The Earliest Christian Liturgy

427 Pages·1941·12.953 MB·English

by  Josef Maaria Nielen

THE
EARLIEST CHRISTIAN
LITURGY
BY
REV. JOSEF MARIA NIELEN
TRANSLATED BY
REV. PATRICK CUMMINS, O.S.B.
Monk of Conception Abbey
B. HERDER BOOK CO.
15 & 17 SOUTH BROADWAY, ST. LOUIS, MO.
AND
33 QUEEN SQUARE, LONDON, W. C.
1941
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Printed in USA.
IMPRIMI POTEST
Ex abbatia lmmac. Concept, die 14. Dec., 194°
►£« Stephanus Schappler, O.S.B.
Abbas Coadjutor
NIHIL OBSTAT
Sti. Ludovici, die 9. Jan., 1941
F. J. Holweck,
Censor Librorum
IMPRIMATUR
Sti. Ludovici, die 10. Jan., 1941
Joannes ]. Glennon,
Archiepiscopus
Copyright 1941
B. HERDER BOOK CO.
Vail-Ballou Press, Inc., Binghamton and New York
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
This work is an attempt to give a comprehensive
survey of the prayer and liturgy of primitive Chris¬
tianity. This survey rests exclusively on those accounts
of things liturgical which we find in the New Testa¬
ment. No survey of this kind has been undertaken since
1854, when Theodosius Harnack published a work en¬
titled Der christliche Gemeindegottesdienst im aposto-
lischen und altkatholischen Zeitalter (“Christian Public
Worship in the Age of the Apostles and Primitive
Catholics”). That work did not even then meet all
necessary requirements. The eighty years between have
opened rich fields of learning, have given us wide
information in the history and science of religion, have
seen the birth of a new interest in the history of liturgy,
especially with regard to the influence radiating from
permanent liturgical formulas. Some of the works pub¬
lished during those eight decades are special investiga¬
tions of single liturgical questions, but not systematic
treatises on common public Christian prayer, not com¬
plete pictures of the early Christian community as
organized in liturgical worship. Those treatises which
are complete and systematic have in view not the New
Testament period alone, but also post-apostolic times.
Furthermore, these treatises, however ample in scope,
iii
IV author’s preface
deal with Christian liturgy, not exclusively but only
concomitantly, as one element among many.
This present work, on the contrary, keeps its eye on
the early Christian liturgy. It studies, indeed, the pri¬
vate forms of Christian prayer, but only to show how
these private forms lead up to, or down from, public
liturgical prayer. And the period which the work
studies is that bounded by the New Testament writings,
which alone serve as sources.
A secondary purpose aimed at by this work is to
show how the daily lives of early Christians were inter¬
woven with their public worship of God.
For many reasons the book has been long in the mak¬
ing. One temptation the author must even now resist.
The present age clamors for a dogmatico-speculative
evaluation of texts and sources. Such a treatment seems
to this age more in harmony with the early Christian
overflowing abundance of divine life which was their
gift. Joy and freedom in the knowledge that flows from
faith attract our age more than does the slow and la¬
borious task of sifting and solidifying. But the author,
though intent on leading the joyful believer into the
full richness of his faith, can still not forget the hours
dedicated to the task of studying the sources histori¬
cally, and of listening to the verdict which those sources
alone can give. Faith profits by all knowledge. To bring
to the surface the historical truths imbedded in the
New Testament writings, will be for faith itself a great
gain.
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE
This book addresses directly the historian of the
liturgy. What was the earliest Christian liturgy? Did
it originate in Christ’s life of prayer? How much of the
Jewish liturgy did Christian liturgy retain? Did it bor¬
row from pagan liturgies? How much in its develop¬
ment was due to elements specifically Christian? These
questions are answered in the first part of the book.
The second part tells in detail how, where, and when
the early Christian congregations prayed and sang; how
they exercised the charismatic gifts of prophecy and
tongues; how they celebrated the Lord’s Supper; how
their spontaneous enthusiasm was guided into the
channels of order and decorum.
Limited in scope to Christian liturgy in its earliest
form, the book is likewise limited in its method. As
source book the author uses the New Testament, and
the New Testament alone. His purpose rules out all
later evidence, even that furnished by the apostolic Fa¬
thers. What does the New Testament tell us of the early
Christian liturgy? This question, and this question
alone, finds answer in this book.
This limited viewpoint has advantages and disad¬
vantages. It enables the author to study the New Testa¬
ment very thoroughly. It concentrates the reader’s
vi translator’s preface
attention on those house churches where Christianity
was preached and sung before the New Testament was
written. It shows how the living liturgical language,
both speech and song, surrounded, like an atmosphere,
the New Testament author when he took pen in hand
to compose. Christian literature is the echo of Chris¬
tian liturgy. This is a commonplace. But that common¬
place springs here into new life.
This positive advantage is accompanied by a negative
advantage. We are familiar with the tendency, from
which Catholic writers are not immune, to imagine
that, because our cause is good, our arguments, in par¬
ticular our arguments from Scripture, are likewise
good. Against this tendency the present book is a good
antidote. The author’s limited viewpoint enables him
to penetrate more deeply into passages which have
suffered from being read in the light of later connota¬
tions.
But this advantage is attended by a corresponding
disadvantage. Tradition is one unbroken unity, stretch¬
ing like a chain across the centuries. The links of that
chain form the only road by which the scholar may go
back to the beginning. Now the author of this book,
in his laudable endeavor to rule out later developments
of terminology, makes too little at times of the verdict
which tradition, amid all terminological developments,
has preserved unbroken from the beginning.
Correction of one extreme by another, intelligible
though it be, is not commendable. Truth, not over¬
cautiousness, is error’s antidote. One critic (see the
Innsbrucker Zeitschrift, 1938, pp. 282-84), dwelling on
translator’s preface vii
this viewpoint, lectures our author severely. Certain
passages, I must admit, do call for animadversion, and I
append notes to that effect. But the attitude of con¬
demnation I cannot share. Rather I would say with the
critic who commented on the book in the American
Ecclesiastical Review (August, 1938, pp. 198 f.): “Noth¬
ing of this kind that has so far appeared in this country
equals this work in scope and thoroughness. ... It
is of interest to the theologian as well as to the cleric.
Philologists, historians, sociologists, and the educated
laity will find in the work more than a mere stimulus to
pursue favorite studies in things biblical.”
I add a few remarks on my aims as translator.
1. The main divisions of the author’s thought I have
preserved intact. But his extremely long paragraphs I
have divided and occasionally recast. Long and involved
sentences, to which he inclines, I have simplified.
2. His footnotes were a problem. Some of them are
miniature treatises. The briefer notes, very numerous,
generally refer to authors inaccessible in English. Since
readers who are expert will naturally turn to the orig¬
inal, my duty as translator went rather to the non¬
technical reader. Hence I adopted the following plan:
a) Notes to sources accessible in English translation
are retained.
b) Retained likewise are notes to untranslated litera¬
ture when omission of such notes would weaken the
author’s argument.
c) Lengthy notes are summarized, but the summary
attempts to clarify the issue.
d) Justice demands English equivalents of the au-
viii translator’s preface
thor’s translation of Scripture texts. I have retained the
Douay Version where it is adequate. Where it fails, I
follow the Westminster. Where neither carries the
author’s meaning, I translate his translation.
This work is a translation of Nielen’s Gebet und
Gottesdienst im Neuen Testament, published by
Herder (Freiburg).
CONTENTS
PART I
HISTORICAL PRESUPPOSITIONS
PAGE
Introduction. 3
CHAPTER
I. Jesus’ Practice of Prayer. 6
II. Jesus’ Praying in Common with Others . 34
III. Jewish Piety. 45
IV. Jesus’ Relation to Jewish Piety 55
V. Jesus’ Relation to the Christian Liturgy 79
VI. Jewish Influences Affecting the Primi¬
tive Liturgy. 96
VII. Pagan Influences. 1J5
VIII. Primitive Christian Liturgy a Conse¬
quence of Christian Faith .... 133
IX. Liturgy in the New Testament Writings 142
X. Liturgical Worship of Jesus, the Dying
and Risen Lord. 163
XI. Importance of the Epistle to the He¬
176
brews ..
PART II
GENESIS OF THE CHRISTIAN LITURGY
XII. Prayer in Common 195
ix
x CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER
XIII. Contents of Liturgical Prayer 229
XIV. Scripture Reading in Common .... 241
XV. Instruction in Common. 251
XVI. The Gifts of Prophecy and Tongues . 263
XVII. The Singing of Psalms and Hymns. 28l
XVIII. The Breaking of Bread. 290
XIX. The Lord’s Supper. 3°°
XX. The Table of the Lord and the Cup of
the Lord. 3°9
XXI. Fellowship in the Lord’s Body and Blood 3X7
XXII. Liturgical Places and Times .... 33°
XXIII. Participation of the Faithful. 349
XXIV. Regulation of Liturgical Worship . 379
XXV. Fundamental Forms of the Liturgy . 391
XXVI. Language of the Liturgy. 397
Appendix. The Words of Institution. Greek Texts 404
Index . 405