The Presentation of the Lamb: The Prothesis and Preparatory Rites of the Coptic Liturgy by Ramez Mikhail

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Presentation of the Lamb: The Prothesis and Preparatory Rites of the Coptic Liturgy by Ramez Mikhail Michael Meshreki Ramez Mikhail The Presentation of the Lamb: The Prothesis and Preparatory Rites of the Coptic Liturgy Münster: Aschendorff Verlag, 2020 487 pages. Paperback. €59. Ramez Mikhail's The Presentation of the Lamb: The Prothesis and Preparatory Rites of the Coptic Liturgy justly finds a place alongside Robert Taft's masterpiece, The Great Entrance. Where Taft considered the evolution of the commencement rites of the Byzantine liturgical tradition, Mikhail examines the scarce resources available to identify key elements of the commencement rites in the Coptic Orthodox tradition, which in Coptic circles is now described as the presentation of the lamb. Mikhail is first of all concerned with the ritual offering of gifts and the placement of this in the ancient rites compared to the current one. In the present-day Coptic Rite, an altar server simply bakes the korban (offering) on the same day of the liturgy, leaving it just outside the sanctuary ready for use. The Canons of Shenoute of Atripe (c. 347–465) and the Didascalia Arabica (c. twelfth century), among other sources, confirm that the congregation in fact brought their gifts and offerings to the church, and from amongst these "one blameless lamb" was chosen for the offering (55–68). In the first millennium, in what is now referred to as the "old ordo," these gifts were brought in by the people and kept in a separate location called a pastophorion, until they were needed for the anaphora and the subsequent prayers. This is attested in the Didascalia Apostolorum, the Apostolic Constitutions, and the Historia Ecclesiastica of Theodoret (68–78). Prothesis chambers (pastophoria) were common in Egyptian monasteries, even though they were sealed off from the central apse and only accessed through the main nave, as seen in the White Monastery church (82–88). [End Page 114] The author describes the transfer of the gifts from the pastophorion to the altar. In the current rite, the transfer occurs before the kiss of peace and before the word is read in the presence of the catechumens. According to the description of the Eucharistic liturgy in the First Apology of Justin Martyr, the presentation of the gifts to the presider took place after the kiss of peace. Other sources establish that this transfer of gifts happened immediately preceding the anaphora, contrary to what has happened since the end of the tenth century (92–94, 108–109). Through an "intermediate phase/ordo," the current "new ordo" dominated in Egypt by the end of the thirteenth century, resulting in the gifts being chosen and placed on the altar much earlier in the rite, whilst segments of psalms were sung according to the liturgical season (109–115, 117–122). In rites that have undergone a change in the manner of preparing the gifts "from an adjacent pastophorion to the altar, such as the West-Syriac, Coptic, and Ethiopian Rites, an elaborate rite of altar preparation developed," in the sixth, eighth to tenth, and twelfth centuries respectively (141–153). One of the first indicators for this transition can be traced to Severus of Antioch (d. 538), who recognized in his writings both the old and new ordos (151). After choosing the lamb, the washing commonly called the "baptism," and a "procession of the lamb" occur preceding a processional psalm (175–253). This procession is most likely the remnant of the old ordo procession from the pastophorion back to the altar, and this is perhaps the reason why during this the deacons remember those who have brought their gifts to the Lord (242–247). The priest then prays a Trinitarian berakot, followed by a thanksgiving prayer, which is a uniquely Egyptian element found only in the Melkite Anaphora of St. Mark, making some scholars suggest the origin of the prayer to be St. Mark himself, due to the popularity and the frequent use of the prayer in the Alexandrian tradition (257–305). The evolution of the rites of the presentation of the lamb, the uniquely Egyptian "shine your face" prothesis and epiclesis prayer, the covering of the gifts, and the absolutions, are finally...