The extra-biblical accounts are:
(1) “The Teaching of the Apostles;”[646] which implies:
(a) Thanksgiving for the wine. “We thank Thee, our Father, for the holy vine of David Thy servant, which Thou hast made known to us through Jesus Christ Thy Servant. To Thee be glory for ever.”
(b) Thanksgiving for the broken bread. “We thank Thee, our Father, for the life which Thou hast made known to us through Jesus Thy Servant. To Thee be glory for ever.”
After the thanksgiving they ate and drank: none could eat or drink until he had been baptized into the name of the Lord. After the partaking there was another thanksgiving and a prayer of supplication.
(2) There is a fragmentary account which has been singularly overlooked, in the Apostolical Constitutions,[647] which carries us one stage further. After the reading and the teaching, the deacon made a proclamation which vividly recalls the proclamation at the beginning of the Mysteries. “Is there any one who has a quarrel with any? Is there any one with bad feeling” (ἐν ὑποκρίσει)?
(3) The next stage is found in the same book of the Apostolical Constitutions.[648] The advance consists in the fact that the catechumens and penitents go out, just as those who were not yet initiated and those who were impure were excluded from the Greek Mysteries.
This marked separation of the catechumens and the baptized, which was possibly strengthened by the philosophic distinction between οἱ προκόπτοντες and οἱ τέλειοι, lasted until, under influences which it would be beyond our present purpose to discuss, the prevalence of infant baptism caused the distinction no longer to exist.[649]
(4) In a later stage there is a mention of the holy table as an altar, and of the offerings placed upon the table of which the faithful partook, as mysteries.[650]