Right, it's not even certain that Jesus claimed to be the messiah. But the emphasis on the Kingdom of God in the Didache's Eucharist is very much in line with the teachings Jesus.Kishkumen wrote: ↑Sat Nov 20, 2021 12:27 amYes! I remember being quite surprised by the Didache's Eucharist the first time I read it. I am not so keen on its Davidic focus, but it is, nevertheless, very interesting given the likely date of the document. I do not see the historical Jesus, if there was one, being Davidic as the builder from Galilee, but it must be the case that somewhere along the line stressing his Davidic lineage became important for a number of Christians.PseudoPaul wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 2:21 amIt's interesting, there seems to have been two competing eucharist traditions in early Christianity:
1) The familiar body/blood symbolism of the bread and wine (Paul and the author of Mark for instance are both guardians of this tradition, which seems to have elements in common with pagan mystery rites)
2) The eucharist tradition preserved in the Didache, which gives an altogether different interpretation of the bread and wine. Instead of representing the sacrificed body and blood of Jesus, they represent Jesus' Davidic line and the coming Kingdom of God on earth. This tradition is much more in keeping with the actual teachings of the historical Jesus.
https://isthatinthebible.wordpress.com/ ... st-ritual/
Compare that to Paul and Mark's eucharist tradition - a retroactive interpretation of the meaning of Jesus' death. Definitely not something that comes from Jesus, but from his followers after his death.
Ultimately does the Eucharist go back to Jesus himself? Hard to say. But it strikes me that the Didache version (which is very Jewish rather than Roman) would at least go back to the people who actually knew Jesus and were most familiar with his teachings. The body/blood version we're more familiar seems more removed from the historical Jesus.
Joseph Smith tried to reconstruct "primitive Christianity" through revelation. It would be interesting to try to do that through a historical lens instead - it would be a tradition that doesn't much resemble either Mormonism or orthodox Christianity.