ORIGIN OF ANAPHORAS
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has the largest number of Anaphoras for Holy Communion Services, totaling to 14. They are entirely different in their origin and form from that of other Christian Churches and yet have the same meaning. The traditional belief is that all the Anaphoras have been received from our sister church the Egyptian Coptic. Rev. Marcos Daoud translated the Liturgy from Ethiopic to English and Arabic.
According to Ethiopian tradition, the origins of the Anaphoras are listed as follows: The Anaphora of the Apostles was first written by the apostles themselves after the ascension of Christ. Afterwards, the church fathers made many additions to it. The Anaphora of the Lord was given to the disciples by the Lord Himself in His teaching as it is recorded in Acts 1:3, speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, during the 40 days after His resurrection.
The Anaphora of the Three Hundred was written by 318 bishop members of the first ecumenical council held in A.D. 325. The Anaphora of John the Son of Thunder was written by the Evangelist himself, and The Anaphora of St. Mary was composed by one of the Egyptian Churchmen, Abba Heryacos, who was a bishop of the province of Behnesa in Upper Egypt. It was said that he composed this Anaphora through the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary directed him to hand it over to St. Yared of Axum, who later added it to the other thirteen Anaphoras.
Authors of the following Anaphoras are not directly mentioned. They are simply known as The Anaphora of St. Basil, of St. Gregory I, of St. Epiphanius, of St. John Chrysostom, of St. Cyril of Alexandria, of St. Jacob of Serough (or Bishop of Serough), of St. Dioscorus, and of St. Gregory II.
Since all these fathers are known as authors of metrical homilies, expositions, letters, and hymns of different sorts, it is generally assumed that they themselves are authors of their Anaphoras.According to Ethiopian church traditions, St. Basil the Great collected the Anaphoras of the Apostles, the Three Hundred, and St. Athanasius.
Reference: Archbishop Yesehaq The Ethiopian Tewahedo Church: An Integrally African Church, page 111-112 Diocese of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the Western Hemisphere Vantage Press: New York, NY, 1989
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