SOME IDEAS ON ANAPHORAL EVOLUTION

ultimately the question of the origin of the sanctus cannot be divorced from the question of the origin or origins of the eucharistic prayer in which it is found.

In recent literature, a large body of opinion has regarded the Jewish table prayers called the Birkat ha-mazon (BHM) as being an important element in the evolution of the eucharistic prayer. Beginning with W. O. E. Oesterley and F. Gavin, and furthered by Gregory Dix and J.-P. Audet, the Jewish berakot came under careful scrutiny in the search for links with Christian prayers. Whereas Audet appealed to the berakot as a literary genre, it was Dix who drew attention to the berakot of the qiddus and of the BHM. Dix did not himself pursue the inquiry, but in passing he emphasised the second pericope of the BHM as a possible key to understanding the development of the eucharistic prayer. This insight has in more recent years been developed in different ways by a number of scholars.

Whether the Last Supper was a Passover meal, an anticipated Passover meal or haburah, the BHM was the traditional grace after meals and, it is suggested, may well have been the prayer used by Jesus before the distribution of the cup. This grace, which goes back in form to the time of the Book of Jubilees, consisted then of three berakot giving three themes – blessing for creation, giving thanks for redemption, and supplication. There is, however, no qeduššah and no logical context for it, and there is no evidence that any Jewish meal prayer ever contained it.