Jewish Table Prayers And Jewish Berakah In The First Century

and are thought to resemble the forms of Jewish table prayers and Jewish berakah in the first century [1] [2].

In Mark 14:23, Matthew 26:27, Luke 22:17, 19 and 1 Corinthians 11:24 the word “give thanks” which is translated as “eucharisteō” is used. As well as including Jewish elements in the Eucharist, it would have been natural for the first Christians to also include some of their native traditions into their communal meals.

The Gentile church had no ties to the forms and format of the Jewish tradition of Passover and worship, they did not keep the Sabbath but gathered together on Sundays for worship and Eucharist, although their gatherings were not strictly patterned after the synagogue custom, they still had the reading of Scripture (Jewish Torah), the chanting of the Psalms (influenced by their cultures), and prayers.

He argues that the evidence we have for early Eucharistic practice suggests that it was quite varied in its order and details, and did not conform to a particular way of doing things as the gospel spread to the gentile communities. His theory is in contrast to Dix’s theory which states that there was standardization and uniformity in Christian practice everywhere from an early date.

Analysis of Gregory Dix’s Theory of the Fourfold Shape of the Eucharist

Gregory Dix asserts that the primitive Eucharist had four actions namely:

(1) Offertory – Where bread and wine are placed on the altar.

(2) Prayer – Thanksgiving over the bread and wine together

(3) Fraction – Where the bread is