, that commemorating the great deliverance in the
past would have evoked a future hope, the hope that God would make a decisive move once
again, and would accomplish a greater liberation from Israel’s enemies. In the Jewish scriptures,
a prophetic vision for the future is often envisaged as a re-enactment of the Exodus event, as the
following example shows:
Micah 7:15–17: As the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, show us