Early Christian Views of the Eucharist

Ignatius, Epistle to the Smyrnaeans (Short Version) Direct teaching

They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again.

Ignatius, Epistle to the Romans (Short Version) Direct teaching

I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became afterwards of the seed of David and Abraham;

Ignatius, Epistle to the Romans (Syriac Version) Direct teaching

I seek the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ;

Hippolytus, Exegetical Fragments Supporting witness

by which is meant, that He gave His divine flesh and honoured blood to us, to eat and to drink it for the remission of sins.

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

But neither can the blood be separated from the body, as moisture is from the earth;

John 6:51 Direct teaching

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

John 6:53 Direct teaching

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

John 6:54 Direct teaching

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

John 6:56 Direct teaching

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

Matthew 26:26 Direct teaching

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

Mark 14:22 Direct teaching

And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.

1 Corinthians 10:16 Direct teaching

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

1 Corinthians 11:24 Direct teaching

and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

1 Corinthians 11:23 Direct teaching

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,

Luke 22:19 Direct teaching

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

John 6:55 Direct teaching

For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching

and when the oblation has been made, let every rank by itself partake of the Lord's body and precious blood in order, and approach with reverence and holy fear, as to the body of their king.

Early Liturgies, Liturgy of Adaeus and Maris Supporting witness

Brethren, receive the body of the Son, cries the Church, and drink His chalice with faith in the house of His kingdom.

Early Liturgies, Divine Liturgy of St. James Supporting witness

The union of the all-holy body and precious blood of our Lord and God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Early Liturgies, Liturgy of Adaeus and Maris Supporting witness

The holy body is signed with the propitiatory blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

Always be thankful, as faithful and honest servants. And concerning the Eucharistic thanksgiving, say this: “We thank You, our Father, for the life that You have made known to us through Jesus Your Son. Through Him You made all things, and You take care of the whole world. You sent Him to become man for our salvation. You allowed Him to suffer and to die. You raised Him up, were pleased to glorify Him, and set Him at Your right hand. Through Him You have promised us the resurrection of the dead. O Lord Almighty, everlasting God, gather Your Church together from the ends of the earth into Your kingdom, just as this grain was once scattered and has now become one loaf. We also thank You, our Father, for the precious blood of Jesus Christ, which was shed for us, and for His precious body, of which we celebrate this representation, just as He Himself appointed us, to show His death. 1 Corinthians 11:26 For through Him glory is to be given to You forever. Amen.” Let no one eat of these things unless he is initiated, but only those who have been baptized into the death of the Lord. But if anyone who is not initiated hides himself and partakes of them, he eats eternal damnation, because,

Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness

And we ask that this bread should be given to us daily, that we who are in Christ, and daily receive the Eucharist for the food of salvation, may not, by the interposition of some heinous sin, by being prevented, as withheld and not communicating, from partaking of the heavenly bread, be separated from Christ's body, as He Himself predicts, and warns, I am the bread of life which came down from heaven.

Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness

as it is manifest that those who partake of His body and receive the Eucharist by the right of communion are living, so, on the other hand, we must fear and pray lest any one who, being withheld from communion, is separate from Christ's body should remain at a distance from salvation;

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

to pretend that with an invocation not to be contemned she sanctified bread and celebrated the Eucharist, and to offer sacrifice to the Lord, not without the sacrament of the accustomed utterance;

Ignatius, Epistle to the Smyrnaeans (Short Version) Supporting witness

Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it.

Justin Martyr, The First Apology Background

And this food is called among us [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined.

1 Corinthians 11:27 Direct teaching

Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching

...Christ bore all of us, since He also bore our sins, we see that the water means the people, and the wine shows the blood of Christ. But when the water is mixed with wine in the cup, the people are made one with Christ, and the assembly of believers is joined and united with Him in whom it believes. This union and joining of water and wine is so mixed in the Lord's cup that the mixture can no longer be separated. Therefore, nothing can separate the Church—that is, the people established in the Church, faithfully and firmly continuing in what they have believed—from Christ, so as to keep their undivided love from always remaining and clinging to Him. Thus, in consecrating the cup of the Lord, water alone cannot be offered, just as wine alone cannot be offered. For if anyone offers only wine, the blood of Christ is separated from us. But if the water is alone, the people are separated from Christ. But when both are mixed and joined to one another in close union, a spiritual and heavenly sacrament is completed. Thus the cup of the Lord is not water alone, nor wine alone, unless each is mixed with the other. In the same way, the body of the Lord cannot be flour alone or water alone,

Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching

...sm. But by the example of His own authority, He also taught that the cup should be mixed by joining wine and water together. For when He took the cup on the night before His passion, He blessed it and gave it to His disciples, saying, "Drink all of this; for this is my blood of the New Testament, which shall be shed for many, for the remission of sins. I say to you, I will not drink from now on of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink new wine with you in the kingdom of my Father." Matthew 26:28-29 In this passage we find that the cup which the Lord offered was mixed, and that what He called His blood was wine. From this it is clear that the blood of Christ is not offered if there is no wine in the cup, nor is the Lord's sacrifice celebrated with a proper consecration unless our offering and sacrifice correspond to His passion. But how shall we drink the new wine of the fruit of the vine with Christ in the kingdom of His Father, if in the sacrifice to God the Father and of Christ we do not offer wine, nor mix the cup of the Lord according to the Lord's own tradition?

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

...prefigured, just as divine Scripture testifies and says: “And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine.” Genesis 14:18. Now he was a priest of the Most High God, and he blessed Abraham. And that Melchizedek bore a type of Christ, the Holy Spirit declares in the Psalms, speaking from the person of the Father to the Son: “Before the morning star I begot You; You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” This order surely comes from that sacrifice and descends from there: that Melchizedek was a priest of the Most High God, that he offered wine and bread, and that he blessed Abraham. For who is more a priest of the Most High God than our Lord Jesus Christ? He offered a sacrifice to God the Father, and He offered that very same thing which Melchizedek had offered, that is, bread and wine, namely, His body and blood. And with respect to Abraham, that blessing which came first belonged to our people. For if Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, then surely whoever believes God and lives by faith is found righteous, and is already blessed in faithful Abraham, and is shown to be justified, as the blessed Apostle Paul proves when he sa

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Direct teaching

For this reason, the apostle rightly commands, "Do not get drunk with wine, in which there is much excess." By the word "excess" (ἀσωτία), he means that drunkenness does not fit with salvation (τὸ ἄσωστον). For when He made water into wine at the wedding, He was not giving permission for people to get drunk. He gave life to the watery element in the meaning of the law. He filled with His blood the one who does the law and is from Adam, that is, the whole world. In this way, He supplies piety with drink from the vine of truth, the mixture of the old law and of the new word, for the fulfilment of the predestined time. So, Scripture has called wine a symbol of the sacred blood. But when it rebukes shameful drinking of the dregs of wine, it says, "Wine is intemperate, and drunkenness is insolent." Proverbs 20:1 Therefore, it agrees with right reason to drink because of the cold of winter, until the numbness is driven away from those who are subject to it, and at other times to use it as medicine for the intestines. For just as we should use food to satisfy hunger, so we should use drink to satisfy thirst, taking the greatest care not to slip, because the use of wine is dangerous. Then

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Direct teaching

.... Elsewhere, in the Gospel according to John, the Lord showed this by symbols when He said, “Eat my flesh, and drink my blood,” John 6:34. By metaphor He clearly described the drinkable nature of faith and of the promise. By these, the Church, like a human being made up of many members, is refreshed and grows. It is joined together and made firm out of both: faith, which is the body, and hope, which is the soul, just as the Lord is of flesh and blood. For in truth the blood of faith is hope, by which faith is held together like a life-giving principle. And when hope dies out, it is as if blood has flowed away, and the life of faith is destroyed. If, then, some object and say that milk means the first lessons, like first food, and that meat means those spiritual understandings that they reach by lifting themselves up to knowledge, let them understand this: when they say that meat is solid food, and the flesh and blood of Jesus, their own vain wisdom brings them to the true simplicity. For blood is found to be a primary product in man, and for this reason some have dared to call it the substance of the soul. And this blood, changed by a natural process in the mother during pregnan

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Direct teaching

...tand it in this way, and perhaps you take it in a more general sense. Hear it in this way also. The flesh figuratively represents the Holy Spirit to us, for the flesh was created by Him. The blood points us to the Word, for the Word, like rich blood, has been poured into life. And the union of both is the Lord, the food of infants — the Lord who is Spirit and Word. This food, that is, the Lord Jesus, is the Word of God, the Spirit made flesh, the heavenly flesh made holy. The nourishment is the Father's milk, by which alone we infants are fed. The Word Himself, then, the beloved One and the One who nourishes us, has shed His own blood for us to save humanity. And through Him, we who believe in God flee to the Word, the Father's breast that soothes our cares. And He alone, as is fitting, gives us children the milk of love. And only those who drink from this breast are truly blessed. Therefore Peter also says, "Laying aside all malice, and all deceit, and hypocrisy, and envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the milk of the word, so that by it you may grow to salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is Christ." And if someone were to grant them that solid food wa

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness

But since He said, And the bread which I will give is My flesh, and since flesh is moistened with blood, and blood is figuratively termed wine, we are bidden to know that, as bread, crumbled into a mixture of wine and water, seizes on the wine and leaves the watery portion, so also the flesh of Christ, the bread of heaven absorbs the blood;

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Background

Instead of a bloody sacrifice, He has appointed that reasonable and unbloody mystical one of His body and blood, which is performed to represent the death of the Lord by symbols.

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

which thing the Lord, completing and fulfilling, offered bread and the cup mixed with wine, and so He who is the fullness of truth fulfilled the truth of the image prefigured.

Tatian, The Diatessaron Background

John 6:51 I am the bread of life which came down from heaven: and if a man eat of this bread he shall live for ever: and the bread which I shall give is my body, which I give for the life of the world.

Didache, Connection to Mark 14:22 Background

And concerning the broken bread: We thank Thee, our Father, for the life and knowledge which Thou modest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory for ever. Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered together and became one, so let Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom; for Thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever. But let no one eat or drink of your Thanksgiving (Eucharist), but they who have been baptized into the name of the Lord;