The Eucharist in the first 300 years of Christianity

Abstract

The Eucharist in the first 300 years of Christianity is the theme I shall be dealing with in my dissertation. I will give a historical account of how the Eucharist was celebrated in these 300 years. In my introduction I talk about the liturgy and the contemporary man wherein I analyze the reasons behind a decline in public worship in the present times. Chapter 1 deals with the meaning and structure of the Eucharist celebrated in our present times. In Chapter 2, I compare and contrast the four accounts of the institution of the Eucharist in the New Testament. Reference is made to the three synoptic Gospels together with St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. In the last three chapters, I examine liturgical sources such as that of: 1. Justin, the philosopher and martyr, who wrote his first Apology about 155 A.D. which contains - in chapters 65-67 - some precious information about Eucharistic liturgy. 2. The Didache, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, from the beginning of the second century. The well-known Eucharistic prayers are found in the ninth and tenth chapters of the Didache. 3. The Traditio Apostolica of Hippolytus of Rome, written about the year 215 AD. In my conclusion, I give the reasons why it is important to deal with the history of the liturgy. Tracing the liturgy to its origins is vital because it contributes valuable assistance toward a more thorough investigation of the sigr1ificance of the Eucharistic liturgy.