John Chrysostom (347-407) John Chrysostom was an extremely prodigious writer, composing around 700 sermons, 250 letters, and a number of other works, including biblical commentaries. He wrote all of his works during the transitional period during the rise of Roman Catholicism. His writings reflect the changes in the development of …
Serapion of Thmuis There is not a lot to discuss with Serapion, so I’ll quote this large portion from his Sacramentary, which dated to around 353AD. But there is another popular version of this floating around: This is clearly a different translation, but notice that the part in bold exists …
Basil of Caesarea (330-378) Recall in Part 25: Gregory Nazianzus, that Basil attended the funeral of Gregory Nazianzus (the Elder). That eulogy was given by Gregory (the Younger). Basil and Gregory were friends. Given that Gregory (the Younger) agreed with the doctrinal views of Gregory (the Elder) and that Basil …
Interlude This series is, in part, a response to FishEaters, who was raised up as a credible expert on the Roman Catholic Eucharist: I had, for a while, wanted to respond to FishEaters’ “The Eucharist,” but we needed to set up the ground work of this series before we could attempt …
Lactantius (250-325) Many times throughout this series—The Didache, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, Aphrahat, Athanasius, Eusebius—we have noted that the ancient church viewed the thanksgiving—eucharist—as the sacrificial fulfillment of Malachi 1:11. Let’s see how Lactantius handles this theme. Here Lactantius shows how familiar he is with Malachi’s prophecy. He noted …
Gregory Nazianzus There are two Gregory Nazianzus, the younger (329-390) and his father the elder (276-374). The following oration was delivered by the son when his father died. It is a funeral oration and eulogy. We begin with Gregory the Elder’s wife Nonna, who had a great and sincere concern …
Cyril of Jerusalem Let’s start with FishEaters’ first quotation. As we’ve done on a number of occasions throughout this series, let’s just complete the sentence: FishEaters gave this citation to make it appear as if Cyril is arguing for transubstantiation. In reality, he was comparing the holy and profane invocations. …
Gregory of Nyssa In Part 18: Athansius of Alexandria we saw how in 373, the church in Alexandria still held to the ancient liturgy, clearly separating the (1-3) sacrifice of thanksgiving from the (4-5) celebration of the Lord’s Supper. But in Part 19: Ephraim the Syrian, we saw how in that same year, 373, in …
Dionysius of Alexandria (d.264) Dionysius had a man in his congregation who had been taking the eucharist with the congregation for a long time, but he hadn’t received a proper Christian baptism first, having been baptized initially by heretics. This created quite a conundrum! Should he be denied communion until …
Eusebius of Caesarea Eusebius, as an historian, wrote a lot about what other people had to say. But he also wrote down his own thoughts. How does Eusebius describe bringing the eucharist—thanksgiving—as an offering to God? By hymns and prayers: a sacrifice of praise. Who does he cite? Malachi. David in …