Greek term that means a change of ousia
Metousiosis
is a
Greek
term (
μετουσ?ωσι?
) that means a change of
ousia
(
ο?σ?α
, "essence, inner reality").
History
[
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]
The declaration of the
1672 Synod of Jerusalem
is quoted by J.M. Neale (
History of Eastern Church
, Parker, Oxford and London, 1858) as follows: "When we use the word
metousiosis
, we by no means think it explains the mode by which the bread and wine are converted into the Body and Blood of
Christ
, for this is altogether incomprehensible [...] but we mean that the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of the Lord, not figuratively or symbolically, nor by any extraordinary grace attached to them [...] but [...] the bread becomes verily and indeed and essentially the very true Body of the Lord, and the wine the very Blood of the Lord."
Theology and dogmatic status
[
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]
The
Eastern Orthodox Church
's
1672 Synod of Jerusalem
released what the
Encyclopædia Britannica
called "the most vital statement of faith made in the Greek Church during the past thousand years".
[1]
Philip Schaff wrote in his
Creeds of Christendom
: "This Synod is the most important in the modern history of the Eastern Church, and may be compared to the
Council of Trent
. Both fixed the doctrinal status of the Churches they represent, and both condemned the evangelical doctrines of Protestantism [...] the
Romish doctrine of transubstantiation
(μεταβολ? [metaboli], μετουσ?ωσι? [metousiosis]) is taught as strongly as words can make it."
[2]
The Encyclopedia of Eastern Orthodox Christianity
states: "The Greek term
metousiosis
, which is comparable to the Latin
transsubstantiatio
, does appear in [Eastern] Orthodox liturgical and theological texts ? though not as often as other vocabulary (e.g.,
metastoicheiosis
, a "change of elements").
[3]
A. Osipov states that the Eastern Orthodox use of the Greek word μεταβολ? (
metabole
), meaning "change", and the Russian преложение in relation to the Eucharist should not be taken as equivalent to the word "transubstantiation", which has been rendered as
metousiosis
.
[4]
Nikolaj Uspenksij appeal to
Church Fathers
who, when speaking of other doctrines, drew analogies from the Eucharist and spoke of it as bread and wine, but as having also a heavenly nature.
[5]
Some Eastern Orthodox theologians thus appear to deny transubstantiation/metousiosis, but in the view of
Adrian Fortescue
, what they object to is the associated theory of substance and accident, and they hold that there is a real change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.
[6]
Eastern Orthodox use of the term
metousiosis
[
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]
The first edition of
The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church
, known also as
The Catechism of St. Philaret
, did not include the term
metousiosis
;
[4]
but it was added in the third edition: "In the exposition of the faith by the Eastern Patriarchs, it is said that the word
transubstantiation
is not to be taken to define the manner in which the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of the Lord; for this none can understand but God; but only thus much is signified, that the bread truly, really, and substantially becomes the very true Body of the Lord, and the wine the very Blood of the Lord."
[1]
The official Greek version of this passage (question 340) uses the word "metousiosis".
Writing in 1929, Metropolitan of Thyatira Germanos said that an obstacle to the request for union with the
Eastern Orthodox Church
presented in the 17th century by some
Church of England
bishops was that "the Patriarchs were adamant on the question of Transubstantiation", which, in view of the
Thirty-Nine Articles
, the Anglican bishops did not wish to accept.
[7]
Oriental Orthodox
[
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]
The
Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria
does not use a term corresponding to transubstantiation/metousiosis, but it speaks of "change" and rejects the Protestant denial of "the reality of the change of the bread and wine to the body and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ".
[8]
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
Rockwell, William Walker (1911).
"Jerusalem, Synod of"
. In
Chisholm, Hugh
(ed.).
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 335.
- ^
"Philip Schaff: Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library"
.
www.ccel.org
. Retrieved
2022-10-26
.
- ^
John Anthony McGuckin (editor),
The Encyclopedia of Eastern Orthodox Christianity
(John Wiley and Sons 2010), p. 232
ISBN
978-1-44439254-8
- ^
a
b
Проф. А. Осипов. Μεταβολ? или transsubstantiatio?
- ^
Николай Успенский. Святоотеческое учение о непостижимости природы евхаристии.
- ^
Adrian Fortescue,
The Orthodox Eastern Church
(Gorgias Press 2001), pp. 25?26
ISBN
978-0-97159861-4
.
- ^
Progress Towards the Re-Union of the Orthodox and Anglican Churches. By the Most Rev. Archbishop Germanos, Metropolitan of Thyatira. The Christian East, Spring, 1929, pp. 20-31.
- ^
Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States, "Transubstantiation".
External links
[
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]