Undermines· moderateTIK-E023
The Didache's Eucharistic prayers: a Jewish thanksgiving over cup and bread
- what the source states
- The Didache's Eucharist chapters give thanks "first, concerning the cup: We thank you, our Father, for the holy vine of David Your servant," then over the broken bread, with a post-meal thanksgiving — berakah-style prayers naming no elements beyond the cup and bread.
- what we infer
- The earliest church-order Eucharistic liturgy is Jewish table blessing in form and content — grape, bread, Davidic imagery, no mystery-cult vocabulary and no unusual ingredient. Together with 1 Cor 11:23–26 and Justin, the documentary base of the rite reads as Second-Temple Jewish meal practice, which is what TIK-C013 must overcome.
- limitations
- Date contested within c. 50–120 CE; like all the earliest witnesses, a normative text that describes the sanctioned rite rather than every community's practice.