Customer Reviews

Worthy is the Lamb: The Biblical Roots of the Mass

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Having left the Catholic faith in favor of Protestantism, I subsequently "read' my way back to the Catholic Church. When I started reading books about what the church actually taught, I was forced to give up many mischaracterizations of her teachings. Indeed, I was struck by the sheer depths of the historical, and biblical arguments in favor of the Catholic faith. This book, Worthy is the Lamb, follows in that line. With precision, lucidity, and charity Tom Nash demonstrates that the Catholic concept of the Mass is the heritage of Christianity. I only regret that I did not have access to such a book prior to leaving the Church, but I rejoice knowing that it is now available for others who struggle with the Church's teaching, or want to know more about it. This book is good for anyone interested in Christianity, and would make a great gift especially for someone considering leaving the church. Read this book if you are a Protestant. Read this book if you are agnostic. Read this book if you are already Catholic. Just read this book! And find out for yourself how the Mass fulfills the Old Testement. Thank you Tom Nash, and thank you Ignatius Publishing.

Having returned to the Catholic Church three years ago after encountering Jesus Christ through evangelical Protestantism, I am constantly blown away by the richness and beauty of the Catholic faith. I read Worthy is the Lamb while working on a theology paper on the Eucharist. Wow, what a book! Tom Nash uses a salvation history approach to show the centrality of the Eucharist thoughout Sacred Scripture, beginning in the book of Genesis and going all the way to Revelation. I especially enjoyed Nash's explanation of the Day of Atonement sacrifice and his typological analysis of the priest-king Melchisedek.

Each chapter provides background Scripture reading to prepare the reader for the material to be covered. Tom Nash walks his readers through the various Old Testament sacrifices that God gave to His people in order to prepare them for the once-for-all sacrifice of His only begottten Son. After providing the background, Nash shows how the final and perfect Sacrifice began in the upper room and how the single act of life-giving love is made present in every Mass.

Nash provides excellent commentary and sound exegesis of the Book of Hebrews, highlighting its teaching on the priesthood and the perpetual character of Christ's sacrifice. The footnotes throughout are excellent and provide a wealth of supplemental information and additional resources. This book is one of the most comprehensive presentations of the biblical basis of the Eucharist I have seen.

In addition to the thorough presentation, the book is written in a pleasant, "breezy" style, making it accessible to a wide audience.

In his first book, Tom Nash has shown himself to be a serious scholar and a gifted writer. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more of Nash's work in the future.

What a great concise theological and yet catechetical work on the biblical history of the Holy Mass. The books format directs you as to what scripture reading to read at the beginning of each chapter, along with the questions at the end of the chapter, to drive home the important points to be remembered. This book I found is an excellent tool, not only for catechetical instruction on the biblical roots of the Mass and the priesthood, but meaty enough to be used as a textbook for colleges and seminaries, footnotes offer great resources for further reading. What particulary stuck out to me was the biblical commentary on the book of Hebrews in explaining the once-for-all sacrifice. Finally, a book that pushes back the tide of the post Vatican II thought, mainly that of the Mass being just a sacred meal with the gathered assembly, instead Nash systematically brings to the forfront what the Catholic church has always believed, that it is primarily a Holy Sacrifice represented, once-for-all, continually being offered by our great High Priest, Jesus Christ in the Heavenly Jeruselem for our salvation and the remission of sins.

Great book worth reading!!

If a person wants a good book on the biblical basis of the sacrifice of the mass, I would highly recommend this book. It was NOT to technical and it was easy to read. It gives a very good over view. It will change the way you both read scripture and go to mass.

I recommend this book to everyone! So often we hear about how the mass is a sacrifice, representation to the Father, one in the same sacrifice, etc etc. but rarely do we REALLY understand what those are supposed to mean. The author goes through the Jewish celebration of the Passover and Yom Kippor and shows how the mass is the fulfillment of these. It clears up sooo much. The whole idea of the sacrifices being the same and being presented to the Father makes so much sense now. This book really is a gem.

Thomas J. Nash has done the Catholic faithful an incalculable service by writing WORTHY IS THE LAMB. This is the best book, hands down, that I have ever read on the Holy Eucharist, the Mass, and it's Biblical roots.

Nash starts from the very first pages of Genesis, through the sacrifice of Abel, the Passover of Moses, and then the entire gamut of Old Testament sacrifices and shows how they all prefigure and are fulfilled by, the Most Holy Eucharist. If you are a Catholic who can't manage to "get your arms around" the reasons for and meaning of the Mass, or if you are a Protestant who wonders why we Catholics make such a "big deal" out of the Mass, this is definitely the book for you. Anyone who reads this book will have a good, nourishing scriptural meal and will come away enlightened and enriched beyond all understanding. This book is the greatest. Five stars!!

I just finished Worthy Is The Lamb: The Biblical Roots Of The Mass by Thomas J. Nash which is a book I bought some time ago and finally got around to. Mr. Nash goes through salvation history from the Old to the New Testament exploring first the genesis of the Eucharist, the Mass, and finally living the Mass.

Chapters range from short to longer ones as he goes through specific topics. I really liked the way the book was organized, especially since I am sure to use it as a reference again. If you have read great books like Scot Hahn's A Father Who Keeps His Promises you will have some idea of the content of this book Mr. Nash at times does quote from Mr. Hahn's book, but he takes the topic much further since this is the focus of the book.

I really do love reading books on the history of the Mass and its prefigurement in the Old Testament. For us we have the benefit of the fullness of the Mass. Similar to first reading the last chapter of the mystery novel, we also know the whole direction of salvation history. Reading though how this slowly came about and how God slowly brought to fullness the clues dropped and so often misses is great fun. Not only is the Eucharist a great mystery, but it is like reading a mystery novel when reading the development.

Starting from the Garden of Eden and especially the story of Abraham and his son Isaac and of course the Passover. The book goes through all the various passages pointing to the sacrifice of Jesus and our redemption. Besides the biblical text he also looks at the Jewish understanding of these specific passages.

The topic of sacrifice from the temple sacrifice and the sacrifice of the Mass is especially looked at especially how Jesus as the Lamb of God relates to the daily temple sacrifices. The book is written as a popular treatment of the subject and not as an academic one making it both an easy read but one with a wealthy of information. The book is heavily footnoted with both a scriptural and general index. Later chapters on the Mass also deal with apologetic questions especially some objections from Protestants on the Eucharist and that the Mass is a re-presentation of the one sacrifice on Calvary. I can highly recommend this book.

I'm not a theologian. I'm just a devoted Catholic trying to educate myself inspite of the poor catechesis I received in the 80's. This book is straight foreward, easy to understand, and inspiring in the sense that I see the root's that Mr. Nash is talking about. I'm so gratefull that more and more book's like this explaining the faith are emerging. I think this book, and others like it will bear much fruit over time.

If you want a Catholic apologetic work that explores the roots of Mass, this book is for you. Thomas Nashe provides countless examples of how the Sacrifice of Calvary is pre-figured by events in the Old Testament. The sacrifices of Abel, Abraham, Melchizedek, Aaron and others, all point to and are fulfilled in the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ, continually offered in the Mass. The contents of this book make it well worth the purchase.

While the contents make the work invaluable, the style, organization, and tone of the book are in need of improvement. Several sections are wordy and overly repetitive. The book is over 200 pages, yet it easily could be condensed to 100 pages. The tone is colloquial and sometimes preachy (note frequent use of italics to enunciate points), and the author provides lengthy footnotes in an academic manner. While I am not particularly fond of his dual arrangement, I find the addition of group discussion questions at the end of each chapter particularly out of place. The author may be correct and backed by authoritative documents, but the discussion questions assume the author as teacher, his readers as students. Chapter summaries in place of discussion questions would better include readers who are of an intermediate level of understanding.

I was very disapointed in this book. As a person who consider themselves a "Traditional Catholic", I would never recommend this book to anyone. It was very biased to the Novus Ordo Mass and would not be a useful tool for anyone who holds fast to the Latin Mass and understands the serious crisis in the Church today. The book tries to compare the Novus Ordo Liturgy with Christ's first Mass. That is not possible in my opionion and I could not buy it. I bought this book to give to a Protestant Friend who does not understand the history of the Mass. Needless to say, I will not be passing it on. I will stick with, "How Christ said the First Mass."

On a positive note, it was well researched. I will give the author credit for that.