The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

Christ, which (teen) suffered for our sins, which (een) the Father in His
mercy raised again. They then who speak against the gift (dorean) perish
while disputing. Good had it been for them to keep the feast of love
(agapan), that they might rise again." Agapan has been translated "to love
it," but the better rendering seems to be "to celebrate it," agapee, i. e., the
Lord's Supper, taking its name from the "agapee," or "lovefeast," with
which it commenced in the earliest Church, as in the following paragraph
it seems to be defined by the terms "agapee poiein," in the sense of
"celebrating the Eucharist."
2. To the Philadelphians, ~ 4.
The second citation is from the Epistle to the Philadelphians, "Haste
ye then to partake of one Eucharist, for there is (or it is) the one flesh of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup for the uniting of His blood (enosin,) one
altar."
3. To the Ephesians, ~ 20.
The third citation is from the Epistle to the Ephesians, "Breaking one
bread, which is the medicine of immortality; the antidote that we should
not die, but live in Jesus Christ forever." It is very obvious, that taking
these words in their simple and native force, they best accord with the
doctrine of the Lutheran Church. In the first place they affirm positively
that the Eucharist is the flesh (einai sarka) of our Saviour Jesus Christ; that
it is the one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ which constitutes it. Secondly.
They distinctly affirm that the flesh meant is that which suffered for our
sins, "which the Father in His mercy raised again;" thus overthrowing one
of the most recent figments of a very subtle, yet perverse interpretation,
which, unable to deny that there is an objective presence of Christ taught
by the Fathers, alleges that His body in the Eucharist is a body of bread, or
that the bread, as such, is His body; and that the blood of Christ in the
Eucharist is a blood of wine, that is, that the wine itself is, as such, Christ's
blood. Ignatius distinctly testifies that the body in the Eucharist is not a
body of bread, but is the body of that flesh which suffered for our sins and
was raised from the dead. EBRARD 410 himself says: "The fundamental
argument against the possibility of a tropical use of the word 'flesh' in
Ignatius, lies in the fact that he
410 Abendm. I. 254.