R.P.C. Hanson: Eucharistic Offering in the Early ChurchGrove Liturgical Study No.47, Bramcote, Grove Books, 1986First idea of eucharistic offering: "pure offering" (Mal.1:11). In 1:10 God rejected the offerings of the Jews. Thepure offering, in which God has pleasure, is that offered by the Christians. This is the claim of the earlyChristian writers. St. Paul urged the Christians of Rome to present their bodies "as a living sacrifice, holy andacceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (Rm.12:1). He used sacrificial language to describe his ownministry (Rm.15:16), analogous with the doctrine of the common priesthood (1 Pt.2:5,9; Ap.1:6;5:10;20:6).This pure offering was the pure heart and good conscience. The first example of this doctrine can be found inthe Odes of Solomon 20 (2d C.).I am a priest of the LordAnd Him I serve as a priest;And to Him I offer the offering of His thought.For His thought is not like the world,Nor like the flesh,Nor like them who worship according to the flesh.The offering of the Lord is righteousnessAnd purity of heart and lips.Offer thy inward being faultlesslyAnd let not thy compassion oppress compassion.And let not thyself oppress a self.1Didache (ca. 100 AD) invokes Mal.1:10 in an eucharistic context. 14:1f. quotes Mal.1:11,14.On the Lord's day come together, break bread and hold Eucharist after confessing your transgressions,that your sacrifice may be pure; but let none who has a quarrel with his fellow join in your meetinguntil they be reconciled, that your sacrifice be not defiled [14:1-2:.......]Hermas has a similar expression applied to almsgiving in a non-eucharistic context: "Your sacrifice will beacceptable with God (Sim.5:3 (58:8)).The Epistle of Barnabas (2:4-10) also proposes the "pure offering" doctrine, although in a non-eucharisticcontext and without reference to Malachi: God does not require material sacrifices; they were abolished by thenew law of Christ. What God henceforth requires is good conduct, repentance a...