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The Study of the Origins of the Eucharist: Retrospect and Revaluation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

C. W. Dugmore*
Affiliation:
University of London

Extract

Lest it should seem to some that this is a strange subject for a Presidential Address to an Ecclesiastical History Society, may I say at the outset that I propose to deal with it as an historical and not a theological problem, and, secondly, that in my view the history of the Christian Church must necessarily include the history of how Christians have worshipped God in every age. The Church is a living organism and not merely a human organisation with a hierarchy; general, provincial, and diocesan councils; canons and creeds; patrimony and patronage; social and economic responsibilities. All these aspects of her life, from the study of Church-State relations to the editing of episcopal registers and monastic constitutions are the proper concern of the Church historian, but so too is her inner life—spirituality, asceticism, and worship.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1965

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References

page 2 note 1 Das Apostolische Zeitalter der christlichen Kirche, Freiburg 1892.

page 2 note 2 ‘The Character of Christ’s Last Meal’ in Journal of the Society of Biblical Literature xi (1892).

page 2 note 3 Art. ‘Passah’ in Riehms Handwörterbuch des bibl. Altertums, II (1894).

page 2 note 4 Das letzte Passahmahl Christi und der Tag seines Todes, Leipzig 1892, 2nd ed. with additions and corrections, Leipzig 1908.

page 2 note 5 Der Todestag Jesu’ in Strack-Billerbeck, , Kommentar zum neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, Munich 1922, II, 81253 Google Scholar.

page 2 note 6 Jesus-Jesehua, Leipzig 1922.

page 2 note 7 Die Abendmahlsworte Jesu, Göttingen 1935, 2nd ed. 1949.

page 2 note 8 Beiträge zur Geschichte und Litteratur des Urchristentums, Göttingen 1893, 1

page 2 note 9 Art. ‘Eucharistie’ in Hauck-Herzog, Realencyklopädie, v (1898), 563-5.

page 2 note 10 ‘The Jewish Antecedents of the Eucharist,’ JTS, III (1902), 357-69.

page 2 note 11 In JTS, ix (1908), 569-71, and XVII (1916), 291-7.

page 2 note 12 L’eucharistie des origines à Justin Martyr, Paris 1910, 59-61

page 2 note 13 The Jewish Background of the Christian Liturgy, Oxford 1925, 156-8.

page 2 note 14 Messe und Herrenmahl. Eine Studie zur Geschichte der Liturgie, Bonn 1926, 211-12

page 2 note 15 The Synoptic Gospels, London 1927, I, 308-10.

page 2 note 16 The Jewish Antecedents of the Christian Sacraments, London 1928; and The Eucharist in East and West’ in Liturgy and Worship, ed. Clarke, W.K. Lowther, London 1932, 84-6.Google Scholar

page 2 note 17 The Early Eucharist, London 1939.

page 2 note 18 The Shape of the Liturgy, London 1945.

page 3 note 1 Among notable exceptions may be mentioned Leitzmann, H., Messe und Herrenmahl, Bonn 1926 Google Scholar; Völker, K., Mysterium und Agape, Gotha 1927 Google Scholar; and Manson, T. W. in Christian Worship, ed. Mickiem, N., Oxford 1936.Google Scholar

page 3 note 2 To be precise, with the appearance of the stars after the going-down of the sun. See, e.g., b.Ber. 2, a, b.

page 4 note 1 A detailed examination of the conflicting accounts will be found in Sanday’s art. ‘Jesus Christ’ in HDB, II, 633-8.

page 4 note 2 Chwolson, D., Das letzte Passahmahl Christi und der Tag seines Todes, St Petersburg 1892.Google Scholar

page 4 note 3 Jer. Pes. 33a; b.Pes. 66a.

page 4 note 4 The Mishnah states: ‘The (evening) burnt offering is slaughtered at eight and a half hours [2.30 p.m.] and is offered at nine and a half hours [3.30 p.m.]. On the eve of Passover it is slaughtered at seven and a half hours [1.30 p.m.] and offered at eight and a half hours [2.30 p.m.], whether it is a week-day or the Sabbath. If the eve of Passover fell on Sabbath eve (Friday), it is slaughtered at six and a half hours [12.30 p.m.] and offered at seven and a half hours [1.30 p.m.], and the Passover offering after i’: Pes. v, I; cf. Josephus, B. J. VI, 9, 3.

page 4 note 5 Strack-Billerbeck, , Kommentar zum neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, II, 846-8.Google Scholar

page 5 note 1 On this verse see further p. 6 below.

page 5 note 2 Die Abendmahlsworte Jesus, 2nd ed., Göttingen 1949; Eng. tr. by Ehrhardt, A., The Eucharistie Words of Jesus, Oxford 1954.Google Scholar

page 6 note 1 Jeremiás, op. cit. 11-12 (Eng. tr. 3-4)

page 6 note 2 Op. cit. 40 (Eng. tr. 48).

page 6 note 3 Op. cit. 22 (Eng. tr. 20) and note. Of the two passages which he cites ‘from the Rabbinic literature’ (j.Ber. VII, IIb, 62; 11c, 42 and 48), the first mentions reclining at meals, while the second makes no reference either to reclining or sitting. In his note he adduces also Ber. VI, 6 and b.Sanh. 38a, but neither of these passages warrants the statement in his text. The former can be checked by any reader in the English translation in A. Lukyn Williams, Tractate Berakoth (1921), 48 and Danby, H., The Mishnah, Oxford 1933, 7 Google Scholar: the latter tells how two sons of R. Hiyya once ‘sat at dinner’ with Rabbi Judah I, but an isolated instance, c. A.D. 200, of two pupils sitting in the presence of their master is no criterion for what happened ‘bei gewöhnlichen Mahlzeiten zur Zeit Jesu.’

page 7 note 1 It is time the fallacious notion that the evening meal was usually held in the afternoon was discarded. There were two proper meals during the day, άριστον and δ∊ïίπνoν — the first partaken up to midday (the hour varied: see b.Shabb. Ioa, quoted by Kennedy, Ency. Bibl. III, cols. 2989-90), and the second at sundown. It is obvious that ordinary working people could not have taken dinner (δ∊ïίπνoν) before the day’s work was done. In Lk. xvii, 7-10 the servant coming in from the field has to prepare his master’s supper (έτοίμασου τί δ∊ιπνήσω) before enjoying his own. Again, labourers are engaged in the vineyard, not only at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, but at the eleventh hour (5 p.m.), and they work through the heat of the day until 6 p.m. before receiving their wages (Mt. xx, I-14). Josephus had his δ∊ïίπνoν after nightfall (Vita, 63, cf. 44); cf. the story of a rabbi who arrived home with a bag of provisions for his family at twilight on Sabbath Eve, in Eccles. R. ix, 7 (translated in Montefiore, A Rabbinic Anthology, 1938, 43I). All the passages indicating an earlier hour for the evening meal cited by Jeremias (Eng. tr. 17-18) either refer to Sabbath or to ‘the custom of kings’ and learned rabbis—men of leisure, not ordinary working folk.

page 8 note 1 Art. ‘The Jewish Antecendents of the Eucharist,’ in JTS, III (1902), 357-69.

page 8 note 2 Cf.Lambert, J.C., art. ‘The Passover and the Lord’s Supper,’ in JTS, iv (1903), 184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 8 note 3 Op. cit. 363.

page 8 note 4 Cf. his article, ‘The Jewish Background of the Institution of the Eucharist’ in The Jewish Guardian (7 December 1923).

page 8 note 5 Oesterley, W. O. E., The Jewish Background of the Christian Liturgy, Oxford 1925, 157.Google Scholar

page 8 note 6 JTS, VII (1916), 294. Cf.Manson, T. W. in Christian Worship, ed. Mickiem, N., Oxford 1936, 46.Google Scholar

page 8 note 7 E.g. Macgregor, H.C., Eucharistie Origins, Bruce Lectures 1928, 449 Google Scholar; Gavin, F., The Jewish Antecedents of the Christian Sacraments, 1928, 646 Google Scholar, and ‘ Eucharistie Origins’ in Liturgy and Worship, ed. Clarke, W.K. Lowther and Harris, C., 1932, 856 Google Scholar; Maxfield, T.H.W., The Words of Institution: a study of the Hebrew background of the Holy Communion Service, Cambridge 1933, 224 Google Scholar; Frere, W. H., The Anaphora or Great Eucharistie Prayer: an eirenical study in liturgical history, 1938, 57 Google Scholar; Clarke, W. K. Lowther, The English Liturgy in the Light of the Bible, 1940, 5-7, 1214.Google Scholar The last-named is careful to state that while ‘everything suits the theory of a solemn meal (sic) like the Ḳiddūush ... it is best not to identify it with the Ḳiddūsh’ (12).

page 9 note 1 ‘Eingang und Ausgang des Sabbats nach talmudischen Quellen’ in Festschrift zu Israel Lewy’s 70. Geburtstag, 1911, 179-81, and Der jüdische Gottesdienst in seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung, 2nd ed., Berlin 1924, 107.

page 9 note 2 Geiger, A., Urschrift und Uebersetzungen der Bibel, Breslau 1857, 1213.Google Scholar

page 9 note 3 Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, 2nd ed., 11, 319-34 = Eng. tr., Div. 11., pt ii, 8-25; 4th ed., Leipzig 1907, 11, 454-71. In the 4th ed. Schürer maintained his thesis, in spite of Montefiore, who, he said, had failed to bring any sound argument against it (11, 470n.).

page 9 note 4 Montefiore, C. G., Lecture on the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient Hebrews (Hibbert Lectures 1892), 4989.Google Scholar

page 9 note 5 On the whole question see, further, Jewish Encyc. VI, 121-4; Moore, G.F., Judaism in the first centuries of the Christian era, Cambridge 1927, 11, 73,Google Scholar and his article in Jackson, F. and Lake, K., The Beginnings of Christianity, 1 (Appendix E), 43945;Google Scholar Herford, R. Travers, The Pharisees, London 1924, 304.Google Scholar

page 9 note 6 Moore, G. F., in The Beginnings of Christianity, 1, 440 Google Scholar; cf. R. Travers Herford, op. cit. 31; Jacob, Neusner, ‘The Fellowship Second Jewish Commonwealth’ in Harvard Theological Review, LIII (1960), 12542 Google Scholar.

page 10 note 1 Tos. Demai II, 2; b.Bekor. 30b.

page 10 note 2 G. Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy, 50-2.

page 10 note 3 Oesterley, op. cit. 169. The reference had already been given by Elbogen, Eingang und Ausgang, 180.

page 10 note 4 Geiger, op. cit. 124.

page 10 note 5 Tos. Ber. V, a, repeated in b.Pes. 100a.

page 10 note 6 b.Pes. 102a.

page 11 note 1 JTS, XVII (1916), 295.

page 11 note 2 Ber. VII, 1, 3, 4; Tos. Ber. V, 14, VII, 23.

page 11 note 3 Jeremias, op. cit. 34 (Eng. tr. 37)

page 11 note 4 Ibid

page 11 note 5 I Apol. lxv-lxvii.

page 12 note 1 Cullmann, O., Le culte dans ľ Église primitive, Neuchatel, Paris 1948, 9.Google Scholar

page 12 note 2 Cullmann, O., Urchristentum und Gottesdienst, 2nd ed., Zürich 1950, 14.Google Scholar

page 12 note 3 ‘Lord’s Day and Easter’ in Neotestamentica et Patristica: eine Freundesgabe, Herm Professor Dr Oscar Cullmann zu seinem 60. Geburtstag überreicht, Leiden 1962, 272-81.

page 12 note 4 See further my chapter on ‘The Organization and Worship of the Primitive Church’ in A Companion to the Bible, 2nd ed. revised by H. H. Rowley, Edinburgh 1963, 546-69.

page 12 note 5 Willy, Rordorf, Der Sonntag (Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testaments, ed. Eichrodt, W. and Cullmann, O., 43), Zürich 1962, 229.Google Scholar

page 13 note 1 Ibid. 243.

page 13 note 2 Ibid. 234-5.

page 13 note 3 Ibid. 246.

page 13 note 4 Ibid. 249-57.

page 13 note 5 Lietzmann, H., Messe und Herrenmahl: eine Studie zur Geschichte der Liturgie, Bonn 1926.Google Scholar

page 13 note 6 Spitta, F., Beiträge zur Geschichte und Litteratur des Urchristentums, 1, Göttingen 1893.Google Scholar

page 13 note 7 The Lord’s Supper in the New Testament, London 1952, 59.

page 14 note 1 Ibid. 26, 36, 59.

page 14 note 2 Lohmeyer, E., ‘Vom urchristlichen Abendmahl’ in Theologische Rundschau, IX (1937) and x (1938).Google Scholar

page 14 note 3 Jungmann, J. A., S.J., Missarum Sollemnia, 2nd ed., Vienna 1949 Google Scholar (Eng. tr. by Brunner, F.A., C.SS.R., The Mass of the Roman Rite: its origin and development, New York 1951).Google Scholar

page 14 note 4 Ibid., Eng. tr. 1, 14-15.

page 14 note 5 Annie, Jaubert, La Date de la Cène: calendrier biblique et liturgie chrétienne, Paris 1957, 9.Google Scholar

page 14 note 6 Ibid 107, 109.

page 15 note 1 See the reviews by George Ogg (Novum Testamentum, 111 (1959), 149-60), Jeremias, J. (JTS, N.S., x (1959), 1313 CrossRefGoogle Scholar), Grant, R. M. (Vigiliae Christianae, XIII (1959), 190) and the present writer (JEH, x (1959), 226-7).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 15 note 2 van Goudoever, J., Biblical Calendars, Leiden 1959.Google Scholar

page 16 note 1 Manson, T. W., art. ‘The Jewish Background’ in Christian Worship, ed. Mickiem, N., Oxford 1936, 489.Google Scholar

page 16 note 2 Der Sonntag, 141-3.

page 17 note 1 Riesenfeld, H., ‘Sabbat et Jour du Seigneur,’ New Testament Essays: studies in memory of T. W. Manson 1893-1958, ed. Higgins, A. J. B., Manchester 1959, 215.Google Scholar

page 17 note 2 Connolly, R. H., ‘Agape and Eucharist in the Didache,’ Downside Review, LV (1937), 47789 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 18 note 1 Cf.McArthur, A. Allan, The Evolution of the Christian Year, London 1953; The Christian Year and Liturgical Reform, 1958Google Scholar