The Lord’s Supper In The Early Church

The early church established the patterns for the theology and practice of the Lord's Supper that have largely been recovered in our century. Many of the recent developments in the renewal of worship can be understood by examining the early history of the Lord's Supper. Although Christian eucharistic practice was clearly well established during the first three centuries, written documentation is sparse since liturgical patterns were taught orally and were written down only when circumstances required. The Christian Eucharist developed from the Jewish prayer of blessing (berakah). As the love feast (agape fellowship meal) became separated from the Eucharist of bread and wine, elements of the Last Supper tradition were absorbed into the eucharistic prayer. A wider variety of written sources survive from the period after the persecution which ended early in the fourth century. In West Syria (Antioch), Egypt, and East Syria (Edessa), the eucharistic liturgy was embellished as standardi…