The forms in which the teaching or prayer or praise might be delivered were three. From the prophet it came as a direct revelation from God, with all the force of a verbally inspired message, expressed in ordinary language, and therefore needing no explanation of its meaning. From the speaker in a torujue also it came as an 'inspired* utterance (Ac 2* 'to speak with other tongues aa the Spirit gave them utterance'), but the lan- guage was incomprehensible to the hearers, and to the speaker himself, unless they possessed a further gift, viz. the power to lnter.pr*)t tongues (see I Co 14). From the others it did not come as an inspire<i utterance, but the teacher spoke with greater weight and authority, aa one who had received, in a special degree, the 'gift ol teaching* from the Holy Ghost. The 'teacher,* by virtue of his gift, ranked higher than the 'speaker in a tongTie.* He stood next to the apostles and prophets in the divinely appointed order of the Church (1 O 1228).
To the necessity which St. Paul felt of correcting certain abuses in the Cor. senices we are indebted for an interestinu' picture of these meetings (1 Co 1429-Sfl). Jd their eagerness to exercise the gifts of which they were conscious, the Cor. Chris- tians had m&fle their services scenes of confusion. Members did not wait for one another to finish speaking. If a prophet received a 'revelation.' he stood up at once and delivered it while another was still speaking, Agiiin, both the prophets and the 'speakers in a tongue' had allowed their enthusiasm to lead them to excess. The prophet unconsciously added a subjective
element to his message. The "speaker in a tongue' ineiwlt.'eil his zeal without tronMing whelber the others midfrstood what he meant. To prevent this coniujjioii, tlit- uj'oal.e lays down the following checks ; (i) Nut nn^re than one tosptak at a time ; each must wait his turn. (2) The one who is speaking to stop if he perceives another waiting to deliver a ' revelation. (3) Tbe ' spfiker in tongues ' is not allowed to speak unless an interpreter be present. (4) The * revelation " of the prophet is to be checked by those who possess the gift of 'discerning spirits' (hiux^tffit irvEvpt«T4»y, cf. 12'"). St. Paul does not mention a president in the meetings, and he addres»*es himself directly to thecongrega- tioti, as it everything were to be decided at their discretion. But it is almost impossible to suppose that there was no one to direct and manage the gathering, e.g. to appoint the time ol meeting, to declare the opening and closing of the service, etc. There is no doubt, that vvork of this kind is included io the labour of tliose 'presidents' described in 1 Th 6i'^, though we cannot go the length of saving that i> Kuptm is a special allusion to these services.
Women were present at the services, and contributed to the worship (1 Co 11', cf. Ac 2iy). St. Paul directs that they shall keep their heads covered during worship, while the man shall pray with uncovered head (1 Co 114-5). Both at Corinth (1 Co U'^) and at Ephesus (1 Ti 2ii-l2) he forbids women to take an active part in the services, and the general language in which he speaks shows that he enforced the same rule in all his churches.
(b) The * breaking of bread. ^ — The expression ^
/cXdcrts TQv dprov in Ac 2^ refers to soiiiethin}_' more tlian an institution of common meals. It is inileetl doubtful, in tlie liglit of 6^--, whether a system of universal common meals existed at all. But in any case the double repetition of the article ^ xXdais Toi; dfyrov Avould be strange unless the term were technical, and referred to a special breaking' of a special bread. And such we find to be the case in i Co 10^^ where tiie expression * the bread which we break' refers to a religious act, and in ll-'\ wiiere tlie eating of the bread forms part of an act of worsliip called * eating the Lord's Supper,' and its signiticance is to * proclaim the Lord's deatli till he come ' {ib. -*). From the action of Christ at the institution of this sacrament, the technical name by which it became known was * the break- ing of the bread.' The expression occurs some- times without the article {e.g. Ac 20"^, Didarhe 14*), where there can be no doubt as to itstechni'-al use. In some places {e.g. Ac 2*^ 27^) it may refer to an ordinary meal. The only other name which is given to it in NT is the Lord's Supper, 1 Co 1 1'-^^ which refers, however, to the whole meal of which the icXatrts tov dprov was the central act. As early, however, as the Didache (9") the word €vxapi<7Tia is used to t'x press the same thing (cf. also Ign. ad Smym, oh. 7).
By its nature this service was of a much more private char- acter than the other. It was not held in public, with free admission for non-members, but restricted to baptized Chris- tians {Didache 9-^ ' Let none eat or drink of your Eucharist save those who are baptized in the name of the Lord'). It was the secrecy with which the Christians shrouded the Eucharist that gave rise to the absurd accusations which were popularly brought against them. At the same time, it seems, when pos- sible, to have been made the occasion of a geneml meeting of the whole Church, rich and poor (Ac 20', 1 Co uia-'ii-aa).