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 …

Cornelius of Rome (250) The writing that we will examine from Cornelius of Rome comes to us from the historian Eusebius: Cornelius complains about two things that Novatus did to corrupt the ancient liturgy. First, he corrupted (4) the consecration (or epiclesis) by replacing the blessing with an oath to …

Ephraim the Syrian Ephraim the Syrian was from Edessa, where he died in 373. Edessa is very close to where it is alleged that a Eunomian Bishop Julian of Cilicia, a heretic, wrote Apostolic Constitutions in c375-380. Athanasius also died in 373, but he was far away in Alexandria. As …

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: To understand what Athanasius is …