Kindle Notes & Highlights
“seven-action scheme” of the rite then inaugurated. Our Lord (1) took bread; (2) “gave thanks” over it; (3) broke it; (4) distributed it, saying certain words. Later He (5) took a cup; (6) “gave thanks” over that; (7) handed it to His disciples, saying certain words . . . . With absolute unanimity the liturgical tradition reproduced these seven actions as four: (1) The offertory; bread and wine are “taken” and placed on the table together. (2) The prayer; the president gives thanks to God over bread and wine together. (3) The fraction; the bread is broken. (4) The communion; the bread and wine
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Irenaeus speaks of a Jewish-Christian sect called Ebionites whom he assails for using water and not wine (Adv. haer. 5.1.3); and Clement of Alexandria refers to a group known as Encratites who do the same (Paed. 2.2.32; Strom. 1.19.96). McGowan also argues that Marcion appears not to have used wine, since Tertullian attacks him for his hypocrisy in spurning the creator God while still using the created elements of water for washing, oil for anointing, milk and honey as food for the newly baptized, and bread for the eucharist, and yet does not mention wine
the third century, and it appears to be Jeremias’ assumption that the mid-second-century Epistula Apostolorum describes an Easter liturgy in which agape and eucharist had already been separated that has been a major factor in encouraging the idea that the process began at a much earlier date.
It is not until the third century that we encounter any indications in literary sources that the eucharist might have been celebrated in the morning rather than the evening.
Tertullian has generally been thought to provide the earliest evidence for the celebration of the eucharist on the feast days of martyrs.
Nevertheless, on the basis of the material we have surveyed, there are indications that the association of the eucharist with a substantial meal was declining, and at least in some places had disappeared altogether by the middle of the century if not sooner. There are also signs of a trend to locate the eucharistic celebration in the morning rather than the evening, probably in connection with a service of the word, though that is by no means as clearly attested as one might have thought or wished.
enrolling as a catechumen did not always lead to baptism. On the contrary, many were content to remain in that state, and put off baptism with its greater demands on their way of life until much nearer their expected death.
