Saturday, December 12, 2020

Ephraim of Antioch and Transubstantiation

Q. Did Ephraim advocate the Roman dogma of transubstantiation?


Ephraim, Bishop of Antioch (c. 6th Century A.D.):

So also the Body of Christ, Which believers receive, neither departs from the sensible substance [αίσθητῆς οὐσίας], nor is divided from the intelligible grace; and spiritual baptism, which becometh and is one whole, preserves the property of the sensible substance [αίσθητῆς οὐσίας], the water I mean, yet loses not that which it is become.

(J. P. Minge, Patrologiæ Cursus Completus, [1860], Patrologiæ Græcæ, Tomus CIII, Photii, Bibliotheca, Cod. CCXXIX, Col. 980). Here Trans. (Herbert Thorndike, The Theological Works of Herbert Thorndike, Sometime Prebendary of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter, Westminster, Vol. IV., [Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1852], p. 86). Here


Alternate Translations:

For so the body of Christ, which is received by the faithful, remains in its own substance [αίσθητῆς οὐσίας], and yet withal is united to a spiritual [νοητῆς] grace: and so baptism, though it becomes wholly spiritual, yet it loseth not the sensible property of its substance (that is water), neither does it cease to be what it was made by grace. 

(Photius, Bibliotheca, n. 229) see (John Cosin, The History of Popish Transubstantiation, edited by John Sherren Brewer, [1840], pp. 111-112). Here See: (J. P. Minge, Patrologiæ Cursus Completus, [1860], Patrologiæ Græcæ, Tomus CIII, Photii, Bibliotheca, Cod. CCXXIX, Col. 980). Here


So the body of Christ which is received by the faithful does not depart from its perceptible [αίσθητῆς] substance [οὐσίας] and remains indivisible from the spiritual [νοητῆς] grace. 

(Quoted in Photius, Bibliotheca, cod. 229 [P.G. ciii. 980]) see (Darwell Stone, A History of the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, [1909], Volume I, p. 136). Here



~ Soli Deo Gloria



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