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for God created us for incorruption, and made us in the eikon of his own eternity,
but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it.
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works.
Let us look at it together for a moment. What reality has no cause?
Godhead—no one can talk of the “cause of God,” otherwise it would be prior to God.
But what is cause of the manhood, which God submitted to for us? Our salvation, of course, what else could it be?
The passage is now free of complication, seeing that we find there clearly both expressions “created” and “begets me.”
Whatever we come across with a causal implication we will attribute to the humanity; what is absolute and free of cause we will reckon to the Godhead.
"Created” has a causal implication, has it not?
The text in fact runs: “He created me as the beginning of his ways for his works.” “The works of his hands are truth and judgment,” and for the sake of these works he was anointed with deity—deity being the humanity’s anointing. - St Gregory Nazianzus, 4th Theological Oration, 2
#Patristics #Christology #Arianism
The Most High knew that Adam wanted to become a god,
so He sent His Son who put him on in order to grant him his desire. .
-St Ephrem the Syrian, Harp of the Spirit, no. 16
#Patristics #Soteriology
Whichever of your riches I look upon, in unison they all cry out to me.
One after the other draws me to itself, and truly the spiritual riches of your treasury bewilder my poverty.
Who can tell of the treasures which are both in your possession and in ours?
Although they accompany you among the dead, yet their profits are traded among the living.
They take their leave of you and yet remain with you! Amazing! The treasures among the dead the living possess along with you.
Although you have your treasures, your sons and daughters have them too.You have both taken them and have left them.
It is a great wonder that, although you alone own the treasures, many own them with you.
They are with your body.On the height of Paradise, they are with the Son of your Lord.
The treasure of the righteous forefathers, while going in its entirety with each of them remained entirely with their sons.
-St Ephrem the Syrian, 3rd Madrāšâ On Abraham Qîdûnāyâ
#Patristics #Veneration_saints
The crucifiers assumed that our Lord had died, and that His signs had died with Him. But His signs were seen living through His disciples, so that the killers would recognize that the Lord of the signs was alive. First, the accusations of His killers that His disciples had stolen His corpse caused a tumult. Then later, His signs (performed) by His disciples caused a tumult.
The disciples, who were thought to have stolen a lifeless corpse, were found to be giving life to other corpses! But the unbelievers were quick to say that His disciples had stolen His body, so that (the unbelievers) would be caught in the humiliation which was about to be revealed. And the disciples, who (they claimed) stole a dead body from living guards, were found to be banishing death in the name of the One who was stolen, so that death would not steal the life of the living. - St Ephrem the Syrian, Homily on Our Lord, Section XIII
#Patristics #Christology #Soteriology
The brightness which Moses put on was wrapped on him from without, whereas the river in which Christ was baptized put on Light from within; likewise did Mary’s body, in which He resided, gleam from within.
Just as Moses gleamed with the divine glory because he saw the splendour briefly,
how much more should the body wherein Christ resided gleam,
and the river wherein he was baptized?
St Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on the Church, no.36
#Patrisrics #Mariology
The sum is that the bishop doth inspire Into this edifice an holy fire,
A living flame,
which never shall go out,
So long as they, which tend it, are devout.
For it is evident from where [the phrase] “having been chosen” and from where the choice are: because there were many myriads upon the earth, and Mary alone “found favor,” and in her he chose the holy flesh.
Because of this he was saying, “I am well pleased,” as David also says, from the person of the Apostles who have believed in the Lord and who indicate with joy to the nations his grace, because “he subjected the peoples for us and nations under our feet, <he chose for us his inheritance>, the beauty of Jacob, which he loved,” that is, the purity of his beauty, the beauty of all of Jacob, the flesh that was chosen from Mary through the Holy Spirit. - Epiphanius of Salamis, Anchoratus, 49.4-6
#Patristics #Incarnation #Christology #Mariology
The kings of the earth have arisen, and the rulers conspired together, against the Lord and against his Christ.
Let us burst their chains asunder and throw their yoke away from us
You, whoever you are, were once his enemy; you will find yourself under his feet, either adopted or subjugated. Which place will you have under the feet of the Lord your God?
The choice is yours, for you must have either grace or punishment.
Christ sits, then, at God's right hand until his enemies are thrust beneath his feet. This is happening; the process is going forward; it may be slow but it never ceases. Though the nations have raged and the peoples have devised futile schemes, though the kings of the earth have arisen and the rulers conspired together against the Lord and against his Christ, what will their raging, their scheming, or their conspiracies against Christ achieve?
Of course not. It will certainly be fulfilled, in spite of their raging and their futile schemes - St Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 109
O God of spirits and of all flesh, Who hast trampled down death and overthrown the Devil, and given life to Thy world, do Thou, the same Lord, give rest to the souls of Thy departed servants in a place of brightness, a place of refreshment, a place of repose, where all sickness, sighing, and sorrow have fled away.
Pardon every transgression which they have committed, whether by word or deed or thought. For Thou art a good God and lovest mankind; because there is no man who lives yet does not sin, for Thou only art without sin, Thy righteousness is to all eternity, and Thy word is truth.
Conclusion
Initially I intended to add in sections detailing Jewish influences in AM, which is a major factor in scholars being near unanimous that it must date back to at least the 3rd century and possibly even earlier. There is also another section concerning the remembrance of departed Fathers mentioned as it is weirdly commonly used as a way to say that the invocation of saints are absent from the earliest liturgies. A closer look would of course also show some very uncanny similarities with how some Anglican theologians dealt with Patristic texts that look like there are prayers to saints involved.
However interesting these areas are, to look at just the question of the Missing Institution Narrative made these series of posts longer than I anticipated. These aspects of AM are perhaps best left for another time.
One thing I hope can be shown here is, the question of the missing Institution Narrative is far from a settled one. One may plausibly argue that it is actually there and that one's methodology can affect how one will read and assess primary sources.
Ultimately I hope this to be informative and edifying to you all. God bless
Further Reading :
1) Studies on the Liturgy of Addai and Mari
The Eucharistic Prayer of Addai and Mari, A. Gelson
Eucharist without Institution Narrative? The Anaphora of Addai and Mari Revisited, Fr Uwe Michael Lang
Issues in Eucharistic Praying in East and West : Essays in Liturgical and Theological Analysis (See Nicholas Russo's contribution at Chapter 2)
Addai and Mari - The Anaphora of the Apostles: A Text for Students, Bryan D Spinks
2) Liturgical Studies
The Roman Mass : From Early Christian Origins to Tridentine Reform, Fr Uwe Michael Lang (For methodological issues in Scholarship, see chapter 2, pg.47; For the Liturgy of Addai and Mari, see Chapter 3)
Do this in Rememberance of Me : The Eucharist from the Early Church to the Present Day, Bryan D Spinks (See Chapter 2 on Paleoanaphoras for the Liturgy of Addai and Mari)
Mass without the Consecration? The historic agreement on the Eucharist between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, Fr Robert Taft*
*While the focus of Taft's essay is on the validity of the Liturgy of Addai and Mari without the Institution Narrative, I put this under Liturgical Studies in general since he will refer to Byzantine liturgical theology to suggest that in the Patristic period, there is no single set of formula to consecrate the Eucharistic elements.
An interesting idea he raises is the already-not yet dimension of the liturgy that can refer to the bread and wine before consecration as the Body and Blood of Christ, alongside the idea that in the Eucharistic prayers, it is kind of like Christ's words at the Last Supper reverberating from past to the present moments whenever the Eucharist is celebrated.
3) Patristic Studies
Cyrillona : A Critical Study and Commentary, Carl Griffin
4) Primary Sources
Commentary of Theodore of Mopsuestia on the Lord's Prayer and on the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist
One may also look back earlier at Syrian poets for some insights into this. Of particular interest here is Cyrillona, a lesser known contemporary of St Ephrem the Syrian. Fortunately we have memras(Poetry) left by him that describes the Eucharist. There may be an instance that allude to the Institution Narrative.
He describes Judas' act of dipping the bread into the chalice as follows :
And why did he dip the bread in the water and then give it to him?
Its power departed from it,
and its delightful taste,
because the bread had been blessed and glorious,
since he had blessed it and it was set before them.
He dipped that bread and took his blessing from it.
He stripped it of his power and emptied it of his word;
(he stripped) the bread of the blessing and Judas of the throne. (221–34)
AM. Regardless this possibility does complement the idea that perhaps there is an Institution Narrative embedded within it given how it is present in its Syrian context way earlier than the oldest 10th cent. Manuscript.AM as a way to convey this, given it becomes more dispensible. The fact that he recites the entire section quietly, but at the end raises his voice so that the people can hear: first, because it is a Mystery that is being performed, and it is not appropriate that all the people should know of it; and secondly, so that the words, on being heard, should not be learnt by laymen, women and children, with the result that the divine words are held to be ordinary and (so) despised.
AM also states of the Eucharistic service, that it is "received by tradition the example which is from thee". "Receive" in this context is taken as being an allusion to 1 Corinthians 11:23, which is understood to mean teachings being handed down from from teacher to student. The Tradition here is also understood to be oral Tradition, that is to say, recited by mouth. AM may very well have an Institution Narrative in place, it's simply not written down for reasons of the sanctity of this Tradition given that it is directly from Christ Himself.
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Institution Narrative Missing
As stated, most scholars today consider AM to lack an Institution Narrative. Such a thing would not be implausible in light of documents like the Didache and Strasbourg Papyrus Gr.254, both being key witnesses to Pre Nicene Eucharistic prayers. Both lack an institution narrative. The Prayer of St Polycarp, recorded in his martyrdom, commonly taken as being patterned after Eucharistic prayer also lacks anything of this sort.
Patristic testimonies of the Eucharistic liturgy also does not lend to any indication that an Institution Narrative is present. Taking St Justin Martyr's 1st Apology as an example, 66.3 might seem to indicate that there would be an Institution Narrative present as he refers to the Gospels and command Jesus gave at the Last Supper, "Do this in memory of me". However there is an uncertainty given the indication of extempore prayer in 67.5 where the Bishop(President) is to offer prayer and thanksgiving, "to the best of his ability".
Turning to the Manuscripts themselves, the oldest text known to contain AM, the Mar Esh'aya codex and 12th cent Hudra lack the Institution Narrative. Vat. syr. 66, belonging to the Chaldean tradition has it present, but it is clearly an insertion as it was written on a separate leaf. Most likely, this was added by Mar Joseph Sulaqua in 1566. This testifies to a significant moment in Nestorian history.
During the mid 16th cent., there was growing discontent that the Patriarchate was kept to a single family line. This position was handed down from uncle to nephew. In protest to this, Mar John Simon Sulaqua was elected. In order to secure his election as Patriarch, a move was made that would see the Nestorian church restored to communion with Rome. In 1553, he was consecrated Patriarch by Pope Julius iii, a move that will cause a permanent rift in the Nestorian church.
The faction loyal to Rome would become the Chaldean Catholics today. The faction that rebelled against this would become the Nestorian church today, or the Assyrian Church of the East. During this time, changes in the Liturgy would occur, with Chaldeans simplifying it and Nestorians using a more complex form of it.
In India, following the Synod of Diamper in 1599 under the Portuguese Aleixo de Menezes, Latinazation in the Malabar rite began, with the first Latin Rite bishop for the Nasranis in India, Francisco Roz SJ inserting the Institution Narrative into the Liturgy.
With these in mind, liturgists generally conclude, there is no Institution Narrative in AM.
Manuscripts
Today, all manuscripts containing the Anaphora of Addai and Mari(AM) can be divided into Nestorian, Chaldean and Syro-Malabar traditions. Currently there are around 86 known manuscripts, collated by William F Macomber (1966) and Douglas Webb (1967-68). Amongst these the oldest date to the 10th cent.
These manuscripts are currently divided into these streams
Hudra : Nestorian Liturgical text
Alqosh : Nestorian Liturgical texts that show no Roman influence
Webb B : Texts collated by Webb that are classified as preserving older Syrian ritual and are archaic.
Chaldean : Texts belonging to the faction of the Nestorians that come into Communion with Rome in 1552
Malabar : Texts belonging to the Malabar Church in India, today in Union with Rome.
And what does the Mediator do?
The work of a mediator! Just as when two people are quarreling with each other and do not want to be reconciled, someone else comes along, and by inserting himself between them resolves the enmity, so Christ did. God was angry with us, and we had quarreled with God, the Lord who loves the human race; Christ threw himself between us, and reconciled each nature.
Leontius of Byzantium, Contra Nestorianos et Eutychianos, 53
#Christology #Soteriology #Atonement #Patristics
O my soul, my soul, wake up—why do you sleep?
The end draws near, and you will be thrown into confusion,
come to your senses then, so that Christ the God spares you,
He who is everywhere and filling all things.
-St Romanos the Melodist, On The Infernal Powers
#Patristics #Eschatology #Soteriology
No one has yet discovered or ever shall discover what God is in his nature and essence. As for a discovery some time in the future, let those who have a mind to it research and speculate. The discovery will take place, so my reason tells me, when this God-like, divine thing, I mean our mind and reason, mingles with its kin, when the copy returns to the pattern it now longs after.
This seems to me to be the meaning of the great dictum that we shall, in time to come, “know even as we are known.” But for the present what reaches us is a scant emanation, as it were a small beam from a great light —which means that anyone who “knew” God or whose “knowledge” of him has been attested in the Bible, had a manifestly more brilliant knowledge than others not equally illuminated.
This superiority was reckoned knowledge in the full sense, not because it really was so, but by the contrast of relative strengths. - St Gregory Nazianzus, 2nd Theological Oration, 17
#Patristics #Divine_epistemology
Let us give thanks to God who clothed Himself in the names of the body's various parts:
Scriptures refers to His "ears" to teach us that He listens to us;
it speaks of His "eyes," to show that He sees us.
It was just the names of such things that He put on,
and-although in His true being there is no wrath or regret.yet He put on these names because of our weakness.
R: Blessed is He who has appeared to our human race under so many metaphors.
We should realize that, had He not put on the names of such things, it would not have been possible for Him to speak with us humans.
By means of what belongs to us did He draw close to us:
He clothed Himself in language, so that He might clothe us in His mode of life.
He asked for our form and put this on, and then, as a father with his children,
He spoke with our childish state.
-St Ephrem the Syrian, On Faith, Hymn 31
#Patristics #Soteriology
He spat on His fingers and put them in the deafmute's ears. And he made mud with his saliva, and applied it to the blind man's eyes, so we would know that, just as there was a deficiency in the pupils of that blind man from his mother's womb, so too, there was a deficiency in the ears of this deaf man.
So, with yeast from the body of the one who completes, the deficiency of our creation was filled up. It would not have been appropriate for our Lord to sever a part of His body to fill up the deficiency of other bodies. He filled up the deficiency of the deficient with something He was able to separate from Himself. Just as mortals consume Him by means of something edible, in the same way He filled up deficiency and gave life to mortality. So we should learn that the deficiency of the deficient was filled up from a body in which fullness resided. And life was given to mortals from a body in which life resided. - St Ephrem the Syrian, ibid. Section XI
#Patristics #Christology #Soteriology #Eucharist
Your mother is a cause of wonder:
The Lord entered into her —and became a servant;
He who is the Word entered —and became silent within her;
Thunder entered her —and made no sound;
there entered the Shepherd of all,
and in her He became the Lamb, bleating as He comes forth.
Your mother’s womb has reversed the roles:
the Establisher of all entered in His richness, but came forth poor;
the Exalted One entered her, but came forth meek;
the Splendrous One entered her, but came forth having put on a lowly hue.
The Mighty One entered, and put on insecurity from her womb;
the Provisioner of all entered and experienced hunger;
He who gives drink to all entered
and experienced thirst:
naked and stripped there came forth from her He who clothes all!
St Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on the Nativity 11
#Patristics #Christology #Soteriology #Mariology
why He thus took upon him the seed of Abraham, was, because He tooke upon Him, to deliver the seede of Abraham.
Deliver them He could not, except He destroyed death, and the Lord of death, the devil. Them, He could not destroy, unlesse He dyed: Dye He could not, except He were mortall: Mortall He could not be, except He tooke our nature on Him, that is, the seede of Abraham.
But, taking it, He became mortall, dyed, destroyed death, delivered us; was (Himselfe) apprehended, that we might be lett goe. - Lancelot Andrewes, Sermon 1, On the Nativity
#Anglican #Incarnation #Soteriology
O worship the Lord, in the beauty of holiness
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God therefore said He would destroy them, but Moses, His chosen one, stood in the breach in His presence.
This does not mean that Moses stood in the breach in the sense of making a breach in God's anger." He stood amid the breaking, shattering plague that would have struck the people; that is to say, he stood there to draw it on himself and shield them with his own person, beseeching God, you are willing to forgive them this sin, forgive them; but if not, blot me out of your book (Ex 32:31-32).
This episode proves how powerful with God is the intercession of the saints. Moses was so certain of divine justice that he knew God could not blot him out, and thus he obtained mercy for others, that God might not blot out the people, as he could most justly have done. This was how Moses stood in the breach in his presence to avert God's anger, that he might not destroy them. - St Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 105
#Patristics #Veneration_saints
Imagine a voice resounding—Tully's, perhaps. Some book of Cicero is read, or a dialogue, one of his or one of Plato's, or of some other great writer. Uneducated folk hear it, people of limited understanding. Which of them is bold enough to aspire to such works?
These books are like crashing, turbulent waters. or at least like water flowing so dangerously that a timid animal dare not approach to drink. But when we hear. In the beginning God made heaven and earth (Gn 1:1), is there anyone who is too shy to drink? Is there anyone who hears a psalm ring out, and says, "That is above my head"? Take the strains of our present psalm, for instance: they conceal mysteries, to be sure, but so sweet are they that even children delight to listen to them. The unskilled approach to drink, and being satisfied they burst out into psalmody. - St Augustine, Exposition 3 on Psalm 103
#Patristics #Scripture
How far short shall we fall of the faith of her who was "blessed among women," if we can turn easily to ordinary objects from these first scenes of the Gospel; scenes in which the kingdom of God, and of his Christ was first manifested upon earth, and have been since fulfilled, and will one day be finally accomplished, in the ruin of the common foe to God and man, and in the triumph of faith, humility, and resignation, which have never failed to shine in Christian patterns, and which shall endure for ever...
Consider that whole dispensation which has been confirmed in every age by the graces of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men, of the faithful, humble, unshaken, and devoted servants of an Heavenly Lord and Leader. Look well to the fruits of holiness and zeal, of hope and charity, of constancy and patience, and of well-founded and entire dependence on the Will of God, which meet together in the pattern this day set before us. - Joseph Holden Pott
#Annunciation #Anglican #Soteriology
Problem of Methodology
To understand the methodological issues in current scholarship, one needs to go back to early 20th cent. Liturgical Studies. Gregory Dix and Josef Andreas Jungmann are two main pioneers in this field and developed a theory for how the main Liturgical Rites come about. Their methodology involves the idea that all these liturgies must have a common primitive source. An original shape if you will.
However, later studies, which employ the methods of critical scholarship with the hermeneutics of suspicion and emphasis on redaction led to this idea being challenged. A key contemporary scholar that led the way to this is Paul Bradshaw. Sharing and utilising the approach of Bart Ehrman and Walter Bauer, the assumption of Early Christianity as diverse and talk of Orthodoxy and Heresy being a misnomer led to a rejection of the old monolinear model.
Indeed while this approach(or perhaps aspects of it) have yielded results, there is increasing recognition of its flaws. Eminent scholar of Liturgical Studies, Fr Robert Taft states that there is some truth to the old monolinear narrative. There is an original kerygma that expressed itself differently in different places, leading to the diverse nature of Liturgical Rites analogous to how dialects of languages develop.
Larry Hutardo who specialises in Christian Origins also question the skepticism of Ehrman on variety in Early Christianity. He has also attacked the critical assumption that there is no unified group and even within the same city, each and every Christian congregation functioned autonomous from each other. But this is flawed as the early New Testament and Patrisric texts before Nicaea speak of heretical movements and these 'proto-orthodox' groups saw themselves as guarding the Apostolic deposit. These would naturally have an impact on Liturgical Practice.
Institution Narrative Reconsidered
If currently most scholars view AM as bearing no Institution Narrative, early in the 20th cent, most Scholars took an opposite stance. Here I will draw from Fr Uwe Michael Lang, who represents IMO, the best current objector to the mainstream view.
While the Synod of Diamper Latinized the Malabar rite, Canons 109-110 appear to indicate that an Institution Narrative was present in AM. Aleixo de Menezes noted how Chaldean prelates have added to or removed the words of the Institution Narrative out of ignorance. Although uncertain, the prelates may be identified as two bishops sent by Patriarch Simeon to Southern India in 1490, in response to requests by the Nasranis who were deprived of bishops due to Islamic persecution.
This raises the possibility that before any Roman Catholic influences, the institution narrative is present in AM. Also noteworthy is that in 1890, Anglican missionaries in Urmia, Iran actually reported that although AM lacked an Institution Narrative, Nestorian priests would actually recite them orally.
Another thing to consider is comparisons with the Maronite Sharar, which shares similar patterns to AM, which gives a possible common older Anaphoral tradition that lie behind them both.
The Sharar includes the Institution Narrative where AM prays for peace for the Church, and for the world to know God and the Gospel. In it, there is an observable distinction in the verbs used in the blessing of the bread and chalice. This finds correspondence in Jewish prayer. The short berakah over the bread and the Birkat ha-Aretz over the chalice, essentially pointing to antiquity of the Sharar's Institution Narrative.
If this is assumed, a question arises about why the AM removed the Institution Narrative. Looking at East Syrian Liturgical commentaries, we might get some answers. Starting with Theodore of Mopsuestia's commentary on Baptism and the Eucharist.
Theodore is clear that the Last Supper is the Scriptural warrant and Institution of the Eucharist. In contrast to the majority view to dissociate Propriatory elements from AM's concept of Eucharistic Sacrifice, Theodore states,
As to us it behoves us to perform symbolically the remembrance of His death by our participation in the Sacrament, from which we derive the possession of the future benefits and the abolition of sins
And the priest brings his prayer to a close after having offered thanksgivings to our Lord for the great things which He has provided for the salvation and the deliverance of men, and for His having given us the knowledge of these wonderful mysteries which are a remembrance of that ineffable gift which He bestowed upon us through His Passion, in that He promised to raise us all from the dead and take us up to heaven.
AM, but it was recited silently. One argument against this that Nicholas Russo raised is, Theodore's liturgy is not East Syrian but represents only what is customary in Antioch and Mopsuestia at the time. Persian expansion also meant that East Syria is isolated from the Græco-Roman world. However, given Theodore's strong influence in the East Syrian tradition, this seems rather odd. One may also see this as something more to do with the assumptions and methodologies used widely in contemporary critical scholarship, one which Fr Uwe Michael Lang have pointed out, causes issues.
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Missing Institution Narrative?
A feature of AM that is controversial is the fact that it lacks an Institution Narrative. In July 2001, the Vatican issued a statement that recognises the validity of AM, as used by the Nestorian Church. This was meant to deal with Pastoral issues in Iraq, where Chaldean and Nestorian Christians suffer persecution. A key part of this agreement is to allow these two groups to receive Communion in each other's churches during cases of necessity.
Shortly after the publication of this agreement, there were opposition raised in print.
Monsignor Brunero Gherardini, director of Divinitas, a theological journal published by the Vatican press, comments :
Whosoever presumes to celebrate the Eucharist by silencing or altering the words used by Him [i.e., Christ] at the moment of the institution, does not perform an act of homage to Christ, but rather the opposite. Without the dominical words the sacrament does not exist.The celebrant consecrates the bread and the wine only with the words used by Christ and in no other way.
"But how can there be Mass without the consecration?” The answer, of course, is that there cannot be. But that does not solve the problem; it just shifts the question to “What, then, is the consecration, if not the traditional institution narrative which all three Synoptic Gospels and 1 Cor 11:23-26 attribute to Jesus?
AM contains a Eucharistic Institution Narrative or not. On the outset it must be stated that most scholars consider the Narrative to be excluded from AM.AM) and some points of reconsideration, drawing from Fr Uwe Michael Lang. Agree or disagree, the threads of these arguments is a journey through the background of AM and a not well known aspect of the history of the Nestorian Church and Nasrani Christians of India.
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You, O Lord, in your unspeakable mercies make a gracious remembrance for all the upright and just fathers who have been pleasing before you in the commemoration of the body and blood of your Christ which we offer to you upon the pure and holy altar as you have taught us. And grant us your tranquility and your peace all the days of the world
The Anaphora of Addai and Mari is considered the oldest known Eucharistic anaphora still in use today, particularly amongst Nestorians and Eastern Catholic Chaldean and Syro-Malabar Rites. A form of it also exists in the Maronite Sharar.
The following posts will look at some aspects of this ancient Liturgical prayer in the following sequence :
1)Manuscript Traditions
2)Missing Institution Narrative?
3)Institution Narrative Missing
4)Institution Narrative Reconsidered
5)Problem of methodology