Worship

Worship

It has been well said that for St. Paul and the member of the early Christian brotherhood the whole of life was a continuous worship, and the one great feature of that worship was prayer.* If we use the word prayer in the widest sense, as including praise as well as petition and intercession, the words agree with the opinion of Dllinger: When the attention of a thinking heathen was directed to the new religion which was spreading in the Roman Empire, the thing to strike him as extraordinary would be that a religion of prayer was superseding the religion of ceremonies and invocations of gods; that it encouraged all, even the humblest and the most uneducated, to pray, or, in other words, to meditate and exercise the mind in self-scrutiny and contemplation of God. In that age many men who showed respect for the externals of worship doubted their efficacy and the very existence of the gods. The calm confidence of Christian believers in their faith, unseared by the superstitions which had brought them to scepticism, could not fail to impress thoughtful men. Inquiry revealed to them forms of worship in the Christian Church austere in their simplicity, but hallowed alike by their association with the sacred traditions of Jewish worship and by the vivid consciousness of the presence of God to whom they could draw near as their Father through Jesus Christ, their Saviour, in the power of His Holy Spirit poured out upon all flesh.

1. History of Christian worship.-The worship of the Apostolic Church followed the precedents both of the Temple and of the Synagogue. At first the Apostles were diligent in their attendance at the Temple (Act 2:46), and the keen desire of St. Paul to keep the Feast at Jerusalem (Act 20:6) shows that the services of Christian assemblies were as yet regarded as supplementary to the central worship at the shrine of Jewish devotion. From the Temple came eventually the gradual evolution of the liturgy which summed up in a central service the profound thought of the Epistle to the Hebrews on the sacrifice of Christ as fulfilling all the types of Jewish sacrifice. The visions of the Apocalypse fill in the picture of Christian worship in the Eucharist as the representation on earth of the worship of heaven.

These thoughts, though found in these books themselves, did not find expression till a later age.* Clement of Rome has the idea of Christ as the high-priest of our offerings, but the ideas of the heavenly Priesthood of our Lord, and the Lamb standing as slain of the Apocalypse, found only very isolated expression in liturgical prayers before the 4th century. Irenaeus has the heavenly altar (iv. 18, 6) and Origen dwells on the High Priesthood of Christ (de Oratione, 10), but the Eucharist of pre-Nicene times moved rather in a simpler circle of ideas. It is in Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, and (in the West) Ambrose that we find these ideas developed. The earlier ideas seem derived not from the Temple and its associations but from the primitive idea of the thankoffering (e.g. of the Institution and the of Ignatius, Clement, and the Didache), together with the thought of the One Body of St. Paul; cf. again the Didache prayers. The thankoffering idea was expanded into the glorious eucharistic prayer found in its largest and fullest range in the liturgy of the Apostolic Constitutions. The idea of the One Body explains the emphasis and concentration of thought in the pre-Nicene prayers on communion, as opposed to worship of the Lamb standing as slain, which is the feature of the Greek liturgy from the time of Cyril of Jerusalem. And this hieratic clement in Christian liturgy is much more marked in Greek-speaking lands than in the West.

This somewhat lengthy quotation seems necessary to show how the ideas in the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Apocalypse were eventually expanded. The immediate purpose of the Epistle to the Hebrews was on another line. When the blow fell and the Temple at Jerusalem was destroyed, the mind of the Jewish Christian Church was prepared for the catastrophe. In the meantime, development had taken place in the worship both of Jewish and of Gentile Christians in the house-churches to which their assemblies were of necessity confined.

We can distinguish two lines of development: (i.) meetings for edification; (ii.) for the Supper of the Lord, the breaking of bread, in which, at first, the Eucharist was combined with the Agape or Love Feast (Jud 1:12; cf. also 2Pe 2:13). But, as Srawley points out, the use of the term Agape, and the distinction between the Agape and the Eucharist, as applied to the conditions described in Acts and 1 Corinthians, are possibly anachronisms. As yet there was no sharp distinction between the two parts of the meal, such as took place when the specially eucharistic features assumed a more developed liturgical form.*

Lindsay has described in a graphic way the meeting for edification in one of the Gentile churches founded by St. Paul.

The brethren fill the body of the hall, the women sitting together, in all probability on the one side, and the men on the other; behind them are the inquirers; and behind them, clustering round the door, unbelievers, whom curiosity or some other motive has attracted, and who are welcomed to this meeting for the Word.

The service, and probably each part of the service, began with the benediction: Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, which was followed by an invocation of Jesus and the confession that He is Lord. One of the brethren began to pray; then another and another; one began the Lords Prayer, and all joined; each prayer was followed by a hearty and fervent Amen. Then a hymn was sung; then another and another, for several of the brethren have composed or selected hymns at home which they wish to be sung by the congregation.

After the hymns came reading from the Old Testament Scriptures, and readings or recitations concerning the life and death, the sayings and deeds of Jesus. Then came the instruction-sober words for edification, based on what had been read, and coming either from the gift, of wisdom, or from that intuitive power of seeing into the heart of spiritual things which the apostle calls knowledge. Then came the moment of greatest expectancy. It was the time for the prophets, men who believed themselves and were believed by their brethren to be specially taught by the Holy Spirit, to take part. They started forward, the gifted men, so eager to impart what had been given them, that sometimes two or more rose at once and spoke together; and sometimes when one was speaking the message came to another, and he leapt to his feet, increasing the emotion and taking from the edification. When the prophets were silent, first one, then another, and sometimes two at once, began strange ejaculatory prayers, in sentences so rugged and disjointed that the audience for the most part could not understand, and had to wait till some of their number, who could follow the strange utterances, were ready to translate them into intelligible language. Then followed the benediction; The Grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all; the kiss of peace; and the congregation dispersed. Sometimes during the meeting, at some part of the services, but oftenest when the prophets were speaking, there was a stir at the back of the room, and a heathen, who had been listening in careless curiosity or in barely concealed scorn, suddenly felt the sinful secrets of his own heart revealed to him, and pushing forward fell down at the feet of the speaker and made his confession, while the assembly raised the doxology: Blessed be God, the Father of the Lord Jesus, for evermore. Amen.

The elements of such worship-prayer and praise and instruction-combined to make what Duchesne in a happy phrase calls a Liturgy of the Holy Ghost after the Liturgy of Christ, a true liturgy with a Real Presence and communion.** In one form or another they passed into the later offices, beginning with vigil services, then morning services, which combined to make what was known in later days as the Divine Office. These had their roots in the Synagogue services, but were distinguished by the new fervour which the gift of the Holy Spirit stamped upon them, so that while the keynote of the Synagogue service was instruction the new keynote was praise.

We may trace the same trend of thought in the Epistle to the Ephesians, regarded as a circular letter eminently calculated to raise the whole tone of worship. It is written from a point of view at which the Apostle feels free to pass away from the warnings needed by local churches and to rise into a higher region of emotion and thanksgiving.

2. The Eucharist.-In 1Co 11:20-34 the Eucharist seems to have followed the Agape. St. Paul writes of it as a well-known service (1Co 10:16). Putting together the scattered hints in the Epistles along with the references in Clement of Rome and Justin Martyr, we may suppose that it followed a service such as that described above and that it always included the following elements: a prayer of thanksgiving (Luk 22:19, 1Co 11:24; 1Co 14:16, 1Ti 2:1); the blessing of the bread and wine, with the recital of the words of Institution (1Co 10:16, Mat 26:26-28, Mar 14:22-24, Luk 22:19-20, 1Co 11:23);* prayers, remembering Christs death (Luk 22:19, 1Co 11:23; 1Co 11:25-26); the people eat and drink the consecrated bread and wine (Mat 26:26-27, Mar 14:22-23, 1Co 11:28-29). The evidence of the Didache is still in dispute. Some suppose that it contains prayers for the Agape rather than the Eucharist. In either case they are of interest and may be quoted here.

Every Sunday of the Lord, having assembled together, break bread and give thanks, having confessed your sins, that your sacrifice be pure (xiv. 1).

Concerning the Thanksgiving, give thanks thus. First, for the cup: We give thanks to thee, our Father, for the holy vine of thy servant David, which thou hast shown us through thy servant Jesus. Glory to thee for ever. But for the broken (bread): We give thanks to thee, our Father, for the life and knowledge which thou hast shown us through thy servant Jesus. Glory to thee for ever. As this broken bread was scattered over the mountains, and has been gathered together and made one, so may thy Church be gathered from the ends of the earth into thy kingdom; for thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever. But none is to eat or drink of your Thanksgiving except those who are baptized into the name of the Lord; for because of this the Lord said: Do not give the holy thing to dogs (ix.).

After ye are filled give thanks thus: We give thanks to thee, holy Father, for thy holy name which thou hast made to dwell in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality which thou hast shown us through thy servant Jesus. Glory to thee for ever. Thou, Almighty Lord, hast created all things for thy names sake and thou hast given food and drink to men for enjoyment that they might give thanks to thee. Above all we thank thee because thou art mighty. Glory to thee for ever. Remember, O Lord, thy Church to free her from all evil and make her perfect in thy love; gather her from the four winds and make her holy in thy kingdom which thou hast prepared for her; for thine is the power and the glory for ever. Let grace come and let this world perish. Hosanna to the God of David. If any one be holy let him draw nigh; if any one be not, let him repent. Maran atha. Amen. But let the prophets give thanks as much as they will (x.).

If the early date is allowed, we find here anticipation of the great thanksgiving of the later liturgies, mention of Gods work in creation and in redemption, a thanksgiving after Communion and prayer for the Church with the germ of the act of praise which grew into the Gloria in excelsis.

The Epistle of Clement of Rome has references to the order observed for the worship of God, e.g. ch. 40:

Now the offerings and ministrations He commanded to be performed with care, and not to be done rashly or in disorder, but at fixed times and seasons.

It contains also quotations from a wonderful prayer of intercession and thanksgiving (qq.v. ), and a close parallel to the later Sanctus.

Ch. 34: For the Scripture saith; Ten thousands of ten thousands stood by Him, and thousands of thousands ministered unto Him: and they cried aloud, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Sabaoth; all creation is full of His glory. Yea, and let us ourselves then, being gathered together in concord with intentness of heart, cry unto Him as from one mouth earnestly that we may he made partakers of His great and glorious promises.

The Epistles of Ignatius contain many liturgical phrases but no further hints as to the form of worship beyond the maxim, Do nothing without the bishop and the presbyters and such general exhortation as the following:

ad Magn. 7: And attempt not to think anything right for yourselves apart from others: but let there be one prayer in common, one supplication, one mind, one hope, in love and in joy unblameable, which is Jesus Christ, than whom there is nothing better. Hasten to come together all of you, as to one temple, even God; as to one altar; even to one Jesus Christ, who came forth from One Father, and is with One and departed unto One.

Plinys letter to the Emperor Trajan, important as it is from other points of view, does not fill in any details for us in the scheme of worship. Pliny asserts that the Christiana were accustomed on a certain day to meet together before daybreak and to sing a hymn alternately to Christ as a god (Ep. xcvi. 7). He continues that, having bound themselves by an oath to commit no crime, they dispersed but met again to eat food-a hint of the separation of the Agape from the Eucharist.

The testimony of Justin Martyr in his First Apology is much more definite, and must be quoted in full:

Ch. 65: But we [Christians], after that we have thus washed him who has been convinced and has assented [to our teaching], lead him to the place where those who are called brethren are assembled, in order that we may offer hearty prayers in common for ourselves and for the illuminated [i.e. baptised] person, and for all others in every place, that we may be counted worthy, now that we have learned the truth, by our works also to be found good citizens and keepers of the commandments, so that we may be saved with an everlasting salvation. Having ended the prayers, we salute one another with a kiss. Bread and a cup of wine mingled with water are then brought to the president of the brethren: and he, taking them, gives praise and glory to the Father of the Universe, through the Name of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and offers thanks at considerable length for our being counted worthy to receive these things at His hands. And when he has concluded the prayer and thanksgivings, all the people present express their assent by saying, Amen. And when the president has given thanks and all the people have expressed their assent, those who are called by us deacons give each of those present the bread and wine mixed with water, over which the thanksgiving was pronounced, and they carry away a portion to those who are not present.

66: And this food is called among us the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake but he who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ hath enjoined. For we do not receive these [elements] as common bread and common drink, but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the word of God, bad both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of the word which comes from Him, and from which our blood and flesh are nourished by transmutation, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.

Justin goes on to quote the words of Institution from the Gospels, and in ch. 67, repeating his account of the Eucharist, emphasizes the fact that it is celebrated on Sunday, and adds that the Gospels are read or the writings of the Prophets, as long as time permits.

And the well-to-do and the willing give what each person thinks fit, and the collection is deposited with the president, who succours orphans and widows, and those who are in want through sickness or any other cause, and those who are in prison, and the strangers sojourning among us, and, in a word, he takes care of all who are in any need.

3. Principles.-From these scattered hints, from which we may endeavour to reconstitute the form of worship in the Apostolic Church, we must now turn to the principles. In the evolution of the primitive liturgy we can discern a close adherence to the apostolic combination of prayer and praise with instruction and intercession leading up to the gift of sacramental grace. At the same time we note the constant loyalty to the principle on which Hooker lays such stress-that sacraments are not physical but moral instruments of salvation, duties of service and worship, which unless we perform as the Author of grace requireth, they are unprofitable.*

This finds emphasis in the constant teaching of the need of purification for participation in holy rites. This is expressed in Heb 10:22 : Let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our body washed with pure water. In other words, devotion must be sincere and not formal, faith must be enlightened and firmly held. The writer goes on to refer to the confession made at baptism (v. 23); Let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not. Other references could be multiplied, but it may suffice to quote 1Pe 1:16-17, where the exhortation to holiness of life accompanies reference to calling on the Father, The thought is summarized in the ancient proclamation by the bishop to the people, Holy things to holy persons.

Again we find that the primary characteristic of apostolic worship was to offer to the Lord the honour due unto His name in holy worship (Psa 29:2). The desire of the Psalmist was fulfilled. The Church met to give as well as to receive.

This thought leads straight up into the high region of speculation entered by Freeman when he traces back the ultimate principle of the Eucharist and of the Divine Office to the fundamental doctrines of the Incarnation and the Perpetual Priesthood of Christ. The Incarnation is linked up with the foundation truth of sacrifice. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor.* All Christian worship is enriched by that thought. It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Under the conditions of human sinfulness the incarnate life of Christ was necessarily consecrated by suffering, which found its culmination in the Cross of Calvary, His Passion being the perfecting of His Priesthood. So it is the privilege of the Church in the Eucharist to show the Lords death till He come, to offer in this memorial sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving the one true pure immortal sacrifice.

The Divine Office of a later age, which traces its roots to the simple congregational meetings for edification, allied, as we have seen, to the Synagogue services, is based on the thought of the Perpetual Priesthood of Christ. Constant reference to the mediation of Christ in the familiar ending of prayers through Jesus Christ our Lord kept this ever in mind.

Literature.-L. Duchesne, Christian Worship2, Eng. tr. , London, 1904; A. Edersheim, The Temple: its Ministry and Services, do., 1874; A. Fortescue. The Mass, do., 1912; P. Freeman, The Principles of Divine Service, Oxford. 1863; T. M. Lindsay, The Church and the Ministry in the Early Centuries, London, 1902; J. H. Srawley, The Early History of the Liturgy, Cambridge, 1913; F. E. Warren, Liturgy and Ritual the Ante-Nicene Church, London, 1897.

A. E. Burn.

Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church

Worship

(properly some form of , especially in Hithpael; )., homage paid to a superior, especially to God (which we consider only), usually expressed by prayer, sacrifice, and ritual. See each term in its place; also SEE ADORATION.

I. General View. The homage of the progenitors of our race was the direct and simple effusion of gratitude (see Schroder, De Prima Cultus Divini Publici Institutione, Marburg, 1745). There can be no doubt that the Most High, whose essence no man hath seen, or can see, was pleased to manifest himself in Eden, by an external symbol, to the eyes of his innocent worshippers. This divine manifestation is called the presence of the Lord; and may have been in connection with the tree of life in the midst of the garden (Gen 2:9; Gen 3:8).

After the first transgression the mode of the divine manifestation was altered; and a mediatorial economy was established. Henceforth, the homage paid by man was the service of a. creature conscious of crime, approaching God through the medium of sacrifice, pleading for forgiveness, and confiding in mercy. Though the divine manifestation was no longer immediate, yet a visible symbol of Jehovah was still vouchsafed in the Shekinah or visible glory, from which Cain was exiled (Gen 4:16; comp. 2Th 1:9; Psa 96:8); which was seen by Abraham (Act 7:2); by Moses and the people (Exo 3:2-6; Exo 13:21-22; Exo 24:16; Exo 24:18; Num 14:10; Num 16:19; Num 16:42); by the high-priest (Exo 25:22; Lev 16:2); by Solomon in the temple (1Ki 8:10-12); and finally in “the WORD made flesh ” (Joh 1:14). ”

Since this last visible manifestation, the worship of the Most High, which is no longer external and symbolic, has not been confined to any one place. “God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (Joh 4:21-24). God now manifests himself to the spirits of his faithful worshippers, helping their infirmities. Hence the presence of the Lord is in every place where Christ is active in the Spirit, and where through hium, the sole mediator, the faithful pay their homage. As the true worship of God is only in the inward heart, and the whole life a spiritual service, every Christian in particular, and every Church in general, now represent a spiritual temple of the Lord. In the assemblies of the faithful, God by his Spirit diffuses his vital and sanctifying influence, and takes his devout worshippers into fellowship with himself, from which they derive strength to do and suffer his will in the various scenes of life, while he there affords them a foretaste of the deep and hallowed pleasures which are reserved for them in his immediate presence forevermore (Mat 5:8; Heb 12:14). See the monographs cited by Volbeding, Index Programmatum, pages 107, 127, 130.

II. Among the Ancient Israelites.

1. In General Acts. The forefather of the Hebrew nation, Abraham, appears at the outset as a firm monotheist; but in his migrations there are obscure traces of a lingering idolatry, at least in his family (Gen 21:19; Gen 21:30; Gen 35:2 sq.; comp. Jos 24:2; Jos 24:14; Jdg 5:6 sq.; see Jonathan, Targ. on Gen 31:19; also Sonne, Der Gott Abraham’s [Hanover, 1806]). SEE TERAPHIM.

The worship of the patriarchs (Ben- David, Ueb. die Relig. der Ebraer vor Moses [Berlin, 1812], contains strange hypotheses) was exceedingly simple, consisting of offerings and prayer (Gen 24:63), presented at whatever place of residence, although very early particular spots seem to have been held sacred (i.e., where God had specially manifested himself; see Gen 12:7-8 [comp. 13:4]; 46:1 [comp. 26:23]; e.g. anointed pillars, Gen 28:18; Gen 35:14), heights having the preference to plains (Gen 22:2; Gen 31:54; see Creuzer, Symbol. 1:158 sq.; Zacharia. De More Vett. in Locis Editis Colendi Deum [Halle, 1704]). SEE HIGH-PLACE.

Subsequently worship was held under (shady) trees and in groves (Gen 13:18; Gen 21:33; comp. Tacit. Germ. 39:7; Callim. In Dian. 38; Soph. Track. 754; Ovid, Fast. 3:295; Apollon. Rhod. 4:1714; see Woken, De Locis Temporibusque quae Fideles, Ante Legem Cerimon. Preces Destinerunt [Rostock, 1720]; Doughtei, Analect. 1:24 sq.). SEE GROVE. In the offerings the ruling idea was that of thanking and propitiating God in general, the proper notion of expiation not yet appearing. SEE OFFERING. The priests were the heads of the families. SEE MELCHIZEDEK.

In Egypt the larger part of the Israelites may perhaps have been more or less addicted to nature worship (see Exodus 32; Lev 17:7; Jos 24:14; Eze 20:7), and in the desert traces of Sabaism are evident (Numbers 25; Amo 5:25 sq.). Moses, however, established the cultus of Jehovah as the exclusive religion, and to him the strict rule of monotheism is due. The ritual of the law is no copy of the Egyptian (Spener) nor of the Phoenician (Vatke) institutions, although particular features may have been derived from the former (Hengstenberg, Moses, page 147 sq.; Bahr, Symbol. 1:39 sq.), but recognised Jehovah as the sole national deity, and stood in direct personal as well as public relation to him. SEE LAW.

It contained a multitude of special provisions (such as sacrifices, vows, fasts, etc.), both of a positive and a negative kind, pointing to God as the giver of all good, and the object of all moral obligation, both of blessing and atonement; especially embodying the distinction of clean and unclean in all the bodily relations of life. The cardinal sections of this cultus are marked by the regularly recurring festivals (q.v.), and the tabernacle and temple were its central rallying-points as a national system of observance, while the priesthood formed its official conservators and expounders. SEE PRIEST.

The most marked of its peculiar features were the invisible character of the deity adored, in which it stood in bold contrast with all the prevalent idolatries; and the universality of its prescriptions, as pertaining not only to the whole nation, but to every individual in it, and to the minutest affairs of social and private economy. SEE MOSAISM.

In later times, especially after the exile, the national worship was in some degree affected by foreign subjugation, and in process of time abnormal elements gradually crept in, such as Sadduceeism and Essenism. Under Antiochus Epiphanes a violent effort was made to force paganism bodily upon the Jews, but it succeeded only to a small extent. Under the Ptolemies full toleration was allowed, and under Alexander extraordinary privileges were granted even to foreign Jews. During all this period the heathen rulers occasionally contributed to the Mosaic worship (see Ezr 6:9; 1Ma 10:34; 2Ma 3:3; Josephus, Ant. 12:3, 3; 14:10-23). It is well known that under the Roman rule, the Jews, even in Rome itself (Dio Cass. 37:17), were allowed the full exercise of their religion (see Zimmern, Gesch. d. rom. Privatrechts, I, 2:470; Levysohn, De Judaeor. sub Caesar. Conditione [L.B. 1828]). SEE JUDAISM.

2. In Prayer Particularly. This, as constituting the central idea of worship, was always strictly, although not formally, understood in the Mosaic service. There are no directions as to prayer given in the Mosaic law; the duty is rather taken for granted, as an adjunct to sacrifice, than enforced or elaborated. The temple is emphatically designated as “the House of Prayer” (Isa 56:7); it could not be otherwise, if “He who hears prayer” (Psa 65:2) there manifested his special presence; and the prayer of Solomon offered at its consecration (1Ki 8:30; 1Ki 8:35; 1Ki 8:38) implies that in it were offered, both the private prayers of each single man, and the public prayers of all Israel. It is hardly conceivable that, even from the beginning, public prayer did not follow every public sacrifice, whether propitiatory or eucharistic, as regularly as the incense, which was the symbol of prayer (see Psa 141:2; Rev 8:3-4). Such a practice is alluded to as common in Luk 1:10; and in one instance, at the offering of the first-fruits, it was ordained in a striking form (Deu 26:12-15). In later times it certainly grew into a regular service, both in the temple and in the synagogue. SEE SYNAGOGUE.

But, besides this public prayer, it was the custom of all at Jerusalem to go up to the temple, at regular hours if possible, for private prayer (see Luk 18:10; Act 3:1); and those who were absent were wont to “open their windows towards Jerusalem,” and pray “towards” the place of God’s presence (1Ki 8:46-49,;Psa 5:7; Psa 28:2; Psa 138:2; Dan 6:10). The desire to do this was possibly one reason, independently of other and more obvious ones, why the house-top or the mountain-top were chosen places of private prayer.

The regular hours of prayer seem to have been three (see Psa 55:17; Dan 6:10), the “evening,” that is, the ninth hour (Act 3:1; Act 10:3), the hour of the evening sacrifice (Dan 9:21); the “morning,” that is, the third hour (Act 2:15), that of the morning sacrifice; and the sixth hour, or “noonday.” To these would naturally be added some prayer at rising and lying down to sleep; and thence might easily be developed (by the love of the mystic number seven), the “seven times a day” of Psa 119:164, if this is to be literally understood, and the seven hours of prayer of the ancient Church. Some, at least, of these hours seem to have been generally observed by religious men in private prayer at home, or in the midst of their occupation and in’ the streets (Mat 6:5). Grace before meat would seem to have been an equally common practice (see Mat 15:36; Act 27:35).

The posture of prayer among the Jews seems to have been most often standing (1Sa 1:26; Mat 6:5; Mar 11:25; Luk 18:11); unless the prayer were offered with especial solemnity and humiliation, which was naturally expressed by kneeling (1Ki 8:54; comp. 2Ch 6:13; Ezr 9:5; Psa 95:6; Dan 6:10); or prostration (Jos 7:6; 1Ki 18:42; Neh 8:6). The hands were “lifted up,” or “spread out” before the Lord (Exo 9:33; Psa 28:2; Psa 134:2, etc.). In the Christian Church no posture is mentioned in the New Test. excepting that of kneeling; see Act 7:60 (St. Stephen); 9:40 (St. Peter); 20:36; 21:5 (St. Paul); perhaps from imitation of the example of our Lord in Gethsemane (on which occasion alone his posture in prayer is recorded). In after-times, as is well known, this posture was varied by the custom of standing in prayer on the Lord’s day, and during the period from Easter to Whitsunday, in order to commemorate his resurrection, and our spiritual resurrection in him. SEE PRAYER.

II. Christian Worship. This is usually divided into three kinds, according to the extent of the persons engaged in it.

1. Private Worship, otherwise called secret prayer, is between the individual and his Maker. It is specifically enjoined by our Lord (Mat 6:6), and is essential to the maintenance of spiritual life in the soul of the believer. SEE CLOSET.

The lately discovered Teaching of the Twelve Apostles ( 8) enjoins the use of the Lord’s Prayer “three times a day,” evidently for private devotion. SEE LORDS PRAYER.

Private worship should be conducted with,

(1) reverence and veneration; (2) self-abasement and confession; (3) contemplation of the perfections and promises of God; (4) supplication for ourselves and others; (5) earnest desire of the enjoyment of God; (6) frequency and regularity. SEE DEVOTION.

2. Family Worship, i.e., regular domestic prayer. This is obviously called for in order to the proper religious conduct of the Christian household and its obligation is enforced by nearly every branch of evangelical Christendom. SEE FAMILY.

3. Public Worship, i.e., religious services conducted in the general congregation. Some who have acknowledged the propriety of private worship have objected to that of a public nature, but without any sufficient ground. For Christ attended public worship himself (Luke 4); he prayed with his disciples (Luk 9:28-29; Luk 11:1); he promises his presence to social worshippers (Mat 18:20). It may be argued also from the conduct of the apostles (Act 1:24; Acts 2; Act 4:24; Act 6:4; Act 20:36; Rom 15:30; 1 Corinthians 14; 2Th 3:1-2; 1 Corinthians 11) and from general principles (Deu 31:12; Psa 100:4 1Ti 2:2; 1Ti 2:8; Heb 10:25).

The obligation of public worship is partly founded upon example, and partly upon precept; so that no person who admits that authority can question this great duty without manifest and criminal inconsistency. The institution of public worship under the law, and the practice of synagogue worship among the Jews, from at least the time of Ezra, cannot be questioned; both of which were sanctioned by the practice of our Lord and his apostles. The preceptive authority for our regular attendance upon public worship is either inferential or direct. The command to publish the gospel includes the obligation of assembling to hear it; the name by which a Christian society is designated in Scripture is a Church, which signifies an assembly for the transaction of business; and, in the case of a Christian assembly, that business must necessarily be spiritual, and include the sacred exercises of prayer, praise, and hearing the Scriptures.

But we have more direct precepts, although the practice was obviously continued from Judaism, and was therefore consuetudinary. Some of the epistles of Paul are commanded to be read. in the churches. The singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs is enjoined as an act of solemn worship to the Lord; and Paul cautions the Hebrews that they “forsake not the assembling of themselves together.” The practice of the primitive age is also manifest from the epistles of Paul. The Lord’s Supper was celebrated by the body of believers collectively; and this apostle prescribes to the Corinthians regulations for the exercises of prayer and prophesyings, “when they came together in the Church” the assembly. The periodicity and order of these holy offices in the primitive Church, appear also from the apostolic epistle of Clement of Rome “We ought also, looking into the depths of the divine knowledge, to do all things in order, whatsoever the Lord hath commanded to be done. We ought to make our oblations, and perform our holy offices, at their appointed seasons; for these he hath commanded to be done, not irregularly or by chance, but at determinate times and hours; as he hath likewise ordained by his supreme will where, and by what persons, they shall be performed; that so all things being done according to his pleasure, may be acceptable in his sight.” This passage is remarkable for urging a divine authority for the public services of the Church, by which Clement, no doubt, means the authority of the inspired directions of the apostles. SEE SERVICE.

The ends of the institution of public worship are of such obvious importance that it must ever be considered as one of the most condescending and gracious dispensations of God to man. By this his Church confesses his name before the world; by this the public teaching of his word is associated with acts calculated to affect the mind with that solemnity which is the best preparation for hearing it to edification. It is thus that the ignorant and the vicious are collected together, and instructed and warned; the invitations of mercy are published to the guilty, and the sorrowful and afflicted are comforted. In these assemblies God, by his Holy Spirit, diffuses his vital and sanctifying influence, and takes the devout into a fellowship with himself, from which they derive strength to do and to suffer his will in the various scenes of life, while he there affords them a foretaste of the deep and hallowed pleasures which are reserved for them at his right hand forevermore.

Prayers and intercessions are offered for national and public interests, and while the benefit of these exercises descends upon a country, all are kept sensible of the dependence. of every public and personal interest upon God. Praise calls forth the grateful emotions, and gives cheerfulness to piety; and that instruction in righteousness, which is so perpetually repeated, diffuses the principles of morality and religion throughout society, enlightens and gives activity to conscience, raises the standard of morals, attaches shame to vice and praise to virtue, and thus exerts a powerfully purifying influence upon mankind. Laws thus receive a force which, in other circumstances, they could not acquire, even were they enacted in as great perfection; and the administration of justice is aided by the strongest possible obligation and sanction being given to legal oaths. The domestic relations are rendered more strong and interesting by the very habit of the attendance of families upon the sacred services of the sanctuary of the Lord; and the meeting of the rich and the poor together, and their standing on the same common ground as sinners before God, equally dependent upon him, and equally suing for his mercy, has a powerful, though often an insensible, influence in humbling the pride which is nourished by superior rank, and in raising the lower classes above abjectness of spirit, without injuring their humility. Piety, benevolence, and patriotism are equally dependent for their purity and vigor upon the regular and devout worship of God in the simplicity of the Christian dispensation.

Public worship therefore is of great utility, as

(1) it gives Christians an opportunity of openly professing their faith in and love to Christ;

(2) it preserves a sense of religion in the mind, without which society could not well exist;

(3) it enlivens devotion and promotes zeal;

(4) it is the means of receiving instruction and consolation;

(5) it affords an excellent example to others, and excites them to fear God, etc.

Public worship should be

(1) solemn, not light and trifling (Psa 89:7);

(2) simple, not pompous and ceremonial (Isa 62:2);

(3) cheerful, and not with forbidding aspect (Psalms 100);

(4) sincere, and not hypocritical (Isa 1:12; Mat 23:13; Joh 4:24);

(5) pure, and not superstitious (Isa 57:15). SEE PUBLIC WORSHIP.

Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

Worship

homage rendered to God which it is sinful (idolatry) to render to any created being (Ex. 34:14; Isa. 2:8). Such worship was refused by Peter (Acts 10:25, 26) and by an angel (Rev. 22:8, 9).

Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary

Worship

Two classes of words are put together in this chapter. First, there are those adopted in Scripture to set forth man’s public and private expression of his dependence on God, and of his thankfulness to the Being who ‘giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not;’ Prayer and praise are uniformly regarded in Scripture as actions well-pleasing to God; they are based on an acknowledgment of his Personality, of his greatness, and of his power and willingness to interfere in the temporal and spiritual affairs of men. Secondly, there are the words by which the Hebrews set forth the mode of conveying truth from man to man in each case there is something of that pictorial power to which attention has been called in previous chapters.

The word worship is the general representative of the Hebrew Shachah (), and of the Greek; . The following are the only exceptions:–The Chaldean word Segid () is used in Dan 2:46, where we read that the king prostrated himself before Daniel, and commanded that they should offer sweet odours and an oblation unto him; it is also used throughout the third chapter for the prostration or worship which was to be offered to the image of gold. Atsav () is found in Jer 44:19, where it appears to signify the fashioning of cakes as images of ‘the queen of heaven.’ The words ‘did we make her cakes to worship her?’ might be rendered ‘did we make her cakes to represent her?’ in 2Ki 10:1-36. the word used for the worshippers of Baal is Eved, which signifies a servant or slave.

Shachah originally signified prostration as a mark of respect, and is applied in Scripture not only to God and to false gods, but also to men, just as the English word ‘worship’ is used of the husband’s reverence for his wife in the marriage service of the English Church, and is retained as a title of respect for a civil magistrate. Shachah is also rendered in the A. V. by the words bow, stoop, crouch, fall down, beseech humbly, make obeisance, and do reverence. It is used of Abraham’s reverent prostration before his three angelic visitors (Gen 18:2), and of his obeisance before the Hittites (Gen 23:7; Gen 23:12); it occurs in the blessing which Isaac gave to Jacob, ‘Let nations bow down to thee: let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee’ (Gen 27:29); Jacob himself bows down or prostrates seven times on meeting Esau (Gen 33:3; Gen 33:6-7); Joseph dreams that be receives this worship from his parents and brethren (Gen 37:10), and he does receive it (Gen 42:6). See also Gen 48:12; Gen 49:8; Exo 11:8; Rth 2:10; 1Sa 20:41; 1Sa 24:8.

In Gen 47:31 we read that Israel bowed himself (worshipped or prostrated) on the bed’s head, or, according to the LXX, as quoted in Heb 11:21, on the top of his staff. Various explanations are given of this statement. The difference between the LXX and the Hebrew depends not up on the letters, but up on the vowel points. on comparing the passage with others in which the same verb is used with the same preposition in Hebrew and in the LXX, it will be seen that the top of the rod was not that which he leaned upon, as might seem to be implied by the italics in the A. V., but that which he touched with his forehead in the act of prostration; and the only question remains, whether the worship thus offered was directed to Joseph, in fulfilment of the dream and in reverence for his high office, or whether it was directed to God, in accordance with whose promise Jacob exacted an oath from Joseph concerning the transmission of his bones to Canaan; or finally, whether by faith he saw in Joseph a type or foreshadowing of the true deliverer of the people. De Sacy, in his French version, gives an interpretation to which Calv in is very much inclined also. Bearing in mind the Egyptian custom of carrying a staff of authority, suc has may still be seen graven on the walls of the ancient temples, he holds that Jacob bowed to the staff which Joseph bore in his hand, and there by recognised his son’s secular authority and fulfilled the dream of Joseph.

Turning to the more directly religious use of the word Shachah, it may be observed that the worship of God was to be carried out by the people themselves, and was not done for them by the priest. It was not only to consist of outward prostration, suc has they offered as a mark of reverence to one another, or suc has the heathen offered to their false gods, but was to be accompanied by the devotion of the heart. The annual keeping of the three feasts was considered a mark of worship (1Sa 1:3). See also 1Sa 15:25; 2Sa 12:20; 2Ki 18:22; Psa 5:7; Psa 29:2; Psa 132:7; Psa 138:2; Isa 27:13.

Reverent worship was to be offered in later days to the Messiah, as seems evident from Psa 22:27, ‘All the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee;’ verse 29, ‘All they that be fat up on earth shall eat and worship; all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him;’ Psa 45:11, ‘He is thy lord; and worship thou him ;’ Isa 49:7, ‘Thus saith the Lord, . to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord.’

With regard to the heathen, the prophet’s assurance is not only that their old worship is evil, but that ‘Men shall worship God, everyone from his own place, even all the isles of the heathen’ (Zep 2:11). Each man, whether in this mountain or in that, was to render true allegiance to God. and this prediction is fully consistent with others which speak of all going up to Jerusalem and to the temple of the Lord to worship, as in Isa 66:20-23; Eze 46:2-9; Zec 14:16-17.

NT Teaching

The witness of the N.T. is very interesting in connection with the prophetic passages cited above We find, for instance, that our Lord received worship from the Magi (Mat 2:8; Mat 2:11), from the leper (Mat 8:2), from the ruler (Mat 9:18), from his disciples after He had calmed the storm (Mat 14:33), from the Canaanitish woman (Mat 15:25), from Salome (Mat 20:20), from the blind man (Joh 9:38), and from his disciples after his resurrection (Mat 28:9; Mat 28:17). It has been thought that this was only civil worship, and that it was paid to Jesus as a mark of respect or gratitude. But was it so in all eases? Did not the man whose eyes had been opened by Jesus Christ mean something more than civil worship when he prostrated himself before Him on hearing that He was the son of God? Did not the disciples mean something more than civil worship when they bowed before their risen Lord? and it may be fairly asked whether the Lord would have permitted it to be paid to Him unless He were worthy to receive it? Surely not. He would have said, as Peter did to Cornelius when he fell at his feet and worshipped, ‘St and up, for I also am a man’ (Act 10:26). He would have said, as the angel did to St. John, when acting in the same way, ‘See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant: worship God’ (Rev 19:10; Rev 22:9). The truth is that in receiving worship from men, the Lord Jesus Christ was assuming to Himself the right of the First Begotten, of whom the Lord had said, ‘Let all the angels of God worship him’ (Heb 1:6). Compare Rev 5:11-14, where there is an ascription of ‘Blessing and honour and glory and power for ever and ever to him that sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb.’

Various instances of worship or adoration are found in the N.T in addition to the passages now referred to. When Satan tempted the Lord to fall down and worship him, the answer given from Deu 6:13 was, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.’ Evidently stress is here laid on the word worship, and yet when we turn to the Hebrew and to the LXX in the passage in question, we find ‘Thou shalt fear,’ &c. Worship, then, is regarded by our Lord as the expression of reverential fear; and what Satan called for was recognised as an act of that kind which should only be offered to God.

In our Lord’s conversation with the woman of Samaria, the word occurs nine times in the course of five verses, and the true principle of worship is clearly enunciated. The spirituality of worship, however, was not intended to supersede all external forms in religion, as may be shown by the fact that the worship of God, as manifested in outward prostration, is referred to in later times (see 1Co 14:25; Rev 4:10; Rev 5:14; Rev 19:10). The movements of the body may therefore still be allowed to represent outwardly the feelings of the spirit. External ceremonial is not done away with in the present dispensation, though its relative importance is considerably reduced, and every place is hallowed ground.

The word , answering to yara (), to fear, is occasionally found in the LXX, and is used several times in the Acts (never in the Epistles), generally with reference to outsiders who had been led to look with reverence on the God of Israel. See Act 13:43; Act 13:50; Act 16:14; Act 17:4; Act 17:17; Act 18:7; Act 18:13; Act 19:27.

The word is used in Luk 14:10, where the A. V. has ‘Thou shalt have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.’ this rendering is as old as Coverdale, but Tyndale’s rendering ‘praise’ is better, and ‘glory’ would be still more literal. See R. V.

Fuente: Synonyms of the Old Testament

WORSHIP

Both the Hebrew (Old Testament) and the Greek (New Testament) words usually translated worship indicate a kind of humble submission; for example, the submission of a servant to a master. The inferior kneels or bows down, showing an attitude of deep respect for the superior (Gen 18:2; Gen 33:3; Gen 42:6; Gen 49:8; 2Sa 24:20; Mat 8:2; Mat 9:18; Mat 18:26).

This is the underlying idea in the human beings worship of God. People humble themselves before their Creator as those who serve, honour, fear and adore him. They worship as those who appreciate Gods infinite worth (Gen 24:26-27; Exo 4:31; Exo 12:27; Psa 95:6; Mat 2:2; Mat 28:9; Rev 4:10; Rev 5:14; Rev 11:16). Yet worship is not something grim, dull or cheerless. It is something joyful, for it is the enjoyment of God himself (Psa 89:15-16; Psa 98:4-6; Luk 1:46-47; 1Pe 1:8).

Forms of worship

Worship is both an attitude in which people live and a spiritual exercise that they carry out (Exo 33:10; Rom 12:1). It is an activity not only of the spirit, but also of the mind (1Co 14:15). It is something that is done individually and collectively (Gen 22:5; Gen 24:52; 1Ch 29:20; Act 20:7 1Co 14:26). Worship is a term so broad in meaning that it may be used in some places to denote the highest exercises of the soul, in others to denote the formal exercises of insincere religion (1Sa 15:30; 2Sa 12:20; Jer 7:2-3).

In Old Testament times the Israelites expressed their worship in ceremonial forms such as sacrifices and festivals (1Sa 1:3; Psa 132:7). But true worship always required right behaviour, humility of spirit and confession of known sin. The rituals themselves were of no use if people did not worship God in their hearts and lives (Psa 15:1; Psa 50:7-15; Isa 29:13; Mic 6:6-8). Organized forms of worship were established firstly for the tabernacle (see FEASTS; SACRIFICE; TABERNACLE), then for the temple (see MUSIC; SINGING; TEMPLE), and later for the synagogue (see SYNAGOGUE).

The early Christians continued to attend the temple for prayer and worship (Act 2:46; Act 3:1), but before long they made a clear break with Judaism and gradually developed their own form of public worship. It consisted mainly of praying, singing, reading the Scriptures, teaching Christian truth and celebrating the Lords Supper (Act 2:42; Act 20:7; 1Co 14:15-16; 1Ti 4:13; see CHURCH; GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT).

Because the Christians worship was collective, the participants had to maintain a degree of order in the procedures they followed. The worship of the church was a united act, not a disjointed collection of individual expressions of devotion (1Co 12:25; 1Co 14:16-17; 1Co 14:33; 1Co 14:40). As in Old Testament times, the spiritual condition of the worshippers was more important than their formal expressions of worship (Mar 7:6-7; Joh 4:23-24; Php 3:3).

Worship, besides being in the spirit, must be in truth (Joh 4:24). People must worship out of an understanding of the truth of God, and that truth has been revealed through the Scriptures (Joh 16:14). If a clearer understanding of the Scriptures leads to a more worthy worship, the Bible should have a place in worship, whether individual or collective. As God reveals more of his person and work through the Scriptures, believers will be filled with love and awe, and will respond with humble yet adoring worship (Rev 1:12-17).

In true worship there is therefore a two-way movement. There is a movement from God to the worshippers and from the worshippers to God; in other words, communion (1Jn 1:1-3). This is well expressed in the Lords Supper (1Co 10:16-17; 1Co 11:24-26; see COMMUNION; FELLOWSHIP; LORDS SUPPER).

True and false worship

Any giving of honour to God is, in a sense, worship (Psa 22:27-29; Act 8:27; Act 16:14), but the higher forms of worship arise out of an exercise of the soul that words cannot express. The greater the appreciation that believers have of Gods holy character and gracious works, the more they adore him and praise him. They worship him as their Creator and their Redeemer. They bring him homage, adoration and praise because of who he is and what he has done (Psa 103:1-5; Psa 104:1-4; Psa 104:31-35; Rev 4:8-11; Rev 5:9-14). Gods deeds, whether in creation, history or redemption, are a cause for unceasing worship and praise from men and women everywhere (Psa 33:1-19; Psa 99:1-5; Rom 11:33-36; Eph 3:14-21; Jud 1:24-25).

God alone is to be worshipped (Act 10:25-26; Act 14:11-15; Rev 22:8-9). Those who worship any other god, person or thing are guilty of idolatry (Exo 20:4-5; Exo 32:8; Deu 4:19; Deu 8:19; Rom 1:25; see IDOLATRY). Just as the worship of God means submission to his sovereign rule, so the worship of idols means submission to the evil power of false gods (Exo 20:5; Deu 11:16; Deu 29:26; Jos 24:15; Mat 4:10; 1Co 10:20; Heb 1:6-7). If any challenge God by claiming divine worship for themselves, they are guilty of blasphemy (Mat 4:9-10; Mar 2:7; Mar 14:61-64; Rev 13:4-8; Rev 19:20; see BLASPHEMY).

There is a sense in which all creation worships God (Psa 96:1; Psa 97:1; Psa 148:3-4). In particular, the spirit beings who live in Gods heavenly presence worship him unceasingly, as if that were the purpose for which they were created (Psa 148:1-2; Isa 6:2-3; Heb 1:6; Rev 4:8-11).

The people of Gods earth also worship him. In the case of those who have responded to the grace of God and accepted the gift of his Son, their worship is enriched by their unspeakable gratitude (2Co 8:9; 2Co 9:15). They worship Jesus Christ, and they worship the Father through Christ, whose Spirit now indwells them (Joh 16:13-14; Eph 2:18; Col 1:15-23; Jud 1:24-25). Yet their worship at present is very far short of perfection. Only in the age to come, when they see and know God clearly, will they worship as they ought (1Co 13:12; Rev 22:3-4).

Fuente: Bridgeway Bible Dictionary

Worship

WORSHIP.See Praise, Prayer, Synagogue, Temple.

Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels

Worship

WORSHIP.See Adoration, Praise, Prayer, Preaching, Synagogue, Temple. In Luk 14:10 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] worship means reverence (RV [Note: Revised Version.] glory) from man to man.

Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible

Worship

wurship (Anglo-Saxon: weorthscipe, wyrthscype, honor, from weorth, wurth, worthy, honorable, and scipe, ship):

1.Terms

2.Old Testament Worship

3.New Testament Worship

4.Public Christian Worship

LITERATURE

Honor, reverence, homage, in thought, feeling, or act, paid to men, angels, or other spiritual beings, and figuratively to other entities, ideas, powers or qualities, but specifically and supremely to Deity.

1. Terms:

The principal Old Testament word is , shahah, depress, bow down, prostrate (Hithpael), as in Exo 4:31, bowed their heads and worshipped; so in 94 other places. The context determines more or less clearly whether the physical act or the volitional and emotional idea is intended. The word is applied to acts of reverence to human superiors as well as supernatural. the Revised Version (British and American) renders it according to its physical aspect, as indicated by the context, bowed himself down (the King James Version worshipped, Gen 24:52; compare Gen 23:7; Gen 27:29, etc.).

Other words are: , saghadh, prostrate, occurring in Isa 44:15, Isa 44:17, Isa 44:19; Isa 46:6, but rendered (English Versions of the Bible) fall down. In Dan 2:46; Dan 3:5, Dan 3:6, Dan 3:7, Dan 3:10, Dan 3:15, Dan 3:18, Dan 3:28, it (Aramaic , seghidh) is worship (English Versions of the Bible), 7 times associated with falling down and 5 times with serve. , abhadh, work, labor, serve, is rendered worship by English Versions of the Bible in 2Ki 10:19, 2Ki 10:21 ff: the worshippers (servants) of Baal. In Isa 19:21 the Revised Version (British and American) has worship with sacrifice and oblation (the King James Version do sacrifice). Isa 19:23 the King James Version has served, the Revised Version (British and American) worship. , acabh, carve, fabricate, fashion, is once given worship, i.e. make (an object of) worship (Jer 44:19, the American Revised Version margin portray).

The Old Testament idea is therefore the reverential attitude of mind or body or both, combined with the more generic notions of religions adoration, obedience, service.

The principal New Testament word (59 times) is , proskuneo, kiss (the hand or the ground) toward, hence, often in the oriental fashion bowing prostrate upon the ground; accordingly, Septuagint uses it for the Hithpael of shahah (hishtahawah), prostrate oneself. It is to render homage to men, angels, demons, the Devil, the beast, idols, or to God. It is rendered 16 times to Jesus as a beneficent superior; at least 24 times to God or to Jesus as God. The root idea of bodily prostration is much less prominent than in the Old Testament. It is always translated worship.

Next in frequency is , sebomai, venerate, and its various cognates, , sebazomai, , eusebeo, , theosebes, , sebasma. Its root is , sebas, fear, but this primitive meaning is completely merged into reverence, hold in awe: In vain do they worship me (Mat 15:9, etc.). , latreuo, is serve (religiously), or worship publicly, perform sacred services, offer gifts, worship God in the observance of the rites instituted for His worship. It is translated worship in Act 7:42; Act 24:14 the King James Version, but serve, American Standard Revised Version: serve the host of heaven, serve I the God of our fathers; but both the King James Version and the American Standard Revised Version render Phi 3:3, worship by the Spirit of God, and Heb 10:2, the worshippers, the context in the first two being general, in the second two specific. In 2Ti 1:3 and many other cases both the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) give serve, the meaning not being confined to worship; but compare Luk 2:37 Revised Version: worshipping (the King James Version served) with fastings and supplications. Rom 1:25 gives both sebazomai and latreuo in their specific meanings: worshipped (venerated) and served (religiously,) the creature. , doxa, glory (Luk 14:10, King James Version: Thou shalt have worship, is a survival of an old English use, rightly discarded in the Revised Version (British and American)). , threskea (Col 2:18), a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels (the American Revised Version margin an act of reverence), has the root idea of trembling or fear. , therapeuo, serve, heal, tend (Act 17:25, King James Version: neither is worshipped by men’s hands), is served in the Revised Version (British and American), perhaps properly, but its close connection with temples made with hands makes this questionable. , neokoros, temple-sweepers, temple-keeper (Act 19:35), has its true meaning in the Revised Version (British and American), but worshipper is needed to complete the idea, in our modern idiom.

In the Apocrypha the usage is the same as in the New Testament, the verbs used being, in the order of their frequency, proskuneo, sebomai, threskeuo, and latreuo.

The New Testament idea of worship is a combination of the reverential attitude of mind and body, the general ceremonial and religious service of God, the feeling of awe, veneration, adoration; with the outward and ceremonial aspects approaching, but not reaching, the vanishing point. The total idea of worship, however, both in the Old Testament and New Testament, must be built up, not from the words specifically so translated, but also, and chiefly, from the whole body of description of worshipful feeling and action, whether of individuals singly and privately, or of larger bodies engaged in the public services of sanctuary, tabernacle, temple, synagogue, upper room or meeting-place.

Space permits no discussion of the universality of worship in some form, ranging from superstitious fear or fetishism to the highest spiritual exercise of which man is capable; nor of the primary motive of worship, whether from a desire to placate, ingratiate, or propitiate some higher power, or to commune and share with him or it, or express instinctive or purposed devotion to him. On the face of the Bible narratives, the instinct of communion, praise, adoring gratitude would seem to be the earliest moving force (compare Gen 4:3, Gen 4:4, Cain, Abel; Rom 1:18-25, the primitive knowledge of God as perverted to creature-worship; Gen 8:20, Noah’s altar; and Gen 12:7, Abram’s altar). That propitiation was an early element is indicated probably by Abel’s offering from the flock, certainly by the whole system of sacrifice. Whatever its origin, worship as developed in the Old Testament is the expression of the religious instinct in penitence, prostration, adoration, and the uplift of holy joy before the Creator.

2. Old Testament Worship:

In detail, Old Testament worship was individual and private, though not necessarily secret, as with Eliezer (Gen 24:26 f), the expression of personal gratitude for the success of a mission, or with Moses (Exo 34:8), seeking God’s favor in intercessory prayer; it was sometimes, again, though private, in closest association with others, perhaps with a family significance (Gen 8:20, Noah; Gen 12:7; Gen 22:5, Abraham: I and the lad will go yonder; and … worship); it was in company with the great congregation, perhaps partly an individual matter, but gaining blessing and force from the presence of others (Psa 42:4 : I went with the throng … keeping holyday); and it was, as the national spirit developed, the expression of the national devotion (1Ch 29:20 : And all the assembly … worshipped Yahweh, and the king). In this public national worship the truly devout Jew took his greatest delight, for in it were inextricably interwoven together, his patriotism, his sense of brotherhood, his feeling of solidarity, his personal pride and his personal piety.

The general public worship, especially as developed in the Temple services, consisted of: (1) Sacrificial acts, either on extraordinary occasions, as at the dedication of the Temple, etc., when the blood of the offerings flowed in lavish profusion (2Ch 7:5), or in the regular morning and evening sacrifices, or on the great annual days, like the Day of Atonement. (2) Ceremonial acts and posture of reverence or of adoration, or symbolizing the seeking and receiving of the divine favor, as when the high priest returned from presenting incense offering in the holy place, and the people received his benediction with bowed heads, reverently standing (2Ch 7:6), or the worshippers prostrated themselves as the priests sounded the silver trumpets at the conclusion of each section of the Levites’ chant. (3) Praise by the official ministrants of the people or both together, the second probably to a very limited extent. This service of praise was either instrumental, silver trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, or it might be in vocal song, the chant of the Levites (very likely the congregation took part in some of the antiphonal psalms); or it might be both vocal and instrumental, as in the magnificent dedicatory service of Solomon (2Ch 5:13), when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Yahweh. Or it might be simply spoken: And all the people said, Amen, and praised Yahweh (1Ch 16:36). How fully and splendidly this musical element of worship was developed among the Hebrews the Book of Ps gives witness, as well as the many notices in Chronicles (1 Ch 15; 16; 25; 2Ch 5:1-14; 29; 30, etc.). It is a pity that our actual knowledge of Hebrew music should be so limited. (4) Public prayer, such as is described in Dt 26, at the dedication of the Temple (2 Ch 6, etc.), or like Psa 60:1-12; Psa 79:1-13; 80. Shorter forms, half praise, half prayer, formed a part of the service in Christ’s time. (5) The annual feasts, with their characteristic ceremonies. See PASSOVER; TABERNACLE; etc. Places of worship are discussed under ALTAR; HIGH PLACE; SANCTUARY; TABERNACLE; TEMPLE, etc.

3. New Testament Worship:

In the New Testament we find three sorts of public worship, the temple-worship upon Old Testament lines, the synagogue-worship, and the worship which grew up in the Christian church out of the characteristic life of the new faith. The synagogue-worship, developed by and after the exile, largely substituted the book for the symbol, and thought for the sensuous or object appeal; it was also essentially popular, homelike, familiar, escaping from the exclusiveness of the priestly service. It had four principal parts: (1) the recitation of the shema, composed of Deu 6:4-9; Deu 11:13-21, and Num 15:37-41, and beginning, Hear (shema), O Israel: Yahweh our God is one Yahweh; (2) prayers, possibly following some set form, perhaps repeating some psalm; (3) the reading by male individuals of extracts from the Law and the Prophets selected by the ruler of the synagogue, in later years following the fixed order of a lectionary, as may have been the case when Jesus found the place; (4) the targum or condensed explanation in the vernacular of the Scriptures read.

It is questioned whether singing formed a part of the service, but, considering the place of music in Jewish religious life, and its subsequent large place in Christian worship, it is hard to think of it as absent from the synagogue.

4. Public Christian Worship:

Public Christian worship necessarily developed along the lines of the synagogue and not the temple, since the whole sacrificial and ceremonial system terminated for Christianity with the life and death of Jesus. The perception of this, however, was gradual, as was the break of Jewish Christians with both synagogue and temple. Jesus Himself held the temple in high honor, loved to frequent it as His Father’s house, reverently observed the feasts, and exhibited the characteristic attitude of the devout but un-Pharisaic Israelite toward the temple and its worship. Yet by speaking of Himself as greater than the temple (Mat 12:6) and by quoting, Hos 6:6, I desire goodness and not sacrifice, He indicated the relative subordinateness of the temple and its whole system of worship, and in His utterance to the woman of Samaria He intimated the abolition both of the whole idea of the central sanctuary and of the entire ceremonial worship: Neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father; They that worship him must worship in spirit and truth (Joh 4:21, Joh 4:24). His chief interest in the temple seems to have been as a house of prayer and an opportunity to reach and touch the people. We cannot help feeling that with all His love for the holy precincts, He must have turned with relief from the stately, formal, distant ceremonial of the temple, partly relieved though it was by the genuine religious passion of many worshippers, to the freer, more vital, closer heart-worship of the synagogue, loaded though that also was with form, tradition, ritual and error. Here He was a regular and reverent attendant and participant (Mar 1:21, Mar 1:39; Mar 3:1; Mar 6:2; Luk 6:6). Jesus did not Himself prescribe public worship for His disciples, no doubt assuming that instinct and practice, and His own spirit and example, would bring it about spontaneously, but He did seek to guard their worship from the merely outward and spectacular, and laid great emphasis on privacy and real innerness in it (Mt 6:1-18, etc.). Synagogue-worship was probably not abandoned with Pentecost, but private brotherhood meetings, like that in the upper chamber, and from house to house, were added. The young church could hardly have grown in favor with the people, if it had completely withdrawn from the popular worship, either in temple or synagogue, although no attendance on the latter is ever mentioned. Possibly the Christians drew themselves together in a synagogue of their own, as did the different nationalities. The reference in James: if there come unto your synagogue (Jam 2:2), while not conclusive, since synagogue may have gained a Christian significance by this time, nevertheless, joined with the traditions concerning James’s ascetic zeal and popular repute, argues against such a complete separation early. Necessarily with the development into clearness of the Christian ideas, and with the heightening persecution, together with the hard industrial struggle of life, the observance of the Jewish Sabbath in temple or synagogue, and of the Christian’s Lord’s Day, grew incompatible. Yet the full development of this must have been rather late in Paul’s life. Compare his missionary tactics of beginning his work at the synagogue, and his custom of observing as far as possible the Jewish feasts (Act 20:16; 1Co 16:8). Our notions of the worship of the early church must be constructed out of the scattered notices descriptive of different stages in the history, and different churches present different phases of development. The time was clearly the Lord’s Day, both by the Jewish churches (Joh 20:19, Joh 20:26) and by the Greek (Act 20:7; 1Co 16:2) The daily meeting of Act 2:46 was probably not continued, no mention occurring later.

There are no references to yearly Christian festivals, though the wide observance in the sub-apostolic period of the Jewish Passover, with references to the death and resurrection of Jesus, and of Pentecost to commemorate the gift of the Holy Spirit, argues for their early use. The place was of course at first in private houses, and the earliest form of Christian church architecture developed from this model rather than the later one of the basilica. 1 Corinthians gives rather full data for the worship in this free and enthusiastic church. It appears that there were two meetings, a public and a private. The public worship was open, informal and missionary, as well as edificatory. The unconverted, inquirers and others, were expected to be present, and were frequently converted in the meeting (1Co 14:24). It resembled much more closely, an evangelical prayer and conference meeting of today than our own formal church services. There is no mention of official ministrants, though the meeting seems to have been under some loose guidance. Any male member was free to take part as the Spirit might prompt, especially in the line of his particular spiritual gift from God, although one individual might have several, as Paul himself. Largely developed on synagogue lines, but with a freedom and spirit the latter must have greatly lacked, it was composed of: (1) Prayer by several, each followed by the congregational Amen. (2) Praise, consisting of hymns composed by one or another of the brethren, or coming down from the earlier days of Christian, perhaps Jewish, history, like the Benedictus, the Magnificat, the Nunc dimittis, etc. Portions of these newer hymns seem to be imbedded here and there in the New Testament, as at Rev 5:9-13 : Worthy art thou, etc. (compare Rev 15:3; Rev 11:17, etc.); also: He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory (1Ti 3:16). Praise also might take the form of individual testimony, not in metrical form (1Co 14:16). (3) Reading of the Scripture must have followed, according to the synagogue model. Paul presupposes an acquaintance with the Old Testament Scriptures and the facts of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection. Instructions to read certain epistles in the churches indicate the same. (4) Instruction, as in 1Co 2:7; 1Co 6:5, teaching for edification. (These passages, however, may not have this specific reference.) (5) Prophesying, when men, believed by themselves and by the church to be specially taught by the Holy Spirit, gave utterance to His message. At Corinth these crowded on one another, so that Paul had to command them to speak one at a time. (6) Following this, as some believe, came the speaking with tongues, perhaps fervent and ejaculatory prayers so rugged and disjointed that the audience for the most part could not understand until someone interpreted. The speaking with tongues, however, comprised praise as well as prayer (1Co 14:16), and the whole subject is enshrouded in mystery. See TONGUES, GIFT OF. (7) The meeting closed with the benediction and with the kiss of peace.

The private service may have followed the other, but seems more likely to have been in the evening, the other in the morning. The disciples met in one place and ate together a meal of their own providing, the agape, or love feast, symbolizing their union and fellowship, preceded or followed by prayers (Didache x), and perhaps interspersed by hymns. Then the Lord’s Supper itself followed, according to the directions of the apostle (1Co 11:23-28).

How far Christian worship was Christian in the sense of being directly addressed to Christ, is not easily answered. We must not read into their mental content the fully developed Christology of later centuries, but it is hard to believe that those who had before them Thomas’ adoring exclamation, My Lord and my God! the saying of the first martyr, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, the dictum of the great apostle, Who, existing in the form of God, the utterances of He, And let all the angels of God worship him, Thy throne, O God, is forever and forever, and, later, the prologue of Jn, and the ascriptions of praise in the Apocalypse, could have failed to bow down in spirit before Jesus Christ, to make known their requests through Him, and to lift up their adoration in song to Him, as according to Pliny’s witness, 112 AD, they sing a hymn to Christ as God. The absolutely interchangeable way in which Paul, for instance, applies Lord in one breath to the Father, to the Old Testament Yahweh, and to Jesus Christ (Rom 10:11, Rom 10:13; Rom 14:4, Rom 14:6, Rom 14:8, Rom 14:11, Rom 14:12, etc.) clearly indicates that while God the Father was, as He must be, the ultimate and principal object of worship, the heart and thought of God’s New Testament people also rested with adoring love on Him who is worthy … to receive the power and riches and wisdom, and might, and glory, and honor and blessing. The angel of the Apocalypse would not permit the adoration of the seer (Rev 22:9), but Jesus accepts the homage of Thomas, and in the Fourth Gospel declares it the duty of all to honor the Son, even as they honor the Father (Joh 5:23).

The classical passages for Christian worship are Joh 4:23, Joh 4:24, culminating in (margin): God is spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth, and Phi 3:3, who worship by the Spirit of God. These define its inner essence, and bar out all ceremonial or deputed worship whatever, except as the former is, what the latter can never be, the genuine and vital expression of inner love and devotion. Anything that really stimulates and expresses the worshipful spirit is so far forth a legitimate aid to worship, but never a substitute for it, and is harmful if it displaces it. Much, perhaps most, stately public worship is as significant to God and man as the clack of a Thibetan prayer-mill. The texts cited also make of worship something far deeper than the human emotion or surrender of will; it is the response of God’s Spirit in us to that Spirit in Him, whereby we answer Abba, Father, deep calling unto deep. Its object is not ingratiation, which is unnecessary, nor propitiation, which has been made once for all, nor in any way serving the God who ‘needeth not to be worshipped with men’s hands’ (Act 17:25), but it is the loving attempt to pay our unpayable debt of love, the expression of devoted hearts, render(ing) as bullocks the offering of our lips (Hos 14:2). For detail it is not a physical act or material offering, but an attitude of mind: The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; sacrifices of praise, with which God is well pleased; not the service of form in an outward sanctuary, the presentation of slain animals, but the service of love in a life: Present your bodies a living sacrifice; not material sacrifices, but spiritual: your rational service; not the service about an altar of stone or wood, but about the sanctuary of human life and need; for this is true religion (service, worship, threskea), to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction; not the splendor of shining robes or the sounding music of trumpets or organs, but the worshipping glory of holy lives; in real fact, hallowing Thy name, and keeping oneself unspotted from the world. The public worship of God in the presence of His people is a necessity of the Christian life, but in spiritual Christianity the ceremonial and outward approaches, if it does not quite reach, the vanishing point.

Literature.

BDB; Thayer’s New Testament Lexicon under the word; arts; on Praise, Worship, Temple, Church, Prayer, in HDB, DB, New Sch-Herz, DCG; Commentaries on Psalms, Chronicles, Corinthians; Weizsacker, The Apostolic Age of the Church, II; Pfleiderer, Das Urchristenthum (English translation); Leoning, Gemeindeverfassung des Urchristenthums; Edersheim, The Temple, Its Ministry and Service, as They Were at the Time of Jesus Christ, and Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah; Hort, The Christian Ecclesia; Lindsay, Church and the Ministry in the Early Centuries; McGiffert, A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age.

Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Worship

The worship of God has been described as ‘the honour and adoration which are rendered to Him by reason of what He is in Himself, and what He is to those who render it.’ It is pre-supposed that the worshipper has some relation with God, and that the order of service or worship is prescribed. The Israelites had been redeemed out of Egypt by God, and thus as a ransomed people could draw near to His appointed place to worship according to His order. The Psalmist could say, “O come let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation . . . . for the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods . . . . O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” Psa 95:1-7.

The worshippers could not enter God’s sanctuary in O.T. times: their place of approach was its outer courts; and even the priests, except once a year, went no further than the holy place. All this is now changed: redemption has been wrought, the veil has been rent from top to bottom, God has come out, and worshippers, as priests, have boldness for entrance to the holiest. God has been revealed in the counsels of His love as Father, and the Holy Spirit has been given. The language of the Psalms therefore is hardly fitting for Christian worship, because of the nearness into which the believer is brought. In the millennium the people will not have access in the same sense: the true figure for the Christian attitude is that of the priest, not that of the people.

They that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth, and the Father seeketh such to worship Him. Joh 4:24. They delight in what He is: they “joy in God,” and they love Him. To worship ‘in spirit’ is to worship according to the true nature of God, and in the power of that communion which the Holy Spirit gives. It thus stands in contrast to worship consisting in forms and ceremonies, and to the religiousness of which the flesh is capable. To worship ‘in truth’ is to worship God according to the revelation which He has been pleased to give of Himself. It would not therefore now be worshipping God ‘in truth’ to worship Him simply as ‘a great God,’ ‘our Maker,’ and ‘a great King above all gods,’ as in Psalm 95; for He has been pleased to reveal Himself in another light, even as ‘Father’ to those who are His. They enter into His presence in the spirit of sonship, and in the sense of the love which has given them a place before Him in Christ, as sons according to His good pleasure: the sense of this love, and of the good pleasure of God in having us before Him in Christ, is the spring of worship. The Father and the Son are known, the Father’s will is that the Son should be honoured as revealing the fountain of love, and the Son leading the hearts of the many sons into the Father’s love. Worship is thus distinguished from ascriptions of praise and thanksgiving: it is the homage of love. Rom 8:15.

Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary

Worship

To be rendered to God only

Exo 20:3; Deu 5:7; Deu 6:13; Mat 4:10; Luk 4:8; Act 10:26; Act 14:15; Col 2:18; Rev 19:10; Rev 22:8

Of Jesus

Jesus, The Christ, Worship of

Acceptable to God

Gen 4:4; Gen 8:21

Of the wicked rejected

– General references

Gen 4:5; Gen 4:7 Prayer, Prayers of the Wicked Not Heard

»Iniquity of the holy things«

Exo 28:38

Public, in the temple

Jer 26:2; Luk 18:10; Luk 24:53

David’s ordinances for

1Ch 23

Family:

Deu 16:11; Deu 16:14

Of Abraham

Gen 12:7-8; Gen 13:4; Gen 13:18

– Of Jacob

Gen 35:2-3

– Of Job

Job 1:5

– Of the Philippian jailer

Act 16:34

In private homes

Act 1:13-14; Act 5:42; Act 12:12; Act 20:7-9; Rom 16:5; 1Co 16:19; Col 4:15; Phm 1:2

In the night

Isa 30:29; Act 16:25

Jesus prays a whole night

Luk 6:12

Attitudes in:

– Bowing

Exo 34:8; 2Ch 20:18

– Prostration

Gen 17:3; Mar 3:11 Prayer

Prayer in

Prayer

God’s presence in

Lev 19:30; Psa 77:13; Psa 84:4; Isa 56:7; Heb 10:25

Loved by His people

Psa 27:4; Psa 84:1-3; Psa 84:10; Zec 8:21 Benedictions

The whole nation required to assemble for, including men, women, children, servants, and strangers

– General references

Deu 16:11; Deu 31:11-13

– In Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal

Jos 8:32-35

The word of God read in public assemblies

Exo 24:7; Deu 27:12-26; Deu 31:11-13; Jos 8:33-35; 2Ki 23:1-3; Neh 8:1-8; Neh 8:13-18; Mat 21:23; Luk 4:16-17

Of angels, forbidden

Rev 19:10; Rev 22:8-9 Afflictions and Adversities, Prayer in; Blasphemy; Children; Church (1); Consecration; Dedication; Idolatry; Instruction, In Religion; Levites; Minister; Music; Offering; Praise; Prayer; Preaching; Priest; Psalms; Religion; Sacrilege; Servant; Strangers; Tabernacle; Temple; Thanksgiving; Women; Word of God; Young Men

Unclassified scriptures relating to

– General references

Gen 35:2-3; Exo 3:5-6; Jos 5:15; Exo 5:1; Exo 15:2; Exo 19:10-13; Exo 19:21-24; Exo 20:24-26; Exo 24:1-2; Exo 25:8; Exo 25:22; Num 17:4; Exo 28:34-35; Exo 29:43; Exo 40:34-35; Exo 30:19-21; Exo 34:8; Lev 10:3; Lev 16:2; 2Ki 17:36; 1Ch 16:29; 2Ch 5:13-14; 1Ki 8:3-11; 2Ch 7:1; 2Ch 30:27; Ezr 3:10-13; Neh 10:39; Psa 5:7; Psa 22:22; Psa 24:3-6; Psa 26:6-8; Psa 27:4; Psa 29:2; Psa 35:18; Psa 36:8; Psa 42:4; Psa 48:9; Psa 51:19; Psa 55:14; Psa 63:1-2; Psa 65:4; Psa 66:4; Psa 66:13-14; Psa 77:13; Psa 84:1-4; Psa 84:10; Psa 89:7; Psa 92:13-14; Psa 93:5; Psa 95:6; Psa 98:2-3; Psa 100:1-4; Psa 103:1-4; Psa 107:6-8; Psa 107:32; Psa 116:12-14; Psa 116:17; Psa 118:18-19; Psa 119:108; Psa 122:1; Psa 126:1-3; Psa 132:7; Psa 132:13-14; Psa 138:2; Psa 149:1; Ecc 5:1-2; Isa 1:11-15; Isa 2:3; Mic 4:2; Isa 4:5; Isa 12:5-6; Isa 25:9; Isa 29:13-16; Isa 30:29; Isa 38:20; Isa 40:31; Isa 43:22-24; Isa 49:13; Isa 52:9; Isa 56:6-7; Isa 66:1-2; Jer 31:11-12; Eze 22:8; Hos 6:6; Amo 5:21-24; Hab 2:20; Zep 3:18; Zec 8:21-22; Mal 3:3-4; Mat 18:19-20; Luk 4:8; Joh 4:23-24; Act 2:1-4; Act 17:24-25; 1Co 11:13; 1Co 11:20-22; 1Co 14:15-17; Phi 3:3; 1Ti 2:8; Heb 10:25; Heb 12:28; 1Pe 2:5; Rev 11:1; Rev 14:6-7; Rev 15:4 Praise; Prayer; Thankfulness

Enjoined

Gen 35:1; Exo 23:17-18; Exo 34:23; Deu 12:5-7; Deu 12:11-12; Deu 16:6-8; Deu 31:11-13; Deu 33:19; 2Ki 17:36; Psa 45:11; Psa 76:11; Psa 96:8-9; Psa 97:7; Psa 99:5; Joe 1:14-15; Joe 2:15-17; Nah 1:15; Hag 1:8; Zec 14:16-18; Mat 8:4; Mar 1:44; Luk 5:14; Heb 10:25; Rev 14:7; Rev 19:10

Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible

Worship

The Scriptural obligation of public worship is partly founded upon example, and partly upon precept; so that no person who admits that authority, can question this great duty without manifest and criminal inconsistency. The institution of public worship under the law, and the practice of synagogue worship among the Jews, from at least the time of Ezra, cannot be questioned; both of which were sanctioned by the practice of our Lord and his Apostles. The preceptive authority for our regular attendance upon public worship, is either inferential or direct. The command to publish the Gospel includes the obligation of assembling to hear it; the name by which a Christian society is designated in Scripture is a church; which signifies an assembly for the transaction of business; and, in the case of a Christian assembly, that business must necessarily be spiritual, and include the sacred exercises of prayer, praise, and hearing the Scriptures. But we have more direct precepts, although the practice was obviously continued from Judaism, and was therefore consuetudinary.

Some of the epistles of St. Paul are commanded to be read in the churches. The singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs is enjoined as an act of solemn worship to the Lord; and St. Paul cautions the Hebrews that they forsake not the assembling of themselves together. The practice of the primitive age is also manifest from the epistles of St. Paul. The Lord’s Supper was celebrated by the body of believers collectively: and this Apostle prescribes to the Corinthians regulations for the exercises of prayer and prophesyings, when they came together in the church,the assembly. The statedness and order of these holy offices in the primitive church, appear also from the apostolical epistle of St. Clement: We ought also, looking into the depths of the divine knowledge, to do all things in order, whatsoever the Lord hath commanded to be done. We ought to make our oblations, and perform our holy offices, at their appointed seasons, for these he hath commanded to be done, not irregularly or by chance, but at determinate times and hours; as he hath likewise ordained by his supreme will, where, and by what persons, they shall be performed; that so all things being done according to his pleasure, may be acceptable in his sight. This passage is remarkable for urging a divine authority for the public services of the church, by which St. Clement, no doubt, means the authority of the inspired directions of the Apostles. The ends of the institution of public worship are of such obvious importance, that it must ever be considered as one of the most condescending and gracious dispensations of God to man. By this his church confesses his name before the world; by this the public teaching of his word is associated with acts calculated to affect the mind with that solemnity which is the best preparation for hearing it to edification. It is thus that the ignorant and the vicious are collected together, and instructed and warned; the invitations of mercy are published to the guilty, and the sorrowful and afflicted are comforted. In these assemblies God, by his Holy Spirit, diffuses his vital and sanctifying influence, and takes the devout into a fellowship with himself, from which they derive strength to do and to suffer his will in the various scenes of life, while he there affords them a foretaste of the deep and hallowed pleasures which are reserved for them at his right hand for evermore. Prayers and intercessions are offered for national and public interests; and while the benefit of these exercises descends upon a country, all are kept sensible of the dependence of every public and personal interest upon God. Praise calls forth the grateful emotions, and gives cheerfulness to piety; and that instruction in righteousness which is so perpetually repeated, diffuses the principles of morality and religion throughout society; enlightens and gives activity to conscience; raises the standard of morals; attaches shame to vice, and praise to virtue; and thus exerts a powerfully purifying influence upon mankind. Laws thus receive a force, which, in other circumstances, they could not acquire, even were they enacted in as great perfection; and the administration of justice is aided by the strongest possible obligation and sanction being given to legal oaths. The domestic relations are rendered more strong and interesting by the very habit of the attendance of families upon the sacred services of the sanctuary of the Lord; and the rich and the poor meeting together, and standing on the same common ground as sinners before God, equally dependent upon him, and equally suing for his mercy, has a powerful, though often an insensible, influence in humbling the pride which is nourished by superior rank, and in raising the lower classes above abjectness of spirit, without injuring their humility. Piety, benevolence, and patriotism are equally dependent for their purity and vigour upon the regular and devout worship of God in the simplicity of the Christian dispensation.

The following is an abridgment of Dr. Neander’s account of the mode of conducting public worship among the primitive Christians, which, though questionable on some points, is upon the whole just and interesting: Since the religion of the New Testament did not admit of any peculiar outward priesthood, similar to that of the Old, the same outward kind of worship, dependent on certain places, times, and outward actions and demeanours, would also have no place in its composition. The kingdom of God, the temple of the Lord, were to be present, not in this or that place, but in every place where Christ himself is active in the Spirit, and where through him the worship of God in spirit and in truth is established. Every Christian in particular, and every church in general, were to represent a spiritual temple of the Lord; the true worship of God was to be only in the inward heart, and the whole life proceeding from such inward disposition, sanctified by faith, was to be a continued spiritual service; this is the great fundamental idea of the Gospel, which prevails throughout the New Testament, by which the whole outward appearance of religion was to assume a different form, and all that once was carnal was to be converted into spiritual, and ennobled. This notion came forward most strongly in the original inward life of the first Christians, particularly when contrasted with Judaism, and still more so when contrasted with Heathenism; a contrast which taught the Christians to avoid all pomp that caught the eye, and all multiplication of means of devotion addressed to the senses, while it made them hold fast the simple, spiritual character of the Christian worship of God. It was this which always struck the Heathen so much in the Christian worship; namely, that nothing was found among them of the outward pomp of all other religions; no temples, no altars, no images. This reproach was made to the Christians by Celsus, and answered thus by Origen: In the highest sense the temple and image of God are in the human nature of Christ; and hence, also, in all the faithful, who are animated by the Spirit of Christ,living images! with which no statue of Jove by Phidias is fit to be compared. Christianity impelled men frequently to seek for the stillness of the inward sanctuary, and here to pour forth their heart to God, who dwells in such temples; but then the flames of love were also lighted in their hearts, which sought communion in order to strengthen each other mutually, and to unite themselves into one holy flame which pointed toward heaven. The communion of prayer and devotion was thought a source of sanctification, inasmuch as men knew that the Lord was present by his Spirit among those who were gathered together in his name; but then they were far from ascribing any peculiar sacredness and sanctity to the place of assembly. Such an idea would appear to partake of Heathenism; and men were at first in less danger of being seduced into such an idea, because the first general places of assembly of the Christians were only common rooms in private houses, just according as it happened that any member of the church had sufficient accommodation for the purpose. Thus Gaius of Corinth, Romans 16, is called the host of the church, because the church was in the habit of assembling in a room of his house. Origen says, The place where believers come together to pray has something agreeable and useful about it; but then he only says this in respect to that spiritual communion. Man, we must avow, is very easily led to fall away from the worship of God in spirit and in truth, and to connect the religion of the Spirit with outward and earthly things; as the Apostle says, Having begun in the Spirit, to wish to end in the flesh.

Watchfulness on this point was constantly needed, lest the Jewish or the Heathen notions should here intrude themselves on those of the Gospel, which was likely enough to happen as soon as the Old and the New Testament notions of the priesthood had been confused. Even in the time of Clemens of Alexandria he found himself obliged to combat the notion, which allowed the essentials of a Christian life to be of one kind in, and of another out of, the church. The disciples of Christ, he says, must form the whole course of their life and conduct on the model which they assume in the churches, for the sake of propriety; they must be such, and not merely seem so; as mild, as pious, and as charitable. But now, I know not how it is, they change their habits and their manners with the change of place, as the polypus, they say, changes its colour, and becomes like the rock on which it hangs. They lay aside the spiritual habit which they had assumed in the church, as soon as they have left the church, and assimilate themselves to the multitude among whom they live. I should rather say, that they convict themselves of hypocrisy, and show what they really are in their inward nature, by laying aside the mask of piety which they had assumed; and while they honour the word of God, they leave it behind them in the place where they heard it.

The Christian places of assembly were, at first, in the rooms of private houses; it may perhaps be the case, that in large towns, where the number of Christians was soon considerable, and no member of the church had any room in his house sufficient to contain all his brethren, or in places where men did not fear any prejudicial consequences from large assemblies, the church divided itself into different sections, according to the habitations of its members, of which each section held its assemblies in one particular chamber of the house of some wealthy member of the church; or, perhaps, while it was usual to unite on Sundays in one general assembly, yet each individual part of the church met together daily in the rooms which lay the most convenient to it. Perhaps the passages in St. Paul’s epistles, which speak of churches in the houses of particular persons, are thus to be understood. The answer of Justin Martyr to the question of the prefect, Where do you assemble? exactly corresponds to the genuine Christian spirit on this point. This answer was, Where each one can and will. You believe, no doubt, that we all meet together in one place; but it is not so, for the God of the Christians is not shut up in a room, but, being invisible, he fills both heaven and earth, and is honoured every where by the faithful. Justin adds, that when he came to Rome, he was accustomed to dwell in one particular spot, and that those Christians who were instructed by him, and wished to hear his discourses, assembled at his house. He had not visited any other congregations of the church. The arrangements which the peculiarities of the Christian worship required, were gradually made in these places of assembly, such as an elevated seat for the purpose of reading the Scriptures and preaching, a table for the distribution of the sacrament, to which as early as the time of Tertullian the name of altar, ara or altare, was given, and perhaps not without some mixture of the unevangelical Old Testament notion of a sacrifice; or at least this idea might easily attach itself to this name. When the churches increased, and their circumstances improved, there were, during the course of the third century, already separate church buildings for the Christians, as the name , [religious places,] of the Christians occurs in the edict of Gallienus. In the time of the external prosperity of the church, during the reign of Diocletian, many handsome churches arose in the great towns. The use of images was originally quite foreign to the Christian worship and churches, and it remained so during this whole period. The intermixture of art and religion, and the use of images for the latter, appeared to the first Christians a Heathenish practice. As in Heathenism the divine becomes desecrated and tarnished by intermixture with the natural; and as men have often paid homage to the beauties of nature, with injury to the cause of holiness, the first warmth of Christian zeal, which opposed the idolatry of nature, so common to Heathenism, and sought to maintain the divine in all its purity and elevation, was inclined rather to set holiness in the strongest contrast with what is beautiful by nature, than to endeavour to grace it by lending it a beautiful form. Men were more inclined in general to carry into extremes the idea of the appearance of the Divinity in the form of a servant, which suited the oppressed condition of the church in these centuries, than to throw it into the back ground, and overwhelm it under the predominance of their aesthetic dispositions, and their love of art. This is peculiarly shown by the general belief of the early church, that Christ had clothed his inward divine glory in a mean outward form, which was in direct contradiction to it; a conclusion which was drawn from interpreting the prophecy of the Messiah in Isa 53:2, too literally. Thus, Clemens of Alexandria warns the Christians, from the example of Christ, not to attribute too much value to outward beauty: The Lord himself was mean in outward form; and who is better than the Lord? But he revealed himself not in the beauty of the body, perceptible to our senses, but in the true beauty of the soul as well as of the body; the beauty of the soul consisting in benevolence, and that of the body in immortality!

Fathers of entirely opposite habits of mind, the adherents of two different systems of conceiving divine things, were nevertheless united on this point by their common opposition to the mixture of the natural and the divine in Heathenism, and by the endeavour to maintain the devotion to God, in spirit and in truth, pure and undefiled. Clemens of Alexandria is as little favourable as Tertullian to the use of images. Heathens, who, like Alexander Severus, saw something divine in Christ’s personal form, and sects which mixed Heathenism and Christianity together, were the first who made use of images of Christ; as, for instance, the Gnostic sect of the followers of Carpocratian, who put his image beside those of Plato and Aristotle. The use of religious images among the Christians did not proceed from their ecclesiastical but from their domestic life. In the intercourse of daily life, the Christians saw themselves every where surrounded by objects of Heathen mythology, or by such as shocked their moral and Christian feelings. Similar objects adorned the walls of chambers, the drinking vessels, and the signet rings, (on which the Heathen had constantly idolatrous images,) to which, whenever they pleased, they could address their devotions; and the Christians naturally felt themselves obliged to replace these objects, which wounded their moral and religious feelings, with others more suited to those feelings. Therefore, they gladly put the likeness of a shepherd carrying a lamb upon his shoulders, on their cups, as a symbol of the Redeemer, who saves the sinners that return to him, according to the parable in the Gospel. And Clemens of Alexandria says, in reference to the signet rings of the Christians, Let our signet rings consist of a dove, the emblem of the Holy Ghost, or a fish, or a ship sailing toward heaven, the emblem of the Christian church, or of individual Christian souls, or a lyre, the emblem of Christian joy, or an anchor, the emblem of Christian hope; and he who is a fisherman, let him remember the Apostle, and the children who were dragged out from the water; for those men ought not to engrave idolatrous forms, to whom the use of them is forbidden; those can engrave no sword and no bow, who seek for peace; the friends of temperance cannot engrave drinking cups. And yet, perhaps, religious images made their way from domestic life into the churches as early as the end of the third century, and the walls of the churches were painted in the same way. The council of Elvira set itself against this innovation as an abuse, for it made the following order: Objects of reverence and worship shall not be painted on the walls. It is probable that the visible representation of the cross found its way very early into domestic and ecclesiastical life. This token was remarkably common among them; it was used to consecrate their rising and their going to bed, their going out and their coming in, and all the actions of daily life; it was the sign which Christians made involuntarily whenever any thing of a fearful nature surprised them. This was a mode of expressing, by means perceptible to the senses, the purely Christian idea, that all the actions of Christians, as well as the whole course of their life, must be sanctified by faith in the crucified Jesus, and by dependence upon him; and that this faith is the most powerful means of conquering all evil, and preserving oneself against it. But here also, again, men were too apt to confuse the idea and the token which represented it; and they attributed the effects of faith in the crucified Redeemer to the outward sign, to which they ascribed a supernatural, sanctifying, and preservative power; an error of which we find traces as early as the third century.

We now pass from the consideration of the places of public worship, to that of the seasons of worship, and the festivals of the early Christians. It is here shown again, that the Gospel, as it remodelled the former conceptions of the priesthood, of worship in general, and of holy places, also entirely changed the then views of sacred seasons. And here again, also, the character of the theocracy of the New Testament revealed itself, a theocracy spiritualized, ennobled, and freed from its outward garb of sense, and from the limits which bounded its generalization. The Jewish laws relating to their festivals were not merely abrogated by the Gospel, in such a manner as to transfer these festivals to different seasons; but they were entirely abolished, as far as fixing religious worship to particular times is concerned. St. Paul expressly declares all sanctifying of certain seasons, as far as men deduced this from the divine command, to be Jewish and unevangelical, and to be like returning to the slavery of the law, and to captivity to outward precepts. Such was the opinion of the early church. At first the churches assembled every day; as, for instance, the first church of Jerusalem, which assembled daily for prayer in common, and for the public consideration of the divine word, for the common celebration of the Lord’s Supper and the agapae, as well as to maintain the connection between the common head of the spiritual body of the church and themselves, and between one another as members of this body. Traces of this are also found in later times in the daily assembling of the churches for the purpose of hearing the Scriptures read, and of celebrating the communion. Although, in order to meet the wants of human nature generally, consisting as it does of sense as well as soul, and those of a large body of Christians in particular, who were only in a state of education, and were to be brought up to the ripeness of Christian manhood, men soon selected definite times [beside the authorized Christian Sabbath, the first day of the week] for religious admonitions, and to consecrate them to a fuller occupation with religious things, as well as to public devotion, with the intention, that the influence of these definite times should animate and sanctify the rest of their lives, and that Christians who withdrew themselves from the distractions of business on these days, and collected their hearts before God in the stillness of solitude, as well as in public devotion, might make these seasons of service to the other parts of their life; yet this was in itself, and of itself, nothing unevangelical. It was only a dropping down from the purely spiritual point of view, on which even the Christian, as he still carries about two natures in himself, cannot always maintain himself, to the carnal; a dropping down which became constantly more necessary, the more the fire of the first animation and the warmth of the first love of the Christians died away. It was no more unevangelic than the gradual limitation of the exercise of many rights, belonging to the common priesthood of all Christians, to a certain class in the church, which circumstances rendered necessary. But just as the unevangelic made its appearance, men supposed certain days distinguished from others, and hallowed by divine right, when they introduced a distinction between holy and common days into the life of the Christian, and in this distinction forgot his calling to sanctify all days alike. When the Montanists wished to introduce and make imperative new fasts, which were fixed to certain days, the Epistle to the Galatians was very properly brought to oppose them; but Tertullian, who stood on the boundary between the original pure evangelic times and those when the intermixture of Jewish and Christian notions first took place, confuses here the views of the two religions, because he makes the evangelical to consist, not in a wholly different method of considering festivals altogether, but in the celebration of different particular festivals; and he makes the Judaizing, which the Apostle condemns, to consist only in the observation of the Jewish instead of the peculiarly Christian festivals. The weekly and the yearly festivals originally arose from the self-same fundamental idea, which was the centre point of the whole Christian life; the idea of imitating Christ, the crucified and the risen; to follow him in his death, by appropriating to ourselves, in penitence and faith, the effects of his death, by dying to ourselves and to the world; to follow him in his resurrection, by rising again with him, by faith in him and by his power, to a new and holy life, devoted to God, which, beginning here below in the seed, is matured in heaven. Hence the festival of joy was the festival of the resurrection; and the preparation for it, the remembrance of the sufferings of Christ, with mortification and crucifixion of the flesh, was the day of fasting and penitence. Thus in the week the Sunday was the joyful festival; and the preparation for it was a day of penitence and prayer, consecrated to remembrance of the sufferings of Christ and the preparations for them, and this was celebrated on the Friday; and thus also the yearly festivals were to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, and the operations of the Redeemer after he had risen again; the preparation for this day was in commemoration of the sufferings and fastings of our Saviour. Allusion is made to Sunday under the character of a festival, as a symbol of a new life, consecrated to the Lord in opposition to the old Sabbath, in the epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians: If they who were brought up under the Old Testament have attained to a new hope, and no longer keep [Jewish] Sabbaths holy, but have consecrated their life to the day of the Lord, on which also our life rose up in him, how shall we be able to live without him? Sunday was distinguished as a day of joy by the circumstances, that men did not fast upon it, and that they prayed standing up and not kneeling, as Christ had raised up fallen man to heaven again through his resurrection. And farther: two other days in the week, Friday and Wednesday, particularly the former, were consecrated to the remembrance of the sufferings of Christ, and of the circumstances preparatory to them; congregations were held on them, and a fast till three o’clock in the afternoon, but nothing was positively appointed concerning them; in respect to joining in these solemnities every one consulted his own convenience or inclination. Such fasts, joined with prayer, were considered as the watches of the milites Christi [soldiers of Christ] on their post by the Christians, who compared their calling to a warfare, the militia Christi, and they were stationes, and the days on which they took place were called dies stationum, [day of their stations.] The churches, which were a graft of a Christian on a Jewish spirit, although they received the Sunday, retained also that of the Sabbath; and from them the custom spread abroad in the oriental church of distinguishing this day, as well as the Sunday, by not fasting and by praying in an erect posture; in the western churches, particularly the Roman, where opposition to Judaism was the prevailing tendency, this very opposition produced the custom of celebrating the Saturday in particular as a fast day. This difference in customs would of course be striking, where members of the oriental church spent their Sabbath day in the western church. It was only too soon that men lost sight of the principle of the apostolic church, which retained the unity of faith and spirit in the bond of love, but allowed all kinds of difference in external things; and then they began to require uniformity in these things. The first yearly festivals of the Christians proceeded from similar views; and at first the contrast which had in early times the most powerful influence on the developement as well of the churchly life, as of the doctrines of Christianity, is peculiarly prominent; I mean the contrast between the Jewish churches and those of the Gentile converts. The former retained all the Jewish festivals as well as the whole ceremonial law; although by degrees they introduced into them a Christian meaning which spontaneously offered itself. On the contrary, there was probably no yearly festival at all, from the beginning, among the Heathen converts; for no trace of any thing of the sort is found in the whole of the New Testament. The passover of the Old Testament was easily ennobled and converted to a passover which suited the New Testament, by merely substituting the idea of deliverance from spiritual bondage, that is, from the slavery of sin, for that of deliverance from earthly bondage. The paschal lamb was a type of Christ, by whom that deliverance was wrought. These representations went on the supposition, that Christ had partaken his last meal with his disciples, as a proper passover, at the very time that the Jews were celebrating theirs. This passover was, therefore, always celebrated on the night between the fourteenth and fifteenth of the Jewish month Nisan, as a remembrance at the same time of the last supper of Christ. This was the fundamental notion of the whole Jewish Christian passover, on which all the rest was built. The day following this passover was consecrated to the remembrance of the sufferings of Christ, and the third day from it to the remembrance of his resurrection. On the contrary, in the greater number of Heathen churches, as soon as men began to celebrate yearly festivals, (a time which cannot be determined very precisely,) they followed the method observed in the weekly festivals. They appointed one Sunday in the year for the festival of the resurrection, and one Friday as a day of penitence and fasting preparatory to this Sunday, in remembrance of the sufferings of Christ; and they gradually lengthened this time of penitence and fasting, as a preparation for that high and joyful festival. In these churches they were more inclined to take up a kind of antithetical turn against the Jewish festivals, than to graft Christian ones upon them. It was far from their notions to think of observing a yearly passover with the Jews. The following was the view which they took of the matter: Every typical feast has lost its true meaning by the realization of that which is typified; in the sacrifice of Christ, the Lord’s Supper, as the new covenant, has taken the place of that of the old covenant. This difference of outward customs between the Jewish Christian churches and the churches allied to them on the one hand, and the Heathen Christian churches founded by St. Paul on the other, existed at first without its being supposed that external things of this nature were of importance enough to lead to a controversy. A fast formed the introduction to the passover; and this was the only fast formally established by the church. The necessity of this fast was deduced from Mat 9:15; but it was by a carnal interpretation of the passage, and an application of it quite contrary to its real sense. For it does not relate to the time of Christ’s suffering, but to the time when he should be with his disciples no more. As long as they enjoyed his society they were to give themselves up to joy, and to be disturbed in it by no forced asceticism. But a time of sorrow was to follow this time of joy, although only for a season, after which a time of higher and imperishable joy, in invisible communion with him, was to follow, Joh 16:22. The duration of this fast, however, was not determined; the imitation of the temptation of our Lord for forty days introduced the custom of fasting forty hours in some places, which afterward was extended to forty days; and thus the fast of forty days, the quadrigesimal fast, arose. The festival of pentecost, Whitsuntide, was closely connected with that of the resurrection; and this was dedicated to commemorating the first visible effects of the operations of the glorified Christ upon human nature, now also ennobled by him, the lively proofs of his resurrection and reception into glory; and therefore Origen joins the festivals of the resurrection and of pentecost together as one whole. The means of transition from an Old Testament festival to one befitting the New Testament, were here near at hand. The first fruits of harvest in the kingdom of nature; the first fruits of harvest in the kingdom of grace; the law of the letter from Mount Sinaithe law of the spirit from the heavenly Jerusalem. This festival originally embraced the whole season of fifty days from Easter, and was celebrated like a Sunday, that is to say, no fasts were kept during the whole of it, and men prayed standing, and not kneeling; and perhaps also in some places assemblies of the church were held, and the communion was celebrated every day. Afterward, two peculiar points of time, the ascension of Christ, and the effusion of the Holy Spirit, were selected from this whole interval. These were the only festivals generally celebrated at that time, as the passage cited from Origen proves. The fundamental notion of the whole Christian life, which referred every thing to the suffering, the resurrection, and the glorification of Christ, as well as the adherence, or, on the other hand, the opposition, to the Jewish celebration of festivals, were the cause that these were the only general festivals. The notion of a birth-day festival was far from the ideas of the Christians of this period in general; they looked upon the second birth as the true birth of men. The case must have been somewhat different with the birth of the Redeemer; human nature was to be sanctified by him from its first developement; but then this last notion could not at first come so prominently forward among the early Christians, because so many of them were first converted to Christianity when well advanced in years, after some decisive excitement of their life; but then it may have entered generally into domestic life, though at first gradually. Nevertheless, we find in this period apparently one trace of Christmas as a festival. Its history is intimately connected with the history of a kindred festival; the festival of the manifestation of Jesus in his character of Messiah, his consecration to the office of Messiah by the baptism of John, and the beginning of his public ministry as the Messiah, which was afterward called Epiphany, the , or , [the festival of Epiphany, or of the appearance of Christ.] We find in later times that these festivals extended themselves in opposite directions, that of Christmas spreading from west to east, and the other from east to west. Clemens of Alexandria merely relates, that the Gnostic sect of the Basilidians celebrated the festival of the Epiphany at Alexandria in his time. We can hardly suppose that this sect invented the festival, although they may have had some dogmatical reason for celebrating it; for it is highly improbable that the catholic church should have afterward received a festival from the Gnostics; and these Gnostics most probably received it from the Jewish Christian churches in Palestine or Syria. For this time of our Saviour’s life would appear the most important to the notions of the Jewish Christians; and the Gnostics would afterward explain it according to their own ideas.

The character of a spiritual worship of God distinguished the Christian worship from that of other religions, which consisted in symbolical pageantry and lifeless ceremonies. As a general elevation of spirit and sanctification of heart was the object of every thing in this religion, instruction and edification, through a common study of the divine word, and through prayer in common, were the leading features in the Christian worship. And in this respect it might in its form adhere to the arrangements made about the congregations in the Jewish synagogues, in which also the element of a spiritual religious worship was the prevailing ingredient. As the reading of portions of the Old Testament had formed the ground work of religious instruction in the Jewish synagogues, this custom also passed into the Christian congregations. First the Old Testament, and especially the prophetic parts of it, were read as things that pointed to the Messiah; then followed the Gospels, and after that the epistles of the Apostles. The reading of the Scriptures was of still greater consequence then, because it was desirable that every Christian should be acquainted with them; and yet, by reason of the rarity and clearness of manuscripts, and the poverty of a great proportion of the Christians, or perhaps also because all were not able to read, the Bible itself could not be put into the hands of all. Frequent hearing was therefore with many to supply the place of their own reading. The Scriptures were therefore read in the language which all could understand, and that was, in most parts of the Roman empire, the Greek or the Latin. In very early times different translations of the Bible into Latin were in existence; as every one who knew a little of Greek, found it needful to have his own Bible in his own mother tongue. In places where the Greek or the Latin language was understood only by a part of the church, that is to say, by the educated classes, while the rest understood only their native language, as was the case in many Egyptian and Syrian towns, church interpreters were appointed, as in the Jewish synagogues, and they immediately translated what had been read into the language of the country, so that it might be intelligible to all. After the reading of the Scripture there followed, as there had previously in the Jewish synagogues, short, and at first very simple, addresses in familiar language, the momentary effusions of the heart, which contained an explanation and application of what had just been read. Justin Martyr expresses himself thus on the subject: After the reading of the Scriptures, the president instructs the people in a discourse, and incites them to the imitation of these good examples. Among the Greeks, where the taste was more rhetorical, the sermon from the very earliest times was of a more lengthened kind, and formed a very important part of the service. Singing also passed from the Jewish service into that of the Christian church. St. Paul exhorts the early churches to sing spiritual songs. What was used for this purpose were partly the Psalms of the Old Testament, and partly songs composed with this very object, especially songs of praise and thanks to God and Christ; and these, we know, Pliny found to be customary among the Christians. In the controversies with the Unitarians, about the end of the second century, and the beginning of the third, the hymns, in which from early times Christ had been honoured as a God, were appealed to. The power of church singing over the heart was soon recognized; and hence those who wished to propagate any peculiar opinions, like Bardasanes, or Paul of Samosata, endeavoured to spread them by means of hymns. In compliance with the infirmities of human nature, composed as it is of sense and spirit, the divine Founder of the church, beside his word, ordained two outward signs, as symbols of the invisible communion which existed between him, the Head of the spiritual body, and the faithful, its members; and also of the connection of these members, as with him, so also with one another. These were visible means to represent the invisible, heavenly benefits to be bestowed on the members of this body through him; and while man received in faith the sign presented to his senses, the enjoyment of that heavenly communion and those heavenly advantages was to gladden his inward heart. As nothing in all Christianity and in the whole Christian life stands isolated, but all forms one whole, proceeding from one centre, therefore, also, that which this outward sign represented must be something which should continue through the whole of the inward Christian life, something which, spreading itself forth from this one moment over the whole Christian life, should be capable of being especially excited again and promoted in return, by the influence of isolated moments. Thus, baptism was to be the sign of a first entrance into communion with the Redeemer, and with the church, the first appropriation of those advantages which Christ has bestowed on man, namely, of the forgiveness of sins and the inward union of life, which proceeds from it, as well as of the participation in a sanctifying divine Spirit of life. And the Lord’s Supper was to be the sign of a constant continuance in this communion, in the appropriation and enjoyment of these advantages: and thus were represented the essentials of the whole inward Christian life, in its earliest rise and its continued progress. The whole peculiar spirit of Christianity was particularly stamped in the mode in which these external things were administered; and the mode of their administration in return exerted a powerful influence on the whole nature of the Christian worship. The connection of the moments, represented by these signs, with the whole Christian life, the connection of inward and divine things with the outward act was present to the lively Christian feelings of the first Christians.

Fuente: Biblical and Theological Dictionary