Saint Justin Martyr the Philosopher

Readings

Selected reading

First Apology, chapter 66: Of the Eucharist (complete chapter)

And this food is called among us Εὐχαριστία [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, “This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body;” and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, “This is My blood;” and gave it to them alone. Which the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras, commanding the same thing to be done. For, that bread and a cup of water are placed with certain incantations in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated, you either know or can learn.

English: Dods and Reith’s historical translation (ANF, volume 1, 1885). Modern Greek, Russian, Macedonian, Italian and Tamil: LogosPharos study translations through that English edition, not the ancient Greek original or independently certified liturgical translations. The complete chapter is included; the edition’s footnotes are not Justin’s words.

Editorial context

Justin describes belief, baptism and life according to Christ as conditions for receiving the Eucharist, and explicitly distinguishes it from common food, calling it the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus. In the phrase about our bodies being nourished “by transmutation,” the change concerns the assimilation of food into our blood and flesh; it is not by itself a later technical definition of consecration. “The prayer of His word” is retained without resolving its disputed interpretation into a specific later formula. The final comparison with Mithraic rites is Justin’s polemical claim, not an independently established history of those rites. Gospel words are reproduced as Justin reports them, not substituted from a modern Bible.

Translations and context are AI-assisted and editorially reviewed, not independently certified by a scholar. Compare the displayed source text; short selections are not complete works.