What happens to the bread and wine in the Eucharist, and how is Christ present?

a passage states it a passage rules it out

Common ground

These are affirmed by more than one position, so a passage saying only this counts for none of them.

'This is my body' and 'this is my blood' quoted or affirmed (excludes memorial, decides nothing among the other four)
Christ's body and blood are truly given or received in the Supper (shared by spiritual presence, sacramental union, real change, transubstantiation)
Calling the Eucharist the body and blood of Christ, or the bread of life (all realist positions)
The Supper must be received worthily; unworthy eating brings judgment
The Supper is done in remembrance of Christ's death (all five positions)
Christ's body is in heaven at the Father's right hand (all positions affirm the ascension)

Memorial

Baptist

the mass is not a sacrifice, but is a remembrance of the sacrifice and assurance of the salvation which Christ has given us.Huldrych Zwingli, Sixty-Seven Articles, Article 18 (1523)

What sets it apart: The passage says the bread and wine only represent or remind of Christ's body and blood, and that nothing more than this remembrance is given in the rite.

Formally defined: Zwingli, Sixty-Seven Articles (1523); Baptist Faith and Message (1925, revised 2000)

No early passage in the library states it yet.

Spiritual presence

Reformed Anglican Baptist

the body and blood of Christ being then, not corporally or carnally, in, with, or under the bread and wine; yet, as really, but spiritually, present to the faith of believers in that ordinanceWestminster Confession of Faith, 29.7 (1646)

What sets it apart: The passage says Christ's body is received only spiritually or by faith (not by the mouth), or that unbelievers who eat receive the sign but not the body.

Formally defined: Consensus Tigurinus (1549); Thirty-Nine Articles (1563/1571); Westminster Confession (1646)

No early passage in the library states it yet.

Sacramental union

Lutheran

Of the Supper of the Lord they teach that the Body and Blood of Christ are truly present, and are distributed to those who eat the Supper of the LordAugsburg Confession, Article X (1530)

What sets it apart: The passage says the bread remains bread (keeps its nature or substance) while Christ's true body is present with it or given with it.

Formally defined: Augsburg Confession, Article X (1530); Formula of Concord, Article VII (1577)

No early passage in the library states it yet.

Real change, manner undefined

Orthodox Catholic

And make this bread the precious Body of Your Christ. ... And that which is in this cup the precious Blood of Your Christ. ... Changing them by Your Holy Spirit.Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Epiclesis

What sets it apart: The passage says the bread and wine are changed, transformed or made into Christ's body and blood (a change in what they are), without saying how.

Formally defined: Prayed in the eastern epiclesis; stated by the Synod of Jerusalem (1672) and, for Catholics, Lateran IV (1215) and Trent (1551)

No secure early statement. Earliest, from a work of uncertain authorship: Epiphanius of Salamis, c. 403.

Transubstantiation

Catholic

that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the Body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the Blood-the species Only of the bread and wine remaining-which conversion indeed the Catholic Church most aptly calls TransubstantiationCouncil of Trent, Session 13, Canon 2 (1551)

What sets it apart: The passage distinguishes what the bread is (now Christ's body) from what it still appears to be to the senses (bread), saying the appearance remains while the reality is changed.

Formally defined: Fourth Lateran Council (1215); Council of Trent, Session 13 (1551)

No early passage in the library states it yet.

Every deciding passage, earliest first

Apollinaris of Laodicea, c. 390
Catena fragment, author uncertain: A catena fragment: the ascription rests on the catena heading and is not secure.
Since the Spirit is the bread of the coming age, which is a food of life for the one approaching the age, and 'the bread which I will give' to you is 'my flesh for the life of the world' (John 6:51), and the blood is living in the body; and for this reason Moses said 'the life of all flesh' (Leviticus 17:11) regarding 'the blood' as being unified by blood. He clearly distinguished the type by the name of the truth, saying: 'this is my body'; and for this reason he named the types with the names of the truth, so that they would not be trivialized by what is seen, but would marvel at the power. …
- Rules out: Memorial
Read the passage
Epiphanius of Salamis, c. 403
Doubtful authorship: Authorship and date of this anaphora are uncertain.
May this bread, having been transformed, become the body of Christ: a divine body, a body of salvation for souls and bodies. And that which has been mixed in this cup, the same blood of Christ—the blood of a new covenant—is a salvation to us, so that we all may partake in the mysteries of your saints in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
- Rules out: Memorial
- Rules out: Spiritual presence
- Rules out: Sacramental union
- States: Real change, manner undefined
Read the passage
Epiphanius of Salamis, c. 403
Doubtful authorship: Authorship and date of this anaphora are uncertain.
Having said to the apostles: Take, eat; this is my body, which is being broken for you for the forgiveness of sins. Likewise, after the supper, having taken a cup and mixing it from two elements, from the fruit of the vine and from water, he sealed the cup of immortality and gave it to his disciples, saying: Drink from it, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, which is being poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.
- Rules out: Memorial
Read the passage
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
That Christ is life and life-giving. From the letter to the Corinthians: “I speak as to the wise; judge what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless — is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break — is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we the many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:15–17) Human flesh, as far as its own nature goes, would not be life-giving, nor would human blood if it were common and by itself; but Christ’s body and precious blood give life — and being able to give life belongs to God a…
- Rules out: Memorial
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
Catena fragment, author uncertain: A catena fragment: the ascription rests on the catena heading and is not secure.
The Lord gives thanks when he takes the cup — that is, in the form of prayer he converses with God the Father, declaring him as it were sharer and co-approver of the life-giving blessing that will be given to us, and at the same time giving us a pattern first to give thanks and thus to break the bread and distribute it. That is why we too, setting what was said before God’s face, beg intently that it be remolded for us into the spiritual blessing, so that by partaking of them we may be sanctified bodily and spiritually. He said demonstratively, “This is my body” (Matthew 26:26–28) and “This is…
- Rules out: Memorial
- Rules out: Spiritual presence
- Rules out: Sacramental union
- States: Real change, manner undefined
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
Doubtful authorship: Widely doubted as Cyril's; some lines are given to Nestorius.
I myself receive by faith the flesh of the life-giving Word which gives life; therefore the Savior said, 'Those who eat from this bread will never taste death for eternity' (John 6:51); those who…
- Rules out: Memorial
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
Catena fragment, author uncertain: A catena fragment: the ascription rests on the catena heading and is not secure.
Since after the resurrection Christ was about to be taken up to the Father with a body, for this reason he has given us his own body and blood, so that his flesh and blood, dwelling in us, may make us holy and sharers of immortality (Matthew 26:26–28).
- Rules out: Memorial
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
Cyril: That one who has become a sharer in Christ — by partaking of his holy flesh and blood — must also have his mind and love to go forward through inward achievements, understanding well what concerns him, he hinted at once by saying that head must be eaten with the feet and the inward parts. (Ex 12:9; Jn 6:53-56)
- Rules out: Memorial
Translation in progress