Eucharistic Epicleses, Ancient and Modern

Speaking Of The Spirit In Eucharistic Prayers

Anne McGowan

• Publisher: SPCK Publishing
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780281071555
• eBook ISBN: 9780281071562
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christianity

This book explores the theological and textual connections among ancient and modern epicleses, primarily through analysis of a selection of epicletic texts in contemporary Western eucharistic prayers and the theological principles that shaped them. Liturgical scholarship on the Spirit's role in early liturgical prayers and texts conducted during the twentieth century contributed to the language and pneumatology of contemporary eucharistic prayers in the Western Christian tradition. More recent considerations of these ancient sources suggest ways to articulate and incorporate a more expansive understanding of the connections between the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist into the euchological repertoire of various ecclesial traditions.

Part I

Ancient epicleses

Chapter 1

A reassessment of early evidence for the eucharistic epiclesis

Many of the epicletic texts formulated in the latter half of the twentieth century were constructed on the basis of certain suppositions that have been challenged by more recent scholarship on the epiclesis which has emerged in the last few decades. Christian eucharistic prayers were thought to have some direct connection with Jewish meal prayers – prayers which blessed God, offered thanks to God, and sometimes called upon God’s name when blessing objects like bread and wine. Accordingly, second- and third-century texts presumably either took their inspiration from such Jewish prayers which offered God a sacrifice of praise, implored God’s blessing on the communicants and perhaps invoked the name of God (sometimes conceived as the Logos or Spirit) on the elements, or were alternatively influenced by the sort of invocations then prevalent in Greco-Roman mystery religions. The drastic social and theological transitions experienced by the Church in the fourth century promoted the development of standard texts with a greater degree of theological precision than had been perceived as necessary previously. In the East, anaphoras with fixed prefaces generally conformed to a Trinitarian pattern paralleling the emerging creeds, featuring an explicit pneumatic epiclesis in the third section of the eucharistic prayer. In contrast, Western prayers contained variable parts, which, over the course of the year, expressed a similar range of themes in salvation history to the Eastern prayers. While references to the Spirit were not always as explicit as those in Eastern prayers, the twentieth-century reforms were seen as emphasizing more explicitly a pneumatological orientation that was at least implicitly present in early Western prayers.1

Current scholarship on the epiclesis, however, views the line of development of early epicleses as considerably more complex and has paid more attention to geographical and linguistic variants in the epiclesis. Based on recent studies of terminology and form by Sebastian Brock, Robert Taft and Gabriele Winkler, the following hypothesis of epicletic development in the eucharistic context has been proposed:

1The precursor of developed epicleses may be found in early Christian appeals for the eschatological return of the risen Lord, along the lines of the maranatha invocation found in 1 Corinthians 16.22, Revelation 22.20 and Didache 10.6.

2As eschatological expectation diminished, the urgent appeal directed to the Lord for his imminent return evolved into an invocation for the risen Christ and/or his Spirit to be immediately present to Christian communities in the context of their worship – to ‘come’ and be present to the worshipping assembly.

3Over time (and as awareness of the distinct identity of the Spirit grew), such direct requests to the Lord and/or the Spirit to ‘come’ became requests that God (or Christ) might let the Logos and/or the Spirit come or rest upon the eucharistic elements – likely without further specification about what was expected to transpire in the elements and/or the community as a result of this coming.

4Finally, such requests took the form of a petition addressed to God (the Father). The community asked God to ‘send’ the Holy Spirit upon the eucharistic gifts that they might be consecrated – and typically also upon the community that, in their reception of the pneumaticized gifts, the communicants might be sanctified as well.

While not seeking to resolve the question of the ultimate origins of the eucharistic epiclesis (an undertaking which deserves a dedicated study of its own), this chapter will review recent scholarship on the epiclesis that contributed to the paradigm outlined above. It will then make a modest attempt to assess the significance of variant forms of the early epiclesis, with a view towards what implications these differences might have for confirming, challenging or critiquing the current developmental framework.

The Holy Spirit in (Very) Early Eucharistic Praying

Although Ephesians 6.18 advises Christians to ‘pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication’, ancient Christian authors have relatively little to say about the place of the Spirit in Christian praying in general (or eucharistic praying in particular). In the third century Origen of Alexandria could advocate prayer to the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit, but there is no evidence to suggest the existence of any standardized prayer forms during the first three centuries. There is, however, some evidence for prayer through the Holy Spirit before the fourth century.2

Robert Taft has claimed that, prior to the appearance of the eucharistic epiclesis in anaphoras of the fourth (or possibly the third) century, trying to decipher its earlier history amounts to ‘sheer speculation’.3 Although this may be the case, briefly reviewing some of these theories here is worthwhile as they have some possible connection, however tenuous it may be, to the clearer testimony to the epiclesis that survives from later centuries.

The idea that Christian eucharistic prayer is derived from the Jewish birkat ha-mazon and that the epiclesis in particular may have its origins in the third supplicatory section (i.e. a prayer for the restoration of Jerusalem reformulated into a prayer for the coming of God’s kingdom) enjoyed wide currency a generation ago but is met with greater scepticism today.4 Even if these prayers do not share a common lineage, they do feature a concern for God’s decisive eschatological intervention – a theme which permeates many early epicletic texts as well.5 In their development, they also share a flexible approach towards expanding the range and scope of supplicatory elements to suit the occasion and expectations of the congregation. This aspect led Paul V. Marshall to claim that ‘the growth of the epiclesis of the Spirit can be seen as a developing tendency within a broader scope of supplications’.6 While the actual situation may have been somewhat more complex, the idea that the epiclesis developed in a broader context of supplication might lend at least indirect support to the recent theories of Gabriele Winkler on the origins of Christian epicleses (discussed further below). The sort of epicleses found in the apocryphal Acts of the apostles Thomas and John, which Winkler considers important witnesses to an early stage in the evolution of Christian liturgical practice, are likewise characterized by extensive use of supplications.

While not necessarily specific to early Christian eucharistic celebrations, the Aramaic invocation maranatha is another possible precursor of the epiclesis.7 The phrase may be read either as an imperative (marana tha, ‘Our Lord, come!’) expressing future hope in the Lord’s return or as a perfect indicative affirming a coming that has already been inaugurated (maran atha, ‘Our Lord has come’), although the former option is more likely.8 This expression is found in 1 Corinthians 16.22 (transliteration of the Aramaic), in Revelation 22.20 (in Greek translation – ἔρχου, Κύριε Ἰησου̑)9 and as part of a thanksgiving prayer after a meal in Didache 10.6. The Didache text reads:

May grace come, and may this world pass away.

Hosanna to the God of David.

If anyone is holy, let him come;

if anyone is not, let him repent.

Maranatha! Amen.10

The three texts just mentioned are diverse enough in their origins that they may underscore a widespread trend of early Christian prayer that could have influenced, directly or indirectly, later prayers.11 Furthermore, they do share with some later eucharistic epicleses ‘a petitionary dimension with a strong eschatological request’,12 although such connections could be coincidental rather than intentional.

By the second century, early Christian writers clearly distinguished between the Father and Son, but only rarely identified the Spirit as an entity distinct from the Son (cf. The Shepherd of Hermas, Acts of Paul, 2 Clement, Pseudo-Hippolytus, Melito of Sardis, Justin Martyr and Irenaeus). While the Spirit might appear in Trinitarian formulae, there was as yet little sense of the Spirit’s distinct personhood. Rather, the Spirit could be conceived as the Spirit of God or of Christ, and thus to mention Christ implied, by extension, mention of his spirit as well, and vice versa.13 By the dawn of the third century, this begins to change (cf. the development apparent in the thought of Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria).14 However, prior to the emergence of an explicit Spirit epiclesis in the second half of the fourth century, the status of the Spirit in pre-Nicene sources tends to be rather nebulous. Thus it cannot necessarily be presumed that discussions of the role of the Spirit in the Eucharist refer to the Holy Spirit, that the term ἐπίκλησις had already acquired the technical sense that it would come to convey later, or even that early writers were concerned about pinpointing either the precise agent or moment of eucharistic consecration. These caveats must be kept in mind when considering the following evidence.

Justin Martyr, writing his First Apology in the mid-second century, attests to a prayer after which the eucharistic gifts were no longer ordinary food and drink but the flesh and blood of Jesus. Drawing a connection between the eucharistic action and the Incarnation, Justin serves as a potential witness to a primitive theology of eucharistic consecration involving the Logos – and perhaps even something akin to a Logos epiclesis. Justin writes:

For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink; but just as our Savior Jesus Christ, being incarnate through the word of God, took flesh and blood for our salvation, so too we have been taught that the food over which thanks have been given by a word of prayer which is from him [δί εὐχη̑ς λόγου τȏυ παῤ αὐτου̑], (the food) from which our flesh and blood are fed by transformation, is both the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus.15

The Greek phrase δί εὐχη̑ς λόγου τȏυ παῤ αὐτου̑ has at least five possible meanings, including: ‘by a word of prayer which is from him’, ‘by a prayer of the word which is from him’, a prayer for the Logos (and thus perhaps a Logos epiclesis), a reference to the words of institution, or an allusion to the eucharistic prayer in its entirety.16 However, even the theological conviction that Christ is the consecratory force behind the Eucharist – a conviction that would be quite amenable to Justin’s overall theology with its concern for the Logos – does not necessarily imply that this belief was articulated liturgically through an invocation to or of Christ. Furthermore, it does not mean that this consecratory emphasis was confined to any particular part of the prayer, even if such an invocation did exist.17

Irenaeus of Lyons may deserve credit for introducing the Greek term epiklesis to the context of the Christian Eucharist. He employs this word in a passage of Adversus Haereses (c.180) that makes an analogy between the sanctification of the Eucharist and bodily resurrection:

For as the bread, which is produced from the earth, when it receives the invocation [ἐπίκλησις] of God, is no longer common bread, but the Eucharist, consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly, so also our bodies, receiving the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the hope for the resurrection to eternity.18

In another context within this same work, however, Irenaeus uses the term to critique the heretical activities of Marcus, a Valentinian Gnostic, accusing him of ‘pretending to eucharistize cups mixed with wine, and protracting to great length the word of invocation [ἐπίκλησις], makes them appear purple and reddish’.19 This latter passage would seem to suggest that epiklesis, for Irenaeus, did not designate a specific invariable formula.20 Furthermore, Robert Taft notes that the term can refer to the prayer over the eucharistic gifts in its entirety into the fourth century, making it difficult to determine whether the liturgical prayers with which Irenaeus was familiar might have included an explicit epiclesis of the Logos (or Spirit).21

The Didascalia Apostolorum, a third-century church order, gives the Holy Spirit a prominent role in the Church’s ministry, including a part in the sanctification of the Eucharist. This text declares that ‘the eucharist is accepted and sanctifie...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: seeking the Spirit in a eucharistic context
• Part I Ancient epicleses
• Chapter 2 The epiclesis in early anaphoras
• Chapter 3 (Re)constructing the early epiclesis: recovery and revision in the twentieth century
• Part II Modern epicleses
• Chapter 5 The eucharistic epiclesis in recent Roman Catholic liturgical reforms
• Chapter 6 The epiclesis in contemporary Anglican eucharistic prayers
• Chapter 7 The epiclesis in contemporary Presbyterian and Lutheran eucharistic prayers
• Conclusion: reflections and future directions
• Bibliography
• Search names for modern authors
• Search items for subjects and ancient authors