Victor R. Claveau, MJ
The Early Church Fathers were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical period in which they worked became known as the Patristic Era and spans approximately from the late 1st to mid-8th centuries, flourishing in particular during the 4th and 5th centuries, when Christianity was in the process of establishing itself as the state Church of the Roman Empire.
Christ packs three momentous lessons into his discourse on the Eucharist in Luke’s Gospel (11:27-28). First, he points out the mystery of faith, that no one can believe in him “unless he is drawn by the Father.” Faith in Jesus Christ supplies us with life’s only dependable fuel, and yet, faith in Christ is God’s gift, no one can conjure it up on their own, in a chemistry lab.
When we look at the small white Host, no scientific test can prove that Jesus Christ is truly present there, body, blood, soul, and divinity. And yet, we know that he is; we have been given the gift of faith. This is why the priest says, after the consecration at each Mass: “Let us proclaim the mystery of faith.”
Second, this faith in Christ leads to “eternal life.” Later in the Gospel, Jesus tells us that eternal life consists in knowing “the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom [God has] sent” (John 17:3). In Biblical language, “knowing” implies deep interpersonal intimacy, the kind of relationship we all yearn for. That we can have a relationship like that with God himself, who is more lovable, more beautiful than any other person is or can be, is the Good News of Jesus Christ. God hasn’t kept his distance from us sinners; he wants us to know him and share his life.
Third, Jesus himself is the “bread” of this eternal life, its source and sustenance. Without bread, without food, physical life perishes. Without Jesus, without his “flesh for the life of the world” in the Eucharist, our life of intimate communion with God will perish. It’s that simple -and it’s that crucial. Eleven times in this discourse Jesus speaks of himself as the bread of life; he’s really hoping that we’ll get the message. The gift of faith gives us access to eternal life, and the Eucharist makes that life grow with-in us.
We accept and believe this on faith, but it is not a blind faith. God supports our faith in many ways. He knows that the culture of this fallen world is constantly trying to erode our faith. And so, in his wisdom and according to his providence, he sends us miracles, sometimes dramatic, to give our tired faith a turbo boost. The history of the Church is full of Eucharistic miracles. Recorded miracles include hosts that survived fires, hosts that started to bleed during Mass, hosts that lost their appearance of bread and transformed into flesh. But some of the most remarkable signs God has given us regarding the Eucharist has to do with Holy Communion.
Through the centuries, there have been many saints, both men and women, who have lived for entire periods of their lives just on the Eucharist. They took no food or drink, but only received Holy Communion every day. St. Catherine of Siena was one of these, and so was Blessed Alexandrina da Costa, from Portugal. But one of the most amazing cases was Saint Nicholas of Flue, who lived in Switzerland during the 1400s. He lived as a hermit and for 19 years and during that time ate or drank absolutely nothing except daily Communion. Even when he tried to eat normal food, he simply couldn’t keep it down.
Our Lord himself explained to Blessed Alexandrina why he gives this grace to some of his saints: “You are living by the Eucharist alone,” he told her, “Because I want to prove to the world the power of the Eucharist and the power of my life in souls.” Christ is the fullness of life and meaning that we all hunger for, and the Eucharist is Christ’s real presence. This is what our faith teaches us.
—Father Paul Pecchie, On the Feast of the Assumption, used with permission.
John 6:51-58—Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition[1]
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”b] 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; 54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.”
“In the sacrament of the altar, the Lord meets us, men and women created in God’s image and likeness, and becomes our companion along the way. In this sacrament, the Lord truly becomes food for us, to satisfy our hunger for truth and freedom. Since only the truth can make us free, Christ becomes for us the food of truth.”(Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, #2)
It is the Solemn Teaching of the Catholic Church that in the Blessed Eucharist Christ Himself – His Body and Blood, His Soul and Divinity – is really, truly, and substantially, contained in the species (accidents, appearances) of bread and wine; that His presence is affected by transubstantiation, i.e., by a change of the substance of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ; that He is wholly present both under the species of bread and under the species of wine; that when the sacred species of the bread or the wine are divided, He is wholly present in each part or division; that the Real Presence begins, the instant the consecration is completed; that it is not restricted to the moment in which the Blessed Eucharist is being consumed; that it continues in the hosts that may be reserved after Holy Communion has been given; and that Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is to be worshipped with the supreme worship due to God alone.[2]
List of Authors and Council Cited in this work:
Aphraates The Persian Sage
Aphraates was a 4th century bishop. Born is Syria near the Persian border late in the 3rd century, he was a convert, entered religious life, and became bishop of the monastery of Mar Mattai, Mesopotamia. Because he took the name Jacob, he was long confused with Bishop Jacob of Nisibia, Turkey (d. 338). Between 337 and 345 he wrote Demonstrations, twenty-three homilies or epistles, the oldest extant document from the Church in Syria. The comments are of great importance as to the continuity of the early Church, the virginity and maternity of Mary, the sacraments, particularly penance, and the popularity of scripture. He is listed as a martyr during the persecution of King Sapor II.[3] Feast Day April 7.
Apollinaris of Laodicea
Apollinaris of Laodicea (c. 315-c. 390)The son of Apollinaris of Alexandria, the younger Apollinaris was a close friend and ally of Saint Athanasius and also Serapion of Thmuis against the Arian heresy. Apollinaris was the bishop of the Nicene church in Laodicea.
The Council of Ephesus was a council of Christian bishops convened in Ephesus in 431 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius II. This third ecumenical council, was an effort to attain consensus in the Church through an assembly representing all of Christendom, confirmed the original Nicene Creed, and condemned the teachings of Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who held that the Virgin Mary may be called the Christotokos, “Christ-bearer” but not the Theotokos, “God-bearer”. It met in June and July 431 at the Church of Mary in Ephesus in Anatolia (Modern-day Turkey).
Macarius Magnes, (flourished 401 – 450), Eastern Orthodox bishop and polemicist, author of an apology for the Christian faith, a document of signal value for its verbatim preservation of early philosophical attacks on Christian revelation.
Of Macarius’ origin and career, nothing is known except that he is probably identified with the bishop of Magnesia, Greece, later Manisa, Tur., who, at the Synod of Chalcedon in 403, contended with an episcopal friend of the eminent 4th-century reform patriarch of Constantinople, Saint John Chrysostom (He sometimes is called Bl. Magnes or Macarius the Magnesian). His importance, however, stems from his theological defense of Christianity by the obscurely titled Apokritikos ē monogenēs pros Hellēnas, 5 books (c. 400; Response of the Only-Begotten to the Greeks), commonly called the Apocriticus. Its doctrine is basically derived from the Cappadocian school, one of the foremost cultural centers of the early Greek Church. Ironically, its chief claim to historical notice is its accurate presentation of the pagan viewpoint.
Through the literary device of an imaginary five-day dispute in dialogue form with an unbelieving critic, the Apocriticus precisely reproduces the best known forms of anti-Christian propaganda contemporary with the author. The pagan criticism, according to scholarly consensus, derived from the learned 15-book argument Against the Christians by the 3rd-century Greek Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry (234?–305?); born in Tyre in Phoenicia (Modern Lebanon). the loss of this work renders the Apocriticus of even greater value.
Origen
Origen, or Origen Adamantius; (184/185 – 253/254), was a scholar, ascetic, and early Christian theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Alexandria. He was a prolific writer in multiple branches of theology, including textual criticism, biblical exegesis and hermeneutics, philosophical theology, preaching, and spirituality written in Greek. He was anathematized at the Second Council of Constantinople. He was one of the most influential figures in early Christian asceticism.
Unlike many church fathers, he was never canonized as a saint because some of his teachings directly contradicted the teachings attributed to the apostles, notably the Apostles Paul and John. His teachings on the pre-existence of souls, the final reconciliation of all creatures, including perhaps even the devil (the apokatastasis), and the subordination of God the Son to God the Father, were rejected by Christian orthodoxy.
Philoxenus of Mabbug
Philoxenus of Mabbug (born c. 440, Tahal, Beth-Garmaï [near modern Kirkūk, Iraq]—died c. 523, Gangra, Paphlagonia [near modern Samsun, Turkey]), also known as Xenaias and Philoxenus of Hierapolis, was aSyrian bishop, theologian, classical author, and a vehement champion of Miaphysitism.[4] He was a leader of the Jacobite miaphysite church, a group that taught the existence of a single subject in Christ, the Logos, and followed the theology of Saint Cyril of Alexandria (c. 375–444). He also contributed significantly to the Syriac literary heritage, particularly with the Philoxenian New Testament based on the original Greek text.
Saint Ambrose of Milan
Aurelius Ambrosius, better known in English as Saint Ambrose (c. 340 – 4 April 397), was a bishop of Milan, Italy who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the 4th century. He was consular prefect of Liguria and Emilia (North-western Italy), headquartered in Milan, before being made bishop of Milan by popular acclamation in 374. Ambrose was a staunch opponent of Arianism.[5]
Ambrose was one of the four original doctors of the Church, and is the patron saint of Milan. He is notable for his influence on Saint Augustine.
Saint Athanasius
Saint Athanasius (297?-373). Doctor of the Church. Born of Christian parents in Alexandria, Egypt, he was well educated, especially in scripture and theology, consulted the desert monks, including Saint Antony, and in 318 became a deacon. In 325, he attended the Council of Nicea, which condemned and excommunicated Arius for teaching that Christ was created in time and was only symbolically the Son of God, thus attacking the full meaning of the Incarnation and Redemption. Athanasius was chosen Bishop of Alexandria and began the direction not only of the great city, but of all the hermit fathers and also of Ethiopia.
His major works were apparently produced in exile: Apologia to Constantius, Defense of Flight, Letter to the Monks, and his History of the Arians. While the author of the Athanasian Creed was probably an obscure and unknown cleric, its tenets are those reiterated by Athanasius in letters, sermons, and books. His Feast Day is May 2.
Saint Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo (Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, Saint Austin, Blessed Augustine, and the Doctor of Grace, was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. He was the bishop of Hippo Regius (modern-day Annaba, Algeria), located in Numidia (Roman province of Africa). He is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era. Among his most important works are The City of God and Confessions.
Saint Basil the Great
Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great (329 or 330 – January 1 or 2, 379), was the Greek bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia, Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). He was an influential theologian who supported the Nicene Creed and opposed the heresies of the early Christian church, fighting against both Arianism and the followers of Apollinaris of Laodicea. His ability to balance his theological convictions with his political connections made Basil a powerful advocate for the Nicene position.
In addition to his work as a theologian, Basil was known for his care of the poor and underprivileged. Basil established guidelines for monastic life which focus on community life, liturgical prayer, and manual labor. Together with Pachomius, he is remembered as a father of communal monasticism in Eastern Christianity. He is considered a saint by the traditions of both Eastern and Western Christianity.
Saint Caesarius of Arles
Caesarius of Arles, sometimes called “of Chalon” from his birthplace Chalon-sur-Saône, was the foremost ecclesiastic of his generation in Merovingian Gaul (Eastern France). Caesarius is considered to be of the last generation of church leaders of Gaul that worked to promote large-scale ascetic elements into the Western Christian tradition. Caesarius had the reputation of a popular preacher of great fervor and enduring influence. Among those who exercised the greatest influence on Caesarius were Saint Augustine of Hippo, Julianus Pomerius,[6] and Saint John Cassian.[7]
Saint Clement of Alexandria
Titus Flavius Clemens (c. 150 – c. 215), known as Clement of Alexandria to distinguish him from the earlier Clement of Rome, was a Christian theologian who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. A convert to Christianity, he was an educated man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy and literature. As his three-major works demonstrate, Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other Christian thinker of his time, and in particular by Plato and the Stoics. His secret works, which exist only in fragments, suggest that he was also familiar with pre-Christian Jewish esotericism and Gnosticism. In one of his works, he argued that Greek philosophy had its origin among non-Greeks, claiming that both Plato and Pythagoras were taught by Egyptian scholars. Among his pupils were Origen and Saint Alexander of Jerusalem.
Saint Cyprian of Carthage
Cyprian (c. 200 – September 14, 258 AD) was bishop of Carthage and an important Early Christian writer, many of whose Latin works are extant. He was born around the beginning of the 3rd century in North Africa, perhaps at Carthage, where he received a classical education. Soon after converting to Christianity, he became a bishop in 249. A controversial figure during his lifetime, his strong pastoral skills, firm conduct during the Novatianist heresy[8] and outbreak of the plague, and eventual martyrdom at Carthage vindicated his reputation and proved his sanctity in the eyes of the Church. His skillful Latin rhetoric led to his being considered the pre-eminent Latin writer of Western Christianity until Jerome and Augustine.
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 313 – 386 AD) was a distinguished theologian of the early Church. He is venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. In 1883, Cyril was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII. He is highly respected in the Palestinian Christian Community.
About the end of 350, he succeeded Maximus as Bishop of Jerusalem, but was exiled on more than one occasion due to the enmity of Acacius of Caesarea,[9] and the policies of various emperors. Cyril left important writings documenting the instruction of catechumens and the order of the Liturgy in his day.
Saint Ephrem the Syrian
Ephrem the Syrian (306 – 373), also known as Saint Ephrem, Ephrem of Edessa or Aprem of Nisibis, was a prominent Christian theologian and writer, who is revered as one of the most notable hymnographers of Eastern Christianity. He was born in Nisibis, Turkey, served as a deacon and later lived in Edessa. Ephrem is venerated as a saint by all traditional Churches. He is especially revered in Syriac Christianity, both in East Syriac tradition and West Syriac tradition, and also counted as a Venerable Father (i.e., a sainted Monk) in the Eastern Orthodox Church. His Feast Day is celebrated on 28 January and on the Saturday of the Venerable Fathers. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in the Roman Catholic Church in 1920. Ephrem wrote a wide variety of hymns, poems, and sermons in verse, as well as prose exegesis. These were works of practical theology for the edification of the Church in troubled times. So popular were his works, that, for centuries after his death, Christian authors wrote hundreds of pseudepigraphal works in his name. He has been called the most significant of all of the fathers of the Syriac-speaking church tradition.
Saint Gregory of Nazianzus
Saint Gregory (ca. 330 – 389), the second of the three great Cappadocian Fathers, was the close friend of the other two, Basil of Caesarea especially, and Basil’s brother Gregory of Nyssa. He was born in Arianz, Turkey, not far from Nazianz. His father, Gregory also, had been a member of a heretical Hypsistarian[10] sect, but soon after his conversion he was made Bishop of Nazianz, so it was really the older Gregory who was rightly called Gregory of Nazianz.
Gregory was a gentle and peaceful man. Most of his life was spent quietly out of the public eye. The loftiness of his writing and the acuity of his theological insights, as exemplified in his Orations, are virtually unparalleled. Not prolific but extraordinarily profound, he alone among the Fathers is given Saint John’s title, the Divine, i.e., the Theologian.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa
Gregory of Nyssa, also known as Gregory Nyssen (c. 335 – c. 395), was bishop of Nyssa from 372 to 376 and from 378 until his death. He is venerated as a saint in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, and Anglicanism. Gregory, his elder brother Saint Basil of Caesarea, and their friend Saint Gregory of Nazianzus are collectively known as the Cappadocian Fathers.
Saint Hilary of Poitiers
Hilary (Hilarius) of Poitiers (c. 310 – c. 367) was Bishop of Poitiers and is a Doctor of the Church. He was sometimes referred to as the “Hammer of the Arians” and the “Athanasius of the West.” His name comes from the Latin word for happy or cheerful. His optional memorial in the General Roman Calendar is 13 January. In the past, when this date was occupied by the Octave Day of the Epiphany, his Feast Day was moved to 14 January.
Saint Ignatius of Antioch
Ignatius of Antioch (c.35 – c.108), also known as Ignatius Theophorus (lit. “the God-bearing”), Ignatius Nurono (lit. “The fire-bearer”) was an Apostolic Father, student of the Apostle John, and the third bishop of Antioch. Enroute to Rome, where he met his martyrdom by being fed to wild beasts, he wrote a series of seven letters which have been preserved as an example of very early Christian theology. Important topics addressed in these letters include ecclesiology, the sacraments, and the role of bishops. In speaking of the authority of the Church he coined the phrase ‘Catholic Church’, still in use to this day.
Saint Innocent I
Innocent I became pope on December 22, 401. His pontificate was marked by his emphasis on papal supremacy, as when he commanded the African bishops who had condemned Pelagianism[11] at the councils of Carthage and Melevis in 416 and then referred their decision to the Pope for confirmation. He also fought the unjust removal of Saint John Chrysostom from his see, and for the celibacy of the clergy. In 410, Rome was captured and sacked by the Goths under Alaric I (c. 370 – 410), although Saint Innocent was in Ravenna at the time, seeking aid from Emperor Honorius to resist the Goths. He died in Rome on March 12, 417. Conditions after the fall of the city were so grave that there was a widespread hostility towards Christians, who were blamed for the national disaster. These charges by the pagans led Saith Augustine to write the City of God. Innocent’s Feast Day is July 28.
Saint Irenaeus of Lyon
Irenaeus early 2nd century – c. AD 202), also referred to as Saint Irenaeus, was Bishop of Laudanum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire (now Lyon, France). He was an early Church Father and apologist, and his writings were formative in the early development of Christian theology. A resident of Smyrna,[12] Greece. he heard the preaching of Saint Polycarp, a disciple of Saint John the Evangelist.
Irenaeus’ best-known book, Adversus Haereses or Against Heresies (c. 180), is a detailed attack on Gnosticism,[13] which was then a serious threat to the Church, and especially on the system of the Gnostic Valentinus.[14] As one of the first great Christian theologians, he emphasized the traditional elements in the Church, especially the episcopate, Scripture, and tradition. Against the Gnostics, who said that they possessed a secret oral tradition from Jesus himself, Irenaeus maintained that the bishops in different cities are known as far back as the Apostles and that the bishops provided the only safe guide to the interpretation of Scripture. His polemical work is credited for laying out the “orthodoxies of the Christian church, its faith, its preaching and the books that it held as sacred authority.” His writings, with those of Clement and Ignatius, are taken as among the earliest signs of the doctrine of the primacy of the Roman see. Irenaeus is the earliest witness to recognition of the canonical character of all four gospels.
Saint Jerome
Jerome (c. 347 – 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a presbyter, confessor, theologian and historian. He was the son of Eusebius, born at Stridon, a village near Emona on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia, then part of northeastern Italy. He is best known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin (the translation that became known as the Vulgate), and his commentaries on the Gospels. His list of writings is extensive.
The protégé of Pope Damasus I, who died in December of 384, Jerome was known for his teachings on Christian moral life, especially to those living in cosmopolitan centers such as Rome. In many cases, he focused his attention to the lives of women and identified how a woman devoted to Jesus should live her life. This focus stemmed from his close patron relationships with several prominent female ascetics who were members of affluent senatorial families.He is recognized as a Saint and Doctor of the Church by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church, and the Anglican Communion.
Saint John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom (c. 349 – 407, Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders, the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, and his ascetic sensibilities. The epithet Χρυσόστομος (Chrysostomos, anglicized as Chrysostom) means “golden-mouthed” in Greek and denotes his celebrated eloquence.
He is honored as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches, as well as in some others. The Eastern Orthodox, together with the Byzantine Catholics, hold him in special regard as one of the Three Holy Hierarchs (alongside Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus). The feast days of John Chrysostom in the Eastern Orthodox Church are 13 November and 27 January. In the Roman Catholic Church, he is recognized as a Doctor of the Church and commemorated on 13 September. Other churches of the Western tradition, including some Anglican provinces and some Lutheran churches, also commemorate him on 13 September. However, certain Lutheran churches and Anglican provinces commemorate him on the traditional Eastern Feast Day of 27 January. The Coptic Church also recognizes him as a saint.
Saint Justin Martyr
Saint Justin, also known as Justin Martyr was an early Christian apologist, and is regarded as the foremost interpreter of the theory of the Logos[15] in the 2nd century. He was martyred, alongside some of his students, and is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and a dialogue did survive. The First Apology, his most well-known text, passionately defends the morality of the Christian life, and provides various ethical and philosophical arguments to convince the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, to abandon the persecution of the fledgling sect.[16] Further, he also indicates, as St Augustine did regarding the “true religion” that predated Christianity, that the “seeds of Christianity” (manifestations of the Logos acting in history) actually predated Christ’s incarnation. This notion allows him to claim many historical Greek philosophers (including Socrates and Plato), in whose works he was well studied, as unknowing Christians.
Saint Leo the Great
Pope Saint Leo I (c. 400 –461), also known as Saint Leo the Great, was pope from 29 September 440 to his death on 10 November 461.
He was an Italian aristocrat, and was the first pope to have been called “the Great”. He is perhaps best known for having met Attila the Hun in 452 and persuading him to turn back from his invasion of Italy. He is also a Doctor of the Church, most remembered theologically for issuing the Tome of Leo, a document which was a major foundation to the debates of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. The Council of Chalcedon, the fourth ecumenical council, dealt primarily with Christology, and elucidated the orthodox definition of Christ’s being as the hypostatic union of two natures, divine and human, united in one person, “with neither confusion nor division”. It was followed by a major schism associated with Monophysitism,[17] Miaphysitism[18] and Dyophysitism. [19]
Saint Romanus the Melodist
Saint Romanus the Melodist was born around the year 490 in Emesa (today Homs) in Syria, as a Jew in Emesa not far from Beirut where after his baptism he later became deacon of the Church of the Resurrection and a priest at Constantinople. He may have seen the destruction of the Hagia Sophia [Church of Holy Wisdom] and its rebuilding during the time he flourished there. Through a miracle of the Theotokos he received the divine gift to write, compose, and recite hymns. He is reputed to have composed 1,000 hymns. As many as eighty [poetic] (metrical) sermons (kontakia, sg. Kontakion) (that utilize dialogical poetry) have come down to us under his name. These sermons were sung rather than preached during the liturgy, and frequently provide theological insights and Scriptural connections often unique to [him] Romanus. His Christology, closely associated with Justinian,) reflects the struggles against (the Monophysites) [those who denied that Jesus has two natures].
Saint Serapion of Antioch
Saint Serapion of Antioch (d. 211) was Bishop of Antioch from 199 to 211, he is known for three theological works mentioned by Eusebius, a letter against Montanism,[20] a treatise addressed to Domninus (who had abandoned Christianity), and a work warning that the Docetic gospel was erroneous. Feast Day October 30.
Tertullian
Tertullian (c. 155 – c. 240 AD), was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy, including contemporary Christian Gnosticism. Tertullian has been called “the father of Latin Christianity” and “the founder of Western theology.”
Though conservative, he did originate and advance new theology to the early Church. He is perhaps most famous for being the oldest extant Latin writer to use the term Trinity (Latin: Trinitas), though a similar word had been used earlier in Greek, and giving the oldest extant formulation of the Trinitarian terminology later adopted as the modified Nicene Creed at the 2nd Ecumenical Council, the First Council of Constantinople in 381, or as the Athanasian Creed, or both. Other Latin formulations that first appear in his work are “three persons, one substance” as the Latin “tres personae, una substantia” (itself from the Koine Greek “treis hypostases, homoousios”). He wrote his trinitarian formula after becoming a Montanist However, unlike many Church fathers, he was never recognized as a saint by the Church, as several of his teachings on issues such as remarriage for widows and fleeing from persecution (both of which he condemned) contradicted the teachings of the Church.
Theodore of Mopsuestia
Theodore of Mopsuestia (c. 350 – 428) was a Christian theologian, and Bishop of Mopsuestia (as Theodore II) from 392 to 428 AD. He is also known as Theodore of Antioch, from the place of his birth and presbyterate. He is the best-known representative of the middle School of Antioch of hermeneutics. He was ordained sometime between 383 and 386, was active against the Arians, Originists,[21] and Apollinarists,[22] and an opponent of Julian the Apostate. Theodore was widely recognized as an outstanding theologian and wrote exegetical commentaries on most books of the Bible, and theological treatises, among them, De sacramentis, De fide, De incarntione, Contra Eunomium, Contra magicam Artem, Contra allegoristas, and Deassumente et assumpto.
The Didache
The Didache or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, is a brief anonymous early Christian treatise, dated by most modern scholars to the first century. The first line of this treatise is “Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles (or Nations) by the Twelve Apostles”.
The text, parts of which constitute the oldest extant written catechism, has three main sections dealing with Christian ethics, rituals such as baptism and Eucharist, and Church organization. The opening chapters describe the virtuous Way of Life and the wicked Way of Death. The Lord’s Prayer is included in full. Baptism is by immersion or by affusion if immersion is not practical. Fasting is ordered for Wednesdays and Fridays. Two primitive Eucharistic prayers are given. Church organization seems to be underdeveloped. Itinerant apostles and prophets are important, serving as “chief priests” and possibly celebrating the Eucharist. Meanwhile, local bishops and deacons also have authority and seem to be taking the place of the itinerant ministry. The Didache is considered the first example of the genre of the Church Orders. More than any other Christian scripture, the Didache reveals how Jewish Christians saw themselves and adapted their practice for gentile Christians. The Didache is similar in several ways to the Gospel of Matthew, perhaps because both texts originated in similar communities. The opening chapters are likely derived from an earlier Jewish source, and they also appear in other early Christian texts.
The Didache is considered part of the category of second-generation Christian writings known as the Apostolic Fathers. The work was considered by some Church Fathers as part of the New Testament, while being rejected as spurious or non-canonical by others, and eventually was not accepted into the New Testament canon. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church “broader canon” includes the Didascalia, a work which draws on the Didache.
Lost for centuries, a Greek manuscript of the Didache was rediscovered in 1873 by Philotheos Bryennios, Metropolitan of Nicomedia in the Codex Hierosolymitanus. A Latin version of the first five chapters was discovered in 1900 by J. Schlecht.
Note: The biographies and information on the Didache were adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Commentaries on John 6:51-58:
John 6:51a: The Living Bread from Heaven
“But the Lord was not yet arrested. After having spoken thus, the Lord rose up from the place where He had made the Passover and had given His Body as food and His Blood as drink, and He went with His disciples to the place where He was to be arrested. But he ate of His own Body and drank of His own Blood, while He was pondering on the dead. With His own hands the Lord presented His own Body to be eaten, and before he was crucified, He gave His blood as drink; and He was taken at night on the fourteenth, and was judged until the sixth hour; and at the sixth hour they condemned Him and raised Him on the cross.” (Treatises 12.6).
“[Christ] took the bread and the cup, each in a similar fashion, and said: ‘This is My Body and this is My Blood.’ Not a figure of His body nor a figure of His blood, as some persons of petrified mind are wont to rhapsodize, but in truth the Body and the Blood of Christ, seeing that His body is from the earth, and the bread and wine are likewise from the earth.” (Apocriticus 3,23).
Saint Ambrose of Milan
Redeeming the People
“Before it be consecrated it is bread; but where the words of Christ come in, it is the Body of Christ. Finally, hear him saying: ‘All of you take and eat of this; for this is My Body.’ And before the words of Christ the chalice is full of wine and water; but where the words of Christ have been operative it is made the Blood of Christ, which redeems the people.” (The Sacraments 4.5.23).
How is it Possible for a Man to Carry Himself?
“’And he was carried in his own hands.’ But, brethren, how is it possible for a man to do this? Who can understand it? Who is it that is carried in his own hands? A man can be carried in the hands of another; but no one can be carried in his own hands. How this should be understood literally of David, we cannot discover; but we can discover how it is meant of Christ. For Christ was carried in his own hands, when, referring to his own Body, he said, ‘This is My Body.’ For He carried that Body in his hands.” (Psalm 33.1.10).
“Question: What is the fear with which the Body and Blood of Christ are to be received by us? A kind of certainty, or a kind of feeling?
Answer: The Apostle teaches us this fear when he says, ‘Anyone who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment upon himself.’ Certainty is effected by faith in the words of the Lord, when he says, ‘This is my Body, which is given for you, do this in remembrance of me.’” (Rules Briefly Treated 172).
Saint Caesarius of Arles
The Healing Eucharist
“As often as some infirmity overtakes a man, let him who is ill receive the Body and Blood of Christ.” (Sermons 13 (265), 3).
Saint Clement of Alexandria
A New Spiritual Diet
“God elaborates on a suitable and wholesome new diet for the newly-formed and newborn babe. He says it consists of the one who nourishes and who is the Father of all, that are generated and regenerated—just as manna, the celestial food of angels, flowed down from heaven on the ancient Hebrews…But when our kind and loving Father rained down the Word, He Himself, became spiritual nourishment to the good. This is a truly amazing mystery because, this is the kind of diet the Lord administers, He offers His flesh and pours out His blood so that nothing is lacking for His children’s growth. This is almost too much to take in! And then, we are to throw out the old and carnal corruption, our old diet, receiving in exchange a totally new diet — Christ Himself, as we ingest Him for Him to remain hidden there. Then with our Savior enshrined in our souls, as it were, we can correct the affections of our flesh.” (Christ the Educator 1.6)
A Praiseworthy and Excellent Gift
“The Bread of the Lord, indeed is two-fold. There is His corporeal Blood, by which we are redeemed from corruption; and His spiritual Blood, that with which we are anointed. That is to say, to drink the Blood of Jesus Christ is to share in his immortality. The strength of the Word is the Spirit, just as the blood is the strength of the body. Similarly, as wine is blended with water, so is the Spirit with man. The one, the Watered Wine, nourishes in faith, while the other, the Spirit, leads us on to immortality. The union of both, however, — of the drink and of the Word — is called the Eucharist, a praiseworthy and excellent gift. Those who partake of it in faith are sanctified in body and in soul. By the will of the Father, the divine mixture, man, is mystically united to the Spirit and in the Word.” (The Instructor of Children 2.2.19.4).
“He states demonstratively: ‘This is My Body,’ and ‘This is my Blood.’ Lest you might suppose the things that are seen are a figure. Rather, by some secret of the all-powerful God the things seen are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ, truly offered in a sacrifice which we, as participants, receive the life-giving and sanctifying power of Christ.” (Commentary on Matthew 26:27).
Sufficient to Sanctify Thousands
“Our Lord Jesus took in His hands what in the beginning was only bread; and He blessed it, and signed it, and made it holy in the name of the Father and in the name of the Spirit; and He broke it and in His gracious kindness He distributed it to all His disciples one by one. He called the bread His living Body, and did Himself fill it with Himself and the Spirit., And extending His hand, He gave them the Bread which His right hand had made holy: ‘Take, all of you eat of this; which My word has made holy. Do not now regard as bread that which I have given you; but take, eat this Bread, and do not scatter the crumbs; for what I have called My Body, that it is indeed. One particle from its crumbs is able to sanctify thousands and thousands, and is sufficient to afford life to those who eat of it. Take, eat, entertaining no doubt of faith, because this is My Body, and whoever eats it in belief eats in it Fire and Spirit. But if any doubter eat of it, for him it will be only bread. And whoever eats in belief the Bread made holy in My name, if he be pure, he will be preserved in his purity; and if he be a sinner, he will be forgiven.’ But if anyone despise it or reject it or treat it with ignominy, it may be taken as certainty that he treats with ignominy the Son, who called it and actually made it to be His Body.” (Homilies 4.4).
A Covenant New and Old
“After the disciples had eaten the new and holy Bread, and when they understood by faith that they had eaten of Christ’s body, Christ went on to explain and to give them the whole Sacrament. He took and mixed a cup of wine. The He blessed it, and signed it, and made it holy, declaring that it was His own Blood, which was about to be poured out…. Christ commanded them to drink, and He explained to them that the cup which they were drinking was His own Blood: ‘This is truly My Blood, which is shed for all of you. Take, all of you, drink of this, because it is a new covenant in My Blood. As you have seen Me do, do you also in My memory. Whenever you are gathered together in My name in Churches everywhere, do what I have done, in memory of Me. Eat My Body, and drink My Blood, a covenant new and old.” (Homilies 4.6)
The Sweet Unguent
“‘And your floors shall be filled with wheat, and the presses shall overflow equally with wine and oil.’ … This has been fulfilled mystically by Christ, who gave to the people whom He had redeemed, that is, to His Church, wheat and wine and oil in a mystic manner. For the wheat is the mystery of His sacred Body; and the wine His saving Blood; and again, the oil is the sweet unguent with which those who are baptized are signed, being clothed in the armaments of the Holy Spirit.” (On Joel 2:24).
“We see that the Savior took [something] in His hands, as it is in the Gospel, when He was reclining at the supper; and He took this, and giving thanks, He said: ‘This is really Me.’ And He gave to His disciples and said: ‘This is really Me.’ And we see that It is not equal nor similar, not to the incarnate image, not to the invisible divinity, not to the outline of His limbs. For It is round of shape, and devoid of feeling. As to Its power, He means to say even of Its grace, ‘This is really Me.’; and none disbelieves His word. For anyone who does not believe the truth in what He says is deprived of grace and of a Savior.” (The Man Well-Anchored 57).
Saint Irenaeus
The Perfect Bread from Heaven
“He might easily have come to us in His immortal glory, but in that case, we could never have endured the greatness of the glory; and therefore, it was that He, who was the perfect bread of the Father, offered Himself to us as milk, [because we were] as infants. He did this when He appeared as a man, that we, being nourished, as it were, from the breast of His flesh, and having, by such a course of milk nourishment, become accustomed to eat and drink the Word of God, may be able also to contain in ourselves the Bread of immortality, which is the Spirit of the Father.” (Against Heresies, Book IV, Chapter 38.1)
“Again, giving counsel to His disciples to offer to God the first-fruits from among his creatures, not as if he needed them, but so that they themselves might be neither unfruitful nor ungrateful. He took from among creation that which is bread, and gave thanks, saying, ‘This is My Body.’ The cup likewise, which is from among the creation to which we belong, he confessed to be his Blood.”
(Against Heresies, Book IV, Chapter 4.17.5)
“For thanksgiving is consistent with our opinion; and the Eucharist confirms our opinion. For we offer to Him those things which are his, declaring in a fit manner the gift and the acceptance of flesh and spirit. For as the bread from the earth, receiving the invocation of God, is no longer common bread but the Eucharist, consisting of two elements, earthly and heavenly, so also our bodies, when they receive the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible but have the hope of resurrection into eternity.” (Against Heresies, Book IV, Chapter 4.18.4)
Saint Cyprian of Carthage
One Body
“Thus the cup of the Lord is not indeed water alone, nor wine alone, unless each be mingled with the other; just as, on the other hand, the body of the Lord cannot be flour alone or water alone, unless both should be united and joined together and compacted in the mass of one bread; in which very sacrament our people are shown to be made one, so that in like manner as many grains, collected, and ground, and mixed together into one mass, make one bread; so in Christ, who is the heavenly bread, we may know that there is one body, with which our number is joined and united.” (Epistle 62,13).
Saint John Chrysostom
Power and Grace are from God
“It is not the power of man which makes what is put before us the Body and Blood of Christ, but the power of Christ Himself who was crucified for us. The priest standing there in the place of Christ says these words but their power and grace are from God. ‘This is My Body,’ he says, and these words transform what lies before him.” (Homilies on the Treachery of Judas 1,6).
Eyes of the Mind
“When the word says, ‘This is My Body,’ be convinced of it and believe it, and look at it with the eyes of the mind. For Christ did not give us something tangible, but even in His tangible things all is intellectual.” (Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 82.4)
Saint John Damascene
Perish the Thought!
“For those who partake worthily and have faith, it is for the remission of sin and for life everlasting, and a safeguard to soul and body….The Bread and the Wine are not a type of the Body and Blood of Christ,—perish the thought!—but the deified Body Itself of the Lord, since the Lord himself has said: ‘This is My Body,’ He did not say a type of His Body, but His Body; not a type of His Blood, but His Blood….If some have called the bread and wine antitypes of the Body and Blood of the Lord, as does the divinely inspired Basil, they said this not after the consecration but before the consecration, giving this name to the offering itself.” (The Source of Knowledge 3.4.13).
Saint Serapion of Antioch
Accept the thanksgiving of Your people
“‘Holy, holy, holy Lord Sabaoth, heaven and earth is full of Your glory.’ Heaven is full, and full is the earth with your magnificent glory, Lord of Virtues. Full also is this Sacrifice, with your strength and your communion; for to You we offer this living Sacrifice, this unbloody oblation.,
To you we offer this bread, the likeness of the Body of the Only-begotten. This bread is the likeness of His holy Body because the Lord Jesus Christ, on the night on which He was betrayed, took bread and broke it and gave to His disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat, this is My Body, which is being broken for you, unto the remission of sins.’ On this account too do we offer the Bread, to bring ourselves into the likeness of His death; and we pray: Reconcile us all, O God of truth, and be gracious to us. And just as this Bread was scattered over the mountains and when collected was made one, so too gather Your holy Church from every nation and every country and every city and village and house and make it one living Catholic Church.,
We offer also the cup, the likeness of His Blood, because the Lord Jesus Christ took the cup after He had eaten, and He said to His disciples, ‘Take, drink, this is the new covenant, which is My Blood which is being poured out for you unto the remission of sins.’ For this reason too we offer the chalice, to benefit ourselves by the likeness of His Blood. O God of truth, may Your Holy Logos come upon this Bread, that the Bread may become the Body of the Logos, and on this Cup, that the Cup may become the Blood of the Truth. And make all who communicate receive the remedy of life, to cure every illness and to strengthen every progress and virtue; not unto condemnation, O God of truth, nor unto disgrace and reproach!
For we invoke You, the Increate, through Your Only-begotten in the Holy Spirit. Be merciful to this people, sent for the destruction of evil and for the security of Your Church. We beseech You also on behalf of all the departed, of whom also this is the commemoration: – after the mentioning of their names: – Sanctify these souls, for You know them all; sanctify all who have fallen asleep in the Lord and count them among the ranks of Your saints and give them a place and abode in your kingdom. Accept also the thanksgiving of Your people and bless those who offer the oblations and the Thanksgivings, and bestow health and integrity and festivity and every progress of soul and body on the whole of this Your people through your Only-begotten Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit, as it was and is and will be in generations of generations and unto the whole expanse of the ages of ages. Amen.” (The Sacramentary of Serapion, Prayer of the Eucharistic Sacrifice 13.3-5).
Tertullian
Our Daily Bread
“Nevertheless, we had rather understand give us this day our daily bread in a spiritual sense, For Christ is our Bread, because Christ is Life, and bread is life. ‘I am,’ He said, “the Bread of Life;’ and shortly before: The Bread is the Word of the Living God, which comes down from heaven,’ And then, that His Body is included in the term bread: ‘This is my Body.’ In asking, therefore, for our daily bread, repetition for continued existence in Christ and indivisibility from his body.” (Prayer 6.2).
Theodore of Mopsuestia
Symbol or Reality?
“When [Christ] gave the bread he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my body,’ but, ‘This is my body.’ In the same way, when he gave the cup of his blood he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my blood,’ but, ‘This is my blood’; for he wanted us to look upon the [Eucharistic elements] after their reception of grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit not according to their nature, but receive them as they are, the body and blood of our Lord. We ought . . . not regard [the elements] merely as bread and cup, but as the body and blood of the Lord, into which they were transformed by the descent of the Holy Spirit” (Catechetical Homilies 5:1).
Council of Ephesus
“We will necessarily add this also. Proclaiming the death, according to the flesh, of the only-begotten Son of God, that is Jesus Christ, confessing his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven, we offer the unbloody sacrifice in the churches, and so go on to the mystical thanksgivings, and are sanctified, having received his holy flesh and the precious blood of Christ the Savior of us all. And not as common flesh do we receive it . . . but as truly the life-giving and very flesh of the Word himself.” (Session 1, Letter of Cyril to Nestorius).
John 6:51b: The Bread Jesus Gives Us is His Flesh
Saint Ambrose
Manna Still Rains Down from Heaven
“You asked me why the Lord God does not now rain down manna as He did on our fathers’ people. If you reflect, you will realize that He does, even daily, rain down manna from heaven upon His servants. In fact, a corporeal manna is found today in many places, but it is not now a matter of such great wonder, because that which is perfect has come. That which is perfect is the Bread from heaven, the Body from a virgin, of which the Gospel tells us with sufficiency. How much more excellent this is than what went before! Those who ate that manna, or bread, are dead, but he who eats this Bread will live forever…Whoever experiences this downpour of divine Wisdom is delighted, and, needing no other food, lives not on bread alone but on every word of God.”
(Letter 77, Ambrose to Irenaeus.)
Transformation
‘My Flesh is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink’ (Jn. 6:56). You hear Him speak of His Flesh and of His Blood, you perceive the sacred pledges (conveying to us the merits and power) of the Lord’s death, and you dishonor His Godhead? Hear His own words: ‘A spirit has not flesh and bones’ (Lk. 24:39). Now we, as often as we receive the Sacramental Elements, which by the mysterious efficacy of holy prayer are transformed into the Flesh and the Blood,’ ‘do show the Lord’s Death’ (1 Cor. 11:26). (To Gratian, On the Christian Faith, Bk. 4, Ch. 10.)
Saint Augustine of Hippo
As Beggars Before God We Ask for Bread
“You are God’s beggar. I mean, we are all God’s beggars when we pray. We are standing at the door of a great householder, or rather, lying prostrate, and begging with tears. We are longing to receive a gift—the gift of God himself. What does a beggar ask of you? Bread. And you, what do you ask of God, if not Christ, who said: ‘I am the living bread that has come down from heaven?’” (Sermon 83.2).
We Though Many, are One Body
“You ought to know what you have received, what you are going to receive, and what you ought to receive daily. That Bread which you see on the altar, consecrated by the word of God, is the Body of Christ. That chalice, or rather, what the chalice holds, consecrated by the word of God, is the Blood of Christ. Through those accidents the Lord wished to entrust to us His Body and the Blood which He poured out for the remission of sins. If you have received worthily, you are what you have received, for the Apostle says: The bread is one; we though many, are one body’ (1 Cor. 10:17). Thus, he explained the Sacrament of the Lord’s Table: ‘The bread is one; we though many, are one body: So by bread you are instructed as to how you ought to cherish unity. Was that bread made of one grain of wheat? Were there not, rather, many grains? However, before they became bread, these grains were separate; they were joined together in water after a certain amount of crushing.’” (Sermon, No. 227).
Crucified for Us
“’Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man,’ Christ says, ‘and drink Hisblood’, you have no life in you’ (Jn. 6:54). This seems to enjoin a crime or a vice; it is therefore a figure, enjoining that we should have a share in the sufferings of our Lord, and that we should retain a sweet and profitable memory of the fact that His flesh was wounded and crucified for us”. (On Christian Doctrine, Bk. 3, Ch. 16).
St. Cyril of Alexandria
The Flesh He Gives is Life Because It Transforms Our Flesh
“I die (He says) for all, that I may quicken all by myself, and I made my flesh a ransom for the flesh of all. For death shall die in my death, and with me shall rise again (He says) the fallen nature of man. For this became I like to you, man (that is) and of the seed of Abraham, that I might be made like in all things unto my brethren…. For no otherwise was it possible that he that hath the power of death should be destroyed, and death itself also, had not Christ given himself for us, a ransom, one for all, for he was in behalf of all.… But that Christ gave his own flesh for the life of the world, we shall know by his words also, for he says, ‘Holy Father keep them’; and again, ‘For their sakes I sanctify myself.’ He here says that he sanctifies himself, not aiding himself unto sanctification for the purification of the soul or spirit (as it is understood of us), nor yet for the participation of the Holy Ghost, for the Spirit was in him by nature, and he was and is holy always, and will be so ever.…Wherefore the Body of Christ gives life to all who partake of It. For it expels death, when it comes to be in dying men, and removes corruption, full in itself perfectly of the Word which abolishes corruption.” (Commentary on the Gospel of John 4.2)
John 6:52: How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Saint Augustine of Hippo
We are Many
“’My flesh,’ he says, ‘is for the life of the world.’ Believers know the Body of Christ if they do not neglect to be the Body of Christ. They can become the Body of Christ if they will live by the spirit of Christ. None lives by the spirit of Christ except the Body of Christ…The Body of Christ cannot live except by the spirit of Christ. That is why the Apostle Paul, explaining this bread, says, ‘One Bread and one Body, we are many.’ O Sacrament of piety! O sign of unity! O Bread of love! Anyone who wants to live has both where to live and whence to live. Let him draw near, let him believe, let him be embolden, that he may be made to live.” (Homilies on John 26-13).
Saint Ignatius of Antioch
The Medicine of Immortality
“Come together in common, one and all without exception in charity, in one faith and in one Jesus Christ, who is of the race of David according to the flesh, the Son of man and Son of God…and break one bread, which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote against death, enabling us to live forever in Jesus Christ.” (Epistle to the Ephesians 20).
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
They Were Scandalized
“Once when Christ was discoursing with the Jews, he said, ‘If you do not eat my Flesh and drink my Blood, you do not have life in you.’ Not hearing his words in a spiritual way, they were scandalized and went away to the hinterland believing that He had them to the eating of flesh.” (Catechetical Lectures, 22 Mystagogic 4.6).
Let Faith Confirm You
“Failing to understand his words spiritually, many [the Jews] were offended and drew back, thinking that the Savior was urging them to cannibalism. Then again in the old covenant there was the showbread. But that, since it belonged to the old covenant, has come to an end. In the new covenant there is the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation, which sanctify body and soul. For as bread corresponds to the body, so the Word is appropriate to the soul. So do not think of them as mere bread and wine. In accordance with the Lord’s declaration, they are body and blood. And if our senses suggest otherwise, let faith confirm you. Do not judge on the issue of taste, but on the basis of faith be assured beyond all doubt that you have been allowed to receive the body and blood of Christ.” (Mystagogical Lectures 4.4–6)
6:53 No Life Without the Flesh and Blood of the Son of Man
St. Cyril of Alexandria
The Mystery is Revealed to Those Who Believe
“And how He will give them His Flesh to eat, He tells them not as yet, for He knew that they were in darkness, and could never avail to understand the ineffable…For to them that have now believed there follows suitably the power too of learning… It was therefore right, that faith having been first rooted in them, there should next be brought in understanding of those things whereof they are ignorant, and that the investigation should not precede faith.
For this cause (I suppose) did the Lord with reason refrain from telling them how He would give them His Flesh to eat, and calls them to the duty of believing before seeking. For to them that had at length believed He broke bread, and gave to them, saying, Take, eat, This is My Body… Do you see how he does not explain the Mystery to those who had senselessly rejected the faith without investigation? But to those who believe, he declares it most clearly.” (Commentary on the Gospel of John 4.2)
6:54 Jesus’ Flesh and Blood Are for Eternal Life
Apollinaris of Laodicea
Nourishment for the Whole Human Race
“One cannot benefit from the Word of God for eternal life, except through his flesh. For until he was joined to the flesh, all flesh was held under the power of death. But now his life-giving flesh has been given. It nourishes the whole human race to life through the power suspended in it and joined in likeness to those who share the same physical nature,” (Fragments on John 28),
Philoxenus of Mabbug
Within the One Who Partakes
“Now, in as much as a sinner receives our Lord’s body and blood in faith, he is in our Lord, and our Lord is in him, as our Lord himself says, Where the Lord dwells, there is his Spirit too.” (On the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit)
Saint Augustine of Hippo
A Treasured Remembrance
“If a preceptive statement [in the Scriptures] forbids either vice or crime, or commands what is either useful or beneficial, it is not figurative. ‘Unless,” he says, ‘you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you.’ It seems to command crime or vice; therefore, it is a figure, prescribing that there be communication in the Lord’s passion and a grateful and salutary treasured remembrance that His flesh was crucified and wounded for us.” (Christian Instruction 3.16.24).
If You Do Not Eat
“Will anyone dare to make this statement, [‘Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood you shall not have life in you’], does not pertain to infants, and that without participating in his Body and Blood they can have life in themselves, on the grounds that he does not say: ‘Whoever does not eat,’ as when he says about Baptism: ‘Whoever is not reborn,’ but says instead; ‘If you do not eat,’ as if he were speaking to those who could hear and understand Him, which, of course, infants cannot do? But anyone who says this is not attentive of the fact that unless the statement embrace all, so that without the Body and Blood of the Son of Man they cannot have life, it is in vain even for those of more advanced years to be concerned about it.” (Forgiveness and the Just Deserts of Sins, and the Baptism of Infants 1.20.27).
Saint Cyprian of Carthage
Our Daily Bread
“As the prayer continues, we ask and say, ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’…And we ask that this bread be given us daily, so that we who are in Christ and daily receive the Eucharist as the food of salvation, may not, by falling into some more grievous sin and then in abstaining from communicating, be withheld from the heavenly Bread, and be separated from Christ’s Body…. He himself warns us, saying, ‘Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.’ Therefore do we ask that our Bread, which is Christ, be given to us daily, so that we who abide and live in Christ may not withdraw from his sanctification and from his Body.” (Treatise on the Lord’s Prayer 18).
Saint Cyril of Alexandria
Nature is Life
“Whoever eats the holy flesh of Christ has eternal life because his flesh has the Word which by nature is life.”(Commentary on the Gospel of John 4.2).
Saint Innocent I
Baptism is Necessary
“But that which Your Fraternity asserts the Pelagians preach, that even without the grace of Baptism infants are able to be endowed with the rewards of eternal life, is quite idiotic. For unless they shall have eaten the Flesh of the Son of Man and shall have drunk His Blood, they shall not have life in them. But those who defend this for them without rebirth seem to me to want to quash Baptism itself, when they preach that infants already have what is believed to be conferred on them only through Baptism.” (Letter of Pope Innocent I to the Fathers of the Council of Melevis; January 27, 417)
Saint Irenaeus of Lyon
Earthly and Heavenly Bread
“For we offer to him his own, announcing consistently the fellowship and union of the flesh and Spirit. For the bread that is produced from the earth, when it receives the invocation of God, is no longer common bread but the Eucharist, consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly, so also our bodies when they receive the Eucharist are no longer corruptible, having the hope of the resurrection to eternity.” (Against Heresies 4.18.5)’
Saint Jerome
The Two Ways
“The flesh and blood of Christ is understood in two ways; there is either the spiritual and divine way, by which He himself said: ‘My flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink’; and ‘Unless you shall have eaten my flesh and drunk my blood you shall not have eternal life.’ Or else there is the flesh and blood which was crucified and which was poured out by the soldier’s lance.” (Commentaries on the Epistle to the Ephesians 1.1.7).
Saint Leo the Great
Amen
“When the Lord says: ‘Unless you shall have eaten the flesh of the Son of Man and shall have drunk his blood, you shall not have life in you,’ you ought to so communicate at the Sacred Table that you have no doubt whatever of the truth of the Body and Blood of Christ. For that which is taken in the mouth is what is believed in faith; and in vain do those respond, ‘Amen,’ who argue against that which is received.” (Sermon 91.3).
6:55 True Food and Drink
Saint Athanasius
There is Only Bread and Wine
“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.” (Sermon to the Newly Baptized).
Saint Augustine of Hippo
Real Satisfaction
“Or think of it this way: Whereas people desire meat and drink to satisfy hunger and thirst, real satisfaction is produced only by that meat and drink, which make the receivers of it immortal and incorruptible. He’s talking here about the fellowship of the saints, where there is peace and unity, full and perfect. Therefore…our Lord has chosen for the types of his body and blood things that became one out of many. Bread is a quantity of grains united into one mass, wine a quantity of grapes squeezed together. Then he explains what it is to eat his body and to drink his blood. ‘He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him.’ So then to partake of that meat and to drink that drink is to dwell in Christ, and Christ in you. Whoever does not dwell in Christ, and in whom Christ does not dwell, neither eats his flesh [spiritually] nor drinks his blood; rather, he eats and drinks the sacrament of it to his own judgement.” (Tractate on the Gospel of John 26.17-18).
Saint Basil the Great
Daily Communication
“To communicate each day and to partake of the holy Body and Blood of Christ is good and beneficial; for He says quite plainly: ‘He that eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life.’ Who can doubt that to share continually in life is the same thing as having life abundantly?” (Letter of Basil to a Patrician Lady Caesaria, ca. 372).
Saint Clement of Alexandria
The Incredible Mystery
“She is at once Virgin and Mother: as a Virgin undefiled; as a Mother full of love.
Calling her children about her, she nourishes them with holy milk, that is, with the Infant Word… The Word is everything for a child: both Father and Mother, both Instructor and Nurse. ‘Eat my flesh,’ He says, ‘and drink My Blood.’ The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutriments. He delivers over his Flesh, and pours out his Blood; and nothing is lacking for the growth of his children. O incredible mystery!” (The Instructor of Children 1.6.41.3).
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
Pomp of the Devil
“For just as the bread and the wine of the Eucharist before the holy invocation of the adorable Trinity were simple bread and wine, but the invocation having been made, the bread becomes the Body of Christ and the wine the Blood of Christ, so that in the same way such foods belonging to the pomp of Satan, though in their own nature simple, become profane by the invoking of demons.”
(Catechetical Lectures 19 Mystagogic 1.7).
Who Will Dare Any Longer To Doubt?
The one teaching of the blessed Paul is enough to give you complete certainty about the Divine Mysteries, by your having been deemed worthy of which, you have become united in body and blood with Christ. For Paul proclaimed that: ‘On the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus Christ, taking bread and giving thanks, broke it and Gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take, eat, This is my Body.’ And taking the cup and giving thanks, He said, ‘Take, drink, This is my Blood.’ He himself therefore, having declared and said of the Bread, ‘This is my Body,’ who will dare any longer to doubt? And when He himself has affirmed and said, ‘This is my Blood,’ who can ever hesitate and say it is not his Blood?” (Catechetical Lectures 22 Mystagogic 4.1).
The Wedding Guests
“Once in Cana of Galilee He changed the water into wine, a thing related to blood; and is his changing of wine not credible? When invited to an ordinary marriage, with a miracle He performed that glorious deed. And is it not much more to be confessed that he has bestowed his Body and his Blood upon the wedding guests.” (Catechetical Lectures 22 Mystagogic 4.2).
Sanctified and Changed
“Then, having sanctified ourselves by these spiritual songs, we call on the benevolent God to send out the Holy Spirit upon the gifts which have been laid out: that He may make the bread the Body of Christ, and the wine the Blood of Christ; for whatever the Holy Spirit touches, that is sanctified and changed.” (Catechetical Lectures 23 Mystagogic 5.7).
Saint Hilary of Poitiers
We are one, Because the Father is in Christ and Christ is in us.
“If in truth the Word has been made flesh and we in very truth receive the Word made flesh as food from the Lord, are we not bound to believe that He abides in us naturally? [Jesus] born as a man, has assumed the nature of our flesh now inseparable from Himself, and has conjoined the nature of His own flesh to the nature of the eternal Godhead in the sacrament by which His flesh is communicated to us? For so are we all one, because the Father is in Christ and Christ in us.… And so, if indeed Christ has taken to Himself the flesh of our body, and that Man Who was born froth Mary was induced Christ, and we indeed receive in a mystery the flesh of His body–(and for this cause we shall be one, because the Father is in Him and He in us), — how can a unity of will be maintained, seeing that the special property of nature received through the sacrament is the sacrament of a perfect unity?…For as to what we say concerning the reality of Christ’s nature within us, unless we have been taught by Him, our words are foolish and impious. For He says himself, ‘My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.’ As to the verity of the flesh and blood there is no room left for doubt. For now, both from the declaration of the Lord Himself and our own faith, it is verily flesh and verily blood. And these when eaten and drunk, bring it to pass that both we are in Christ and Christ in us. Is not this true? Yet they who affirm that Christ Jesus is not truly God are welcome to find it false. He therefore Himself is in us through the flesh and we in Him, whilst together with Him our own selves are in God.” (On the Trinity 8.13-14).
Saint Irenaeus of Lyon
Our flesh is Increased
“When, therefore, the mixed cup and the baked bread receives the Word of God and becomes the Eucharist, the Body of Christ, and from these the substances of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they say that the flesh is not capable of receiving the gift of God, which is eternal life — flesh which is nourished by the Body and Blood ou the Lord, and is in fact a member of Him? (Against Heresies 8.2.3).
Saint John Chrysostom
Real Eating
“Either he means to say that the true food was he who saved the soul. Or, he means to assure them that what he had said was no mere enigma or parable but that you must really eat the body of Christ.” (Homilies on the Gospel of John 47.1).
Saint Justin the Martyr
We Call this Food Eucharist
“We call this food Eucharist; and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration, and is thereby living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nourished, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.” (First Apology 66).
6:56 Jesus’ Flesh and Blood Unite Us
Saint Ambrose of Milan
A Spirit Has Not Flesh and Bones
“’My Flesh is truly food, and my Blood is truly drink.’ You hear Him speak of his flesh, you hear him speak of his blood, you know the sacred signs of the Lord’s death; and you worry about his divinity? Hear His words when he says: ‘A spirit has not flesh and bones.’ As often as we receive the sacramental elements which through the mystery of the sacred prayer are transformed into the flesh and blood of the Lord, we proclaim the death of the Lord.” (The Faith 4.10.124).
Saint Cyril of Alexandria
One With Christ
“For as if one should join wax with other wax, he will surely see (I suppose) the one in the other; in like manner (I deem) he who receives the Flesh of our Savior Christ and drinks his precious blood…shall be one with him.” (Commentary on the Gospel of John 4.2).
Eat and Drink of the Wine Who is Life
“O sublime condescension. The creator gives himself to his creatures for their delight. Life bestows itself on mortals as food and drink. “Come eat my body, He exhorts us,
And drink the wine I have mingled for you. I have prepared myself as food. I have mingled myself for those who desire me. Of my own will I became flesh and have become a partaker of your flesh and blood.…Eat of me as I am life, and live. For this is what I desire…. Eat my bread, for I am the life-giving grain of the wheat, and I am the bread of life. Drink the wine I have mingled for you, for I am the draught of immortality…. I am the true vine; drink my joy, the wine I have mingled for you.” (Meditation on the Mystical Supper 10).
The Only-Begotten
“The Savior himself declares, ‘Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks my Blood abides in me and I in him.’ By this statement it is to be seen that Christ does not say he will be in us only after the fashion of some relation that is solely intellectual, but also through the participation truly according to nature. Just as if someone were to entwine two pieces of wax together and melt them with a fire, so that both are made one, so too through participation in the Body of Christ and in his Precious Blood, he is turned in us and we too in him. In no other way can that corruptible nature be vivified except by being united bodily to the Body of Him who is, by his very nature, life: that is, the Only-begotten.” (Commentary on John 10, 2 on John 15:1).
Origin
Formally Manna, Now True Food
“Formally, in an obscure way, there was manna for food; now, however, in full view, there is the true food, the Flesh of the Word of God, as he himself says: ‘My Flesh is truly food, and my Blood is truly drink.’” (Homilies on Numbers [post 244]).
John 6:57 The Living Father Sent Christ
Saint Augustine of Hippo
To Eat Christ?
“The Lord and master was inviting his slaves, and the food he had prepared for them was himself. Who would ever dare to eat his own Lord and master? And yet he said, ‘Whoever eats me lives because of me.’ When Christ is eaten, life is eaten. Not is he killed in order to be eaten, but he brings life to the dead. When he is eaten, he nourishes without diminishing, So do not be afraid, brothers and sisters, of eating this bread, in case we should possibly finish it and find nothing to eat on. Let Christ be eaten; when eaten he lives because when slain he rose again.” (Sermon 133A.1).
Saint Cyril of Alexandria
The Word Became Flesh
“’And he that eats Me,’ He says, ‘that person shall live.’ But we eat, not assimilating the divinity—away with such folly! —but the flesh proper to the Word, which has become life-giving because it became His, who lives by the Father.” (Memorials on the True Faith 4.5).
Saint Gregory of Nazianzus
The Shared Being of the Father and the Son
“All things that the Father has are the Son’s. On the other hand, all that belongs to the Son is the Father’s. Nothing then is unique to either one, because all things are in common. For their being [essence] itself is common and equal, even though the Son receives it from the Father. It is in this respect…that it is said, ‘I live by the Father,’ not as through his life and being were kept together by the Father but because he has his being from him beyond all time and beyond all cause.” (On the Son, Theological Oration 4 (30).11).
Saint Hilary of Poitiers
The Nature of Christ
“Yet can lifeless copies be put on a level with their living originals? Painted or carved or molten effigies with the nature which they imitate? The Son is not the Image of the Father after such a fashion as this; He is the living Image of the Living. The Son that is born of the Father has a nature in no way different from his; and, because His nature is not different, He possesses the power of that nature which is the same as his own. The fact that he is the Image proves that God the Father is the author of the birth of the Only-Begotten, who is himself revealed as the Likeness and Image of the invisible God. And hence the likeness, which is joined in union with the Divine nature, is indelibly his, because the powers of that nature are inalienably his own. (On the Trinity 7.37).
Christ’s Nature in Us
“When we speak of the reality of Christ’s nature being in us, we would be speaking foolishly and impiously—had we not learned it from him. For he himself says: ‘My Flesh is truly food, and my Blood is truly drink. He that eats My Flesh and drinks my Blood remain in me and I in him.’ As to the reality of his Flesh and Blood, there is no room left for doubt, because now, both by the declaration of the Lord himself and by our own faith, it is truly Flesh and truly Blood. And these Elements bring about, when taken and consumed, that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Is this not true? Let those who deny that Jesus Christ is true God be free to find these things untrue. But He himself is in us through the flesh and we are in him, while that which we are with him is in God.” (On the Trinity 8.14).
Christ has the Father within Himself
“He lives through the Father in like manner we live through His flesh. For all comparison is chosen to shape our understanding, so that we may grasp the subject of which we treat by help of the analogy set before us. This is the cause of our life that we have Christ dwelling within our carnal selves through the flesh, and we shall live through Him in the same manner as He lives through the Father. If, then, we live naturally through Him according to the flesh, that is, have partaken of the nature of His flesh, must He not naturally have the Father within Himself according to the Spirit since He Himself lives through the Father? And He lives through the Father because His birth has not implanted in Him an alien and different nature inasmuch as His very being is from Him yet is not divided from Him by any barrier of an unlikeness of nature, for within Himself He has the Father through the birth in the power of the nature.” (On the Trinity 8.16).
Saint John Chrysostom
Not Only Life, But Life Eternal
“The life of which He speaks is not life merely, but the excellent life; for that He spoke not simply of life, but of that glorious and ineffable life, is clear from this. For all men live, even unbelievers, and uninitiated, who eat not of that flesh. Do you see that the words relate not to this life, but to that other? And what He says is of this kind: He that eats My flesh, when he dies shall not perish nor suffer punishment; He spoke not of the general resurrection, (for all alike rise again,) but concerning the special, the glorious Resurrection, that which has a reward.” (Homilies on the Gospel of John 47.1).
John 6:58
Saint Ignatius of Antioch
Real Presence
“They hold aloof from the Eucharist and from services of prayer, because they refuse to admit that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins and which, in his goodness, the Father raised. Consequently, those who wrangle and dispute God’s gift face death.” (Letter to the to the Smyrnaeans 9).
Saint John Chrysostom
Eat This Bread and Live Forever
“This is that bread which came down from heaven; not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead; he that eats of this bread shall live forever.
Continually, He reminds them of the manna, showing the difference, (between it and His bread,) and guiding them to the faith; for if He was able to support their life for forty years without harvest, or grain, or other things in course; much more now will He be able to do so, as having come for greater ends. Moreover, if those things were but types, and yet men collected what came down without sweat or labor; much more shall this be the case, where the difference is great both in the never dying, and in the enjoying the true life. And rightly has He spoken often of life, since this is desired by men, and nothing is so pleasing to them as not to die. Since even under the old Covenant, this was the promise, length of life and many days, but now it is not length merely, but life having no end. He desires at the same time to show, that He now revokes the punishment caused by sin, annulling that sentence which condemns to death, and bringing in not life merely, but life eternal, contrariwise to the former things.” (Homilies on the Gospel of John 47.1-2).
Saint Romanus the Melodist
The Heavenly Bread of Immortality:
“All the angels on high marvel at the affairs of earth.
For each-born men dwelling here below’
Are exalted in spirit and teach what is on high
As they share in Christ, Crucified.
For all together partake of His body,
As they eagerly come to the bread of life,
They hope for eternal salvation from it.
Even though visibly, to all appearances, it is bread.
It sanctifies them spiritually because it is
The heavenly bread of immortality.
That bread which we take is the flesh of the Immanuel,
The Master Himself was the first to teach us;
For when He voluntarily went to His Passion,
Christ broke the bread of salvation,
And said to His Apostles, as it is written:
‘Now draw near; eat of this,
And eating you will receive eternal life,
For this is my flesh, this food,
Since really, I whom you behold, am
The Heavenly bread of immortality.
We all know, we who possess complete faith in Christ,
That as we approach, eager for the mystic bread
And in addition, take the cup of salvation,
If we are of pure heart and without dissimulation
We are all participants of the flesh and blood
Of Christ with faith in Him, and we hope
From this a life that of the angels;
For, in very truth, the body of the One who suffered,
The very body of Jesus Christ is
The heavenly bread of immortality.”
(Kontakion on the Multiplication of Loaves 13.1-3).
The Didache
But as touching the eucharistic thanksgiving give ye thanks thus.
First, as regards the cup:
We give Thee thanks, O our Father, for the holy vine of Thy son David, which Thou made known unto us through Thy Son Jesus;
Thine is the glory forever and ever.
Then as regards the broken bread:
We give Thee thanks, O our Father, for the life and knowledge which Thou didst make known unto us through Thy Son Jesus;
Thine is the glory forever and ever.
As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains and being gathered together became one, so may Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom;
for Thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever and ever.
But let no one eat or drink of this eucharistic thanksgiving, but they that have been baptized into the name of the Lord;
for concerning this also the Lord hath said:
Give not that which is holy to the dogs. (Chapter 9.1-12).
[1] The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Council of Trent, Thirteenth Session, 11 October 1551, Chapters 1-6, Canons 1-11.
[3] Shapur II (309 – 379), also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran. The longest-reigning monarch in Iranian history, he reigned for his entire 70-year life from 309 to 379. Shapur II pursued a harsh religious policy. Under his reign, the collection of the Avesta, the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, was completed, heresy and apostasy were punished, and Christians were persecuted. The latter was a reaction against the Christianization of the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great.
[4] Miaphysitism is the Christological doctrine upheld by the Oriental Orthodox Churches, which include the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Syriac Orthodox Church, and the Armenian Apostolic Church. Rather than using the wording established at the Council of Chalcedon (451) that Jesus is one “person” (in Greek ὑπόστασις hypostasis) in two “natures” (in Greek φύσεις physeis), a divine nature and a human nature, they hold that Jesus, the “Incarnate Word, is fully divine and fully human, in one physis.” While historically a major point of controversy within Christianity, several modern declarations by both Chalcedonian and Miaphysite churches state that the difference between the two Christological formulations is essentially semantic and does not reflect any significant difference in belief about the nature of Christ.
[5] Arianism is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (c. 256–336), a Christian presbyter in Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God the Father. The Arian concept of Christ is based on the belief that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten within time by God the Father, therefore Jesus was not co-eternal with God the Father. Arianism holds that the Son is distinct from the Father and therefore subordinate to Him. The term Arian is derived from the name Arius; it was not what the followers of Arius’s teachings called themselves, but rather a term used by outsiders. The nature of Arius’s teachings and his supporters were opposed to the theological doctrines held by Homoousion Christians, regarding the nature of the Trinity and the nature of Christ.
[6] Julianus Pomerius was a priest in fifth century Gaul. He wrote five treatises, only one of which, De Vita Contemplativa, survives. He was renowned in rhetoric and grammar. He became an abbot and a teacher of rhetoric at Arles.
[7] John Cassian, also known as John the Ascetic and John Cassian the Roman (360 – c. 435), was a Christian monk and theologian celebrated in both the Western and Eastern churches for his mystical writings
[8] Novatianism was a Christian “heresy” originating in the third century, based on the teachings of the antipope Novatian, who was elected in opposition to the more lenient policy of Pope Cornelius (251-253) regarding the forgiveness of apostate Christians who had been willing to commit the sin of idolatry under persecution.
[9] Acacius of Caesarea was a Christian bishop probably originating from Syria; Acacius was the pupil and biographer of Eusebius and his successor on the see of Caesarea Palestina. Acacius is remembered chiefly for his bitter opposition to Cyril of Jerusalem and for the part he was afterwards enabled to play in the more acute stages of the Arian controversy. The Acacian theological movement is named after him. In the twenty-first oration of St. Gregory Nazianzen, the author speaks of Acacius as being “the tongue of the Arians”.
[10] Hypsistarians or worshippers of the Hypsistos , i.e. of the “Most High” God ; a distinct Jewish – pagan sect which flourished from about 200 B.C. to about A.D. 400, mostly in Asia Minor (Cappadocia Bithynia, Pontus ) and on the South Russian coasts of the Euxine Sea.
[11]Pelagianismis a heterodox Christian theological position that holds that the original sin did not taint human nature and that humans have the free will to achieve human perfection without divine grace.
[12] The modern name of the city is Izmir.
[13] Gnosticism was a prominent heretical movement of the 2nd-century Christian Church, partly of pre-Christian origin. Gnostic doctrine taught that the world was created and ruled by a lesser divinity, the demiurge, and that Christ was an emissary of the remote supreme divine being, esoteric knowledge (gnosis) of whom enabled the redemption of the human spirit.
[14] Valentinus (also spelled Valentinius; (c. 100 – c. 160) was the best known and, for a time, most successful early Christian Gnostic theologian. He founded his school in Rome. Valentinus was a candidate for bishop but started his own group when another was chosen.
[15] In Christology, the Logos (Greek: Λόγος, lit. ”Word”, “Discourse”, or “Reason”) is a name or title of Jesus Christ, derived from the prologue to the Gospel of John “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”, as well as in the Book of Revelation, “And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.” These passages have been important for establishing the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus since the earliest days of Christianity.
[16] It is clear that the reign of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (emperor from 161 to 180) was extremely hostile to Christianity. Christians suffered from systematic persecution. Aurelius felt that the prevalence of Christianity was incompatible with his ideal of Roman prosperity. The governors were ordered merely to punish sacrilege, and, under Aurelius, Christianity was regarded as such. It is true that the persecutions indicated by Celsus (Origen, Celsus, viii. 69), Justin, Melito (in Eusebius, H.E., iv. 26), Athenagoras (Libellus pro Christianis) and the Acts of Matyrs, were greatly in excess of those recorded in previous reigns.
[17] Monophysitism is an error concerning the nature of Christ that asserts Jesus had only one nature and not two as is taught in the correct doctrine of the hypostatic union: Jesus is both God and man in one person. In monophysitism, the single nature was divine and not human.
[18] Miaphysitism understands Christ as having only one nature— but that this nature includes both humanity and divinity.
[19] Dyophysitism understands Christ as having two natures that exist in one person. This is the position of the council of Chalcedon (451), the Roman Catholic Church and many Protestant churches.
[20] Montanism, known by its adherents as the New Prophecy, was an early Christian movement of the late 2nd century, later referred to by the name of its founder, Montanus. Montanism held views about the basic tenets of Christian theology similar to those of the wider Christian Church, but it was labelled a heresy for its belief in new prophetic revelations.
[21] The Origenist controversy began in the monasteries of Palestine, where Origen’s work was interpreted in a radically Platonic sense, exalting the incorporeal while disparaging the flesh, and veering off into manifest heresy on several points, particularly regarding the Incarnation and Resurrection. In reaction to this denial of God Incarnate, other monks adopted an equally heretical notion called Anthropomorphism, ascribing a human form to God as God.
[22] Apollinarianism was a fourth-century Christian heresy that plagued the early church and that denied the full humanity and perfection of Jesus Christ. It is named after Apollinaris the Younger, who was bishop of the Laodicean church and who originated the teaching c. AD 361.