Liturgical Acts of the Apostles
In my last couple posts, I jumped a little further along the path of history than I expected. I love St. Ignatius (and as a shameless plug to go and read his epistles, I must at least briefly say that the much bigger reason to read his epistles is not so much that he emphatically states the authority of the bishop, but the relentless spirit of his letters: charging toward Rome, toward his martyrdom, in a desire to be an offering to Christ).
I should back up fifty years or so and look through the Acts of the Apostles. One thing that has always stuck out to me in the book of Acts (or the “Acts of the Apostles”) is the multitude of references to Jewish religious practice, meaning, the continuation within the Christian Church of Jewish religious practice. It is all too easy to read Acts with our modern glasses and not quite know when we are accidentally imposing a different meaning on the words we are reading. As a benign example: picturing your friend going “fishing” would be quite different than picturing Peter, James, and John “fishing”.
One of the most obvious examples of the liturgical life of the early Church is Jesus himself, the Apostles, and the whole of the early Church taking part in the cycle of feasts. Jesus did not just take part in the feasts just because he was a good Jew, but he and the early Church continued the festal cycle, which can be seen throughout Acts (and throughout history up to this day, but we are just speaking of Acts for now).
The first example that comes to mind, showing how Peter was interpreting events as fulfillment of a feast, is on Mt. Tabor, at the Transfiguration, asking Christ if he should make three booths or tents for Christ, Moses, and Elijah. There is more behind that, but I only want to draw attention to the fact that he is clearly referring to the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles.
Then, it was no accident that the Apostles were all together at Pentecost. And how many places in Acts do you see reference to the Apostles together at the 1st, 3rd, 6th, or 9th hour. Those are the hours of prayer, part of the liturgical cycle of prayer.
Another example, that is a little less obvious because it has to do with a Greek to English translation issue and our version of the Bible likely has a vague translation, is Acts 2:42, where it says: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” More modern translations will take the “in prayers” in this NKJV here, and just say “in prayer”, as if they are having a prayer meeting, speaking spontaneous prayers as they come to mind. Those are our modern glasses at work.
The Greek clearly says “the prayers”, which the NKJV above accurately enough renders as “in prayers”; technically accurate, but easy to read past if you are from a Christian tradition which does not have any prescribed prayers. Meeting for “the prayers”, taken together with meeting at the 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 9th hours, is a clear indication that the early Church was continuing the reading of prescribed Psalms (at the very least), at prescribed times, in a prescribed manner.
I am speaking briefly. I am not laying out nearly enough evidence to prove any particular point. I figure that if you are not interested, you will read past all this anyway; if you are interested, it will help highlight some particular places in Acts that might contain more meaning than you had previously thought.
Thorough research is out there for those who would like to delve deeper. This recommendation may be jumping in too deeply, but if you want to learn more about the continuation of ancient Jewish cult practice (that is, the temple rite; the religious worship, practice, and goings-on of the Temple), the Methodist scholar Margaret Barker comes highly recommended, though I have not read them myself...not for lack of desire. From what I understand, her books really dig back into the life of the Jewish temple.
There are more examples, too, but I think it is enough to say, there is more going on in the religious life of the Apostles than is immediately obvious from reading the New Testament.
I should back up fifty years or so and look through the Acts of the Apostles. One thing that has always stuck out to me in the book of Acts (or the “Acts of the Apostles”) is the multitude of references to Jewish religious practice, meaning, the continuation within the Christian Church of Jewish religious practice. It is all too easy to read Acts with our modern glasses and not quite know when we are accidentally imposing a different meaning on the words we are reading. As a benign example: picturing your friend going “fishing” would be quite different than picturing Peter, James, and John “fishing”.
One of the most obvious examples of the liturgical life of the early Church is Jesus himself, the Apostles, and the whole of the early Church taking part in the cycle of feasts. Jesus did not just take part in the feasts just because he was a good Jew, but he and the early Church continued the festal cycle, which can be seen throughout Acts (and throughout history up to this day, but we are just speaking of Acts for now).
The first example that comes to mind, showing how Peter was interpreting events as fulfillment of a feast, is on Mt. Tabor, at the Transfiguration, asking Christ if he should make three booths or tents for Christ, Moses, and Elijah. There is more behind that, but I only want to draw attention to the fact that he is clearly referring to the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles.
Then, it was no accident that the Apostles were all together at Pentecost. And how many places in Acts do you see reference to the Apostles together at the 1st, 3rd, 6th, or 9th hour. Those are the hours of prayer, part of the liturgical cycle of prayer.
Another example, that is a little less obvious because it has to do with a Greek to English translation issue and our version of the Bible likely has a vague translation, is Acts 2:42, where it says: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” More modern translations will take the “in prayers” in this NKJV here, and just say “in prayer”, as if they are having a prayer meeting, speaking spontaneous prayers as they come to mind. Those are our modern glasses at work.
The Greek clearly says “the prayers”, which the NKJV above accurately enough renders as “in prayers”; technically accurate, but easy to read past if you are from a Christian tradition which does not have any prescribed prayers. Meeting for “the prayers”, taken together with meeting at the 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 9th hours, is a clear indication that the early Church was continuing the reading of prescribed Psalms (at the very least), at prescribed times, in a prescribed manner.
I am speaking briefly. I am not laying out nearly enough evidence to prove any particular point. I figure that if you are not interested, you will read past all this anyway; if you are interested, it will help highlight some particular places in Acts that might contain more meaning than you had previously thought.
Thorough research is out there for those who would like to delve deeper. This recommendation may be jumping in too deeply, but if you want to learn more about the continuation of ancient Jewish cult practice (that is, the temple rite; the religious worship, practice, and goings-on of the Temple), the Methodist scholar Margaret Barker comes highly recommended, though I have not read them myself...not for lack of desire. From what I understand, her books really dig back into the life of the Jewish temple.
There are more examples, too, but I think it is enough to say, there is more going on in the religious life of the Apostles than is immediately obvious from reading the New Testament.
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