Aphrahat the Persian Sage What more can be said about this? It’s basically just a repetition of scripture itself with some minor flourishes. Aphrahat was repeating the same metaphor that Jesus used: “this is my body” and “this is my blood.” For sake of argument, let’s assume that Aphrahat viewed …

Hippolytus of Rome FishEaters does not mention Hippolytus and this is not surprising. Hippolytus was a disciple of Irenaeus, whom we covered in Part 6. Unsurprisingly, Hippolytus and Irenaeus describe the same Eucharistic liturgy. As we will see, Hippolytus’ comments are a thorn in the side of the Roman liturgy. …

Cyprian of Carthage Before we talk about Cyprian, let’s see how the Catholic Encyclopedia sings his praises: It is certainly notable here how the Catholic Encyclopedia is trying to distance Tertullian from his pupil Cyprian. The Catholic Encyclopedia calls Tertullian’s writings “harsh and unintelligible.” The Encyclopedia seems to be setting …

Origen Let’s begin our discussion of Origen’s writings from the 3rd century by first looking at FishEaters’ three selected quotes: Let’s start with the third quote before examining the others. There Origen is very clear: Origen identifies the flesh of Christ as the Word of God and cites John 6—on the …

Let’s take a short break from the examination of the patristic era writers to look at the concept of the sacrifice and thanksgiving (eucharist). The Eucharistic Sacrifice The first mention of thanksgiving in the Bible is Leviticus 7 referring to the fellowship offering of thanksgiving, a sacrifice of bread or meat. The …

Clement of Alexandria Let’s begin our discussion on Clement of Alexandria by first looking at FishEaters’ selected quote: To respond to this, we need only share a bigger quote: Clement believed that the flesh and blood of Christ were metaphors for the Holy Spirit and the Word of God that …

Irenaeus Let’s begin our discussion on Irenaeus by first looking at FishEaters’ selected quotes: We can make a couple observations from the first quote. First, we plainly observe that Jesus spoke the ‘Words of Institution’ (“he confessed”) over created agricultural products: bread and wine. Jesus called created things his body and …

Clement of Rome In “Letter to the Corinthians. §38,44”, Clement of Rome speaks of helping the poor, the giving of thanks (“ευχαριστειν”), and of presenting the tithe offerings or gifts (“δῶρα”), although as with Justin Martyr you need to reference Roman Catholic J.P. Migne’s Patrologia Graeca (1857–1866) in vol I, 285,300, to see how …

Ignatius Let’s begin our discussion on Ignatius by first looking at FishEaters’ quotes: Ignatius is either a flaming heretic, or he understands the elements metaphorically. First, of “Letter to Romans,” Ignatius calls it the “Bread of God”, not the “Bread of Christ”, which either makes him deny the canonical Trinity …