Date of Award
4-14-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Publisher
Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2026
Degree Name
Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL)
Director
Jeremiah Coogan
Abstract
In this thesis, I approach three meals using Chin’s radiant lens. Starting with Ezekiel, eating became a way of claiming the office of prophet. Building on the legacy of his predecessors, God drew so near as to enter the prophet’s very body. In contrast to extant readings, I argue that Ezekiel took an active role in his prophetic call because of his consumption of the “little scroll” (Ezek 2:9). In the Book of Revelation, a voice instructed John similarly to “take and swallow” another little scroll (Rev 10:9). John relied on Ezekiel’s example for his own authority to speak. In these two stories, eating became the mechanism through which God identified and commissioned the prophet, incorporating into their human flesh the message of the divine. John’s commission, though, came after the Last Supper, when Jesus gave his ambiguous instructions. As seen in 1 Corinthians, early communities were grappling with how to re-enact that narrative (1 Cor 11:17–34). Likely written “toward the end of the first century,” John of Patmos wrote Revelation in the context of the community’s negotiation of how to share meals.6 This thesis proposes that John borrows Ezekiel’s imagery as a contrast to the growing practice of re-enacting the Last Supper narratives (Mark 14:22; Matt 26:26).
Recommended Citation
Braithwaite, John J. "Jake", "Prophetic Eating: Drawing Divine Authority from Contentious Hierophagy" (2026). Jesuit School of Theology Dissertations. 163.
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/jst_dissertations/163
