DISSERTAZIONE DI DOTTORATO
[2000-01]

Doubling Elements In Luke 22:15-20 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 in the Light of Ancient Languages and Literatures

The Lucan Last Supper narrative (22:15-20) has three doublings (desire, prophecy, cup) and the germane Pauline narrative (1 Cor 11:22-26) a fourth (memorial). These give a rhetorical key to the common source, probably a very early liturgy. Doubling attracts doubling — in the OT infinitives absolute aggregate, in the Qur’ân absolute accusatives, and in the classics anaphora, epistrophe, etc. Doubled Desire is an internal dative and sets the tone for the narrative. (The Hebrew Bible doubles positive desire at Gen 31:30, negative desire at Num 11:4; Ps 106:14, Prov 21:26.) There is the figure of homonymy when hmt is pronounced like ‘md in Galilean dialect. Doubled Prophecies are placed by Luke in parallel with and before the two consecrations, to express realized eschatology. The first points to fulfillment of the Hebrew Passover; the second is couched in Aramaic eschatological terminology. Doubled Cups tighten Luke’s evocation of Passover. Neither cup follows the OT metaphor formula. The unconsecrated cup has no formal blessing, but the consecrated one combines language from Law and Prophets. Doubled Memorial is the figure of thought called anamnesis, and the figure of diction called anaphora (touto four times in Paul) in combination with epistrophe The first imperative has economic Torah language; the second interposes an Aramaic-style clause. A bilingual matrix reveals itself in three doublings which combine a Hebrew with an Aramaic partner. Linking them creates this division: Hebrew introduction (Lk 22:15-16), Aramaic continuation (Lk 22:17-18), Hebrew core (Lk 22:19-20 = 1Cor 11:23c-25b), Aramaic extension Cor 11:25c). Surrounding the Hebrew core is an aggregation of Aramaic material. The doublings expand upon Jesus’ actions in order to apprise his feelings. By doubling, the earliest church did their eucharistic theology.