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HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
CHAPTER IX.
WORSHIP IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
Literature.
Th Harnack: Der christliche Gemeindegottesdienst im Apost. und altkathol.
Zeitalter. Erlangen, 1854. The same: Prakt. Theol., I. 1877.
P. Probst (R. C.): Liturgie der drei ersten Jahrhunderte. Tüb., 1870.
W. L. Volz: Anfänge des christl. Gottesdienstes, in "Stud. und Krit." 1872.
H. Jacoby: Die constitutiven Factoren des Apost. Gottesdienstes, in "Jahrb. für
deutsche Theol." for 1873.
C. Weizsäcker: Die Versammlungen der ältesten Christengemeinden, 1876; and Das
Apost. Zeitalter, 1886, pp. 566 sqq.
Th Zahn: Gesch. des Sonntags in der alten Kirche. Hann., 1878.
Schaff: Hist. of the Apost. Ch., pp. 545–586.
Comp. the Lit. on Ch. X., and on the Didache, vol. II. 184.
§ 51. The Synagogue.
Campeg. Vitringa (d. at Franeker, 1722): De Synagoga Vetere libri tres. Franeker,
1696. 2 vols. (also Weissenfels, 1726). A standard work, full of biblical and
rabbinical learning. A condensed translation by J. L. Bernard: The Synagogue and
the Church. London, 1842.
C. Bornitius: De Synagogis veterum Hebraeorum. Vitemb., 1650. And in Ugolinus:
Thesaurus Antiquitatum sacrarum (Venet., 1744–69), vol. XXI. 495–539.
Ant. Th. Hartmann: Die enge Verbindung des A. Testamenes mit dem Neuen. Hamburg,
1831 (pp. 225–376).
Zunz (a Jewish Rabbi): Die gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der Juden. Berlin, 1832
The Histories of the Jews, by Jost, Herzfeld, and Milman.
The Histories of N. T. Times, by Hausrath (I. 73 sqq. 2d ed.) and Schürer
(463–475, and the literature there given).
Art. "Synag.," by Ginsburg in "Kitto"; Plumptre: in "Smith" (with additions by
Hackett, IV. 3133, Am. ed.); Leyrer in "Herzog" (XV. 299, first ed.); Kneuker in
"Schenkel" (V. 443).
As the Christian Church rests historically on the Jewish Church, so Christian
worship and the congregational organization rest on that of the synagogue, and
cannot be well understood without it.
The synagogue was and is still an institution of immense conservative power. It
was the local centre of the religious and social life of the Jews, as the temple
of Jerusalem was the centre of their national life. It was a school as well as a
church, and the nursery and guardian of all that is peculiar in this peculiar
people. It dates probably from the age of the captivity and of Ezra.641 It was
fully organized at the time of Christ and the apostles, and used by them as a
basis of their public instruction.642 It survived the temple, and continues to
this day unaltered in its essential features, the chief nursery and protection
of the Jewish nationality and religion.643
The term "synagogue" (like our word church) signifies first the congregation,
then also the building where the congregation meet for public worship.644 Every
town, however small, had a synagogue, or at least a place of prayer in a private
house or in the open air (usually near a river or the sea-shore, on account of
the ceremonial washings). Ten men were sufficient to constitute a religious
assembly. "Moses from generations of old hath in every city them that preach
him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath."645 To erect a synagogue was
considered a work of piety and public usefulness.646 In large cities, as
Alexandria and Rome, there were many; in Jerusalem, about four hundred for the
various sects and the Hellenists from different countries.647
1. The building was a plain, rectangular ball of no peculiar style of
architecture, and in its inner arrangement somewhat resembling the Tabernacle
and the Temple. It had benches, the higher ones ("the uppermost seats") for the
elders and richer members,648 a reading-desk or pulpit, and a wooden ark or
closet for the sacred rolls (called "Copheret" or Mercy Seat, also "Aaron"). The
last corresponded to the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and the Temple. A
sacred light was kept burning as a symbol of the divine law, in imitation of the
light in the Temple, but there is no mention made of it in the Talmud. Other
lamps were brought in by devout worshippers at the beginning of the Sabbath
(Friday evening). Alms-boxes were provided near the door, as in the Temple, one
for the poor in Jerusalem, another for local charities. Paul imitated the
example by collecting alms for the poor Christians in Jerusalem.
There was no artistic (except vegetable) ornamentation; for the second
commandment strictly forbids all images of the Deity as idolatrous. In this, as
in many other respects, the Mohammedan mosque, with its severe iconoclastic
simplicity, is a second edition of the synagogue. The building was erected on
the most elevated spot of the neighborhood, and no house was allowed to overtop
it. In the absence of a commanding site, a tall pole from the roof rendered it
conspicuous.649
2. Organization.—Every synagogue had a president,650 a number of elders (Zekenim)
equal in rank,651 a reader and interpreter,652 one or more envoys or clerks,
called "messengers" (Sheliach),653 and a sexton or beadle (Chazzan) for the
humbler mechanical services.654 There were also deacons (Gabae zedaka) for the
collection of alms in money and produce. Ten or more wealthy men at leisure,
called Batlanim, represented the congregation at every service. Each synagogue
formed an independent republic, but kept up a regular correspondence with other
synagogues. It was also a civil and religious court, and had power to
excommunicate and to scourge offenders.655
3. Worship.—It was simple, but rather long, and embraced three elements,
devotional, didactic, and ritualistic. It included prayer, song, reading, and
exposition of the Scripture, the rite of circumcision, and ceremonial washings.
The bloody sacrifices were confined to the temple and ceased with its
destruction; they were fulfilled in the eternal sacrifice on the cross. The
prayers and songs were chiefly taken from the Psalter, which may be called the
first liturgy and hymn book.
The opening prayer was called the Shema or Keriath Shema, and consisted of two
introductory benedictions, the reading of the Ten Commandments (afterward
abandoned) and several sections of the Pentateuch, namely, Deut. 6:4–9;
11:13–21; Num. 15:37–41. Then followed the eighteen prayers and benedictions (Berachoth).
This is one of them: "Bestow peace, happiness, blessing, grace, mercy, and
compassion upon us and upon the whole of Israel, thy people. Our Father, bless
us all unitedly with the light of thy countenance, for in the light of thy
countenance didst thou give to us, O Lord our God, the law of life,
lovingkindness, justice, blessing, compassion, life, and peace. May it please
thee to bless thy people lsrael at all times, and in every moment, with peace.
Blessed art thou, O Lord, who blessest thy people Israel with peace." These
benedictions are traced in the Mishna to the one hundred and twenty elders of
the Great Synagogue. They were no doubt of gradual growth, some dating from the
Maccabean struggles, some from the Roman ascendancy. The prayers were offered by
a reader, and the congregation responded "Amen." This custom passed into the
Christian church.656
The didactic and homiletical part of worship was based on the Hebrew Scriptures.
A lesson from the Law (called parasha),657 and one from the Prophets (haphthara)
were read in the original,658 and followed by a paraphrase or commentary and
homily (midrash) in the vernacular Aramaic or Greek. A benediction and the
"Amen" of the people closed the service.
As there was no proper priesthood outside of Jerusalem, any Jew of age might get
up to read the lessons, offer prayer, and address the congregation. Jesus and
the apostles availed themselves of this democratic privilege to preach the
gospel, as the fulfilment of the law and the prophets.659 The strong didactic
element which distinguished this service from all heathen forms of worship, had
the effect of familiarizing the Jews of all grades, even down to the
servant-girls, with their religion, and raising them far above the heathen. At
the same time it attracted proselytes who longed for a purer and more spiritual
worship.
The days of public service were the Sabbath, Monday, and Thursday; the hours of
prayer the third (9 a.m.), the sixth (noon), and the ninth (3 p.m.).660
The sexes were divided by a low wall or screen, the men on the one side, the
women on the other, as they are still in the East (and in some parts of Europe).
The people stood during prayer with their faces turned to Jerusalem.
§ 52. Christian Worship.
Christian worship, or cultus, is the public adoration of God in the name of
Christ; the celebration of the communion of believers as a congregation with
their heavenly Head, for the glory of the Lord, and for the promotion and
enjoyment of spiritual life. While it aims primarily at the devotion and
edification of the church itself, it has at the same time a missionary
character, and attracts the outside world. This was the case on the Day of
Pentecost when Christian worship in its distinctive character first appeared.
As our Lord himself in his youth and manhood worshipped in the synagogue and the
temple, so did his early disciples as long as they were tolerated. Even Paul
preached Christ in the synagogues of Damascus, Cyprus, Antioch in Pisidia,
Amphipolis, Beraeea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus. He "reasoned with the Jews every
sabbath in the synagogues" which furnished him a pulpit and an audience.
The Jewish Christians, at least in Palestine, conformed as closely as possible
to the venerable forms of the cultus of their fathers, which in truth were
divinely ordained, and were an expressive type of the Christian worship. So far
as we know, they scrupulously observed the Sabbath, the annual Jewish feasts,
the hours of daily prayer, and the whole Mosaic ritual, and celebrated, in
addition to these, the Christian Sunday, the death and the resurrection of the
Lord, and the holy Supper. But this union was gradually weakened by the stubborn
opposition of the Jews, and was at last entirely broken by the destruction of
the temple, except among the Ebionites and Nazarenes.
In the Gentile-Christian congregations founded by Paul, the worship took from
the beginning a more independent form. The essential elements of the Old
Testament service were transferred, indeed, but divested of their national legal
character, and transformed by the spirit of the gospel. Thus the Jewish Sabbath
passed into the Christian Sunday; the typical Passover and Pentecost became
feasts of the death and resurrection of Christ, and of the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit; the bloody sacrifices gave place to the thankful remembrance and
appropriation of the one, all-sufficient, and eternal sacrifice of Christ on the
cross, and to the personal offering of prayer, intercession, and entire
self-consecration to the service of the Redeemer; on the ruins of the temple
made without hands arose the never ceasing worship of the omnipresent God in
spirit and in truth.661 So early as the close of the apostolic period this more
free and spiritual cultus of Christianity had no doubt become well nigh
universal; yet many Jewish elements, especially in the Eastern church, remain to
this day.
§ 53. The Several Parts of Worship.
The several parts of public worship in the time of the apostles were as follows:
1. The Preaching of the gospel. This appears in the first period mostly in the
form of a missionary address to the unconverted; that is, a simple, living
presentation of the main facts of the life of Jesus, with practical exhortation
to repentance and conversion. Christ crucified and risen was the luminous
centre, whence a sanctifying light was shed on all the relations of life.
Gushing forth from a full heart, this preaching went to the heart; and springing
from an inward life, it kindled life—a new, divine life—in the susceptible
hearers. It was revival preaching in the purest sense. Of this primitive
Christian testimony several examples from Peter and Paul are preserved in the
Acts of the Apostles.
The Epistles also may be regarded in the wider sense as sermons, addressed,
however, to believers, and designed to nourish the Christian life already
planted.
2. The Reading of portions of the Old Testament,662 with practical exposition
and application; transferred from the Jewish synagogue into the Christian
church.663 To these were added in due time lessons from the New Testament; that
is, from the canonical Gospels and the apostolic Epistles, most of which were
addressed to whole congregations and originally intended for public use.664
After the death of the apostles their writings became doubly important to the
church, as a substitute for their oral instruction and exhortation, and were
much more used in worship than the Old Testament.
3. Prayer, in its various forms of petition, intercession, and thanksgiving.
This descended likewise from Judaism, and in fact belongs essentially even to
all heathen religions; but now it began to be offered in childlike confidence to
a reconciled Father in the name of Jesus, and for all classes and conditions,
even for enemies and persecutors. The first Christians accompanied every
important act of their public and private life with this holy rite, and Paul
exhorts his readers to "pray without ceasing." On solemn occasions they joined
fasting with prayer, as a help to devotion, though it is nowhere directly
enjoined in the New Testament.665 They prayed freely from the heart, as they
were moved by the Spirit, according to special needs and circumstances. We have
an example in the fourth chapter of Acts. There is no trace of a uniform and
exclusive liturgy; it would be inconsistent with the vitality and liberty of the
apostolic churches. At the same time the frequent use of psalms and short forms
of devotion, as the Lord’s Prayer, may be inferred with certainty from the
Jewish custom, from the Lord’s direction respecting his model prayer,666 from
the strong sense of fellowship among the first Christians, and finally from the
liturgical spirit of the ancient church, which could not have so generally
prevailed both in the East and the West without some apostolic and
post-apostolic precedent. The oldest forms are the eucharistic prayers of the
Didache, and the petition for rulers in the first Epistle of Clement, which
contrasts most beautifully with the cruel hostility of Nero and Domitian.667
4. The Song, a form of prayer, in the festive dress of poetry and the elevated
language of inspiration, raising the congregation to the highest pitch of
devotion, and giving it a part in the heavenly harmonies of the saints. This
passed immediately, with the psalms of the Old Testament, those inexhaustible
treasures of spiritual experience, edification, and comfort, from the temple and
the synagogue into the Christian church. The Lord himself inaugurated psalmody
into the new covenant at the institution of the holy Supper,668 and Paul
expressly enjoined the singing of "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," as a
means of social edification.669 But to this precious inheritance from the past,
whose full value was now for the first time understood in the light of the New
Testament revelation, the church, in the enthusiasm of her first love, added
original, specifically Christian psalms, hymns, doxologies, and benedictions,
which afforded the richest material for Sacred poetry and music in succeeding
centuries; the song of the heavenly hosts, for example, at the birth of the
Saviour;670 the "Nunc dimittis" of Simeon;671 the "Magnificat" of the Virgin
Mary;672 the "Benedictus" of Zacharias;673 the thanksgiving of Peter after his
miraculous deliverance;674 the speaking with tongues in the apostolic churches,
which, whether song or prayer, was always in the elevated language of
enthusiasm; the fragments of hymns scattered through the Epistles;675 and the
lyrical and liturgical passages, the doxologies and antiphonies of the
Apocalypse.676
5. Confession Of Faith. All the above-mentioned acts of worship are also acts of
faith. The first express confession of faith is the testimony of Peter, that
Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. The next is the trinitarian
baptismal formula. Out of this gradually grew the so-called Apostles’ Creed,
which is also trinitarian in structure, but gives the confession of Christ the
central and largest place. Though not traceable in its present shape above the
fourth century, and found in the second and third in different longer or shorter
forms, it is in substance altogether apostolic, and exhibits an incomparable
summary of the leading facts in the revelation of the triune God from the
creation of the world to the resurrection of the body; and that in a form
intelligible to all, and admirably suited for public worship and catechetical
use. We shall return to it more fully in the second period.
6. Finally, the administration of the Sacraments, or sacred rites instituted by
Christ, by which, under appropriate symbols and visible signs, spiritual gifts
and invisible grace are represented, sealed, and applied to the worthy
participators.
The two sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the antitypes of
circumcision and the passover under the Old Testament, were instituted by Christ
as efficacious signs, pledges, and means of the grace of the new covenant. They
are related to each other as regeneration and sanctification, or as the
beginning and the growth of the Christian life. The other religious rites
mentioned in the New Testament, as confirmation and ordination, cannot be ranked
in dignity with the sacraments, as they are not commanded by Christ.
§ 54. Baptism.
Literature.
The commentaries on Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:16; John 3:5; Acts 2:38; 8:13, 16, 18,
37; Rom. 6:4; Gal. 3:27; Tit. 3:5; 1 Pet 3:21.
G. J. Vossius: De Baptismo Disputationes XX. Amsterdam, 1648.
W. Wall (Episcopalian): The History of Infant Baptism (a very learned work),
first published in London, 1705, 2 vols., best edition by H. Cotton, Oxford,
1836, 4 vols., and 1862, 2 vols., together with Gale’s (Baptist) Reflections and
Wall’s Defense. A Latin translation by Schlosser appeared, vol. I., at Bremen,
1743, and vol. II at Hamburg, 1753.
F. Brenner (R. Cath.): Geschichtliche Darstellung der Verrichtung der Taufe von
Christus his auf unsere Zeiten. Bamberg, 1818.
Moses Stuart (Congregat.): Mode of Christian Baptism Prescribed in the New
Testament. Andover, 1833 (reprinted 1876).
Höfling (Lutheran): Das Sacrament der Taufe. Erlangen, 1846 and 1848, 2 vols.
Samuel Miller (Presbyterian): Infant Baptism Scriptural and Reasonable; And
Baptism By Sprinkling Or Affusion, The Most Suitable and Edifying Mode.
Philadelphia, 1840.
Alex. Carson (Baptist): Baptism in its Mode and Subjects. London, 1844; 5th
Amer. ed., Philadelphia, 1850.
Alex. Campbell (founder of the Church of the Disciples, who teach that baptism
by immersion is regeneration): Christian Baptism, with its Antecedents and
Consequents. Bethany, 1848, and Cincinnati, 1876.
T. J. Conant (Baptist): The Meaning and Use of Baptism Philologically and
Historically Investigated for the American (Baptist) Bible Union. New York,
1861.
James W. Dale (Presbyterian, d. 1881): Classic Baptism. An inquiry into the
meaning of the word baptizo. Philadelphia, 1867. Judaic Baptism, 1871. Johannic
Baptism, 1872. Christic and Patristic Baptism, 1874. In all, 4 vols. Against the
immersion theory.
R. Ingham (Baptist): A Handbook on Christian Baptism, in 2 parts. London, 1868.
D. B. Ford (Baptist): Studies on Baptism. New York, 1879. (Against Dale.)
G. D. Armstrong (Presbyterian minister at Norfolk, Va.): The Sacraments of the
New Testament, as Instituted by Christ. New York, 1880. (Popular.)
Dean Stanley: Christian Institutions. London and Now York, 1881. Chap. I.
On the (post-apostolic) archaeology of baptism see the archaeological works of
Martene (De Antiquis Eccles. Ritibus), Goar (Euchologion Graecorum), Bingham,
Augusti, Binterim, Siegel, Martigny, and Smith and Cheetham (Dict. of Christ.
Ant., I., 155 sqq.).
On the baptismal pictures in the catacombs see the works of De Rossi, Garrucci,
and Schaff on the Didache, pp. 36 sqq.
1. The Idea of Baptism. It was solemnly instituted by Christ, shortly before his
ascension, to be performed in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. It took the place of circumcision as a sign and seal of church
membership. It is the outward mark of Christian discipleship, the rite of
initiation into the covenant of grace. It is the sacrament of repentance
(conversion), of remission of sins, and of regeneration by the power of the Holy
Spirit.677 In the nature of the case it is to be received but once. It
incorporates the penitent sinner in the visible church, and entitles him to all
the privileges, and binds him to all the duties of this communion. Where the
condition of repentance and faith is wanting, the blessing (as in the case of
the holy Supper, and the preaching of the Word) is turned into a curse, and what
God designs as a savor of life unto life becomes, by the unfaithfulness of man,
a savor of death unto death.
The necessity of baptism for salvation has been inferred from John 3:5 and Mark
16:16; but while we are bound to God’s ordinances, God himself is free and can
save whomsoever and by whatsoever means he pleases. The church has always held
the principle that the mere want of the sacrament does not condemn, but only the
contempt. Otherwise all unbaptized infants that die in infancy would be lost.
This horrible doctrine was indeed inferred by St. Augustin and the Roman church,
from the supposed absolute necessity of baptism, but is in direct conflict with
the spirit of the gospel and Christ’s treatment of children, to whom belongs the
kingdom of heaven.
The first administration of this sacrament in its full Christian sense took
place on the birthday of the church, after the first independent preaching of
the apostles. The baptism of John was more of a negative sort, and only
preparatory to the baptism with the Holy Spirit. In theory Christian baptism is
preceded by conversion, that is the human act of turning from sin to God in
repentance and faith, and followed by regeneration, that is the divine act of
forgiveness of sin and inward cleansing and renewal. Yet in practice the outward
sign and inward state and effect do not always coincide; in Simon Magus we have
an example of the baptism of water without that of the Spirit, and in Cornelius
an example of the communication of the Spirit before the application of the
water. In the case of infants, conversion, as a conscious act of the will, is
impossible and unnecessary. In adults the solemn ordinance was preceded by the
preaching of the gospel, or a brief instruction in its main facts, and then
followed by more thorough inculcation of the apostolic doctrine. Later, when
great caution became necessary in receiving proselytes, the period of
catechetical instruction and probation was considerably lengthened.
2. The usual Form of baptism was immersion. This is inferred from the original
meaning of the Greek baptivzein and baptismov";678 from the analogy of John’s
baptism in the Jordan; from the apostles’ comparison of the sacred rite with the
miraculous passage of the Red Sea, with the escape of the ark from the flood,
with a cleansing and refreshing bath, and with burial and resurrection; finally,
from the general custom of the ancient church which prevails in the East to this
day.679 But sprinkling, also, or copious pouring rather, was practised at an
early day with sick and dying persons, and in all such cases where total or
partial immersion was impracticable. Some writers suppose that this was the case
even in the first baptism of the three thousand on the day of Pentecost; for
Jerusalem was poorly supplied with water and private baths; the Kedron is a
small creek and dry in summer; but there are a number of pools and cisterns
there. Hellenistic usage allows to the relevant expressions sometimes the wider
sense of washing, bathing, sprinkling, and ceremonial cleansing.680
Unquestionably, immersion expresses the idea of baptism, as a purification and
renovation of the whole man, more completely than pouring or sprinkling; but it
is not in keeping with the genius of the gospel to limit the operation of the
Holy Spirit by the quantity or the quality of the water or the mode of its
application. Water is absolutely necessary to baptism, as an appropriate symbol
of the purifying and regenerating energy of the Holy Spirit; but whether the
water be in large quantity or small, cold or warm, fresh or salt, from river,
cistern, or spring, is relatively immaterial, and cannot affect the validity of
the ordinance.
3. As to the Subjects of baptism: the apostolic origin of infant baptism is
denied not only by the Baptists, but also by many paedobaptist divines. The
Baptists assert that infant baptism is contrary to the idea of the sacrament
itself, and accordingly, an unscriptural corruption. For baptism, say they,
necessarily presupposes the preaching of the gospel on the part of the church,
and repentance and faith on the part of the candidate for the ordinance; and as
infants can neither understand preaching, nor repent and believe, they are not
proper subjects for baptism, which is intended only for adult converts. It is
true, the apostolic church was a missionary church, and had first to establish a
mother community, in the bosom of which alone the grace of baptism can be
improved by a Christian education. So even under the old covenant circumcision
was first performed on the adult Abraham; and so all Christian missionaries in
heathen lands now begin with preaching, and baptizing adults. True, the New
Testament contains no express command to baptize infants; such a command would
not agree with the free spirit of the gospel. Nor was there any compulsory or
general infant baptism before the union of church and state; Constantine, the
first Christian emperor, delayed his baptism till his deathbed (as many now
delay their repentance); and even after Constantine there were examples of
eminent teachers, as Gregory Nazianzen, Augustin, Chrysostom, who were not
baptized before their conversion in early manhood, although they had Christian
mothers.
But still less does the New Testament forbid infant baptism; as it might be
expected to do in view of the universal custom of the Jews, to admit their
children by circumcision on the eighth day after birth into the fellowship of
the old covenant.
On the contrary, we have presumptive and positive arguments for the apostolic
origin and character of infant baptism, first, in the fact that circumcision as
truly prefigured baptism, as the passover the holy Supper; then in the organic
relation between Christian parents and children; in the nature of the new
covenant, which is even more comprehensive than the old; in the universal virtue
of Christ, as the Redeemer of all sexes, classes, and ages, and especially in
the import of his own infancy, which has redeemed and sanctified the infantile
age; in his express invitation to children, whom he assures of a title to the
kingdom of heaven, and whom, therefore, he certainly would not leave without the
sign and seal of such membership; in the words, of institution, which plainly
look to the Christianizing, not merely of individuals, but of whole nations,
including, of course, the children; in the express declaration of Peter at the
first administration of the ordinance, that this promise of forgiveness of sins
and of the Holy Spirit was to the Jews "and to their children;" in the five
instances in the New Testament of the baptism of whole families, where the
presence of children in most of the cases is far more probable than the absence
of children in all; and finally, in the universal practice of the early church,
against which the isolated protest of Tertullian proves no more, than his other
eccentricities and Montanistic peculiarities; on the contrary, his violent
protest implies the prevailing practice of infant baptism. He advised delay of
baptism as a measure of prudence, lest the baptized by sinning again might
forever forfeit the benefit of this ordinance; but he nowhere denies the
apostolic origin or right of early baptism.
We must add, however, that infant baptism is unmeaning, and its practice a
profanation, except on the condition of Christian parentage or guardianship, and
under the guarantee of a Christian education. And it needs to be completed by an
act of personal consecration, in which the child, after due instruction in the
gospel, intelligently and freely confesses Christ, devotes himself to his
service, and is thereupon solemnly admitted to the full communion of the church
and to the sacrament of the holy Supper. The earliest traces of confirmation are
supposed to be found in the apostolic practice of laying on hands, or
symbolically imparting the Holy Spirit. after baptism.681
§ 55. The Lord’s Supper.
The commentaries on Matt. 26:26 sqq., and the parallel passages in Mark and
Luke; 1 Cor. 10:16, 17; 11:23 sqq.; John 6:47–58, 63.
D. Waterland (Episcopal., d. 1740): A Review of the Doctrine of the Eucharist, a
new edition, 1868 (Works, vols. IV. and V.).
J. Döllinger: Die Lehre von der Eucharistie in den drei ersten Jahrhunderten.
Mainz, 1826. (Rom. Cath.)
Ebrard: Das Dogma vom heil. Abendmahl u. seine Geschichte. Frankf. a. M., 1845,
2 vols., vol. I., pp. 1–231. (Reformed.)
J. W. Nevin: The Mystical Presence. A Vindication of the Reformed or Calvinistic
soctrine of the Holy Eucharist. Philadelphia, 1846, pp. 199–256. (Reformed.)
Kahnis: Die Lehre vom heil. Abendmahl. Leipz., 1851. (Lutheran.)
Robert Wilberforce: The Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist. London, 1853. (Anglican,
or rather Tractarian or Romanizing.)
L. Imm. Ruckert: Das Abendmahl. Sein Wesen und seine Geschichte in der alten
Kirche. Leipz., 1856. (Rationalistic.)
E. B. Pusey: The Doctrine of the Real Presence, as contained in the Fathers,
from St. John to the Fourth General Council. Oxford, 1855. (Anglo-Catholic.)
Philip Freeman: The Principles of Divine Service. London, 1855–1862, in two
parts. (Anglican, contains much historical investigation on the subject of
eucharistic worship in the ancient Catholic church.)
Thos. S. L. Vogan: The True Doctrine of the Eucharist. London, 1871.
John Harrison: An Answer to Dr. Pusey’s Challenge respecting the Doctrine of the
Real Presence. London, 1871, 2 vols. (Anglican, Low Church. Includes the
doctrine of the Scripture and the first eight centuries.)
Dean Stanley: Christian Institutions, London and New York, 1881, chs. IV., V.,
and VI. (He adopts the Zwinglian view, and says of the Marburg Conference of
1529: "Everything which could be said on behalf of the dogmatic, coarse, literal
interpretation of the institution was urged with the utmost vigor of word and
gesture by the stubborn Saxon. Everything which could be said on behalf of the
rational, refined, spiritual construction was urged with a union of the utmost
acuteness and gentleness by the sober-minded Swiss.")
L. Gude (Danish Lutheran): Den hellige Nadvere. Copenhagen, 1887, 2 vols.
Exegetical and historical. Reviewed in Luthardt’s "Theol. Literaturblatt.,"
1889, Nos. 14 sqq.
The sacrament of the holy Supper was instituted by Christ under the most solemn
circumstances, when he was about to offer himself a sacrifice for the salvation
of the world. It is the feast of the thankful remembrance and appropriation of
his atoning death, and of the living union of believers with him, and their
communion among themselves. As the Passover kept in lively remembrance the
miraculous deliverance from the land of bondage, and at the same time pointed
forward to the Lamb of God; so the eucharist represents, seals, and applies the
now accomplished redemption from sin and death until the end of time. Here the
deepest mystery of Christianity is embodied ever anew, and the story of the
cross reproduced before us. Here the miraculous feeding of the five thousand is
spiritually perpetuated. Here Christ, who sits at the right hand of God, and is
yet truly present in his church to the end of the world, gives his own body and
blood, sacrificed for us, that is, his very self, his life and the virtue of his
atoning death, as spiritual food, as the true bread from heaven, to all who,
with due self-examination, come hungering and thirsting to the heavenly feast.
The communion has therefore been always regarded as the inmost sanctuary of
Christian worship.
In the apostolic period the eucharist was celebrated daily in connection with a
simple meal of brotherly love (agape), in which the Christians, in communion
with their common Redeemer, forgot all distinctions of rank, wealth, and
culture, and felt themselves to be members of one family of God. But this
childlike exhibition of brotherly unity became more and more difficult as the
church increased, and led to all sorts of abuses, such as we find rebuked in the
Corinthians by Paul. The lovefeasts, therefore, which indeed were no more
enjoined by law than the community of goods at Jerusalem, were gradually severed
from the eucharist, and in the course of the second and third centuries
gradually disappeared.
The apostle requires the Christians682 to prepare themselves for the Lord’s
Supper by self-examination, or earnest inquiry whether they have repentance and
faith, without which they cannot receive the blessing from the sacrament, but
rather provoke judgment from God. This caution gave rise to the appropriate
custom of holding special preparatory exercises for the holy communion.
In the course of time this holy feast of love has become the subject of bitter
controversy, like the sacrament of baptism and even the Person of Christ
himself. Three conflicting theories—transubstantiation, consubstantiation, and
spiritual presence of Christ-have been deduced from as many interpretations of
the simple words of institution ("This is my body," etc.), which could hardly
have been misunderstood by the apostles in the personal presence of their Lord,
and in remembrance of his warning against carnal misconception of his discourse
on the eating of his flesh.683 The eucharistic controversies in the middle ages
and during the sixteenth century are among the most unedifying and barren in the
history of Christianity. And yet they cannot have been in vain. The different
theories represent elements of truth which have become obscured or perverted by
scholastic subtleties, but may be purified and combined. The Lord’s Supper is:
(1) a commemorative ordinance, a memorial of Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the
cross; (2) a feast of living union of believers with the Saviour, whereby they
truly, that is spiritually and by faith, receive Christ, with all his benefits,
and are nourished with his life unto life eternal; (3) a communion of believers
with one another as members of the same mystical body of Christ; (4) a eucharist
or thankoffering of our persons and services to Christ, who died for us that we
might live for him.
Fortunately, the blessing of the holy communion does not depend upon the
scholastic interpretation and understanding of the words of institution, but
upon the promise of the Lord and upon childlike faith in him. And therefore,
even now, Christians of different denominations and holding different opinions
can unite around the table of their common Lord and Saviour, and feel one with
him and in him.
§ 56. Sacred Places.
Although, as the omnipresent Spirit, God may be worshipped in all places of the
universe, which is his temple,684 yet our finite, sensuous nature, and the need
of united devotion, require special localities or sanctuaries consecrated to his
worship. The first Christians, after the example of the Lord, frequented the
temple at Jerusalem and the synagogues, so long as their relation to the Mosaic
economy allowed. But besides this, they assembled also from the first in private
houses, especially for the communion and the love feast. The church itself was
founded, on the day of Pentecost, in the upper room of an humble dwelling.
The prominent members and first converts, as Mary, the mother of John Mark in
Jerusalem, Cornelius in Caesarea, Lydia in Philippi, Jason in Thessalonica,
Justus in Corinth, Priscilla in Ephesus, Philemon in Colosse, gladly opened
their houses for social worship. In larger cities, as in Rome, the Christian
community divided itself into several such assemblies at private houses,685
which, however, are always addressed in the epistles as a unit.
That the Christians in the apostolic age erected special houses of worship is
out of the question, even on account of their persecution by Jews and Gentiles,
to say nothing of their general poverty; and the transition of a whole synagogue
to the new faith was no doubt very rare. As the Saviour of the world was born in
a stable, and ascended to heaven from a mountain, so his apostles and their
successors down to the third century, preached in the streets, the markets, on
mountains, in ships, sepulchres, eaves, and deserts, and in the homes of their
converts. But how many thousands of costly churches and chapels have since been
built and are constantly being built in all parts of the world to the honor of
the crucified Redeemer, who in the days of his humiliation had no place of his
own to rest his head!686
§ 57. Sacred Times—The Lord’s Day.
Literature.
George Holden: The Christian Sabbath. London, 1825. (See ch. V.)
W. Henstenberg: The Lord’s Day. Transl. from the German by James Martin, London,
1853. (Purely exegetical; defends the continental view, but advocates a better
practical observance.)
John T. Baylee: History of the Sabbath. London, 1857. (See chs. X. XIII.)
James Aug. Hessey: Sunday: Its Origin, History, and Present Obligation. Bampton
Lectures, preached before the University of Oxford, London, 1860. (Defends the
Dominican and moderate Anglican, as distinct both from the Continental
latitudinarian, and from the Puritanic Sabbatarian, view of Sunday, with proofs
from the church fathers.)
James Gilfillan: The Sabbath viewed in the Light of Reason, Revelation, and
History, with Sketches of its Literature. Edinb. 1861, republished and widely
circulated by the Am. Tract Society and the "New York Sabbath Committee," New
York, 1862. (The fullest and ablest defence of the Puritan and Scotch
Presbyterian theory of the Christian Sabbath, especially in its practical
aspects.)
Robert Cox (F.S.A.): Sabbath Laws and Sabbath Duties. Edinb. 1853. By the same:
The Literature of the Sabbath Question. Edinb. 1865, 2 vols. (Historical,
literary, and liberal.)
Th. Zahn: Geschichte des Sonntags in der alten Kirche. Hannover, 1878.
There is a very large Sabbath literature in the English language, of a popular
and practical character. For the Anglo-American theory and history of the
Christian Sabbath, compare the author’s essay, The Anglo-American Sabbath, New
York, 1863 (in English and German), the publications of the New York Sabbath
Committee from 1857–1886, the Sabbath Essays, ed. by Will. C. Wood, Boston (Congreg.
Publ. Soc.), 1879; and A. E. Waffle: The Lord’s Day, Philad. 1886.
As every place, so is every day and hour alike sacred to God, who fills all
space and all time, and can be worshipped everywhere and always. But, from the
necessary limitations of our earthly life, as well as from the nature of social
and public worship, springs the use of sacred seasons. The apostolic church
followed in general the Jewish usage, but purged it from superstition and filled
it with the spirit of faith and freedom.
1. Accordingly, the Jewish Hours of daily prayer, particularly in the morning
and evening, were observed as a matter of habit, besides the strictly private
devotions which are bound to no time.
2. The Lord’s Day took the place of the Jewish Sabbath as the weekly day of
public worship. The substance remained, the form was changed. The institution of
a periodical weekly day of rest for the body and the soul is rooted in our
physical and moral nature, and is as old as man, dating, like marriage, from
paradise.687 This is implied in the profound saying of our Lord: "The Sabbath is
made for man."
It is incorporated in the Decalogue, the moral law, which Christ did not come to
destroy, but to fulfil, and which cannot be robbed of one commandment without
injury to all the rest.
At the same time the Jewish Sabbath was hedged around by many national and
ceremonial restrictions, which were not intended to be permanent, but were
gradually made so prominent as to overshadow its great moral aim, and to make
man subservient to the sabbath instead of the sabbath to man. After the exile
and in the hands of the Pharisees it became a legal bondage rather than a
privilege and benediction. Christ as the Lord of the Sabbath opposed this
mechanical ceremonialism and restored the true spirit and benevolent aim of the
institution.688 When the slavish, superstitious, and self-righteous
sabbatarianism of the Pharisees crept into the Galatian churches and was made a
condition of justification, Paul rebuked it as a relapse into Judaism.689
The day was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week, not on
the ground of a particular command, but by the free spirit of the gospel and by
the power of certain great facts which he at the foundation of the Christian
church. It was on that day that Christ rose from the dead; that he appeared to
Mary, the disciples of Emmaus, and the assembled apostles; that he poured out
his Spirit and founded the church;690 and that he revealed to his beloved
disciple the mysteries of the future. Hence, the first day was already in the
apostolic age honorably designated as "the Lord’s Day." On that day Paul met
with the disciples at Troas and preached till midnight. On that day he ordered
the Galatian and Corinthian Christians to make, no doubt in connection with
divine service, their weekly contributions to charitable objects according to
their ability. It appears, therefore, from the New Testament itself, that Sunday
was observed as a day of worship, and in special commemoration of the
Resurrection, whereby the work of redemption was finished.691
The universal and uncontradicted Sunday observance in the second century can
only be explained by the fact that it had its roots in apostolic practice. Such
observance is the more to be appreciated as it had no support in civil
legislation before the age of Constantine, and must have been connected with
many inconveniences, considering the lowly social condition of the majority of
Christians and their dependence upon their heathen masters and employers. Sunday
thus became, by an easy and natural transformation, the Christian Sabbath or
weekly day of rest, at once answering the typical import of the Jewish Sabbath,
and itself forming in turn a type of the eternal rest of the people of God in
the heavenly Canaan.692 In the gospel dispensation the Sabbath is not a
degradation, but an elevation, of the week days to a higher plane, looking to
the consecration of all time and all work. It is not a legal ceremonial bondage,
but rather a precious gift of grace, a privilege, a holy rest in God in the
midst of the unrest of the world, a day of spiritual refreshing in communion
with God and in the fellowship of the saints, a foretaste and pledge of the
never-ending Sabbath in heaven.
The due observance of it, in which the churches of England, Scotland, and
America, to their incalculable advantage, excel the churches of the European
continent, is a wholesome school of discipline, a means of grace for the people,
a safeguard of public morality and religion, a bulwark against infidelity, and a
source of immeasurable blessing to the church, the state, and the family. Next
to the Church and the Bible, the Lord’s Day is the chief pillar of Christian
society.
Besides the Christian Sunday, the Jewish Christians observed their ancient
Sabbath also, till Jerusalem was destroyed. After that event, the Jewish habit
continued only among the Ebionites and Nazarenes.
As Sunday was devoted to the commemoration of the Saviour’s resurrection, and
observed as a day of thanksgiving and joy, so, at least as early as the second
century, if not sooner, Friday came to be observed as a day of repentance, with
prayer and fasting, in commemoration of the sufferings and death of Christ.
3. Annual festivals. There is no injunction for their observance, direct or
indirect, in the apostolic writings, as there is no basis for them in the
Decalogue. But Christ observed them, and two of the festivals, the Passover and
Pentecost, admitted of an easy transformation similar to that of the Jewish into
the Christian Sabbath. From some hints in the Epistles,693 viewed in the light
of the universal and uncontradicted practice of the church in the second century
it may be inferred that the annual celebration of the death and the resurrection
of Christ, and of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, originated in the apostolic
age. In truth, Christ crucified, risen, and living in the church, was the one
absorbing thought of the early Christians; and as this thought expressed itself
in the weekly observance of Sunday, so it would also very naturally transform
the two great typical feasts of the Old Testament into the Christian Easter and
Whit-Sunday. The Paschal controversies of the second century related not to the
fact, but to the time of the Easter festival, and Polycarp of Smyrna and Anicet
of Rome traced their customs to an unimportant difference in the practice of the
apostles themselves.
Of other annual festivals, the New Testament contains not the faintest trace.
Christmas came in during the fourth century by a natural development of the idea
of a church year, as a sort of chronological creed of the people. The festivals
of Mary, the Apostles, Saints, and Martyrs, followed gradually, as the worship
of saints spread in the Nicene and post-Nicene age, until almost every day was
turned first into a holy day and then into a holiday. As the saints overshadowed
the Lord, the saints’ days overshadowed the Lord’s Day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Schaff, Philip, History of the Christian Church, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos
Research Systems, Inc.) 1997. This material has been carefully compared,
corrected¸ and emended (according to the 1910 edition of Charles Scribner's
Sons) by The Electronic Bible Society, Dallas, TX, 1998.
641 The Jewish tradition traces it back to the schools of the prophets, and even
to patriarchal times, by far-fetched interpretations of Gen. 25:27 Judg. 5:9;
Isa. 1:13, etc.
642 Comp. § 17, p. 152.
643 "Bei dem Untergang aller Institutionen,"says Dr. Zunz (l.c. p. 1), " blieb
die Synagoge als einziger Träger ihrer Nationalität; dorthin floh ihr Glauben
und von dorther empfingen sie Belehrug für ihren irdischen Wandel, Kraft zur
Ausdauer in unerhörten Leiden und Hoffnung auf eine künftige Morgenröthe der
Freiheit. Der öffentliche Gottesdienst der Synagoge ward das Panier jüdischer
Nationalität, die Aegide des jüdischen Glaubens."
644 sunagwghv, often in the Septuagint (130 times as translation of hd[e , 25
times for lh;q;); in the Greek Test. (Matt. 4:23; Mark 1:21; Luke 4:15; 12:11;
Acts 9:2; 13:43, etc.; of a Christian congregation, James 2:2); also in Philo
and Josephus; sometimes sunagwvgion (Philo), sabbatei'on (Josephus),
proseukthvrion (Philo), proseuchv house of prayer, oratory (Acts 16:13 and
Josephus); also ejkklhsiva. Hebrew designations: hd;][e‚ lh;q;‚ rWBxI‚ rb,j,‚
dl'w" tyBe‚ tL;pIT] tBe ‚ ts,n,K]h' tyBe .
645 Acts 15:21.
646 Luke 7:5.
647 Acts 6:9. The number of synagogues in Jerusalem is variously stated from 394
to 480.
648 Matt. 23:6; comp. James 2:2, 3. In the synagogue of Alexandria there were
seventy-one golden chairs, according to the number of members of the Sanhedrin.
The prwtokaqedrivai were near the ark, the place of honor.
649 Ruins of eleven or more ancient synagogues still exist in Palestine (all in
Galilee) at Tell-Hum (Capernaum), Kerazeh (Chorazin), Meiron, Irbid (Arbela),
Kasyun, Umm el-’Amud, Nebratein, two at Kefr-Birim, two at el-Jish (Giscala).
See Palest. Explor. Quart. Statement for July, 1878.
650 The ajrcisunavgwgo"(ts,n<<,K]h' val), Luke 8:49; 13:14; Mark 5:36, 33; Acts
18:8, 17; or ajrcwn th'" sunagwgh'",Luke 8:41; or a[rcwn, Matt. 9:18. He was
simply primus inter pares; hence, several ajrcisunavgwgoi appear in one and the
same synagogue, Luke 13:14; Mark 5:22; Acts 13:15; 18:17. In smaller towns there
was but one.
651 presbuvteroi (!ynIqez]).
652 After the Babylonian captivity an interpreter (Methurgeman) was usually
employed to translate the Hebrew lesson into the Chaldee or Greek, or other
vernacular languages.
653 ajpovstoloi, a[ggeloi (rWBxi h'ylivi ). Not to be confounded with the angels
in the Apocalypse.
654 uJphrevth" (wZj'), Luke 4:20
655 Matt. 10:17; 23:34; Luke 12:11; 21:12; John 9:34; 16:2; Acts 22:19; 26:11.
The Chazzan had to administer the corporal punishment.
656 1 Cor. 14:16. The responsive element is the popular feature in a liturgy,
and has been wisely preserved in the Anglican Church.
657 The Thorah was divided into 154 sections, and read through in three years,
afterwards in 54 sections for one year.
658 The ajnagnwsi" tou' novmou kai; tw'n profhtw'n, Acts 13:15.
659 Luke 4:17-20; 13:54; John 18:20; Acts 13:5, 15, 44; 14:1; 17:2-4, 10, 17;
18:4, 26; 19:8. Paul and Barnabas were requested by the rulers of the synagogue
at Antioch in Pisidia to speak after the reading of the law and the prophets
(Acts 13:15).
660 Comp. Ps. 55:18; Dan. 7:11; Acts 2:15; 3:1; 10:30. These hours of devotion
are respectively called Shacharith, Minchah, and’Arabith.
661 Comp. John 2:19; 4:23, 24.
662 The Parashioth and Haphtaroth, as they were called.
663 Comp. Acts 13:15; 15:21.
664 1 Thess. 5:27; Col. 4:16.
665 Comp. Matt. 9:15; Acts 13:3; 14:23; 1 Cor. 7:5.
666 Matt. 6:9;Luke 11:1, 2. The Didache, ch. 8, gives the Lord’s Prayer from
Matthew, with a brief doxology (comp. 1 Cor. 29:11), and the direction to pray
it three times a day. See Schaff on the Did., p. 188 sq.
667 Didache chs. 8 –10; Clement, Ad Cor., chs. 59 –61. See vol. II. 226.
668 Comp. Matt. 26:30; Mark 14: 26.
669 Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16.
670 The "Gloria," Luke 2:14.
671 Luke 2:29.
672 Luke 1:46 sqq.
673 Luke 1:68 sqq.
674 Acts 4:24-30. Comp. Ps. 2.
675 Eph. 5:14; 1 Tim. 3:16; 2 Tim. 2:11-13; 1 Pet. 3:10-12. The quotation is
introduced by dio; levgei and pisto;" oJ lovgo" . The rhythmical arrangement and
adjustment in these passages, especially the first two, is obvious, and Westcott
and Hort have marked it in their Greek Testament as follows:
[Egeire, oJ kaqeuvdwn,
kai; ajnavsta ejk tw'n nekrw'n,
kai; ejpifauvsei soi oJ cristov"
—Eph. 5:14.
}O" ejfanerwvqh ejn sarkiv,
ejdikaiwvqh ejn pneuvmati,
w[fqh ajggevloi",
ejkhruvcqh ejn e{qnesin,
ejpisteuvqh ejn kovsmw/,
ajnelhmfqh ejn dovxh/.
—1 Tim. 3:16.
The last passage is undoubtedly a quotation. The received reading, Gr.464 qeov"
, is justly rejected by critical editors and exchanged for o{", which refers to
God or Christ. Some manuscripts read the neuter o{ which would refer to
musthvrion 1 Pet. 3:10-12, which reads like a psalm, is likewise metrically
arranged by Westcott and Hort. James 1:17, though probably not a quotation, is a
complete hexameter:
pa'sa dovsi" ajgaqh; kai; pa'n dwvrhma telei'on.
Liddon (Lectures on the Divinity of Christ, p. 328) adds to the hymnological
fragments the passage Tit. 3:4-7, as "a hymn on the way of salvation," and
several other passages which seem to me doubtful.
676 Apoc. 1:5-8<cbr>; 3:7, 14; 5:9, 12, 13; 11:15, 17, 19; 15:4</cbr>; 19:6-8,
and other passages. They lack the Hebrew parallelism, but are nevertheless
poetical, and are printed in uncial type by Westcott and Hort.
677 Mark 1:4 (bavptisma metanoiva" eij" a[fesin aJmartiw'n, said of John’s
baptism), 1:8, where John distinguishes his baptism, as a baptism by water (u]dati),
from the baptism of Christ, as a baptism by the Holy Spirit (pneuvmati aJgivw/);
Matt. 3:1; Luke 3:16; John 1:33 (oJ baptivzwn ejn pneuvmati aJgivw/); Acts 2:38
(the first instance of Christian baptism, when Peter called on his hearers:
Metanohvsate, kai; baptisqhvtw e]kasto" uJmw'n ejn tw'/ ojnovmati jIhsou' Cr.
eij" a[fesin tw'n aJmartiw'n uJmw'n, kai; lhvmyesqe th;n dwrea;n tou" aJgivou
pneuvmato"); 8:13<cbr>; 11:16</cbr>; 18:8 (ejpivsteuon kai; ejbaptivzonto); Rom.
6:4 (bavptisma eij" t;on qavnaton); Gal. 3:27 (eij" Cristo;n ejbaptivsqhte). The
metavnoia was the connecting link between the baptism of John and that of
Christ. The English rendering, "repentance" (retained in the Revision of 1881),
is inaccurate (after the Latin paenitentia). The Greek means a change of mind,
nou'" (a transmentation, as Coleridge proposed to call it), i.e., an entire
reformation and transformation of the inner life of man, with a corresponding
outward change. It was the burden of the preaching of John the Baptist, and
Christ himself, who began with the enlarged exhortation: Metanoei'te kai;
pisteuvete ejn tw'/ eujaggelivw/, Mark 1:15.
678 Comp. the German taufen, the English dip. Grimm defines baptivzw (the
frequentative of bavptw): ’immergo, submergo;’Liddell and Scott: ’to dip in or
under the water.’But in the Sept. and the New Test. it has also a wider meaning.
Hence Robinson defines it: ’to wash, to lave, to cleanse by washing.’See below.
679 The Oriental and the orthodox Russian churches require even a threefold
immersion, in the name of the Trinity, and deny the validity of any other. They
look down upon the Pope of Rome as an unbaptized heretic, and would not
recognize the single immersion of the Baptists. The Longer Russian Catechism
thus defines baptism: "A sacrament in which a man who believes, having his body
thrice plunged in water in the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, dies to the carnal life of sin, and is born again of the Holy Ghost to a
life spiritual and holy." Marriott (in Smith and Cheetham, I., 161) says:
"Triple immersion, that is thrice dipping the head while standing in the water,
was the all but universal rule of the church in early time," and quotes in proof
Tertullian, Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, Jerome, Leo I., etc. But he admits,
on page 168 sq., that affusion and aspersion were exceptionally also used,
especially in clinical baptism, the validity of which Cyprian defended (Ep. 76
or 69 ad Magnum). This mode is already mentioned in the Didache (ch. 7) as
valid; see my book on the Did., third ed., 1889, pp. 29 sqq.
680 2 Kings 5:14 (Sept.); Luke 11:38; Mark 7:4 (baptismou;" pothrivwn, etc.);
Heb. 6:2 (baptismw'n didachv); 9:10 (diafovroi" baptismoi'"). Observe also the
remarkable variation of reading in Matt. 7:4: eja;n mh; baptivswntai (except
they bathe themselves), and rJantivswntai (sprinkle themselves). Westcott and
Hort adopt the latter in the text, the former in the margin. The Revision of
1881 reverses the order. The ’divers baptisms’ in Heb. 9:10 (in the Revision "
washings") probably include all the ceremonial purifications of the Jews,
whether by bathing (Lev. 11:25; 14:9; Num. 19:7), or washing (Num. 19:7; Mark 7:
8), or sprinkling (Lev. 14:7; Num. 19:19). In the figurative phrase baptivzein
ejn pneuvmati aJgivw/, to overwhelm, plentifully to endow with the Holy Spirit
(Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16; Mark 1:8; John 1: 3; Acts 1:5; 11:16), the idea of
immersion is scarcely admissible since the Holy Spirit is poured out. See my
Hist. of the Apost. Ch., p. 569.
681 Acts 8:15; 19:6; Heb. 6:2.
682 1 Cor. 11:28.
683 John 6:63: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing,
the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life." This passage
furnishes the key for the understanding of the previous discourse, whether it
refers to the Lord’s Supper, directly or indirectly, or not at all. That the
ejstiv in the words of institution may indicate a figurative or symbolical (as
well as a real) relation, is now admitted by all critical exegetes; that it must
be so understood in that connection is admitted by those who are not under the
control of a doctrinal bias. See my annotations to Lange’s Com. on Matthew,
26:26, pp. 470 sqq.
684 Comp. John 4:24.
685 ejkklhsivai katj oi|kon, Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19.
686 Luke 9:58.
687 Gen. 2:3. This passage is sometimes explained in a proleptic sense; but
religious rest-days, dies feriati, are found among most ancient nations, and
recent Assyrian and Babylonian discoveries confirm the pre-Mosaic origin of the
weekly Sabbath. See Sayce’s revision of George Smith’s Chaldean Account of
Genesis, Lond. and N. York, 1881, p. 89: "If references to the Fall are few and
obscure, there can be no doubt that the Sabbath was an Accadian [primitive
Chaldaean] institution, intimately connected with the worship of the seven
planets. The astronomical tablets have shown that the seven-day week was of
Accadian origin, each day of it being dedicated to the sun, moon, and five
planets, and the word Sabbath itself, under the form of Sabattu, was known to
the Assyrians, and explained by them as ’a day of rest for the heart.’A calendar
of Saints’ days for the month of the intercalary Elul makes the 7th<cbr>, 14th,
19th</cbr>, 2lst, and 28th days of the lunar months, Sabbaths on which no work
was allowed to be done. The Accadian words by which the idea of Sabbath is
denoted, literally mean: ’a day on which work is unlawful,’and are interpreted
in the bilingual tablets as signifying ’a day of peace or completion of
labors.’" Smith then gives the rigid injunctions which the calendar lays down to
the king for each of these sabbaths. Comp. also Transactions of Soc. for Bibl.
Archaeol., vol. V., 427.
688 Matt. 12:1 sqq., 10 sqq., and the parallel passages in Mark and Luke; also
John 5:8 sqq.; 6:23<cbr>; 9:14</cbr>, 16.
689 Gal. 4:10; Comp. Rom. 14:5; Col. 2:16. The spirit of the pharisaical
sabbatarianism with which Christ and St, Paul had to deal may be inferred from
the fact that even Gamaliel, Paul’s teacher, and one of the wisest and most
liberal Rabbis, let his ass die on the Sabbath because he thought it a sin to
unload him; and this was praised as an act of piety. Other Rabbis prohibited the
saving of an ass from a ditch on the Sabbath, but allowed a plank to be laid so
as to give the beast a chance to save himself. One great controversy between the
schools of Shammai and Hillel turned around the mighty question whether it was
lawful to eat an egg which was laid on the Sabbath day, and the wise Hillel
denied it! Then it would be still more sinful to eat a chicken that had the
misfortune to be born, or to be killed, on a Sabbath.
690 The day of Pentecost (whether Saturday or Sunday) is disputed, but the
church always celebrated it on a Sunday. See § 24, p. 241.
691 John 20:19, 26; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2; Rev. 1:10.
692 Comp. Heb. 4:1-11; Rev. 4:18.
693 1 Cor. 5:7, 8; 16:8; Acts 18:21; 20:6, 16.
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