Shortened Maianne Dacy Jewish Influence on Early Christian Liturgy

7/28/2019 Shortened Maianne Dacy Jewish Influence on Early Christian Liturgy

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The Jewish Influence On Early Christian Liturgy

Christianity began life as a kind of Judaism, which, like that of the Dead Sea Scroll sectarians

and the Samaritans, did not accept the Oral Torah, later enshrined in the Mishnah, Talmudim, and

Midrash from 200 CE. As the Jewish scholar David Flusser commented in 1987 in Jewish sources

in early Christianity

Like every new religion, Christianity developed stage by stage. In its first years its

development was extremely fast. Christianity had already [in the first century] spread

not only among Palestinian Jews, but also among Jews in the Diaspora (1987: Flusser,

68).

Christianity retained the Written torah which is traditionally the Old Testament (tanakh) . The

New Testament was added to these Scriptures.

As time progressed, other elements were added that reflected the increasingly gentile

background of its converts who soon outnumbered those of Jewish origin. Added to this

phenomenon was the fact that the Christian expulsion from the synagogue apparently was not

effected at least until after Gamaliel IIs activities at Yabneh, thus allowing almost two-thirds of a

century of Christian liturgical development within a Jewish milieu. The elements that were

absorbed into Christian worship evidently sprang from this period of disturbance and change as

well as from a common biblical heritage.

During the first century there was a decline in sacrificial ritual (only carried out in the Jerusalem

Temple), which was being replaced by synagogue prayer and liturgy as well as by rituals within the

home. The Pharisees, by transplanting the rituals of the temple to the home, helped to free the later

sages from the necessity of offering sacrifices, and prepared the way for the reforms that rabbinic

Judaism needed in order to adapt to life without the Jerusalem Temple, which the Romans had

destroyed in 70 CE,

A sizeable number of liturgical fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal an organised prayer

ritual. Shemaryahu Talmon commented in 1960:

Dr Marianne Dacy - SSEC Conference May 2013


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Embedded in the scrolls and fragments...there appear to be scattered portions of a

Manual of Benedictions, viz, a collection of blessings arranged according to the

calendar, containing daily prayers side by side with festival prayers, after the manner of

the mahazorta still used in the Syrian Church.

His remarks have been vindicated in recent years with the publication of scrolls showing the

practice of prayer at fixed times, public prayers, and prayers of fixed content.

Prayers in the Temple

The great Israeli Jewish liturgist, Joseph Heinemann, concluded that several liturgical elements

had been transferred from the Second Temple to the synagogue. These included the Shema and a

form of theAmidah (18 Benedictions), the use of certain biblical poems including the Hallel

psalms, the recitation of the Decalogue as part of the Shema liturgy, and versions of certain rituals

used by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement.

Daily Prayer

Synagogue worship traditionally dates from after the Babylonian exile in the time of Ezra and

Nehemiah. Sources from the days of the Second Temple indicate that worshippers were scrupulous

about reciting their prayers at exactly those hours when the daily services were being offered in the

temple and the incense was being burned. During the Second Temple period, synagogue prayer was

seen as complementing the temple sacrifices. The daily synagogue prayers, according to talmudic

tradition, were instituted to correspond to the daily sacrifices (b. Ber. 26b).

The archaeologist Eric Meyers also considers archaeological evidence supports the view that

Jews and Christians relocated to Galilee. On the basis of the archaeological evidence he suggested

that Jewish and Christian communities continued to live in harmony until the seventh century CE in

various locations including Capernaum.

The Benediction of the Minim



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Some scholars associate the ejection of Christians from the synagogue with the period of Yabneh

and the twelfth benediction, the so-called Benediction of theMinim (heretics). Passages in John

(9:22, 12:42, and 16:2) have been interpreted as pointing to the expulsion of Christians from the

synagogue. If this is so, were these expulsions isolated cases, or on a more universal level? It would

be difficult to pinpoint when Christian participation in synagogue worship ceased.

Yet, despite Christian borrowing of elements belonging to Jewish liturgical practice, certain

elements that belong to the essential framework of Jewish liturgy as it was developing before the

fall of the temple were not retained in Christian liturgy, were retained only for a short time, or were

radically changed. These elements include the prayer section of the daily service, which consists of

the Shema liturgy and its blessings as well as theAmidah and accompanying blessings. The other

essential element of the daily service was retained, namely the Torah readings. Research indicates

that Torah reading and study were the chief religious activities in the synagogue during the Second

Temple period. However, from material found at Qumran it would appear that the prayer forms

were well developed earlier.

The Question of the Shema for the Early Christians

The Christian stance on Jesus was one of the key elements leading to separate Christian worship

from Jewish worship and most likely was the main reason for the non-retention in Christian worship

of the recitation of the Shema. In the case of the Shema, the point could be made that a movement

that declares Jesus to be divine, would not be inclined to recite the text of the Shema, but would

substitute cult prayers centred around Jesus death and resurrection. Again, why retain the use of

tefillin (phylacteries), tallit(prayer shawl) ormezzuzah if the Jesus symbolism is to distinguish the

new movement, whose members came in increasing numbers from the ranks of non-Jews?

The Didache and Early Christian Liturgical Documents

There is an allusion to the Shema in the beginning of theDidache, which speaks of loving God

and neighbour, cited as the first two commandments in the synoptics (Matt 22:3440; Luke 10: 25

28; Mark 12: 2834).



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The Way of Life is this: First, you shall love the God who made you, secondly, your

neighbour as yourself; and whatsoever you would not have done to yourself, do not do

to another. (Didache 1:2)

Some have argued that theAmidah orShemoneh Esreh (HaTefillah, The Prayerpar excellence),

was a creation of the rabbis of Yabneh, as was the building of the recitation of the Shema into a

regular daily liturgy. This, however, would not do justice to the evidence from Qumran, nor the

obvious Jewish practice of the Shema reflected in the New Testament and Philo, as well as Ben

Sira.

According to the Talmud (Ber. 12a), the recitation of the Decalogue was dropped by Judaism, in

reaction to the sectarians who retained only the Decalogue, which was part of the liturgy of the

Shema at the time. This information is corroborated by evidence from the first part of theDidache,

itself believed to be a composite document. It seems evident that the first part, known as The Two

Ways, was part of an original pre-Christian Jewish document from the first century or earlier. While

the so-called Golden Rule of Hillel and some of the prescriptions of the Decalogue are mentioned,

the Sabbath is omitted.

The Way of Life is this: First, you shall love the God who made you, secondly, your

neighbour as yourself; and whatsoever you would not have done to yourself, do not do

to another(Didache 1:2).

But the second commandment of the teaching is this: 2. You shall not murder; you shall

not commit adultery, you shall not covet your neighbours goods (Didache 2:1,2).

The Didascalia, a third-century document from Asia Minor, declares that only the Decalogue but

not the other commandments need be observed by Christians. It claims to have been compiled by

the apostles at Jerusalem immediately following the Council described in Acts 15.

The law therefore is indissoluble; but the second legislation is temporary, and is

dissoluble. Now the law consists of the ten words and the judgements (decalogus et

iudicia). (Didascalia 26:910).



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In addition, theApostolical Constitutions declare that the Decalogue is valid, but that Christ has

released Christians from the bonds of the law. It is possible the text in the Babylonian Talmud

(written up about the same time as Constantine was active (5th century CE) omitting the Decalogue,

is a reaction to the Christian attitude to the law. Since the doctrine of the unity of God expressed in

the Shema is basic to Judaism, it stands to reason then, that the first Christians, being of Jewish

origin, were strongly affected by its influence and by their religionof origin. The New Testament

(source?) reveals that Jesus reveres the Shema.

Josephus alludes to the morning prayers of the Essenes, which would have included the Shema

and its blessings as well as a form of theAmidah and its surrounding blessings.

And as for their piety towards God, it is very extraordinary; for before the sunrise, they

speak not a word about profane matters, but put up certain prayers which they have

received from their forefathers, as if they made a supplication for its rising(Wars 2.8.5).

It also should be noted thatJohns Gospel, in John 17, for example, brings together the themes

of love and unity in God, which are central to the Shema, but in an altered context.

May they all be one,

just as, Father, you are in meand I am in you...

With me in them and you in me,

may they be so perfected in unity

that the world will recognise

that it was you who sent me

and that you have loved them

as you have loved me (John 17:21, 23).

In a text from the end of the first century or early in the second in the writings of Ignatius of

Antioch, the themes of love and unity in God also occur together but in the context of perfect faith

in Jesus.

None of these things are unknown to you if you possess perfect faith towards Jesus

Christ, and love, which are the beginning and end of life; for the beginning is faith and

the end is love, and when the two are joined together in unity it is God (Epistle to the

Ephesians 14:1).

The Our Father



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The rule of the three times of prayer in daily worship in the synagogue was observed by the early

Christians; references to the third, sixth and ninth hour are found in the Book of Acts. According to

theDidache, the Lords Prayer also was said three times daily.

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be

done, as in Heaven so also upon earth; give us to-day daily bread, and forgive us our

debt as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into trial, but deliver us from the Evil

One, for thine is the power and the glory forever (Didache 8.2).

Tertullian (source?) asserted that praying three times a day was based on apostolic practice.

Again, the so-called Community Rule material found at Qumran shows that it was the practice to

pray thrice daily.

In accord with the times which he has decreed: at the beginning of the dominion of

light, at its turning point when it withdraws itself to its assigned dwelling, at the

beginning of the watches of darkness (IQS 10:12)1.

Many authors, especially those subscribing to the eschatological orientation of the Lords Prayer,

point out the striking resemblance of Father, hallowed be your name, Your kingdom come (Luke

11:2/Matt 6:9) with theKaddish.

Magnified and sanctified be his great name in the world that he has created according to

his will. May he establish his kingdom in your lifetime and in your days and in the

lifetime of all the house of Israel, even speedily and at a near time.

Again, the petition, lead us not into temptation, in Luke 1:4 and Matt 6:13 has a parallel in b

Ber60b that reads: Lead us not into sin or iniquity or testing or contempt.

Though Jewish elements continued to exert an influence on the shape of Christian prayers, the

themes gradually became more Christ-centred.
