Old and New

When Hebrews 13 said that we are to offer a “sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips,” those words were not uttered in a liturgical and theological vacuum; the mind of the first-century Jew would no doubt go immediately to his experience as a worshiper in the temple and synagogue. When Peter said that Christians form a royal priesthood for offering spiritual sacrifice, that too was inevitably understood in the context of Jewish worship. When Jesus called the Lord’s Supper “My memorial,” He was using a term that the Jews would have associated with their sacrificial system. In purely historical terms, if we want to understand the New Testament’s descriptions of worship, we are forced to examine the Old Testament worship. —Peter J. Leithart, From Silence To Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution, 106-107