Porter
porter
(Latin: ostium, a door)
The first of the minor orders, by which spiritual power is conferred on the recipient, of opening and closing the doors of the Church, and of guarding the Temple of God.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Porter
(Also called DOORKEEPER. From ostiarius, Lat. ostium, a door.)
Porter denoted among the Romans the slave whose duty it was to guard the entrance of the house. In the Roman period all houses of the better class had an ostiarius, or ostiary, whose duties were considered very inferior. When, from the end of the second century the Christian communities began to own houses for holding church services and for purposes of administration, church ostiaries are soon mentioned, at least for the larger cities. They are first referred to in the letter of Pope Cornelius to Bishop Fabius of Antioch written in 251 (Eusebius, “H.E.”, VI, 43), where it is said that there were then at Rome 46 priests, 7 deacons, 7 subdeacons, 42 acolytes, and 52 exorcists, lectors, and ostiaries, or doorkeepers. According to the statement, of the “Liber Pontificalis” (ed. Duchesne, I, 155) an ostiary named Romanus suffered martyrdom in 258 at the same time as St. Lawrence. In Western Europe the office of the ostiary was the lowest grade of the minor clergy. In a law of 377 of the Codex Theodosianus (Lib. XVI, tit. II, num. XXIV; ed. Gothofredi, VI, I, 57) intended for the Vicariate of Italy, the ostiaries are also mentioned among the clergy who have a right to personal immunity. In his letter of 11 March, 494, to the bishops of southern Italy and Sicily Pope Gelasius says that for admission into the clergy it was necessary that the candidate could read (must, therefore, have a certain amount of education), for without this prerequisite an applicant could, at the most, only fill the office of an ostiary (P.L., LVI, 691). In Rome itself this office attained to no particular development, as a large part of these duties, namely the actual work necessary in the church building, what is now probably the duty of the sexton, was at Rome performed by the mansionarii. The clergy of the three lower grades (minor orders) were united at Rome into the Schola cantorum and as such took part in the church ceremonies. There are no special prayers or ceremonies for the ordination of the lower clergy in the oldest liturgical books of the Roman Church. For the Gallican Rite, short statements concerning the ordination of the lower orders, among them that of the ostiaries, are found in the “Statuta ecclesiæ antiqua” a collection of canons which appeared at Arles about the beginning of the sixth century (Maassen, “Quellen des Kirchenrechts”, I, 382). The “Sacramentarium Gelasianum” and the “Missale Francorum” contain the same rite with the prayers used on this occasion.
According to these the ostiaries are first instructed in their duties by the archdeacon; after this he brings them before the bishop who takes the keys of the church from the altar and hands them to the candidate for ordination with the words: “Fulfil thine office to show that thou knowest that thou wilt give account to God concerning the things that are locked away under these keys.” Then follows a prayer for the candidate and a prayer for the occasion that the bishop pronounces over him. This ceremony was also at a later date adopted by the Roman Church in its liturgy and has continued with slight changes in the formulæ until now. In Latin Western Europe, outside of Rome, in the late Roman era and the one following, the ostiaries were still actually employed as guardians of the church buildings and of their contents. This is shown by the epitaph of one Ursatius, an ostiary of Trier (Corpus inscr. latin., XIII, 3789). An ostiary of the church of Salona is also mentioned in an epitaph (Corpus inscr. Iatin., III, 13142). Later, however, in the Latin Church the office of ostiary universally remained only one of the degrees of ordination and the actual work of the ostiary was transferred to the laity, (sacristans, sextons, etc.). In the ordination of ostiaries at the present day their duties are thus enumerated in the Pontifical: “Percutere cymbalum et campanam, aperire ecclesiam et sacrarium, et librum ei aperire qui prædicat” (to ring the bell, to open the church and sacristy, to open the book for the preacher). The forms of prayer for the ordination are similar to those in the old Gallican Rite. In the East there were also doorkeepers in the service of the Church. They are enumerated as ecclesiastical persons by the Council of Laodicea (343-81). Like the acolytes and exorcists, they were only appointed to serve the church, but received no actual ordination and were not regarded as belonging to the ecclesiastical hierarchy. According to the “Apostolic Constitutions” belonging to the end of the fourth century the guarding of the door of the church during the service was the duty of the deacons and subdeacons. Thus the doorkeepers exercised their office only when service was not being held.
———————————–
DUCHESNE, Origines du culte chrétien (5th ed., Paris, 1909). 349 sq.; WIELAND, D. genetische Entwicklung d. sogen. Ordines minores in den drei ersten Jahrhunderten (Rome, 1897), 54 sqq., 161 sqq.; THOMASSINUS, Vetus et nova ecclesiæ disciplina circa beneficia et beneficiarios, pt. i, lib. I, cap. xxx-xxxiii, I (Lyons, ed. 1706), 319 sqq.
J.P. KIRSCH Transcribed by Wm Stuart French, Jr. Dedicated to Wm Stuart French, Sr.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Porter
This word, when used in the A. V., does not bear its modern signification of a carrier of burdens, but denotes in every case a gatekeeper, from the Latin portarius, the man who attended to the porta. In the original the word is or , shoer, from , shaar, a gate; once (Ezr 7:24) Chald. , tara’, the same (Sept. and ; Vulg. portarius and janitor). This meaning is evidently implied in 1Ch 9:21; 2Ch 23:19; 2Ch 35:15; Joh 10:3. It is generally employed in reference to the Levites who had charge of the entrances to the sanctuary, but is used also in other connections in 2Sa 18:26 : 2Ki 7:10-11; Mar 13:34; Joh 10:3; Joh 18:16-17. In two passages (1Ch 15:23-24) the Hebrew word is rendered doorkeeper, and in Joh 18:16-17, is she that kept the door. Thus, in 2Ki 7:10-11, and 2Sa 18:26, we meet with the porter at the gates of a town. In the palace of the high-priest (Joh 18:17) the porter was a female, , . See also Act 12:13. A porter seems to have been usually stationed at the doors of sheepfolds (Joh 10:3). According to Stier and others, this corresponds to the Holy Spirit, who opens the way for the true ministers of Christ. SEE DOOR.
The porters of the Temple, who were guards as well as porters, were very numerous in David’s time; for in 1Ch 23:5 no less than 4000 are mentioned. They were divided into courses (1Ch 26:1-19), and had their post assigned them by lot (1Ch 26:13). Besides attending to the gates and keeping order there, they seem, as Lightfoot says, to have had charge of certain treasures (1Ch 26:15, comp. with 2Ch 25:24, and Lightfoot’s Prospect of the Temple, c. 5, 6). Properly speaking, their office was in some respects military: they were the soldiers of Jehovah, and the guards of his Temple. The stations that were guarded were not all occupied by the same number-some being guarded by six, some by four, and others by two persons only. They were relieved every Sabbath-day by others who took their places (2Ki 11:5; 1Ch 9:17-29; 1Ch 16:42; 2Ch 8:14; 2Ch 23:4; 2Ch 31:14; 2Ch 35:15). Their service was required by night as well as by day, and a man called the Man of the Mountain of the House went round every night to see that all were in their places, and that none of them slept. If he found any one asleep he struck him, and had liberty to burn his clothes. To this Lightfoot thinks there is a reference in Rev 16:15 : Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments (Temple Service, c. 7 1). SEE TEMPLE.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Porter
a gate-keeper (2 Sam. 18:26; 2 Kings 7:10; 1 Chr. 9:21; 2 Chr. 8:14). Of the Levites, 4,000 were appointed as porters by David (1 Chr. 23:5), who were arranged according to their families (26:1-19) to take charge of the doors and gates of the temple. They were sometimes employed as musicians (1 Chr. 15:18).
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Porter
shoeer; thuroros. A “gatekeeper” (1Ch 9:21), Joh 10:3 symbolically “the Holy Spirit who opens gospel doors” (Act 14:27; 1Co 16:9; 2Co 2:12; Col 4:3) and shuts them (Act 16:6-7); “by one Spirit we have access through Christ unto the Father” (Eph 2:18). He opens the door of men’s hearts (Rev 3:20, compare Act 16:14).
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Porter
PORTER (, Mar 13:34, Joh 10:3; Joh 18:16 f. [in last passage, she that kept the door]).The English word porter is ambiguous, meaning burden-bearer as well as door-keeper. Janitor or gate-keeper would be a better rendering. Porters were employed to guard city gates, and to keep watch at the entrance of public buildings and of private houses. It would appear from Joh 18:16 f., where a damsel acts as door-keeper of the high priests palace, that in some instances women were thus employed (cf. Act 12:13 f.); see, further, Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible , artt. Gate, Porter, Priests and Levites (iv. 93a).
The identity of the porter of the sheepfold (Joh 10:3) has been much discussed. Obviously, he is the guardian of the fold, whose office is to open the door to any shepherd (Joh 10:2 [Greek and (Revised Version margin) ]) whose sheep are in the fold. See art. Sheep. Thus the porter may be (1) God: so Calvin (Com. on John, in loc.), Bengel (Gnomon, in loc.), and Hengstenberg (Com. on John, in loc.); (2) Christ: so Cyril and Augustine (quoted by Hengstenberg), who remark that Christ is His own porter; (3) the Holy Spirit: so Stier, Lange, Alford, and others. Others apply the figure to John the Baptist (so Godet) or to Moses. The most natural interpretation is that given by Westcott (Gospel of John, in loc.): The interpretation will vary according to the special sense attached to the sheep and the shepherd. The figure is not to be explained exclusively of the Holy Spirit, or of the Father, or of Moses, or of John the Baptist, but of the Spirit acting through His appointed ministers in each case. For parallels to the symbolism of the passage, cf. Act 14:27; Act 16:14, 2Co 2:12, Col 4:3, Rev 3:7.
James Mursell.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Porter
PORTER in EV [Note: English Version.] has always the sense of doorkeeper (see House, 6) or gatekeeper (see Fortification and Siegecraft, 5, end). In Joh 10:3 the porter is the man left in charge of a sheepfold by the shepherd or shepherds whose sheep are there housed for the night. In private houses the doorkeeper might be a woman (2Sa 4:6 as restored from LXX [Note: Septuagint.] , Act 12:13). In OT, however, porters are most frequently named in the Books of Chron., Ezr and Neh. in connexion with the Temple (1Ch 9:17 f. onwards), where they had charge of the various gates (see Temple, 6, Priests and Levites, iii. 1, 2). The same word is rendered doorkeepers in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] 1Ch 15:23 f., and in several other places in RV [Note: Revised Version.] (1Ch 15:19 etc.). It is to be regretted that this term was not substituted throughout. In Psa 84:10 the original is different, and should probably be rendered: I had rather be [standing or lying] at the threshold in the house of my God.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Porter
In scripture this word is used in the sense of doorkeeper. The Levites kept the doors of the temple: it was an honourable office. 2Sa 18:26; 2Ki 7:10-11; 1Ch 9:17-26; Mar 13:34.
In Joh 10:3 the Porter is the Spirit of Jehovah working in Israel, who recognised the Lord Jesus as entering in by the door into the sheepfold that as the Good Shepherd He might have access to the sheep.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Porter
Porter. This word, when used in the Authorized Version, does not bear its modern signification of a carrier of burdens, but denotes in every case a gate-keeper, from the Latin, portarius, the man who attended to the porta, or gate.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Porter
“a door-keeper” (thura, “a door,” ouros, “a guardian”), is translated “porter” in Mar 13:34; Joh 10:3; it is used of a female in Joh 18:16-17, translated “(her) that kept the door.” In the Sept., 2Sa 4:6; 2Ki 7:11; Eze 44:11.
Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words
Porter
Mar 13:34 (b) This represents the servant of GOD who is watching constantly for the welfare of GOD’s people and for the interests of his absent Lord.
Joh 10:3 (b) This is probably a figure of the gracious Spirit of GOD revealing the open door to the seeking heart. It may refer to a wise servant of GOD, some Sunday School teacher, pastor, or evangelist, who sees a troubled soul seeking the Saviour and opens the Scriptures of truth to him so that he enters into salvation.