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BI 312 – A Biblical Theology of Redemption Reflection Essay Glenn Martinez Erika Moore points out the biblical theological importance of the practice of cannibalism in Scripture. Cannibalism has been an important concept in the development of Christian thought throughout the history of church. In the second century, Athenagoras wrote: “if for men to partake of the flesh of men is a thing most hateful and abominable, and more detestable than any other unlawful and unnatural food or act; and if what is against nature can never pass into nourishment for the limbs and parts requiring it, and what does not pass into nourishment can never become united with that which it is not adapted to nourish,—then can the bodies of men never combine with bodies like themselves, to which this nourishment would be against nature, even though it were to pass many times through their stomach, owing to some most bitter mischance; but, removed from the influence of the nourishing power, and scattered to those parts of the universe again from which they obtained their first origin, they are united with these for as long a period of time as may be the lot of each.”[1] The issue gained prominence again in the sixteenth century in the debate at Salamanca between Francisco de Vitoria and Gines de Sepulveda. Sepulveda maintained that the aborigines of the Americas were not fully human because they practiced cannibalism. Cannibalism was identified early in the Scripture as a curse for covenant disobedience. In Deuteronomy 28:53-55 Moses admonishes the Israelites with the following warning: “And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. The man who is the most tender and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother, to the wife he embraces, and to the last of the children whom he has left, so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns.”[2] In 2 Kings 25:1-3, we see the covenant curse coming to pass: “And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. And they built siegeworks all around it. So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.”[3] The author of Lamentations, furthermore, points out that the severe famine described in 2 Kings 25 led to the practice of cannibalism: “Look, O Lord, and see! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?” (2:20) and “The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people” (4:10). The theme is taken up again in John 6:48-58. “I am the bread of life …. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” The curse of covenant disobedience is thus reinterpreted in Christ as a life-giving blessing in the Lord’s Supper. The image of cannibalism as a curse for covenant disobedience is reinterpreted as a covenant blessing. As the instructor of the Heidelberg Catechism writes: Question 76. What is it to eat the crucified body and drink the shed blood of Christ? It is not only to embrace with a believing heart all the sufferings and death of Christ, and thereby to obtain the forgiveness of sins and life eternal; but moreover also, to be so united more and more to His sacred body by the Holy Ghost, who dwells both in Christ and in us, that although He is in heaven, and we on the earth, we are nevertheless flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones, and live and are governed for ever by one Spirit, as members of the same body are by one soul.[4] [1] Athenagoras. (1885). On the Resurrection of the Dead. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), B. P. Pratten (Trans.), Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (Entire) (Vol. 2, p. 153). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company. [2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Dt 28:53–55). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. [3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (2 Ki 25:1–3). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. [4] Heidelberg Catechism. (1907). Heidelberg Catechism (Revised Edition, pp. 82–83). Cleveland, OH: Central Publishing House.