White Robed Monks of St. Benedict

The Eucharist as Thanksgiving

The Greek word, Eucharist, does not occur in the greek translations of the Hebrew Old Testament. It does occur in the book of Judith, 8:25, the Second book of the Maccabees, 1:11 and 12:31 and Wisdom 18:2. All of them late books, where it is difficult to see what Hebrew word lies behind them. The association of the word Eucharist with blessing is based on the belief that the key to the Last practise of a blessing after meals. Dom Gregory Dix says in his famous book, Supper is the Jewish The Shape of the Liturgy, Eulogein and Eucharistein are used indifferently to translate the single that the Greek words hebrew verb Barak. It seems to me that this is confusing two facts. One is that used to refer to what is both greek words are now called the Eucharist while the other is what these translate or mean. Words can mean different things while words referring to the same thing. The 'Author of Waverley' and the 'Sheriff of Midlothian' both describe the same person, Sir Walter Scott yet them mean different things, because they are speaking of Scott in terms of different aspects of his life. Incidentally I am writing this in No 5 George Square, the house where Sir Walter Scott was brought up. Eulogein, (blessing) was used widely in the early church. Lampe's Patristic Greek Lexicon gives examples of it used of prayers the dead, those who were baptised, water used at for baptism and so forth. It is also used of the Christians possess. The blessing of bread at the Eucharist power to bless which all is the greatest blessing, but not the sole one.

Blessing is an old word for the Jews which is used by the Christians but Eucharist, as thanksgiving seems to have been more recent. Its absence from the Septuagint shows this but also the meaning of the word is a sign of it being new. Originally it meant to do someone a favour and it then takes on a new meaning of giving thanks. The meaning of blessing is best understood from Old Testament examples, as I tried to do in the section on the Eucharist as Blessing. Thanksgiving, though seems to belong more to the Christian Era. The Didache, with the final E, pronounced, also known as the Teaching of the Apostles is a document which had been known about for a long time but was only discovered in the 19th Century. It is a brief document, consisting of 16 Chapters. Quite how reliable it is as a witness to early times is doubtful, since there are various versions available and the work was only discovered in the 19th Century. Yet it is worth quoting the relevant chapters which mention the Eucharist.

Go to Didache Page.

What is clear from the oldest documents which mention the Eucharist is that Eucharist has become the sole term to refer to the mass. The connection with blessing is in the New Testament. Eucharist as a term has absorbed Blessing. If there is a distinction to be made between the two in Jewish table rites, blessing is more to do with acknowledging Gods power over creation, our right to share in that creating power, through the fertility of land and people. Thanksgiving is more concerned with God's power in history. The passover when the people were led out of captivity in Egypt, the conquest of the promised land and the defeat of Israel's enemies are seen as appropriate for thanksgiving. At the eucharist we have both a rite which transcends fertility and procreation by sharing in the body of the risen Christ and a rite which commemorates God's ultimate act of redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. So blessing and thanksgiving come together, in one act of triumph over death and sin, the true enemies of God.