[HarleyD]

Paul did not believe in transubstantiation.

That is an excellent point. Paul did not believe in transubstantiation but that the elements were mere symbols that proclaimed the Lord's coming.

From what I've been able to learn about the common meal tradition (Agape Feast) the Eucharist was before and after the meal.

That is a rather intriguing view. I have not done a lot of studying into what constituted the traditional feast. Rather I looked at the meaning of the Eucharist, the pronouncements of the Eucharist and the various historical positions and views throughout the church. It is a rather difficult study since type in Eucharist and you pull up pages and pages of Catholic views.

[adiaireton8]

Paul did not believe in transubstantiation but that the elements were mere symbols that proclaimed the Lord's coming.

Where are you getting this notion (i.e. that Paul did not believe that the bread and wine, when consecrated, actually become the Body and Blood of our Lord)?

-A8

[wmfights]

"I have not done a lot of studying into what constituted the traditional feast."
____________________________

It's hard to find a lot of information. I think I Cor.11:25 gives a clear statement to how communion was incorporated into the common meal. The bread was passed before the meal and the wine was passed after the supper.

Pliny the younger also provides information in his letters to the Emperor Trajan. He investigated, persecuted and killed Christians and then wrote the Emperor that:

"[The accused Christians] were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day [Sunday] before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god,and bound themselves by a solemn oath.....after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food-but food of an ordinary and innocent kind." (Pliny, letter's 10:96 page 7 The Birth of Christianity by John Crossan.

What the early Christians were doing was meeting in the morning then going to work and when the day was done having the common meal during which they had communion. It's pretty telling that Pliny says "food of an ordinary and innocent kind" if the bread and wine were transforming into the body and blood of Jesus Christ that would not have been "ordinary".