The Blood of Christ: For Many or for All? Cover Image

Kristova krv: za mnoge ili za sve?
The Blood of Christ: For Many or for All?

Biblical Analysis and Finding

Author(s): Dubravko Turalija
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Semantics, Biblical studies
Published by: Katolički bogoslovni fakultet u Đakovu
Keywords: goal; fullness; determination; Eucharist; incomprehensibility; unknowability; comprehensiveness; universality;

Summary/Abstract: The second of the two formulas uttered during the Eucharistic consecration is the frame of interest in this paper. The Eucharistic term »for many«, taken into the liturgy from Mt 26:28 and Mk 14:24 is traced through the Greek original word πολύς – polüs, from its earliest appearance in the LXX to the last mention in the New Testament correspondence. We find that in biblical texts the Greek adjective πολύς, πολλή, πολύ (polüs, pollē, polü), in the meaning of »many«, relies on the Semitic background and represents a three-dimensional ring in which three theological categories are realized: the comprehensiveness of beings and concepts, the focus of the object on its goal, and, finally, the incomprehensibility and unknowability of the quantity and quality of the content to which the adjective is directed. Thus, the eucharistic term »for many« would mean »for all«, and how all this is realized is discussed in the following text.

  • Issue Year: 29/2021
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 143-164
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: Croatian
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