was born about tlie opening of the last cent ur_v, and was | of the people (Numb. vi. 23-27), is -an instance of this educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, enter- j class. The form of offering of the first-fruits (Deut.
the latter in 1716. He early turned his attention to poetry, but he also studied philosophy. In 1720 Mr. Littleton was recalled to Eton as an assistant in the
xxvi, 1-15) is another : in this latter the person making the offering uses the formula, the priest receiving the offering ; and still another is the appointed formula of
school, and in 1727 was elected a fellow, and presented ■ commination by the tribes at Ebal and Gerizim, the to the living of Maple Dcrham in Oxfordshire. He Levites repeating the curse, the whole people following
was aiijxiirUed June 9, 1730, chajilain in ordinary to the king, and died in 1734. He published poems and sev- eral discourses. He was an admired preacher and ex- cellent scholar. — General Biog. Diet. s. v.
Liturgy (Greek Xiirovpyia), a function, service, or duty of a public character. These public> services or duties among the Greeks were frequently, if not al- ways, connected with religious ideas or ceremonies of some kind, even when the duties themselves were of a
with the solemn amen. Distinct, moreover, from these were certain transactions, in which, without any specified form, the official was required to use certain words. The confession by the high-priest of the sins of the people over the head of the scape-goat is one of these ; in any such case, a set form, passing from priestly father to son, not improbably came into use. The liturgical use of the I'salnis in the Temple worship was, of course, a matter of much later arrangement. The fiftieth chapter
LITURGY
457
LITURGY
of Ecclesiasticus describes an exceptional service, and is, moreover, too indefinite in its lan!j;iiage to justify any conclusion as to its liturgical character. During this period, however, between the captivity and the times of the New Testament, there comes to view another ecclesiastical development of Judaism which has its connection with this subject — that of the worship of the synagogue. This, which in all probability originated during the captivity, and in the efibrt to supply the want occasioned by the loss of the worship of the Temple, would in many respects be like that Temple worship ; in others, and from the necessity of the case, it would be very different. The greatest of these diversities would be in the fact of the necessary presence of the sacriticial and priestly element in the service of the Temple, their absence in that of the synagogue. In the Temple the Levites sang psalms of praise before the altar, and the priests blessed the people. In the synagogue there were prayers connected with the reading of certain spe- cific passages of Scripture, of which are distinctly dis- cernible two " chief groups, around which, as time wore on, an enormous mass of liturgical poetry clustered — the one, the Sheina ('Hear, Israel,' etc.), being a collec- tion of the three Biblical pieces (Deut. vi, 4-9 ; xi, 13- 21 : Numb, xv, 37-41), expressive of the unity of God and the memory of his government over Israel, strung together without any extraneous aildition ; the second, the Tcphillah, or Prayer, by way of eminence (adopted in the Koran as Salavat, Sur. ii, 40 ; comp. v. 15), consist- ing of a certain number of supplications, with a hymnal introduction and conclusion, and followed by the priest- ly blessing. The single portions of this prayer grad- ually increased to eighteen, and the prayer itself re- ceived the najae Shemonah Esveh (eighteen; afterwards, however, increased to nineteen; the additional one is noiv twelfth in the prayer, and is against apostates [to Christianity] and heretics [all who refused the Talmud], including consequently the Karaites). The first addi- tion to the Shema formed the introductory thanksgiv- ing for the renewed day (in accordance with the ordi- nance that every supplication must be preceded by a prayer of thanks) called Juzer (Creator of Light, etc.), to which were joined the three Holies {Ophan), and the sup- plication for spiritual enlightening in the divine law (,1 habah). Between the Shema and the Tephillah was ulserted the Geulah (Liberation), or praise for the mirac- iilous deliverance from Egypt and the constant watch- ings of providence. A Kuddish (Sanctitication or Ben- ediction) and certain psalms seem to have concluded the service of that period. This was the order of the Shaharith, or morning prayer, and very similar to this was the Maarih, or evening prayer ; while in the Min- chah, or afternoon prayer, the Shema was omitted. On new moons. Sabbath and feast days, the general order was the same as on week days; but since the festive joy was to overrule all individual sorrow and supplica- tion, the intermediate portion of the Tephillah was changed according to the special significance and the memories of the day of the solemnity, and additional prayers were introduced for these extraordinary occa- sions, corresponding to the additional sacrifice in the Temple, and varymg according to the special solemnity of the day (^Mussaph, Neilah, etc.)" (Chambers). Com- pare Etheridge, Introduction to llebreto lAteraturc, p. 3G7 S(i. ; Prideaux, ii, 160-170. It is likewise to be noted that in the Temple worship there were occasions and o[)portunities in which the individual worshipper might confess the plague of his own heart, make individual supplication, or oifer individual thanksgiving. Thus it was at the time of the coming of Christ. The Jewish liturgies since then, under the iuHuence of Rabbinisra, and in view of the fact that the synagogue, so far as p(jssible, supplies the absence of the Temjile, have been very much enlarged, and extend to numberless partic- ularities. It may, in fact, be said that the whole life of the modern Jew is regulated by Rabbinic forms, that there is a rubric for every moment and movement of