The Eternal Sacrifice: The Genesis Readings for Great Lent

By Fr. Steven Allen

The Eternal Sacrifice appeared originally in Fr. Steven’s blog “Orthodox Truth” as a series of daily commentaries on the passages from Genesis read at Vespers every weekday of the Orthodox Great Lent. The present volume provides the texts of the Scripture readings themselves along with the author’s commentary, which aims at giving an authentic patristic reading of the text while providing contemporary advice to the Orthodox layman living in the world. Not only Eastern Orthodox readers, however, but also Eastern Rite Catholics who follow the Byzantine lectionary, as well as all those who seek life-changing truth in the Scriptures, will find The Eternal Sacrifice an engaging and accessible invitation to go more deeply into the first book of the Bible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Mar 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9781483498300

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Copyright © 2019 Fr. Steven Allen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-9831-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-9830-0 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Cover Illustration: Abel and Melchizedek Sacrificing. Mosaic, Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna (6th c.). Copyright Getty Images.

Unless otherwise cited, scripture quoted from Sir Lancelot Brenton’s 1844 translation of the Septuagint.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 2/27/2019

Dedication

To my parishioners

To the Pious Reader

I like short lists. When you have a short list, you actually get things done. This is supremely true in spiritual life, where we tend to overburden ourselves with impossible goals and end up doing nothing. The better is the enemy of the good.

To perform all the spiritual exercises of the Orthodox Great Lent is simply impossible. The Holy Fathers designed it this way, so that we would fall flat on our faces and realize that we are unspiritual people, which is the first step on the path to sanity (much less salvation). But to perform some of the Lenten exercises is certainly possible and, indeed, obligatory. If you cannot rouse yourself to do something - anything - beyond your usual devotions (or lack thereof) during the solemn Paschal Fast, you may as well stop calling yourself a Christian.

I offer you this little book as an aid to enjoying one of the treasures of Great Lent, the passages from the Book of Genesis read every weekday at Vespers during Lent, from Clean Monday through the eve of Lazarus Saturday. With few exceptions, parish churches do not offer weekday services every day of Lent, though most try at least to open their doors on Wednesdays and Fridays. And even if one’s parish church is blessed to perform the daily sacrifice of praise, very few of her parishioners can simply stroll down the street and pop in to hear the service at leisure, because of the unChristian - not to say inhuman - demands of contemporary life. But one can take a little book to work or school and read a portion of the service for a few minutes during a break, or keep it by one’s favorite place to read at home. This is one such little book.

I call the book The Eternal Sacrifice to highlight one aspect of the typology of Genesis that speaks directly to the Paschal Mystery, that is, the types (foreshadowings, prophecies-in-action) of Our Lord’s supreme priestly Holocaust for us, the bloody Sacrifice of Himself on the altar of the Cross, which in turn became the basis for the Church’s daily mystical sacrifice of the Lamb of God forever slain for us, in the Divine Liturgy. When we participate attentively at the Divine Liturgy, and, supremely, when we receive His sacrificed, living, and true Body and Blood in Holy Communion, we step from this passing world into the eternal moment before the world, when the Lamb of God was already mystically slain in the Holy Trinity’s pre-eternal counsel for our salvation; we enter the in-time yet out-of-time moment of Our Lord’s Passover through death to life in His death on the Cross and rising from the Tomb; and we enter the eternal Kingdom, where we shall sit down and feast forever at the Banquet of the Lamb, and He Who Is, Who Was, and Who Ever Shall Be will give us Himself without end and without stint, always more and more, and more wondrously, forever.

So that you do not have to go back and forth from your Bible to this volume, I have incorporated the daily selections from Genesis into the book, followed each day by some pious thoughts which I hope will help you penetrate the sacred text for spiritual benefit. If only a few of these words do indeed spur you to greater love for Our Lord in His Sacrifice for us and thereby increase the grace you receive at your Paschal communion, please do think of their author on the Bright Night, and offer a prayer for

your servant in Christ,

Steven Allen, Priest

Great Lent, 2019

A Note on the Biblical Text

All of the passages from Genesis in The Eternal Sacrifice are taken from Sir Lancelot C.L. Brenton’s English translation of the Greek Old Testament, known as the Septuagint or LXX. This translation was published originally in 1844 by Samuel Bagster and Sons, London, and it is in the public domain. The New Testament passages quoted in the author’s commentary on Genesis are taken from the Authorized Version (the King James).

Most readers of English are more familiar with translations based not on the Greek Old Testament, rendered into Hellenistic Greek from the Hebrew in the third century B.C., but with those made from the much younger Masoretic Hebrew text, which received its final redaction in the milieu of medieval Judaism. There is simply no doubt, however, that the LXX is the normative Old Testament text for ancient Christian theology, as it is the text quoted by Christ Himself and the Apostles in the New Testament, as well as the earliest Church Fathers, and it is the only Old Testament text approved for worship in the Eastern Orthodox Church, either in the original or in translations based on the LXX. Because The Eternal Sacrifice is intended primarily - though certainly not exclusively - for the Orthodox Christian reader, to help his observance of Great Lent according to the Byzantine rite, during which Genesis is read every weekday at Vespers, it is only appropriate that the reader be presented with a translation of that text of the Old Testament which actually belongs to the Church.

First Week of Lent - Monday (Clean Monday)

In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. But the earth was unsightly and unfurnished, and darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God moved over the water. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided between the light and the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night, and there was evening and there was morning, the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it be a division between water and water, and it was so. And God made the firmament, and God divided between the water which was under the firmament and the water which was above the firmament. And God called the firmament Heaven, and God saw that it was good, and there was evening and there was morning, the second day. And God said, Let the water which is