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com/2010/06/christian-worship-in-the-first-century/
home? How about a Catholic? The following is a re-recording of a lecture I gave to a group in Charlotte, NC last year on the subject of
liturgy in the first century. With the current lead article on Holy Orders and the nature of the priesthood, it is relevant to explore the
subject of early Christian worship. To determine what sort of leaders the early Christians had, it helps to understand what sort of action
the early Christians understood as right worship. The historical evidence bears witness that the early Christian liturgy was not
compatible with Protestant theology even with the higher liturgical orientation of the original Reformers.
Original Notes:
Introduction
The following notes presuppose some familiarity with the Catholic mass.
The primary points of contact for our knowledge of the first century liturgy lie on one end with the Jewish liturgies, and the little data
which can be gleaned from the New Testament, and the far later, but well documented, fourth century liturgies. We do have a few texts,
reliable but vague, from the second and third century that help us piece together the puzzle. But ultimately our study lies in drawing on
what we know from these ends, and reconstructing the development in-between.
Three liturgies would have been common place in the first century: the Synaxis, the Eucharist, and the Agape meal. We will look at
these each individually but first, a few milestones or key points of interest are important to keep in mind:
1. For about the first 10 years of Christianity, it was almost exclusively composed of Jewish converts.
3. The early Christians continued celebrating in the Synagogues alongside the Jews on the Sabbath for several years in some
places.
4. Up to nineteen years after Christs resurrection, new converts to Christianity, generally speaking, had to convert to Judaism
before becoming Christian. Namely, they were to be circumcised, to eat Kosher, and to follow the Mosaic Law. The Jerusalem
5. St. James, the bishop of Jerusalem, while the temple was still standing was in the habit of wearing the priestly robes, entering
The Jews allowed Gentiles to participate in their public liturgies at the Synagogue. Gentiles were even allowed to enter the outer courts
of the temple.4 But there was a rigorous exclusion of Gentile participation in the sacred home liturgies (such as the Seder meal). Initially
Christians had no public liturgy, only domestic liturgy and so the controversies regarding the direct inclusion of the Gentile converts
into the Christian Church are easily understood within this context. 5
In AD 70, the temple was destroyed. This was an earth shattering event for the Jews and a radical shift for the Jewish-Christians. It was
The book of Hebrews was written in the 60s to explain to the Jewish Christians that Jesus was the true High Priest, 7 that animal
sacrifices were no longer necessary, 8 and that Christs sacrifice was perpetually sufficient. 9These facts seems obvious to us in hindsight,
but they werent obvious to the early Jewish Christians, particularly while the temple was still standing.
The Synaxis
Synaxis is the Greek word meaning meeting and is the organic continuity of the Saturday Synagogue worship. When the Christians
were no longer allowed in the synagogues, they continued celebrating approximately the same rite with added Christian developments
and themes. The original liturgies would have been held, like the synagogue service, in Hebrew, and some of the words, like amen and
hallelujah, survive to this day. In the early part of the first century, it is unlikely that the Synaxis would have be recognizably different
from the Synagogue service except for the setting. The Synaxis can be understood as the seed of what we now call the Liturgy of the
Word.10 Some key differences include that, in the first century, there were no introduction rites, no penitential rite and no Gloria. These
Basic Structure
1. Greeting and Response (The Lord be with you or Peace be unto you)
2. Lections & Psalmody (The Jews read in order of descending importance, starting with the Pentateuch. The early Christian kept
the original order of the Synagogue, but as Christian Scripture became available, it was tacked on at the end. Thus the order of
importance became reversed for Christians. They read in ascending order of importance)
iii. New Testament Reading (sometimes included non-canonical books like 1 Clement)
iv. Psalmody
v. Gospel Reading
Occasionally a collection would be taken for the poor at the end. This was not the offertory.
The Eucharist
Derived from the Seder meal, in its fullest proper setting, the Eucharist is the celebration of the new Passover. Pascha (or Easter) is the
pinnacle of Christian worship. Initially, it is possible that in some or many Christian Churches, the Eucharist was celebrated but once a
year at Passover. The celebration of this high feast of Christian worship expanded to Jewish feast days like Pentecost, and by no later
than the end of the first century, the liturgical practice of the Church was to celebrate every Sunday as a mini-Easter. The Eucharist
would have been celebrated early on Sunday morning, a working day in the Roman empire.
The Eucharist was understood as the duty of the bishop and initially, we have every reason to believe that all Eucharists were celebrated
by the bishop. But as the Church grew, this became impractical. By the end of the first century, this duty was being delegated to
presbyters.11
Basic Structure
2. Kiss of Peace
3. Offertory (Communicants bring their own bread & wine to the deacon who sets them on the altar)
4. Eucharistic Prayer (The earliest Eucharistic prayer would have been simply a direct continuity of the Jewish eucharistic
(thanksgiving) prayer with added Messianic meaning. Noticeable differences in the first century Eucharistic prayer and todays
include: a. no Sanctus, b. no Lords prayer, c. no narrative) The Anaphora of Hippolytus is the oldest Eucharistic prayer we
5. Fraction
7. Dismissal
The Agape
There was probably a time where the Agape meal was celebrated along with the Eucharist, as seems to be the case in 1 Corinthians 11.
But this practice died out sometime in the first century although the Agape continued by itself for several centuries. The only specific
and technical reference to the Agape in the New Testament is found in Jude. 12
The Agape has connections with Mediterranean funeral feasts, said in honor of a deceased hero or family member, and with the
Jewish chaburah meal. This was a communal meal Jews would eat on the eve of the Sabbath and all important Jewish feasts. Jesus
would have had this meal many times with His disciples. The Christian Agape meal was liturgical, although less formal than the
Eucharist or even the Synaxis. Only baptized Christians were allowed to participate in this meal.
Like all early Christian liturgies, it was celebrated in the home. But unlike the Eucharist, it would not be celebrated in
the atrium/tablinum area but in the dining room (triclinium). Thus, it would be celebrated by smaller numbers and in various homes
throughout the Christian community.13 The Christians traditionally celebrated the Agape on Sunday evenings.
Basic Structure
2. Meal (In the West, it seems that the breaking of the bread was part of the meal; in the East, it followed the meal. In the West,
each person blessed their own cup which would have been consistent with the Jewish tradition at the chaburah meal as
opposed to the communal cup for high feasts like the Seder meal.)
3. Washing of Hands
5. Psalms/Hymns
6. Bishop blesses the cup (kiddish or kiddush cup, not the cup of blessing which was reserved for the Eucharist only.)
Notice the order in contrast to the Eucharist. In the Agape meal, the cup precedes the bread. The Agape is described using the name
eucharist in the Didache chapter 9. We know this because the cup precedes the bread. Later, in chapter 14, the Eucharist proper is
explained. The term Eucharist means thanksgiving of course, and in the first century, it was not yet a technical reference to what we
now call the Eucharist. Any prayer of thanksgiving at a meal would have been a eucharistic prayer.
Summary
By the end of the first century, the standard Christian liturgical observations would be as follows. On Saturday, you would attend
the Synaxis. On Sunday morning you would attend the Eucharist, before dawn. You would go to work that day and then in the evening,
you would attend an Agape meal at the house of a presbyter or perhaps the bishops house.
Suggested reading:
1. Acts 2:46 [ ]
2. Acts 15 [ ]
3. Recorded by Hegesippus and Preserved by Eusebius in Church History 2.23.4-6. Compare with the requirements for priestly garments in Exodus 28:41-43. [
9. Hebrews 10 [ ]
10. The Liturgy of the Word is the first part of the Catholic mass. [ ]
11. Thus in the early second century St. Ignatius of Antioch says to the Smyrnaeans, Let that eucharist alone be considered valid which is celebrated in the presence of
13. Paul seems to indicate that the home is the proper place for this in 1 Corinthians 11:22 (as opposed to the particular home which would likely have been blessed
by the bishop as the location for celebrating the Eucharist.) Centuries later, certain canons forbade the use of Church buildings for Agape meals. [ ]