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18 - THE PLACE OF THE BIBLE IN THE LITURGY

from V - THE BIBLE IN THE EARLY CHURCH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
J. A. Lamb
Edited by
P. R. Ackroyd  and
C. F. Evans
J. A. Lamb
Affiliation:
New College, Edinburgh
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Summary

In his Encyclical Letter Mediator Dei of 20 November 1947 Pope Pius XII wrote, ‘To go back in mind and heart to the sources of the sacred liturgy is wise and praiseworthy. The study of liturgical origins enables us to understand better the significance of festivals and the meaning of liturgical formulas and ceremonies.’ This research is important not only for the question of feast-days, but for the whole structure and content of Christian worship. It is impossible to understand or to appreciate the significance of any of the historical forms if the earliest endeavours to worship God in the Christian faith are ignored. But these endeavours did not arise spontaneously, for they had some connection with the earlier forms in use in Jewish Temple and synagogue. For information on this, the records of the Bible are of primary importance.

There is indeed one apparent complication, that the Bible as such was not in existence in the earliest years of the Christian Church, for the Canon of the New Testament was not settled till about the third century. Nevertheless the documents, both the Old Testament itself, and most of the constituents of the New Testament, were widely known, and are constantly referred to in the Christian literature of the second and third centuries. Apart from anything else, the large amount of surviving homiletical literature witnesses to the interest in and knowledge of the scriptures. It follows that the relation between the Bible and the worship of the early Church must be investigated.

Keywords

BibleChristianapostolic periodNew TestamentOld Testament
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the Bible , pp. 563 - 586
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1970

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References

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Bruce, F. F., Biblical Exegesis in the Qumrân Texts (London, 1960), ch. 1.
Carrington, P., The Primitive Christian Calendar (Cambridge, 1952).
,Catholic Truth Society translation, Christian Worship (London, 1963 ed.), para. 66.
Clarke, W. K. Lowther ed., The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, (London, 1937) ff.
Constitutio de sacra Liturgia (1964). There are several English translations, with notes. Lietzmann, H., Messe und Herrenmahl (Bonn, 1926); English transl. Mass and Lord's Supper, by Reeve, D. with Introduction and Supplementary Essay by Richardson, R. D., in fascicles, from 1953 onwards (Leiden). (One part still to come.)Google Scholar
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Serapion, , The Sacramentary of Serapion, ed. Wordsworth, J. (2nd ed. London, 1923; reprint Hamden, Connecticut, 1964).
Snaith, N. H., Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (Giessen), Berlin. N.F. X (1933) ;
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von Rad, G., Deuteronomy (E. T. London, 1966) ff.
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