Noordzij — Prolegomena
Noordzij’s “Bread and Wine” (b9) establishes at its centre how Christians must understand the Lord’s Supper—not as mechanical ceremony, but as a hermeneutical transformation of the Old Testament Passover into spiritual reality. The prolegomenal insights focus on the fundamental question of how revelation unfolds: through the transition from “old” to “new”, from shadow to substance, from external sign to internal truth.
Shadow and Reality: The Hermeneutical Core
The central hermeneutical principle to which Noordzij repeatedly returns is the relationship between Old Testament and New Testament as one of shadow to reality:
A shadow is two-dimensional, flat, lifeless—like photographs. That is how the “old” relates to the “new”. The “old” is perfect in foreshadowing the “new”, like a photo album (Heb. 10:1). Jesus makes everything “old” radically “new”, including laws and rites (1Cor. 15:46, 2Cor. 4:18, Rev. 21:5).
This is not allegorical hermeneutics (arbitrary sense-seeking), but a prolegomenal thesis: Scripture itself establishes that what is older (Passover rite) is a preparation toward fulness. The hermeneutical task of the reader is thus to interpret the shadow in the light of reality (Christ and spiritual experience). This method presupposes a doctrine of revelation: God reveals Himself in stages, not in a single moment.
Epistemology: Revelation Above Reasoning
A sharp prolegomenal distinction in b9 is the claim about how knowledge comes into being. In the section on the body of Christ, Noordzij writes:
How we eat Him cannot be expressed in words. Spiritual knowledge comes through revelation, not through intellectual effort. To eat the true bread anew in His kingdom, we must be from above, born again (John 3:3-6).
This is not anti-intellectual, but epistemologically fundamental: spiritual reality lies beyond rational analysis. Revelation (revelatio) is the source, not the rationally deductive system. This touches on the fundamental theological question of how we come to knowledge of God—through institutions (John 3:3—new birth) or through speculation?
Noordzij asserts that the “Lord’s Supper” can only be known by those to whom God reveals Himself (“from above”). This is an epistemological condition, not a moral obligation.
Hermeneutics of the Symbolic: From Ritual to Inwardness
Noordzij interprets the Passover symbols (lamb, blood, unleavened bread) not as remaining ceremonies, but as pedagogical instruments that have fulfilled their function:
Old leaven is “base”, “earthly” religiosity with “old” rites and tradition, as the “Pharisees” practised (Matt. 23, Mark 7:13). Liberation from Egypt comes only when we leave behind every “old”, base interpretation and custom and “learn to eat anew”, only the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
This touches on the prolegomenal core question: how does God’s revelation move from form to content? Noordzij answers: the form (rite) is permanently replaced by the content (Christ as inner reality). This is radically different from Roman Catholic transubstantiation doctrine, which continues to view the form as the vehicle of grace.
Rite as Shadow, Spiritual Experience as Reality
In the concluding paragraphs, Noordzij sharpens the prolegomenal separation between two modes of religion:
The first Jewish believers lived in a time of transition. One could not expect them to think and act radically and immediately in a new way. In the end Paul was concerned not with visible signs, rites and customs but with the current spiritual reality: “Let no one disqualify you in matters of food and drink, or with regard to a festival, a new moon, or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ!” (Col. 2:16).
The substance (realitas = substantia) is not bound to visible practices. This establishes a principle: religion can operate in two modes—the provisional (shadow, sign) and the definitive (reality, Christ as direct experience). The mature Christian lives in the definitive mode. This is the doctrine of revelation in its most compressed form: revelation moves from preparation to fulfilment, not from worthlessness to value.
Authority Sources in Hermeneutical Reasoning
Noordzij constructs his hermeneutical argument not speculatively, but through anachronistic Scripture-to-Scripture interpretation (Scripture from Scripture):
- Exodus 13:3, Deuteronomy 16:3 (Passover rite OT) → 1 Corinthians 5:7 (Christ as Passover NT)
- Hebrews 10:1 (shadow-reality principle)
- Colossians 2:16 (Paul rejects rites)
- John 3:3-6 (new birth as epistemological condition)
This is the prolegomenal method: Scripture itself leads the reasoning, not an external philosophical system. But whoever uses this method already presupposes a doctrine of revelation: that Exodus is preparatory and Colossians is fulfilment.
Conclusion: Fulfilment is Not Replacement
Noordzij closes with a formulation that is prolegomenally crucial:
Passover was never replaced by the Lord’s Supper or by the Eucharist. It was fulfilled in Jesus and elevated by Him to a daily spiritual experience (cf. Col. 3:4, John 6:57-58).
Fulfilment (pleroma) is other than replacement. This distinction determines how the entire Old Testament tradition relates to Christianity. Not as a crumbling away of old forms, but as an entering into the full reality toward which the old forms pointed. This is a position in the theology of history: God does not accomplish what He promises by discarding its derivative; rather He solves it in Christ substantively.