Though the Eucharist took the
form of a congregational meal in the first-century church (for example, 1 Cor.
11:17-22), it was often interpreted as a sacrificial meal shared out
among the congregation. (B. Hudson McLean, “The Place of Cults in Voluntary
Associations and Christian Churches on Delos,” in Voluntary Associations in
the Graeco-Roman World, ed. John S. Kloppenborg and Stephen G. Wilson
[London: Routledge, 1996], 216)
For example, Paul's contrast of
the Christian sacrificial meal with the sacrificial meals of the Graeco-Roman
sacrifice suggests that he is describing not only a real, but superior
sacrifice, in which the human-divine relationship was truly strengthened by a
slaying. Just as the latter truly made the worshipers partners with demons, so
the Christian sacrifice brings about an actual partnership with the Christ (1
Cor. 10:16--21). Similarly, the reference of Ignatius of Antioch to a Christian
altar implies that the Eucharistic meal had sacrificial meaning: "Be
careful, then, to observe a single Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our
Lord, Jesus Christ, and one cup of his blood that makes us one, and one
altar ... " (Ignatius, Phil. 4.1-2); "Run off- all of you- to
one temple of God, as it were, to one altar ... " (Ignatius, Magn.
7.2). (B. Hudson McLean, “The Place of Cults in Voluntary Associations and
Christian Churches on Delos,” in Voluntary Associations in the Graeco-Roman
World, ed. John S. Kloppenborg and Stephen G. Wilson [London: Routledge,
1996], 224 n. 143)
