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Document Details : Title: The Origins of the Sunday Eucharist Author(s): DE JONGE, Henk Jan Journal: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses Volume: 92 Issue: 4 Date: 2016 Pages: 549-579 DOI: 10.2143/ETL.92.4.3183461 Abstract : As soon as the time at which the eucharist took place can be pinned down to a certain part of the week, this is to the evening, not the eve of the Sunday. Consequently, theories that try to explain the Christian eucharist as a complement to the Judaean family supper on Saturday evening or as an extension of the Sabbath gathering in the synagogue for the study of the law, fail to carry conviction, the more so since there is no evidence that the eucharist was ever moved from Saturday evening to Sunday morning or evening. Using the widely popular model of the banquet of the voluntary association, Christians formed their own community feast on Sunday evening. They may have chosen this evening because for Judaean Christians who also participated in the Sabbath meal of their family on Saturday, the significance of the Christian communal supper transcended that of the family meal held on Saturday. For them, the eucharist was a completion or sublimation, and thus sort of a corrective of the family meal. Therefore, it had to follow the latter as soon as possible, that is, on Sunday after work was done – for a correction is most effective when it follows as quickly as possible that on which it tries to improve. |
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