Theodore of Mopsuestia and Transubstantiation

Q. Did Theodore advocate the Roman dogma of transubstantiation?

 

Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuestia (c. 350-428 A.D.):

For this reason the blessed Paul said: "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do remember the Lords death till He come." He shows that when our Lord shall come from heaven, and make manifest the future life, and effect the resurrection of all of us—from which we shall become immortal in our bodies and immutable in our souls—the use of sacraments and symbols shall by necessity cease. Since we shall be in the reality itself, we shall be in no need of visible signs to remind us of the things that shall take place. (Alphonse Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshūni, Volume 6, [1933], Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Lord's Prayer, Baptism and the Eucharist, Ch. 5, p. 72). Here and Online Here

Our Lord also testifies to this, because in the institution of the Sacrament He said: Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you for the remission of sins," and: "Take, drink, this is my blood which is shed for you for the remission of sins." He said this because in His death He gave us the next world in which there will be abolition of all sins. As to us it is right for us to perform symbolically the remembrance of His death by our participation in the Sacrament, from which we derive the possession of the future benefits and the abolition of sins. The food of the holy Sacrament possesses such a power, and fits the birth of those who eat it. Indeed, as in this world we take the spiritual food in signs and symbols, it is necessary that the nature of these signs and symbols should fit our present condition in which we take the symbolical food. (Alphonse Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshūni, Volume 6, [1933], Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Lord's Prayer, Baptism and the Eucharist, Ch. 5, p. 74). Here and Online Here

It is with justice, therefore, that when He gave the bread He did not say: "This is the symbol of my body," but: "This is my body"; likewise when He gave the cup He did not say: "This is the symbol of my blood" but: "This is my blood," because He wished us to look upon these (elements) after their reception of grace and the coming of the Spirit, not according to their nature, but to receive them as if they were the body and the blood of our Lord. Indeed, even the body of our Lord does not possess immortality and the power of bestowing immortality in its own nature, as this was given to it by the Holy Spirit; and at its resurrection from the dead it received close union with Divine nature and became immortal and instrumental for conferring immortality on others. (Alphonse Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshūni, Volume 6, [1933], Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Lord's Prayer, Baptism and the Eucharist, Ch. 5, p. 75). Here and Online Here

While He might have said: "It is I who give life," He did not say it, but said "I am the bread of life," because as we would be receiving the promise given us here of the immortality, which we expect in sacramental symbols, through bread and cup, we had to honour also the symbol which became worthy of this appellation. He called Himself bread as an allusion to the things that were to be given, as He wished to convince us, from things belonging to this world, that we shall receive also without doubt the benefits that are high above words. (Alphonse Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshūni, Volume 6, [1933], Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Lord's Prayer, Baptism and the Eucharist, Ch. 5, p. 76). Here and Online Here

(Our Lord) chose, therefore, very fittingly bread as food, and the cup—which consists of wine mixed with water—as drink. The Old Testament had already taken blood to mean wine: "He gave him to drink the blood of the grapes," while in another passage it says: "He shall wash his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes." That what He gave was wine He made perfectly clear by saying: “I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom." (Alphonse Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshūni, Volume 6, [1933], Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Lord's Prayer, Baptism and the Eucharist, Ch. 5, p. 77). Here and Online Here

That what is given to you in the cup by Christ our Lord as a symbol of His blood is wine, one is able also to see from the fact that it is mixed with water. This is either due to the fact that it is generally drunk in this way, or to the fact that having already taken bread it was fitting as a counterpart of it to take a cup of water—as bread cannot be made without a mixture of water—or also to the fact that having made use of this symbol in the birth of baptism we do likewise make use of it for the delight of the Sacrament of our nourishment. As it was necessary to remember the death of our Lord in our participation in the holy Sacrament, as the blessed Paul said, in the same way as we remember it in the things that take place in baptism, what was necessary for us to find in the elements of the gift of the holy baptism, from which we believe that we symbolically receive the second birth, had also to be found in the elements of the symbols of the Sacrament. (Alphonse Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshūni, Volume 6, [1933], Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Lord's Prayer, Baptism and the Eucharist, Ch. 5, p. 78). Here and Online Here

We must first of all realise that we perform a sacrifice of which we eat. Although we remember the death of our Lord in food and drink, and although we believe these to be the remembrance of His Passion—because He said: "This is my body which is broken for you, and this is my blood which is shed for you"—we nevertheless perform, in their service, a sacrifice; and it is the office of the priest of the New Testament to offer this sacrifice, as it is through it that the New Covenant appears to be maintained. It is indeed evident that it is a sacrifice, but not a new one and one that (the priest) performs as his, but it is a remembrance of that other real sacrifice (of Christ). Because the priest performs things found in heaven through symbols and signs, it is necessary that his sacrifice also should be as their image, and that he should represent a likeness of the service of heaven. It would be impossible for us to be priests and do priestly service outside the ancient law if we did not possess the likeness of heavenly things. (Alphonse Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshūni, Volume 6, [1933], Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Lord's Prayer, Baptism and the Eucharist, Ch. 5, p. 79). Here and Online Here

As to us who are called to a new covenant, as the blessed Paul said, we received salvation and deliverance in hope, and although we have not seen them we expect "by our patience to be absent from the body and be with our Lord." We walk by faith and not by sight because we are not yet in the reality, as we are not yet in the heavenly benefits. We wait here in faith until we ascend into heaven and set out on our journey to our Lord, where we shall not see through a glass and in a riddle but shall look face to face. These things, however, we expect to receive in reality through the resurrection at the time decreed by God, and now it is only by faith that we draw near to the firstfruits of these good things: to Christ our Lord and the high priest of things that belong to us. We are ordered to perform in this world the symbols and signs of the future things so that, through the service of the Sacrament, we may be like men who enjoy symbolically the happiness of the heavenly benefits, and thus acquire a sense of possession and a strong hope of the things for which we look. (Alphonse Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshūni, Volume 6, [1933], Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Lord's Prayer, Baptism and the Eucharist, Ch. 5, pp. 81-82). Here and Online Here

Indeed, although bread does not possess such a nature, yet when it receives the Holy Spirit and His grace it is enabled to impart to those who eat it the happiness of immortality. If it is capable of sustaining us in this life by a decree of God, although not possessing this power by nature, how much more will it not be capable, after it has received the descent of the Holy Spirit, of helping us to assume immortality. It does not do this by its own nature but by the Spirit who is dwelling in it, as the body of our Lord, of which this one is the symbol, received immortality by the power of the Spirit, and imparted this immortality to others, while in no way possessing it by nature.” (Alphonse Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshūni, Volume 6, [1933], Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Lord's Prayer, Baptism and the Eucharist, Ch. 5, p. 77). Here and Online Here

Roman Objection:

If, therefore, the nature of the vivifying Spirit made the body of our Lord into what its nature did not possess before, we ought, we also, who have received the grace of the Holy spirit through the symbols of the Sacrament, not to regard the elements merely as bread and cup, but as the body and the blood of Christ, into which they were so transformed by the descent of the Holy Spirit, by whom they become to the partakers of them that which we believe to happen to the faithful through the body and blood of our Lord. (Alphonse Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshūni, Volume 6, [1933], Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Lord's Prayer, Baptism and the Eucharist, Ch. 5, p. 76). Here and Online Here

A. The question is whether this transformation is carnal or spiritual. 

...as in this world we take the spiritual food in signs and symbols, (Ibid, Ch. 5, p. 74).

…and to remain in it by necessity through the suitable symbols of that spiritual food which shall be ours, (Ibid, Ch. 5, p. 74).

…and receive the immortal and spiritual food of the body and blood of our Lord, (Ibid, Ch. 6, p. 103).

…because it is right for all those who received this spiritual food to offer thanksgiving to God publicly for this great gift. (Ibid, Ch.6, p. 114).

…so also for our future existence we partake of spiritual food from Divine grace, (Ibid, Ch. 6, p. 117).

It does not do this by its own nature but by the Spirit who is dwelling in it, as the body of our Lord, of which this one is the symbol, received immortality by the power of the Spirit, and imparted this immortality to others, while in no way possessing it by nature. (Alphonse Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshūni, Volume 6, [1933], Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Lord's Prayer, Baptism and the Eucharist, Ch. 5, p. 77). Here and Online Here

On John 6:

Commenting on John 6:52:

How can this man give us his flesh to eat? When nature itself does not allow this. And they opposed what he was saying as something difficult and sinful as though he were asking them to really eat human flesh. (Ancient Christian Texts, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Translated by Marco Conti, Ed. Joel C. Elowsky, [United States, InterVarsity Press, 2010.], On John 6:52, p. 69). Here

Commenting on John 6:60:

This teaching is difficult; who can accept it? Since they had understood in a human sense that flesh had to be eaten, they thought that is was sacrilegious and certainly to difficult. (Ancient Christian Texts, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Translated by Marco Conti, Ed. Joel C. Elowsky, [United States, InterVarsity Press, 2010.], On John 6:60, p. 70). Here

Commenting on John 6:63:

The words that I have spoken to you are siprit and life. “Therefore,” he says, “the things I am saying to you must also be understood in a spiritual way, and then you will be able to believe that they are eternal life.” (Ancient Christian Texts, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Translated by Marco Conti, Ed. Joel C. Elowsky, [United States, InterVarsity Press, 2010.], On John 6:63, p. 71). Here

~ Soli Deo Gloria