existing bonds between God and his people, and among those people themselves. And, of course, those bonds needed to be strengthened regularly, and so these became repeatable and repeated practices. They were not about initial union, but rather ongoing communion. It is certainly true that there were not nearly as many possible antecedents for the practice of the Lord’s Supper as there were for Christian baptism. This does not mean that the debate in Christian circles down through church history has