Scholarly Reflections
Daly, Robert J. "Conclusion." Christian Sacrifice: The Judaeo-Christian Background Before Origen. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1978, 491-497.
In his conclusion Daly observes that this book was intended to lay groundwork for a future work on Origen. He did find that the pattern of sacrificial concepts based on Christ's sacrifice, sacrifices of Christians, and Christians as the new temple of God was developed in the literature leading up to the time of Origen (Daly 1978, 4391). Christ's death was consistently understood as sacrificial in the New Testament as well as the early Fathers. It is inextricably tied to the concept of the Passover and sin offerings (Daly 1978, 492). The Christian life itself, even more so than the martyrdom of a Christian, could be seen as a sacrifice, and one which is acceptable to God (Daly 1978, 493). Finally the temple and altar, a local setting in the Old Testament, became increasingly spiritualized. The Christian, then, became the true temple, as a place for God's presence to be found (Daly 1978, 496).