iL Apostolic Teaching and Custom.— As the Church giadually emerged from the synagogue specific Christian worship, as distinguished from tlie customary Jewish worship, came to bo shaped on lines indicated by the principles of the new faith.
(a) Times. — The NT contains no regulations concerning stated days and hours for worship. In 80 far as .Jewish (Christians still followed the law and customs of tlieir people, they observed the Sabbath and the great feasts. St. Paul fre- quented the synagogues on the Sabbath [e.g. Ac 13"' ** 16'* 17-); much more must this have been the ca.se with less liberal Jews in the Church. St. Paul also took some account of the annual festivals, e.g. desiring to bo at Jerusalem for tha
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WOKSHIP IN NT
WORSHIP IN NT
Peutecost (Ac 20'«, 1 Co 16«). But he held himself to be free from any obligation in regard to sacred seasons, and never laid any such obligation on his converts, even bidding the Colossians let no man judge them ' in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath-day ' (Col 2'"). The Galatians are rebuked because they ' observe days, and months, and seasons, and years' (Gal 4'"). But, while no especial sanctity of seasons was recog- nized by St. Paul, of necessity a certain periodicity was requisite for public worship in the Greek as well as in the Jewish Church. At Jerusalem, over and above the temple worship, which they shared with other Jews, the disciples had their own private assembly. As no mention is made of their attendance at the synagogue, though the temple is named, it seems probable that they gave up this custom in Palestine — perliaps from the time when Jesus was e.\pelled from the synagogue. Thus a necessity would arise to institute some worship in its place. But that was never done formally, nor did it come about suddenly. The Christian wor- sliip arose from another cause ; it grew out of the fellowship of Christian brotherhood. The origin of this worship is indicated in the statements that the new converts — doubtless associated with the older Christians — ' continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship ((coixwvla), in the breaking of bread and the prayers ' (Ac 2^) ; that ' day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they did take their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God,' etc. (v.*^). This seems to imi)ly a daily meeting, which must have been early in the morning or at night, so as not to interfere with the common work of life. Probably the statement a[)plies onl3' to the time of primitive en- thusiasm. We meet with nothing of the kind later. The custom of the Church, both Jewish (cf. Jn 20" and V.28) and Greek (Ac 20' ; 1 Co 16=), was to meet on the first day of the week. See Lord's Day. The NT contains no reference to any yearly Christian festivals. The Pasclial contro- versy in the 2nd cent, reveals a very early practice of keeping Easter, and Polycarji's association with St. John seems to connect this with apostolic times, especially as the apostolic precedent is cited. Irenajus states that Polycarp, visiting Rome in the time of Anicetus (c. 155 A.D.), 'had always ob- served it[ .e. on the ]4th Nisan, the date in dispute] with John, the disciple of our Lord, and the other apostles with whom he had associated' (Euseb. HE v. 24). But tlie identification of the date with the Passover — the very question discussed by Polycarp — points rather to St. John's Jewish custom of keeping the Passover than to the in- stitution of Easter as an independent Christian festival. It indicates that, in late apostolic times, the surviving apostles, being Jews, >\'hen they kept the Passover, associated this with our Lord s last Passover, and so with His death and resurrection. Similarly, the Pentecost continued down from Jewish times as a Jewish festival adopted by the Church to commemorate the gift of the Holy Spirit as late as the 2nd cent. (TertuUian, de Idol. c. 12 ; Con.it. Apost. v. 20). Subsequently it was divided into the feast of the Ascension and Pente- cost proper (Whitsunday), and lost its Jewish associations. Epiphany was not known till the end of the 2nd cent. (Clem. Alex. Strom, i. 21), and then as a Gnostic festival, Christmas appearing Btill later.
(b) Places. — The Jerusalem Christians wor- shipped ' in the temple ' (Ac 2*"). This would be in common with other Jews and according to Jewish custom. The prayer would be private and per- sonal — like the prayers of the Pharisee and the publican in the parable. Similarly, when ' Peter
and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour ' (Ac 3'), this must have been for private prayer. There could have been no public Christian worship there. If the phrase sar' ol/cov (2*^) should be rendered ' at home,' as in RV, this would not point to Church fellow- ship as in AV, where we read ' from house to house.' But when the Christians met at Jeru- salem it was in a private house, using an ' upper room ' {vTrep(}ov, Ac 1"), perhaps the same room as the 'guest chamber' (Ka-roKviia), also called 'a large upper room' (Lk 22"- '-), in which Jesus took the Last Supper with His disciples. When St. Peter was liberated from prison, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of Mark, and found many gathered together there praying (Ac 12'^). The word ' many ' does not suggest that the whole Church was there assembled. But the Church could only meet in such a place. There were no buildings for Christian worship before the end of the 2nd cent, (see SchafF, Ante-Nicene Christianity, i. p. 199). St. Paul frequently refers to the Church in a house (Ko 16^ 1 Co 16''-', Col 4"). Once only, and that as late as the Pastoral Epistles, do we meet with the expression ' the house of God ' (1 Ti 3'°) ; but probably the word 'house' here means 'family' (cf. 2 Ti 1«, Tit 1". See von Soden, Hdcom. in loc).