Justin Martyr's account of Christian Worship - 155 A.D

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One of my favorite writings of the early Christian Fathers is Justin Martyr's First Apology, written between 153-155 AD (slightly over 100 years after the death of Christ). Here, Justin Martyr is giving an account to the pagan Roman government regarding the way that Christians were worshiping. As you can guess from his name, Justin Martyr was later killed for his faith.



Here is the relevant excerpt:



"No one may share the Eucharist with us unless he believes that what we teach is true, unless he is washed in the regenerating waters of baptism for the remission of his sins, and unless he lives in accordance with the principles given us by Christ.

We do not consume the eucharistic bread and wine as if it were ordinary food and drink, for we have been taught that as Jesus Christ our Savior became a man of flesh and blood by the power of the Word of God, so also the food that our flesh and blood assimilates for its nourishment becomes the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus by the power of his own words contained in the prayer of thanksgiving.


The apostles, in their recollections, which are called gospels, handed down to us what Jesus commanded them to do. They tell us that he took bread, gave thanks and said: Do this in memory of me. This is my body. In the same way he took the cup, he gave thanks and said: This is my blood. The Lord gave this command to them alone. Ever since then we have constantly reminded one another of these things. The rich among us help the poor and we are always united. For all that we receive we praise the Creator of the universe through his Son Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit.


On Sunday we have a common assembly of all our members, whether they live in the city or the outlying districts. The recollections of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as there is time. When the reader has finished, the president of the assembly speaks to us; he urges everyone to imitate the examples of virtue we have heard in the readings. Then we all stand up together and pray.


On the conclusion of our prayer, bread and wine and water are brought forward. The president offers prayers and gives thanks to the best of his ability, and the people give assent by saying, “Amen”. The eucharist is distributed, everyone present communicates, and the deacons take it to those who are absent.


The wealthy, if they wish, may make a contribution, and they themselves decide the amount. The collection is placed in the custody of the president, who uses it to help the orphans and widows and all who for any reason are in distress, whether because they are sick, in prison, or away from home. In a word, he takes care of all who are in need.


We hold our common assembly on Sunday because it is the first day of the week, the day on which God put darkness and chaos to flight and created the world, and because on that same day our savior Jesus Christ rose from the dead. For he was crucified on Friday and on Sunday he appeared to his apostles and disciples and taught them the things that we have passed on for your consideration.“


I am always amazed at how much his Mass resembled ours - Holy Communion, the Sunday obligation, the reading of Scriptures (right down to the collection plate!)

Peregrinus

Annalise Little Strand wrote: »

. . . I am always amazed at how much his Mass resembled ours - Holy Communion, the Sunday obligation, the reading of Scriptures (right down to the collection plate!)

You shouldn't be, since what Justin Martyr describes will be familiar to anyone who has participated in Jewish sabbath services. A large part of Christian liturgy is an inheritance from Judaism.

The main difference - apart, obviously, from transferring the celebration from Friday evening to Sunday - is that, in the Jewish tradition, after the communal liturgy involving hymns of praise, scripture readings, a sermon and prayers of intercession, people returned to their homes and celebrated the blessing, breaking and sharing of bread and wine as a family. It's likely that the very first generation of Christians did this too, but pretty early on this part of the liturgy stopped being celebrated in people's homes and became part of the same communal celebration as the reading of scriptures, sermon, etc. St. Paul in fact alludes to this change in one of his letters.

Thinkingaboutit

It is also said that the complex ordering of Roman clergy is derived from the Temple. Roman Jews were great in number and the ordering of clergy would be modeled after what they knew, at least by study, if not reality.

Peregrinus

Thinkingaboutit wrote: »

It is also said that the complex ordering of Roman clergy is derived from the Temple. Roman Jews were great in number and the ordering of clergy would be modeled after what they knew, at least by study, if not reality.

The initial ordering of the clergy - into deacons, prebyters and bishops - seems to have emerged naturally, in response to the needs of the community for different kinds of ministry - at least, that's what the Acts of the Apostles seems to suggest. And that started to emerge, of course, before Christianity had reached Rome at all; certainly before Rome became a major centre of the church.

Rather later on a much more detailed ordering emerged, with bishops being grouped into provinces and divided into archbishops and just regular bishops; with titles like "Patriarch" and "Primate"; with territorial dioceses being defined and then organised into deaneries headed by a dean; with the emergence of diocesan officials like "chancellor"; etc, etc. I'm pretty sure this didn't come from the Jewish tradition at all, but from the Roman civil administration; the church borrowed established models of organisation and governance from the Republic.