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 …
Tertullian (155-220) As we typically do, let’s begin our discussion on Tertullian by first looking at FishEaters’ selected quotes: At first glace these quotes seem rather tame and innocent. But they are among the most divisive words ever written in the church. For the first time in this series, additional …
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 …
Justin Martyr (100-165) Now let’s go over Justin Martyr’s First Apology in depth, specifically Chapters 13, and 65 through 67, where he describes the ‘Protestant’ liturgy in the second century. Chapter 13 describes the (2) offerings of “thanksgiving”, “thanks by word of processions” (Greek: διά λόγου πομπάς; Latin: rationalibus eum pompis; …
Didache FishEaters does not cite The Didache—found here—most likely because it describes a Eucharistic liturgy that is mutually exclusive with the Roman liturgy. The Didache is not a long read. I’ll quote portions of it here, but you can read its entirety quickly without worrying about out-of-context quotations. Chapters 9, …
The Eucharist Liturgy The original liturgy of the Eucharist is this… …while the Roman liturgy alters the order to make Christ a sacrifice: As you read the many citations in this series, you’ll see that Roman Catholics often cite cherry-picked quotes that make it seem like they fit the latter, …