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It is a translation of the ancient rite following the same structure described in detail in writing as early as the year 155 by Saint Justin Martyr.

Justin Martyr, an early defender of Christianity, wrote in the second century of the church partaking of the bread and wine.

And the Christian writers of Lucian’s day largely confirm that picture: Justin Martyr, Tertullian and the anonymous treatise known as the Didache all claim that Christians must own everything in common, renounce private property and give their wealth to the poor.

In the 2nd century, Christian thinker Justin Martyr wrote that “when they crucified Him, driving in the nails, they pierced His hands and feet; and those who crucified Him parted His garments among themselves,” emphasizing the humiliation and suffering of Jesus’ execution in a long dialogue with a non-Christian interlocutor.

Thus we must move on to the thorny problem of the shepherds, which has troubled scholars since Justin Martyr raised the question in AD165 of whether or not they were really filled with "great dread".