A sketch and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary : The Function of Liturgical Space and of Ritual Objects in the Old Testament and in the Epistle to the Hebrews 9:1-10
2016
Abstract
Hebr 9:1-10 deals with some details of the Israelite cultic furniture that seems to be meainingless for understanding the main message of the Letter to the Hebrews, which is the new priesthood of Jesus Christ. The detailed analysis of the text, however, demonstrates the use of a specific rhetorical and theological stragegy that is based, in addition to the own invention of the author, on contemporary interpretations of the ancient liturgical legal texts of the Pentateuch.
The eschatological dimension of these interpretations allowed the author of Hebrews to read the ancient ritual institutions and their sacred objects as a prefiguration and image of the new reality of Christ's pristhood.