The Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: An Interview with Author Brant Pitre

February 15, 2011 by Elizabeth Scalia

Continued from Page 2

In your introduction, you related the circumstances that put you on the path to writing this book. Did you find it frightening to undertake this—any worries that in trying to make the strongest argument you could in support of John 6, you might inadvertently discover something to shake your faith?

Good question! No, I have to confess, that I never really was afraid that I would discover anything that would shake my faith. It always seemed to me, since that first time I really opened up John 6 and read it, that there could be no clearer teaching on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist than that text. Finding out that other people disagreed only made me investigate the matter more closely. And the more I learned about Jesus and his Jewish context, the more convinced I was that the Church's take on the whole matter was correct.

This is, after all, what one would expect, since all the first Christians—the Apostles, the Blessed Mother, etc.—were Jewish Christians. Indeed, to a person, every single interpreter I came across who argued against the Real Presence in John 6 invariably did so by ignoring the context of Jesus words: his feeding of the 5000 in the desert (like Moses), his repeated references to the miraculous manna in the desert, and his emphasis on the bodily resurrection from the dead. More than ever before, it became clear to me that if the old manna of the old exodus was miraculous bread from heaven, then the new Manna of the Messiah—the Eucharist—could be nothing less than what he said it was: his "flesh" and "blood," given to us as "real food" and "real drink" (Jn. 6:55).

Brant Pitre, thank you for taking some time to talk about a book I think should be on everyone's reading list for this Lent. In Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, you've given us a meticulously-researched and accessible examination of the New Exodus, the New Moses, the New Manna from heaven. I think this will be an intriguing read for believers, but also for the non-believers who wonder how it is that dignitaries and dishwashers can gather together as one, to reverence what appears to be mere bread. This is a gift. I hope it gets widely read.

Thank you Elizabeth, it was my pleasure!

Read the complete first chapter, here
Additional review and discussion of the book.

Visit the Patheos Book Club for more resources, including an excerpt and roundtable discussion, related to Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist.**

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About Elizabeth Scalia

Elizabeth Scalia is a weekly columnist at First Things.

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