Gerard Rouwhorst - Eucharistic Meals East of Antioch

A considerable number of sources deriving from the - partly Greek-, and partly Syriac-speaking - regions east of Antioch contain interesting data and allusions to Eucharistic meals. Some of them date from the pre-Nicene period (Acts of Thomas; propbably the Gospel of Philip; Pseudo-Clementine literature and the oldest core of the anaphora of Addai and Mari) and some from the fourth century (madrashe of Ephrem the Syrian; Aphraates). Joining up the allusions and references found in these documents seems to produce a trajectory which is different from the one(s) that developed in Western Christianity (Northern Africa; Rome). Typical elements which regularly recur in that tradition are: invocations of divine Persons (especially the Spirit); emphasis laid upon the breaking of the bread -  often in combination with a lack of wine - which at least from the fourth century receives a explicitly sacrificial connotation. In my paper I will try to trace this trajectory, while paying specific attention to the pre-Christian roots.