The Holy Bible

St. Luke described the last Passover Meal of our Lord with His disciples. It was a preface of the Eucharist Meal, which the Lord has bequeathed to His Church as a new covenant and a sign that His community is a Eucharistic One. The three evangelists, SS. Matthew, Mark and Luke and the apostle Paul mention the "Institution of the Last Supper". This text was used by the Early Church in her celebrations and is taken up in all the early liturgies.

When St. Luke, in the book of the Acts, draws a picture of the characteristics of the Early Church in Jerusalem he says 4 that they were "steadfast in the apostles teachings and in the Communion of Breaking of Bread and in prayers."

The Christians were practicing Breaking of Bread as their special worship, in spite of the persecution. Under torture the reader Emeritus says to Felix, "Do you know Satan, that the Christians make the Mass and that the Mass makes the Christians and that one cannot exist without the other? 7 " The martyrs of Abitina said during the Diocletian persecution, "We cannot survive without the Eucharist."

As we cannot deny our Lord's Passion, or His Cross, so we can't deny what He bestowed on us on the night He was betrayed.

Breaking of Bread and Ordinary Meals

The evangelists Matthew and Mark says, "As they were eating Jesus took bread...» Here the eating is very necessary, for it was the Passover Meal, which was the symbol of the New Heavenly Meal.

In the first century an ordinary meal was combined with the Breaking of Bread. This meal was called "Agape" i.e. Love Feast.

Luke 22: 15 - 18.

Schaff says, "It was a family feast, where rich and poor, master and slave met on the same footing, partaking of a simple meal, hearing reports from distant congregations, contributing to the necessities of suffering brethren, and encouraging each other in their daily duties and trials. Augustine describes his mother Monica as going to these feasts with a basket full of provisions and distributing them."

The prayers of the Didache give evidence of this agape meal connected with the celebration of the Eucharist. We find the same thing in the writings of St. Paul.

But this resemblance between the Eucharist and the Agape did not go on for a long time. For as early as the beginning of the second century these two exercises were separated. This separation is mentioned found in the well-known letter of Pliny to Trajan, also in St. Ignatius of Antioch's letters and clearly in St. Justin's writings.

The Eucharistic Prayers in the First Century

Fr. Dix says that in the first century, the normal celebrant was, of course, the bishop, who certainly always had freedom to phrase the prayer as he wished within the traditional outline. But there is evidence indicating that when a presbyter deputized for the bishop he was not more restricted.

In the Sahidic version of the Egyptian Order we read, "It is not altogether necessary for him to recite the same words which we said before, as if learning to say them by heart in his thanksgiving to God; but according to ability does each one pray... only let him pray in sound orthodoxy."

Schaff, vol.

1

St. Justin

His Life

Justin, the Martyr, is the most important of the apologists of the second century and one of the noblest personalities of early Christian literature. He did not lead his reader merely to the door of the church, as most of the apologists did, but opened it and told a good deal about what went on inside. He was the son of Priscus and grandson of Bacohius, born in Flavia Neapolis (ancient Shechem and modern Nablus) in Palestine (c. A.D. 100). His family were pagans, and seem to have been of Greek origin.

He learned philosophy in many schools. At first, he tried the school of a Stoic, then that of a peripatetic, and finally that of a Pythagorean. None of these philosophers convinced or satisfied him. Platonism deeply attracted him for a while, as it seemed to show the way to the true knowledge of man and to a vision of God. But he tells us that as he walked along the seashore an old man convinced him that Platonism could not satisfy the heart of man and directed his attention to the deeper wisdom of the prophets who alone announced the truth. "When he had spoken," related St. Justin, "these and many other things, for which there is no time to mention at present, he went away, bidding me attend to them, and I have not seen him since. But straightway a flame was kindled in my soul and a love of the prophets, and those men who are friends of Christ, possessed me; and whilst turning his words in my mind I found this philosophy alone to be safe and profitable."

His honest quest for truth and humble prayers led him to the true faith. He said, "I confess that I both prayed and strove with all my strength to become a Christian." He also tells us about the effect of Christians, who suffered passions fearlessly, on his conversion. "For I myself, too, when I was content with the doctrines of Plato, and heard

the Christians slandered, and saw them fearlessly meet death, and all that is considered terrible, I perceived that it was impossible that they could be living in wickedness and worldly pleasures."

After his conversion, which occurred most likely in Ephesus, he devoted his entire life to the defense of the Christian faith. He remained a layman but, "it is our duty," he said; "to make our teaching known," and he traveled from place to place proclaiming the Gospel. He visited Rome twice where he founded a school. One of his disciples was Tatian, destined later to become an apologist. In his second visit to Rome he was beheaded, together with five men and a woman, probably in 165 A.D.

His Writings

St. Justin was a prolific writer. Only three works, which were known to Eusebius, have come down to us. These are contained in a single manuscript of poor quality copied in 1364 (Paris No 450). They are his two apologies against the pagans, setting forth the moral values of Christianity, and the Dialogue demonstrating Christianity's truth to the Jewish Trypho.

He is considered to be the first ecclesiastical writer who attempted to build a bridge between Christianity and pagan philosophy. He believed "that everyone who can speak the truth and does not shall be condemned by God."

Notes

He is the first to furnish us with a complete description of the celebration of the Eucharist. In his first apology he pictures the Eucharistic service in regard to the newly baptized (ch. 65) and in regard to the regular Sunday Service (ch. 67).

In his Dialogue with Trypho (ch. 41) he clearly identifies the Eucharist with the sacrifice, which was prophesied by the Prophet Malachi. In many places he says that there is no longer any need for bloody sacrifice. The Eucharist being the long desired spiritual sacrifice, because the Logos Himself, Jesus Christ, is here the Victim.

In his writings concerning the Eucharistic celebration we notice the following:

• 1- He calls the Liturgy "Eucharist" which means "Thanksgiving." Starting from the beginning of the second century we find this name generally used by the Eastern Fathers. They concentrated on the prayers of thanksgiving.
• 2- He was a churchman and he used the church's technical terminology. For example he said:
• a- "Those whom we call deacons."
• b- "The Food we call Eucharist."
• c- "The president of the brethren."
• d- "Rebirth," repeating the term twice in one sentence to explain that baptism is the Sacrament of regeneration.
• 3- In his description of the celebration of the Eucharist we notice the following:
• a- The kiss of peace as a preparation for the celebration of the Eucharist.
• b- The service begins with readings from the Old Testament and New Testament, followed by a homily then the Eucharistic prayers. This means that the Liturgy of the Word precedes the Liturgy of the Faithful.
• c Nobody can participate in the eucharistic prayers except those who believe that the things we teach are true, and have received the washing for forgiveness and for rebirth, and who live according to the teachings of Christ. He gives three conditions for enjoying the celebration of the Eucharist.
• I. To be faithful.
• II. To be baptized.
• Ill. To live according to the commands of Christ.
• d- He relates the "Institution" from the Gospels, and mentions the customary collections for the poor.

A Liturgical Church

As we are speaking about the second century we cannot ignore the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch, which were written at the beginning of this century (107 A.D.). He looks to the church as a Eucharistic Society. He speaks of this sacrament, only by way of

allusion, but in very strong, mystical terms, calling it the Flesh of our crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ, and the consecrated Bread, a Medicine of immortality and an antidote of spiritual death.

The Eucharist, according to St. Ignatius, cannot be celebrated without the bishop or the presbyter to whom the bishop has committed it.

The Didache

The oldest Eucharistic prayers have recently come to light in the Didache. The complete title of this work is "The Lord's instruction to the Gentiles as reported by the twelve Apostles." It was discovered by the Greek Metropolitan of Nicomedia, Philotheos Bryennios in a MS in Constantinople in 1875, and published by him in 1883.

It was produced during the years 100 and 150 A.D.; certain passages could even go back as far as the years 50-70 A.D. Quasten says, "We possess here a summary of directions which offer us an excellent picture of Christian life in the second century. In fact we have here the oldest Church-Order and the venerable prototype of all the later collections of Constitutions or Apostolic Canons with which ecclesiastical law in the East and the West began."

The Didache is divided into sixteen chapters in which two main divisions are clearly discernable. The first part (1-10) represents liturgical instructions; the second part (11-15) comprises disciplinary regulations. The chapter on the "Parousia" coming of the Lord and the Christian duties arising there from constitutes the conclusion.

These chapters include:

• a- Five chapters of moral teaching arranged in the form of two ways or tracks, that of life and that of death.
• b- A transitional chapter dealing with the eating of meats offered to idols, and with remarks on the "yoke of the Lord."
• c- Chapter 7 deals with baptism.
• d- Chapter 8 deals with fasting and prayer.
• e- Chapters 9 and 10 deal with Eucharist.
• f- Chapter 11 deals with Apostles and Prophets.
• g- Chapter 12 deals with traveler Christians.
• h- Chapter 13 deals with teachers and disposal of the first fruits.
• i- Chapter 14 deals with Lord's Day.

• j- Chapter 15 deals with bishops and deacons and settling of disputes in the Church, ending with a general summary that each Sunday should be enacted according to the Gospel.
• k- Chapter: It concludes with a warning on the approaching end of the world.

Chapters, 10 and

Perhaps the writer pictures the Eucharistic liturgy of the newly baptized on Easter Eve in chapters 9 and. The ordinary Eucharistic service held on Sundays is described in chapter.

Some do not consider chapters 9 and 10 as a Eucharistic prayer totally but merely a prayer concerning an agape meal. They give these reasons:

• a- The chalice prayer is put first, which matter we find nowhere in all the Anaphoras.
• b- Chapter 10 begins with this phrase, "after having had enough" which is an expression possible for a usual meal only.

Vokes says"The following solutions are possible:

• 1- That the Didache describes in chapters,10 and 14 the Eucharist.
• 2- In 9 and 10 the agape and Eucharist and in 14 the Eucharist.
• 3- In 9 and 10 private house-Eucharists are described and 14 the public Sunday Eucharist.
• 4- In, 10 and 14 the Christian ceremonial meals are stated, when agape and Eucharist are still one undivided liturgy.

Lietzmann, Harnack, Duchesne, Spitta and Botiffol are supporters of the first of these points of view. Zahn, Weizacker and others of the second, Ladeuze and Sabatier of the third, Baumstark and Von der Goltz of the fourth.

Notes

1- These prayers (ch. 9 and 10) are a eucharistic celebration. They contain three thanksgivings for the chalice, the Broken Bread and "After Communion." His saying "After having had enough" perhaps means after "Communion," for the Didache calls the Eucharist "a spiritual food and drink." Communion shall fill the soul.

• 2- These prayers are eucharistic celebrations for the author adds, "If anyone is holy, let him advance, if anyone is not let him be converted" (10:6).
• 3- In chapter 14 the Didache mentions some rules and directions concerning the Eucharist, as:
• a- Nobody can attend the Eucharist unless he is reconciled with his brethren.
• b- Every Lord's day, as the brethren meet or gather together to "eucharistesate" (giving thanks), they ought first to confess their sins that their sacrifice may be pure.
• 4 He described our Lord Jesus as the «Pais" of God. The word "Pais," its translation oscillates between the two meanings "child," and "servant." Someone prefers the second meaning "servant," meditating the poems of Isaiah on the " Servant or Slave of God."

The Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus

Andre Hamman says, "The most ancient formula of consecration of the eucharistic offerings is provided for us by Hippolytus, probably of Egyptian origin, and adopted by the Roman clergy..."

For a long time it was known as the "Egyptian Church Orders," and we find under the name of "the anaphora of the Apostles" for the Ethiopian Church (following the Egyptian Church), a combination of the liturgy of Hippolytus with framework and complementary elements taken from the Egyptian St. Mark (St. Cyril liturgy).

But Dom Connolly in his book "The so-called Egyptian Order," says that it is of St. Hippolytus of Rome and was accepted in Egypt, then in Syria through Egyptian documents.

Jungman: The Early Liturgy, ch.

Jungman: The Place of Christ in Liturgical prayers.

Don ConnoUy: The So-called Egyptian Order, in Texts and Studies, Cambridge 1916.

Lucien Deiss: Early Sources of the Liturgy.

Don Bernard Botte: La Tradition Apostolique de Saint Hippolyte, essai de reconstitution in liturgiewissenschaft liche Quellen und Forschungen, vol.

Gregory Dix: The Shape of the Liturgy.

Gregory Dix: The treatise on the Apostolic Tradition of Saint Hip.

Hanssens: Institutions Liturgicae, t. III.

Louis Bouyer: Eucharist.

• Connolly says that there are a number of oriental documents, known under the generic title of " Church Orders " and bear a striking resemblance to one another.
• a. The Egyptian Order: It was known to the Western World in four versions, Coptic-Sahidic and Beheric, Arabic and Ethiopian. He says that the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus was accepted in Egyptian collections of cannon law. It was translated into the various vernaculars. Latter it was rewritten and adopted to new circumstances, but retained its author's name, i.e., " the Canons of Hippolytus."
• b. The Canons of Hippolytus, which exist in Arabic and Ethiopic versions.
• c. The Apostolic Constitutions, collection of 8 books, probably drawn by a Syrian writer in the 4th century. The 8th book contains what is called the "Clementine Liturgy." It is based on the "Egyptian Order," as it was accepted in Syria in the 4th century.

Jungmann says, 4 "However, if anyone is still skeptical about accepting this treatise as the work of Hippolytus of Rome, we may add that in any case it is a work of the third century, and reflects, if not the liturgical life of Rome, then that of Egypt and Alexandria. We must bear in mind that one of the results of the comparative study of liturgy has been to prove that throughout the era covered by our present investigation - the first five or six centuries - Rome and Alexandria shared many things in common."

Its Contents

It is a collection in which we can classify into 3 parts:

I - Concerning the clergy

• a. Rules, prescription and prayers for the consecration of a bishop.
• b. A complete formula on the celebration of "Anaphora" of the newly consecrated bishop with the whole college of presbyters.
• c. Some formulas of blessings for the offerings of the oil, cheese, olives and others.
• d. Communion prayers, which are found only in the Ethiopian texts of the "Egyptian Church Order" Though there are parallels to them in the Apostolic Constitution.

There are many questions concerning the author of these prayers.

• e. Rules and prayers for the ordination of presbyter and deacons.
• f. Suggestions concerning confessors, widows, virgins, sub deacons etc...

2. The Admission of Catechumens, their baptism, and receiving the Communion

3. Various prescriptions and prayers concerning the Christian life: The Agape meal; the "Vespars" office that was joined with the agape meal; blessing the fruits and flowers; the duty of deacons and subdeacons towards the sick; Communion in homes; the burial of the Dead; Canonical hours; and the sign of the Cross.

Notes on the Text

1- St. Hippolytus did not intend to improve the liturgical text,

d. The Eptime, or the Constitutions of the Apostles. It is a Syrian document based on the former one (book 8).

e. The Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ. A Syrian apocryphal work, which was discovered by the Syrian Patriarch Rahmani in 1899. This also, in his opinion, is based on the Egyptian Order.

but he proposed it as a sample or model to guide the celebrants.

In the second century St. Justin said that "the president should pray and give thanks as well as he can."

St. Hippolytus also says, "Let the bishop give thanks in the manner described above. It is not, however, necessary for him to use the form of words set out there, as though he had to make the effort to say them by heart in his thanksgiving to God."

When the tradition became in danger of being transformed because of the heresies, the church put the formulas of the liturgies in detail.

• 2 Perhaps the prayers of this Anaphora are by Hippolytus, but it is clear that the structure of the prayer as a whole and some sentences were really traditional.
• Fr. Dix made a comparison between this prayer and Justin's writings concerning the Eucharist. He attained this result: "We can thus, at least say that there is nothing whatever in the specifically eucharistic teaching of St. Hippolytus Prayer which would have been repudiated by Justin sixty years earlier."
• 4 The Eucharistic prayer is concentrated on the redeeming work of the Savior Jesus Christ. It is addressed to the Father in relation to the Eternal Word. And thanksgiving is offered for:
• a- The creation through the Word,
• b- The Incarnation of the Word,
• c- And the Redemption through the Passion of the Word.
• 5- We can summarize what has been mentioned in this Apostolic Tradition in the following points:
• a- The Eucharist is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God through His Word.
• b- The Eucharist is a thing "done." It is our Lord's command and a priestly act of the Church.
• c- It is an anamnesis of the Crucified and Risen Lord.
• 6- The "Sanctus is absent in this anaphora."

Anaphora of Addai and Mari

It is a document of Syrian origin, it has no certain Greek prototype. It represents the ancient rite of the Church of Edessa, in Syria-Edessa was a semi-independent state on the Eastern Roman frontier, a strong center of a Semitic culture and tradition, though theologically it also acted as a channel for the diffusion of Greek ideas to the purely un-hellenic regions around the east itself.

Deiss says that it is a Chaldean liturgy of the holy apostles Addai and Mari, the Liturgy of the Uniate Chaldeans and of the Christians of Malabar in India.

Some liturgists see that this formula belongs to a time in which Edessa was separated from the rest of Christendom because of the Nestorian heresy. The Nestorians still use it.

Notes

1 -At the preface, the words "of the glorious Trinity..." are a later insertion into the primitive form of this Anaphora.

The body of this prayer is addressed to the Son. For example: "You have clothed Yourself in our humanity." "You saved mankind by Your compassion." But it is clear that this prayer is rewritten, for suddenly we find a change in the address, from the Son to the Father.

2 - The liturgists see that the words of the "Institution" are absent in the primitive text, added in the 16th century by the Catholic Chaldeans, but Botte doubts that the absence of the Institution is original.

Deiss: Early Sources of the Liturgy; Jungmann: The Early Liturgy p.

Euchologion of Serapion

Serapion was a bishop of Thumis, in the Delta of Egypt, near Lake Manzaleh, in the fourth century. He died before 359. He was a contemporary to St. Athanasius and a friend of the hermit St. Anthony. His Euchologium, Euchologion, or his collection of prayers was discovered as late as 1894.

Its chief value for us is that in it we have what is probably the oldest example of a Eucharistic Liturgy, since the Hippolytus Liturgy. It represents the official liturgy in Egypt, in the fourth century, and perhaps the period before this epoch.

Its Contents

It contains 30 liturgical prayers. Bishop Wordsworth divided them into 6 sections:

I 1-6 Eucharistic Anaphora; including the blessing of oil and water.

II 7-11 Baptismal prayers.

III 12-14 Ordinational prayers.

IV 15-17 Blessing of oil, including oil used at baptism, Chrism and Unction of the sick.

VI 19-30 Intervening prayers

Eighteen of these prayers (19-30, 1-6) are connected with the Eucharistic service. But there is no certain rule to determine their exact order.

Lucein Deiss: Early Sources of the Liturgy.

Dix: The Shape of the Liturgy.

Frère: The Anaphora (The Egypt. Evidence).

Notes

• 1 Many liturgists see that this anaphora reflects the third century "Logical-theology" of the Alexandrian School, but with a fourth century explicitly anti-Arian turn. It represents an old formula of the Egyptian liturgy, re-worded in the fourth century, repudiating the teaching of Arius concerning the Logos.
• 2 Many prayers in this Anaphora are the same as in the Anaphora of St. Mark, in the Anaphora of the Ethiopian Church Ordinance, and in the Liturgy of the Apostolic Constitutions.
• 3 All the prayers are addressed to the Father of the Only-Begotten Son, for His loving-kindness, revealed through the saving deeds of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 4 The liturgical prayers may be divided into 4 subsections:
• I. Anaphora (1-6).
• II. Prayers of the Catechumens (19-21).
• Ill. Prayers of the Faithful (22-27).
• IV. Benedictions (28-30).

The Apostolic Constitutions

Commonly Called the Clementine Liturgy

The Western World did not know this text until 1546 when Capellus published a Latin version of a text found in Crete.

This work is basically fictitious. The author has made use of documents that were already in existence, and ascribed his work to St. Clement of Rome in order to give it great authority.

In the sixteenth century scholars still believed that they really possessed a work of St. Clement, and even F. Probst, writing in about 1870 concerning the liturgy of the third century, places it in the second century. In Migne's Patrologia also, the Apostolic Constitutions are found in the first volume.

But it has been common knowledge for quite sometime that this is a work of the late fourth century 2 between 370 and 380. It was probably written in Syria and in or near Antioch.

Its Contents

The Apostolic Constitutions are a collection, forming a sort of manual of ecclesiastical law, and of Christian morality, doctrine and ceremonial.

• I - Books 1-6: They are an exact resumption of the text of the Discalia of the Apostles. The Discalia or "The Teaching of the 12 Apostles and Holy Disciples of our Savior" is an ecclesiastical Constitution, which dates from the first half of the third century. Its author was a bishop in northern Syria.
• II Book 7: It is divided into 2 parts:
• A. An expansion of the Didache.
• B. A euchology grouping together some ancient prayers.
• Ill- Book 8 (5-15): It is the most valuable, because it provides

us with a complete liturgy formulary, which is often called the "Clementine Liturgy," an oriental form of the Liturgy of the fourth century.

Some liturgists say that it is derived from the Apostolic Tradition. Others look upon it as the most ancient and pure form of the Eucharist, and that the Apostolic Tradition had originated from it.

Creswell sees that this liturgy indisputably resembles the Antiochene Liturgy, the parent rite of the liturgies of St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom.

The Apostolic Constitutions, however, present the order and prayers of the Liturgy in the fourth century.

3

THE STRASBURG PAPYRUS ANAPHORA OF ST. MARK

In the year 1928 a fragment on papyrus was found dating back to the 4th century, at the Library of Strasburg (No Gr 254).

Contents