John Dominic Crossan in In Search of Paul writes “Could one have a kyriakon deipnon at home simply by saying certain prayers before and after the meal or by reciting special words of remembrance over the bread…and the wine…? Absolutely not. But why? Because what made the supper kyriakon, or Lord’s-style, was never just those words, but the fact of a communal share-meal, a supper to which those early Christians brought whatever they had and shared it among one another. That is what made it intrinsically sacred and placed it in continuity with the share-meals of the historical Jesus. It was not handout, charity, or welfare, but an attempt to participate in a new creation that acknowledged God as owner of all things and humans as but stewards of a world not their own. Telling evidence of these share-meal Eucharists was seen already…where both the Pauline 1 Thessalonians and the post-Pauline 2 Thessalonians insist against freeloaders that individual work must precede common food. The sequence is: work, share, eat.”
John Dominic Crossan in In Search of Paul writes “Could one have a kyriakon deipnon at home simply by saying certain prayers before and after the meal or by reciting special words of remembrance over the bread…and the wine…? Absolutely not. But why? Because what made the supper kyriakon, or Lord’s-style, was never just those words, but the fact of a communal share-meal, a supper to which those early Christians brought whatever they had and shared it among one another. That is what made it intrinsically sacred and placed it in continuity with the share-meals of the historical Jesus. It was not handout, charity, or welfare, but an attempt to participate in a new creation that acknowledged God as owner of all things and humans as but stewards of a world not their own. Telling evidence of these share-meal Eucharists was seen already…where both the Pauline 1 Thessalonians and the post-Pauline 2 Thessalonians insist against freeloaders that individual work must precede common food. The sequence is: work, share, eat.”
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