The Eucharist, Part 18: Athanasius of Alexandria

Note: This is part of this series on the Eucharistic liturgy found in the patristics. The series is an expanded response to FishEater’s “What the Earliest Christians Wrote About the Eucharist.”

The Original Liturgy
(1) Dismissal
(2) Eucharist
: Thanksgiving Offering
(3) Oblation: Prayer and Amen
(4) Epiclesis: Consecration with words of institution
(5) Lord’s Supper
The Roman Liturgy
(1) Epiclesis: Consecration
(2) Eucharist
: Jesus is offered as sacrifice
(3) Oblation: Prayer and Amen
(4) Lord’s Supper
(5) Dismissal
: Everyone leaves

Athanasius of Alexandria

While we have a number of letters of Athanasius’ work, the Sermon to the Newly Baptized is a fragmentary work that does not appear to have been translated into English, other than the quotation above. Here is the quotation in text form:

Sermon to the Newly Baptized
You shall see the Levites bringing loaves and a cup of wine, and placing them on the table. So long as the prayers of supplication and entreaties have not been made, there is only bread and wine. But after the great and wonderful prayers have been completed, then the bread is become the Body, and the wine the Blood, of our Lord Jesus Christ. ‘And again:’ Let us approach the celebration of the mysteries. This bread and this wine, so long as the prayers and supplications have not taken place, remain simply what they are. But after the great prayers and holy supplications have been sent forth, the Word comes down into the bread and wine – and thus His Body is confected.

Citation: Athanasius of Alexandria, “Sermon to the Newly Baptized.”

To understand what Athanasius is saying, we need to figure out what the context is. So, what is this reference to the Levites bringing loaves and wine? For that we have to look at the Old Testament:

Leviticus 22:29-30; 23:9-14,17,20
When you sacrifice a thank offering to the Lord, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf.  It must be eaten that same day; leave none of it till morning. … The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb a year old without defect, together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil—a food offering presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine. You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live … From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord … The priest is to wave the two lambs before the Lord as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the Lord for the priest.

Nehemiah 10:37-39
Moreover, we will bring to the storerooms of the house of our God, to the priests, the first of our ground meal, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all our trees and of our new wine and olive oil. And we will bring a tithe of our crops to the Levites, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all the towns where we work. A priest descended from Aaron is to accompany the Levites when they receive the tithes, and the Levites are to bring a tenth of the tithes up to the house of our God, to the storerooms of the treasury. The people of Israel, including the Levites, are to bring their contributions of grain, new wine and olive oil to the storerooms, where the articles for the sanctuary and for the ministering priests, the gatekeepers and the musicians are also kept.

“We will not neglect the house of our God.”

As we’ve seen throughout this series and in the Old Testament, the firstfruits offering is part of the thanksgiving—eucharist—tithe in the church. The Levites collected the tithes, which included bread and wine. A tenth of that tithe went to the house of God while the rest was available for their general use, as payment for their priestly service. This is to what Athanasius is referring.

Athanasius refers to (2-3) the tithe—eucharist—offering as simply bread and wine, for that is what it contained. Then he notes that after the (4) prayer of consecration (“prayers of supplication and entreaties”) the bread becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ (i.e. “this is my body”; “this is my blood”). Athanasius describes a tithe offering followed by a Consecration for the Lord’s Supper, explicitly contrasting the unconsecrated and consecrated bread and wine.

Despite it being named the Eucharist—thanksgiving—the tithe offering has no role in the Roman liturgy. For Athanasius to speak of the tithe as immediately preceding the Consecration and the Lord’s Supper makes no sense from that perspective. But as we’ve seen throughout this series, the writers stand unified on the ancient liturgy.

But perhaps you remain unconvinced by the relative ambiguity of “Sermon to the Newly Baptized.” Fortunately, we have other letters from which we can consult.

Letter 11
Chapter 11

For such meditation and exercise in godliness, being at all times the habit of the saints, is urgent on us at the present time, when the divine word desires us to keep the feast with them if we are in this disposition. For what else is the feast, but the constant worship of God, and the recognition of godliness, and unceasing prayers from the whole heart with agreement? So Paul wishing us to be ever in this disposition, commands, saying,

“Rejoice evermore; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks [εὐχαριστεῖτε, eucharisteite].” (1 Thessalonians. 5:16-18).

Not therefore separately, but unitedly and collectively, let us all keep the feast together, as the prophet exhorts, saying, ‘O come, let us rejoice in the Lord; let us make a joyful noise unto God our Saviour.’ Who then is so negligent, or who so disobedient to the divine voice, as not to leave everything, and run to the general and common assembly of the feast? Which is not in one place only, for not one place alone keeps the feast; but ‘into all the earth their song has gone forth, and to the ends of the world their words.’ And the sacrifice is not offered in one place, but

“in every nation, incense and a pure sacrifice is offered unto God.” (Malachi 1:11)

So when in like manner from all in every place, praise and prayer shall ascend to the gracious and good Father, when the whole Catholic Church which is in every place, with gladness and rejoicing, celebrates together the same worship to God, when all men in common send up a song of praise and say, Amen;

Citation: Athanasius of Alexandria, “Letter 11.” §11

Athanasius joins the rest of our growing list of patristic writers who saw Malachi’s prophecy as described in Part 8: Interlude as being fulfilled in (2-3) the church’s thanksgiving offering—eucharist—of the sacrifice of prayer, praise, hymns, service, and the giving of tithes: Jesus, John, Justin MartyrIrenaeusTertullian, Origen, Cyprian, and Aphrahat. And, as Athanasius notes, it concludes with (3) the corporate “Amen”

Letter 45
Let us all take up our sacrifices, observing distribution to the poor, and enter into the holy place, as it is written;

‘whither also our forerunner Jesus is entered for us, having obtained eternal redemption. ‘

…(From the same:)…And this is a great proof that, whereas we were strangers, we are called friends; from being formerly aliens, we have become fellow citizens with the saints, and are called children of the Jerusalem which is above, whereof that which Solomon built was a type. For if Moses made all things according to the pattern showed him in the mount, it is clear that the service performed in the tabernacle was a type of the heavenly mysteries, whereto the Lord, desirous that we should enter, prepared for us the new and abiding way. And as all the old things were a type of the new, so the festival that now is, is a type of the joy which is above, to which coming with psalms and spiritual songs, let us begin the fasts.

Citation: Athanasius of Alexandria, “Letter 45.”

Notice that for Athanasius, the (2-3) Eucharist is sacrifice of tithes (and psalms and songs!) which, after being offered, is taken up for distribution to the poor. Only then do we (4) “enter into the holy place.” Athanasius clearly separated (1-3) the sacrifice of the tithe from (4-5) the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

Athanasius wrote his Easter Letters each year, so his reference to “the festival” is a reference to the Passover (or Easter) celebration. But what about entering the holy place? In the Old Testament, the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies once per year on Yom Kippur. But in Christ Jesus, we enter into the holy place by way of the (4-5) Consecration and the Lord’s Supper as a celebration of Christ’s Passover before the first Easter. The (1-3) thanksgiving sacrifice of the Eucharist and the (4-5) celebration of the Lord’s Supper completely replaced all the other services that the Hebrews once performed. And, for Athanasius, the Easter celebration of the Lord’s Supper was an especially important and joyful occasion.

Athanasius died in 373, only a few years before Apostolic Constitutions (c.375-380) was written. Festal Letter 45 was the last letter he wrote, perhaps written for Easter on April 1, just a month before he died on May 2. Unlike Apostolic Constitutions, where the tithe was collected for the benefit of the bishop and the rest of the clergy, Athanasius described a eucharistic tithe collected for distribution to the poor. What a contrast that only a few years makes!

6 Comments

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