* See A. Harnack, The Mission and Expa-nsion of Christi- anity in the First Three Centuries^ Eng. tr.^, 2 vols., London, 1908, Index, s.v. 'Rome.'
t J. A. Robinson, St. Paul's EpiitU to the Ephesians, London, 1903, p. 280.
S H. Gressmann, in RGG lii. [Tubingen, 1911) 1908.
not yet perhaps a formal part of the .service, but a general practice on the ground of brotherly love in religious conununion. Whether in NT times the kiss was promiscuous between the sexes can- not be answered certainly, though it is risky to argue from later custom that it was. * The separa- tion of the .sexes in the assemblies, the strict sub- ordination of Avomen amounting to a dejueciation on the part of St. Paul (1 Ti 2"'°), aiui general customs among both Jews and Creeks, make it excee<lingly unlikely that the kiss was given promiscuously. If so, it was, as Calirol says, a sign of the purity of nujrals among Christians, lint later, in the 2n(l and 3rd centuries, with the growth of larger freedom and selfconlidence, the kiss became more general. It has been argued, though on slight grounds, that it was a custom in the Jewish synagogues.!
H. Seeberg thinks, from the ancient custom of the kiss in the Third's Supiier service, and from the passages on ttie kiss in the Epistles, that the Epistles e3i>efially (not so much the Cospels) were re.'id in the evening service, to which in the early Church the Supper was limited, and that the kiss as a ]>art of the worship took place after that reading. 'So the writer of the Epistles reckons that his Epistle will be read i[i that evening service, in which worship and sociability flow togetlier, so that he tries to prepare hearts for the reception of u\e I/>rd, whom they await in the Supper.* Besides, in 1 Co 16--', after the kiss of V.20 comes the Marana tha ('The Lord is coming' [not, Maran atha, ' The Lord has come ']) and the benediction, and we know from the Didache that the Marana tha was an element of the oldest liturgy of the Supper; consequently St. Paul in this passage connects an exhortation to the kiss with the Supper liturgy. He therefore expects that his Epistle will be read immediately before the Supi>cr. The I^ord's Supper kiss at the end of different NT Epi.stles proves that these Epistles are intended to be rend in the evening public worship.I This is an ingenious and 8U;,'gestive interpretation. Unfortunately, \\'e have not sutlicient ligiit to estimate it.
As we go into the post-Apostolic Age, we find the kiss a secure part of public worship. ' When we have ceased from prayer, we salute one another with a kiss. There is then brought to the pre- siding brother bread and a cup of wine' (Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 65). Athenagoras quotes an extra-canonical Scripture warning against an abu.se of the kiss, saying that ' the kiss, or rather the salutation, should be given with the greatest care ; since, if there be mixed with it the least defilement of thought, it excludes us from eternal life ' (Legnt. 32). Clement of Alexandria also recognizes abuses which crept in, and refers to the resounding kisses in church which made suspicions and evil reports among the heathen, and claims that the kiss must be 'mystic' (Peed. iii. 11). TertulUan presupposes omission of the kiss when fasting, but declaims against the omission (except on Good Friday), believing that the kiss of brotherhood is a part of every true prayer {de Oral. IS). On the other hand, he refers to the embarra.ssment the custom causes in the case of an unbelieving husband who is unwilling for his wife 'to meet any one of the brethren to exchange a kiss' {ad Uxor. ii. 4). Origen refers the custom of the kiss after prayer to Ro 16'* and other Scripture, and says that the kiss must be holy, chaste, and sincere, an expres- sion of peace and simjilicity (adEom. x. 33 [Migne, PG xiv. 1'283]). The Apostolic C'vnstitutions (viii. 11) insisted on order in this part of the service; the clergy to kiss the bishop, the laity the men, the women the women, going back in this last particular to the probable use of the Apostolic Church.
Literature. — Besides the books mentioned in the footnotes see J. E. Frame, ICC, 'Theasalonians,' Edinliurgh, lOlU, p. 210 ; A. Robertson and A. Plummer, ib. ' 1 Corinthians,' do., 1911, p. 399 ; G. Woblenberg, Ver erate und zwt-ite Thessahnicher-
• As do E. Venablcs in DCA ii. 902 f., F. Cabrol in Dictiannaire d'archiidogif. chrMemir.. Paris, 1903ff., ii. 117 f., and A. E. Crawley in ERE vii. 710 f.
t F. C. Conybeare, in Eip, 4th ser., ix. [1894] 460-462.
t * Kuss und Kanon ' in Aus Religion und Qeschichte, i. [Leipzig, 19061 118-122.
444 SALVATiOX, SAVE, SAVIOUR
SALVATION, SAVE, SAVIOUR
brief, Leipzig, 1903, p. 122 ; K. Leimbach, in Zeilachri/l filr die hist. Theol. xli. [Gotha, 1871) 43CM35 ; V. Schultze, art. ' Friedeusliuss ' in PKK^ vi. 274 (. ; C. Krieg, in F. X. Kraus, ReaUtieijktopadie der christUchen AlUTliim^r, 2 vols., Freiburg i. B., 1SSI-N5, i. 542-544, wlicre older literature is (pven, and where reference to /AVT should be vol. -\x. (not vol. xl.) \' 108 ; T. K. Cheyne, in EBi, s,v, 'Salutations.'