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

is from Him, i. e., Christ, (di euchees logou ton par autou). This may
include the Lord's Prayer, but by preeminence it expresses the words of
the institution, which we know, in fact, constituted an essential part of the
earliest liturgies; and St. Justin himself expressly mentions Christ's words
as the words used in the consecration, and makes them parallel with the
consecrating words used in the mysteries of "Mithra," which were a
diabolic copy and parody of the Lord's Supper.
It has been asserted that the doctrine of Justin is that in the Supper a
new incarnation of Christ takes place. This view has been maintained by
Semler, Hahn, Neander, Baur, Engelhardt, and others. It has, following
them, been most fully presented by Semisch, in his Justin Martyr. 413
"Justin," says Semisch, "regards the Supper as it were a repeated
incarnation; as the incarnation was consummated in this, that the Divine
Logos assumed flesh and blood, so he supposes that the presence of Christ
in the Supper mediates itself in this, that the Divine Logos unites Himself
with bread and wine as His body and blood. Bread and wine do not
change physically in the Supper, but neither do they remain common
bread and common wine. They are, after the Eucharistic prayer by which
they are consecrated, as it were the vessel in which the Divine Logos
dwells, and are, consequently, really, even if only figuratively, the body and
blood of the Logos." This means that the bread is not the medium of the
communication of the body of Christ, but is in some sense literally the new
body of the unincarnate Logos. That is to say, that the Divine nature of
Christ, separate from His human body, puts on the bread of the Eucharist
as a new body; hence this bread is a body to the unincarnate Logos. That
this is not Justin's view is very clear, first, because he connects with his
own representation the words of the institution; clearly showing that he had
in his mind the words, "my body, my blood," there occurring in that sense
almost undisputed, in which they are accepted by universal Christendom,
even by those who deny the doctrine of the true presence. When Justin
speaks of the body of Christ he
413 Semisch, C. A.: Justin der Märtyrer, 1840-42, (translated by J. F. Ryland, Edinb., 1843, 2 vols., post 8vo).