Είναι ο άρτος και ο οίνος «σύμβολα»; / Are the bread and the wine "symbols"?

  «{ΕΡΑΝ.} Χαριῇ μοι τοῦτο δρῶν· τὴν γὰρ ὠφέλειαν αὐξήσεις.

  {ΟΡΘ.} Οἶσθα ὅτι ἄρτον ὁ δεσπότης τὸ οἰκεῖον προσηγόρευσε σῶμα;

  {ΕΡΑΝ.} Οἶδα.

  {ΟΡΘ.} Καὶ ἑτέρωθι δὲ τὴν σάρκα σῖτον ὠνόμασεν; 

  {ΕΡΑΝ.} Οἶδα καὶ τοῦτο. Ἤκουσα γὰρ αὐτοῦ λέγοντος· “Ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὥρα ἵνα δοξασθῇ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου·” καί· “Ἐὰν μὴ ὁ κόκκος τοῦ σίτου πεσὼν εἰς τὴν γῆν ἀποθάνῃ, μόνος μένει· ἐὰν δὲ ἀποθάνῃ,πολὺν καρπὸν φέρει.”

  {ΟΡΘ.} Ἐν δέ γε τῇ τῶν μυστηρίων παραδόσει, σῶμα τὸν ἄρτον ἐκάλεσε, καὶ αἷμα τὸ κρᾶμα.

  {ΕΡΑΝ.} Οὕτως ὠνόμασεν.

  {ΟΡΘ.} Ἀλλὰ καὶ κατὰ φύσιν, τὸ σῶμα σῶμα ἂν εἰκότως κληθείη, καὶ τὸ αἷμα αἷμα.

  {ΕΡΑΝ.} Ὡμολόγηται.

  {ΟΡΘ.} Ὁ δέ γε σωτὴρ ὁ ἡμέτερος ἐνήλλαξε τὰ ὀνόματα, καὶ τῷ μὲν σώματι τὸ τοῦ συμβόλου τέθεικεν ὄνομα, τῷ δὲ συμβόλῳ τὸ τοῦ σώματος· οὕτως ἄμπελον ἑαυτὸν ὀνομάσας, αἷμα τὸ σύμβολον προσηγόρευσεν.

  {ΕΡΑΝ.} Τοῦτο μὲν ἀληθῶς εἴρηκας. Ἐβουλόμην δὲ τὴν αἰτίαν μαθεῖν τῆς τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐναλλαγῆς.

  {ΟΡΘ.} Δῆλος ὁ σκοπὸς τοῖς τὰ θεῖα μεμυημένοις. Ἠβουλήθη γὰρ τοὺς τῶν θείων μυστηρίων μεταλαγχάνοντας μὴ τῇ φύσει τῶν προκειμένων προσέχειν, ἀλλὰ διὰ τῆς τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐναλλαγῆς πιστεύειν τῇ ἐκ τῆς χάριτος γεγενημένῃ μεταβολῇ. Ὁ γὰρ δὴ τὸ φύσει σῶμα σῖτον καὶ ἄρτον προσαγορεύσας, καὶ αὖ πάλιν ἄμπελον ὀνομάσας, οὗτος τὰ ὁρώμενα σύμβολα τῇ τοῦ σώματος καὶ αἵματος προσηγορίᾳ τετίμηκεν, οὐ τὴν φύσιν μεταβαλών, ἀλλὰ τὴν χάριν τῇ φύσει προστεθεικώς.

  {ΕΡΑΝ.} Καὶ μυστικῶς ἐρρέθη τὰ μυστικὰ καὶ σαφῶς ἐδηλώθη τὰ πᾶσιν οὐ γνώριμα.

  {ΟΡΘ.} Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν συνωμολόγηται καὶ στολὴν καὶ περιβολὴν ὑπὸ τοῦ πατριάρχου τὸ δεσποτικὸν ὠνομάσθαι σῶμα, εἰς δὲ τὸν περὶ τῶν θείων μυστηρίων εἰσεληλύθαμεν λόγον, εἰπὲ πρὸς τῆς ἀληθείας τίνος ἡγῇ σύμβολόν τε καὶ τύπον τὴν παναγίαν ἐκείνην τροφήν; τῆς θεότητος τοῦ δεσπότου Χριστοῦ ἢ τοῦ σώματος καὶ τοῦ αἵματος;

  {ΕΡΑΝ.} Δῆλον ὡς ἐκείνων, ὧν καὶ τὰς προσηγορίας ἐδέξατο.

  {ΟΡΘ.} Τοῦ σώματος καὶ τοῦ αἵματος λέγεις;

  {ΕΡΑΝ.} Οὕτω λέγω.

  {ΟΡΘ.} Φιλαλήθως εἴρηκας. Καὶ γὰρ ὁ κύριος τὸ σύμβολον λαβὼν οὐκ εἶπε· τοῦτό ἐστιν ἡ θεότης μου· ἀλλά, “Τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ σῶμά μου·” καὶ πάλιν· “Τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ αἷμά μου·” καὶ ἑτέρωθι· “Ὁ δὲ ἄρτος ὃν ἐγὼ δώσω, ἡ σάρξ μού ἐστιν, ἣν ἐγὼ δώσω ὑπὲρ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου ζωῆς.”

  {ΕΡΑΝ.} Ἀληθῆ ταῦτα, θεῖα γάρ ἐστι λόγια».

–Θεοδώρητος Κύρου, Ερανιστής 77,
G.H. Ettlinger, Theodoret of Cyrus. Eranistes.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975, σσ. 78, 79.

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"Eran.—I shall be grateful to you for so doing, for you will increase the favour done me.
Orth.—You know how God called His own body bread?
Eran.—Yes.
Orth.—And how in another place he called His flesh corn?
Eran.—Yes, I know. For I have heard Him saying “The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified,” and “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit.”
Orth.—Yes; and in the giving of the mysteries He called the bread, body, and what had been mixed [i.e. mixed wine], blood.
Eran.—He so did.
Orth.—Yet naturally the body would properly be called body, and the blood, blood.
Eran.—Agreed.
Orth.—But our Saviour changed the names, and to His body gave the name of the symbol and to the symbol that of his body. So, after calling himself a vine, he spoke of the symbol as blood.
Eran.—True. But I am desirous of knowing the reason of the change of names.
Orth.—To them that are initiated in divine things the intention is plain. For he wished the partakers in the divine mysteries not to give heed to the nature of the visible objects, but, by means of the variation of the names, to believe the change wrought of grace. For He, we know, who spoke of his natural body as corn and bread, and, again, called Himself a vine, dignified the visible symbols by the appellation of the body and blood, not because He had changed their nature, but because to their nature He had added grace.
Eran.—The mysteries are spoken of in mystic language, and there is a clear declaration of that which is not known to all.
Orth.—Since then it is agreed that the body of the Lord is called by the patriarch “robe” and “mantle” and we have reached the discussion of the divine mysteries, tell me truly, of what do you understand the Holy Food to be a symbol and type? Of the godhead of the Lord Christ, or of His body and His blood?
Eran.—Plainly of those things of which they received the names.
Orth.—You mean of the body and of the blood?
Eran.—I do.
Orth.—You have spoken as a lover of truth should speak, for when the Lord had taken the symbol, He did not say “this is my godhead,” but “this is my body;” and again “this is my blood” and in another place “the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.
Eran.—These words are true, for they are the divine oracles."


–Theodoret of Cyrus,
Eranistes 168.