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Agape and Eucharist
As Christianity developed, at least three kinds of communal meals are known, but how they differed from one another at different times and places is not at all clear. However, for Christian families, family participation in all of them was important.1 The Lord's Supper was celebrated weekly on the first day of the week in continuity with the meals of Jesus with his disciples, especially the last one before his arrest. Another type of early Christian meal is that known as the "agape" or "love feast," which may originate from the custom called the "breaking of the bread" in Acts 2, which may or may not be the same as the Eucharist.
There may be a reference to it in Jude 12. Inappropriate deeds are "spots on your agapes," but the textual variants make it unclear. When Ignatius stipulates that he thinks every genuine Eucharist should be sanctioned by the bishop, he goes on to add two other events to the same category, baptism and "doing agape." Many scholars think that in the early years, Eucharist and agape were the same event, but that they became distinct later. If so, they were already different, by the early second century, in Antioch and in some parts of the province of Asia, where Ignatius was writing. 1
Discuss the similarities and the differences between the Lord's Supper, the Agape and the Eucharist.
1"Families in the New Testament World - Households and House Churches" by Carolyn Osiek and David L. Balch.
"At least three kinds of communal sacramental meals are known."
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