CHAPTER V

CHRISTIAN WORSHIP IN THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES

"The roots of the present lie deep in the past, and nothing in the past is dead to the man who would learn how the present came to be what it is."

L'

- BISHOP STUBBS.

ET us now in thought take a journey backwards to the age immediately succeeding that of the Apostles. What we find there everywhere is the united or "common" worship of the Church, in liturgical prayers, gathering around the Breaking of the Bread, or Holy Eucharist. All the earliest buildings for Christian worship of which we have any record, all allusions of historians or early writers and preachers, as well as all the most ancient liturgies, testify to the fact that in the first days all such worship had as its centre an altar or holy table 1 on which were celebrated the sacred mysteries which our Lord had instituted to take the place of the Paschal memorial sacrifice and feast. Whether such places for Christian meetings are found in some subterranean chamber of the Catacombs, or some upper room in a private house, or some transformed Roman basilica or court of justice after the Empire became nominally Christian, we find the same

1 In the Old as well as in the New Testament the words "altar" and "table" are used interchangeably. In Ezek. xli, 22, we read, "The altar of wood was three cubits high,. and he said unto me, This is the table that is before the Lord." Compare Ezek. xl, 39-44; xliv, 16; Mal. i, 7, 12. See also S. Paul's comparison of "the table of the Lord" with the heathen "altar" or "table of devils" in 1 Cor. x, 21. Bingham gives evidence beginning with Ignatius and Irenaeus, that the common, if not exclusive, use in the first two centuries was "altar." See Book VIII, vi, sec. 11, sq.

pattern everywhere. It is that of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem with its altar and its divinely appointed priesthood, and not that of the synagogue with its platform or bema, and its lay services of prayer, and instruction, and exhortation alone. Or rather this earliest Christian worship combined both methods in one; the prayers, the reading of the Scriptures, and the instruction of the synagogue, with the memorial pleading of the one sacrifice for sin, and the intercessions and benedictions of the priests, which were peculiar to the Temple.

During the ages of persecution, nearly down to 313, but little attempt was made to build churches. Christians had to meet where they could in private houses or temporary oratories, sometimes "in dens and caves of the earth." As early, in fact, as A.D. 259 the edict of the Emperor Gallienus gave to the Church for the first time the legal rights of a religio licita, that is, of a college or corporation in law. Henceforth it could build and hold churches, and freely worship in them, and within a short time, writes the German historian Neander, "many splendid structures had already arisen in the large cities." What is very important to note, however, is that as soon as persecution was past and large churches were built, only one type is found, and that, modelled not on the synagogue as a place chiefly of instruction, but on the Temple as a place of worship.1 Descriptions of these first

1 It is surely very noteworthy that again and again S. Paul speaks of the Church spiritually, or the individual member thereof, as "The Temple of God," but never as a synagogue. See I Cor. iii. 16, 17; vi, 19; 2 Cor. vi, 16; 2 Thess. ii, 4; also S. John in Rev. iii, 12; vii, 15; xv, 8. The Apostles had no reason for pleasant recollections of the synagogue, where they were often imprisoned and beaten. Hence S. John speaks of the synagogue of Satan," Rev. ii, 9; iii, 9. Only once in fact do we find the word applied to a Christian "assembly," where the Greek word is "synagogue," namely, in S. James ii, 2.

city churches are given us by Eusebius, the Father of Church History (A.D. 266-340), and other writers, and in the "Church Orders" of the fourth century. (For the general plan see the frontispiece facing title page of this book.) From these we learn that, while details differ, the general plan of all was the same, testifying, as do the Liturgies, to one fundamental principle of construction and worship which was already, even in the days of persecution, the established rule. Most city churches of the fourth century were of the type of the cathedral church of Tyre as described by Eusebius, namely, an oblong nave or central portion, with semi-circular apse (sometimes three) at the east, a narthex or porch at the west, and single or double aisles on the north and south. Some of these churches were round, some square, some octagonal, some were in the shape of a cross with transepts. But one fundamental feature was common to all, namely, that a special place, generally at the east end and elevated above the floor of the body of the building, was reserved for the holy table or altar, and marked off or closed in by rails (cancelli), or gates and veils, from the nave. In addition to these main features there was frequently a large court or churchyard at the west, with fountain or basin for cleansing the hands and face before entering the church. The baptistery, an oblong building with a circular font in the centre, was also usually placed in this courtyard.1

Concerning the synagogue Canon Warren writes: "It should be borne in mind that synagogues in the first century A.D. were a comparatively modern institution, and had no

1 For the names and uses of the different parts of the church see Bingham, Books VIII and XVIII; Maclean, Ancient Church Orders, chap. iv; Early Christian Worship, Lec. III; Duchesne, Christian Worship, chap. xxi.

hereditary claim on the reverence or affection of either Jews or Christians. . . . There is no reference to synagogues in the Old Testament. . . . Synagogues were village institutes and police courts as well as halls of worship. Within their precincts cases were tried, prisoners were sentenced, and the sentences were carried out. Our Lord said, 'They shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons.' 'Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues.' 1 S. Paul tells how 'I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme.' 2 . . . Surely, with such painful and degrading associations and recollections, the synagogue would not have been the quarter to which the first Christians would have turned to find a model, either for their proceedings or their services. Their thought would more naturally centre round the Temple, which our Saviour, and His Apostles after Him, regularly frequented, and which was, par excellence, the house of God."3

Another element lacking in the synagogue besides altar, sacrifice, and priesthood, was the recitation or chanting of the Psalter, which has always been a central feature of Christian worship, as it had been of the worship of the Temple. In regard to this an eminent French Protestant, Mons. E. de Pressensé, says: "Its cradle was not the synagogue, where the frigid service consisted only of reading and prayer, without any intermingling songs of praise. Christian song comes directly from the Temple, the offspring of that grand Hebrew poetry uttered by lips touched by

1 S. Luke xxi, 12; S. Matt. x, 17; S. Luke xii, 11.

Acts xxii, 19; xxvi, 11.

3 Liturgy of the Ante-Nicene Church, pp. 191, 192.

the live coal from off the altar, the sublimest lyric expressions ever given to the griefs and yearnings of the human heart." 1

At the cleansing of the Temple it is evident that our Lord had that holy place in mind, and not the synagogue, as the model for the future worship of His Church, when He adopted the prophecy of Isaiah (lvi, 7, Rev. Ver.) as His own and said, "Is it not written, My house shall be called the house of prayer for all the nations?" In His Sermon on the Mount also, which contains the laws for the Church of "all the nations," and not merely for that generation of the Jewish Church, our Lord implies that it will have a worship similar to that of the Temple, with an "altar" to which Christians will bring their "offerings," as devout Israelites had always done to the altar in Jerusalem.2

In a similar manner S. Paul speaks of Christians having a sacrificial worship (real though unbloody) corresponding to that of the Jews. Referring to the worship of the Temple, which still existed when he wrote his epistle to the Hebrews (assuming that he is the author), he comforts these Jewish Christians, who were taunted by their fellow countrymen with having abandoned the true worship of God, by telling them, "We [Christians] have an altar, whereof they have

1 Christian Life and Practice in the Early Church, p. 277; qu. by Warren, Lit. etc. p. 191. Oesterley, in The Psalms in the Jewish Church, chap. viii, while admitting that "the original object" of the synagogue was the study of the Law, rather than worship," gives proofs of the later use of the Psalms. There is no reference to them, however, in the New Testament. Prof. Cheyne says, "There is no evidence that psalmody formed part of the public worship in the early synagogues," but he adds, "I can with difficulty believe that prayer did not include praise." Bampton Lec. p. 14. See also Bingham, XIII, v, 4.

2 S. Matt. v, 23, 24.