Reflections of the Jewish Temple

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bubba_Switzler
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
B

Bubba_Switzler

Guest
I’m researching the liturgy of the early Church and most of what we find in the Mass is an adaptation of Jewish Synagogue worship (Liturgy of the Word) and the Last Supper (Liturgy of the Eucharist). I’m wondering, though, what elements might have been borrowed from the Jewish Temple rituals (ignoring the obvious parallel of Jesus as sacrificial lamb in the Last Supper) either before or, perhaps, after the destruction of the Temple in 70AD.

Two possibilities that come to mind: garments and the title of “priest”. Perhaps the use of incense?

I had thought maybe the tabernacle but appaenetly that is also in the Jewish Synagogue house (used to store the scrolls) but then again perhaps that was also a post-Temple innovation in Rabbinical Judaism.
 
I’ve heard that the chrismation oil is related to the annointing oil. The tabernacle with the real presence is like the Ark of the Covenant. I had a discussion about this topic with someone who knows more about it than I, but I don’t remember everything. I also have heard a couple of talks on the subject.
 
You may want to read “Supper of the Lamb” by Scott Hahn. This will all be made clear. : )
Try a public library near you, or a bookstore of your choice.
 
I would also strongly recommend Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Brant Pitre and The Temple in the Gospel of Matk: a study in its Narrative Role, by Tim Gray. The latter is a difficult read, as its Dr. Gray’s doctoral dissertation. But, if you can follow it, it’s brilliant, and would probably provide the best resource for your project.
 
buc_fan33 said:
I would also strongly recommend Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Brant Pitre and The Temple in the Gospel of Matk: a study in its Narrative Role, by Tim Gray. The latter is a difficult read, as its Dr. Gray’s doctoral dissertation. But, if you can follow it, it’s brilliant, and would probably provide the best resource for your project.
Click to expand...
This looks good, thanks.

The Temple in the Gospel of Mark: A Study in Its Narrative Role
 
It was maybe ten years or more that I was reading something, and my recollection was that tabernacles were basically not in existence until somewhere around maybe 800 to 900 AD, and then were not in the church; and subsequently about 100 years later, they were in the church, but not on the high altar. There are cathedrals in Europe where they are still not on the high altar, but in a side room.

Our cathedral in Portland was renovated, and there is a very nice tabernacle, and it is in a side room., open to view, but not from all points in the cathedral.

FWIW
 
Bubba_Switzler said:
I’m researching the liturgy of the early Church and most of what we find in the Mass is an adaptation of Jewish Synagogue worship (Liturgy of the Word) and the Last Supper (Liturgy of the Eucharist). I’m wondering, though, what elements might have been borrowed from the Jewish Temple rituals (ignoring the obvious parallel of Jesus as sacrificial lamb in the Last Supper) either before or, perhaps, after the destruction of the Temple in 70AD.

Two possibilities that come to mind: garments and the title of “priest”. Perhaps the use of incense?

I had thought maybe the tabernacle but appaenetly that is also in the Jewish Synagogue house (used to store the scrolls) but then again perhaps that was also a post-Temple innovation in Rabbinical Judaism.
Click to expand...
Reflections of the Jewish Temple

The activity in the Jewish Synagogue looked more like the first half of our Mass, where the written Word of God is the center of attention.

The Jews would ask a man belonging to their Synagogue to read a passage from a scroll, and then to deliver a homily on that passage. This is what Jesus did when he went to Nazereth one Sabboth. This is what Jesus was asked to do, and on that occasion he read a passage from Isaiah about the furture Messiah. And Jesus said that passage referred to himself, at which time they tried to kill him.

There were many Synagogues. But the Jews did not worship in their Synagogues, but only worshipped in the Temple.

The Temple is like the second part of the Catholic Mass. For Jews had only one temple, and that was in Jerusalem. The temple had an altar where sacrifices were made for different reasons. The Catholic Church dedicates the first half of Mass to reading and thinking about the Word of God. And the second part of the Mass to the sacrificial rites performed on an altar. So Catholic Churches include the idea of both synagogue and temple.

I believe many of the protestant churches are more like Synagogues but not temples since they do not have a sacrifice taking place at an altar.
 
fred_conty said:
There were many Synagogues. But the Jews did not worship in their Synagogues, but only worshipped in the Temple.
Click to expand...
This is an interesting, if subtle, distinction.

I doubt Jews today would say that they don’t worship in Synagogue. But the distinction you make is entirely plausible in Second Temple Judaism. Did Jews worship during the inter-Temple diaspora? Are the rituals of the home not considered worship?

What precisely does it mean to worship anyway as opposed to all the other religious rituals that Jews and Catholic observe?
The Temple is like the second part of the Catholic Mass. For Jews had only one temple, and that was in Jerusalem. The temple had an altar where sacrifices were made for different reasons. The Catholic Church dedicates the first half of Mass to reading and thinking about the Word of God. And the second part of the Mass to the sacrificial rites performed on an altar. So Catholic Churches include the idea of both synagogue and temple
Click to expand...
This is an interesing point. Did the Last Supper resemble the Temple sacrifice? There was no alter, only a dinner table (one would presume). When did Christian worship introduce the alter? My guess would be sometime after the destruction of the temple.

I was going to add another interesting parallel: the Real Presence.

The Jews believed that the Temple represented the Real Presence of Yahweh.
 
Bubba_Switzler said:
This is an interesting, if subtle, distinction.

I doubt Jews today would say that they don’t worship in Synagogue. But the distinction you make is entirely plausible in Second Temple Judaism. Did Jews worship during the inter-Temple diaspora? Are the rituals of the home not considered worship?

What precisely does it mean to worship anyway as opposed to all the other religious rituals that Jews and Catholic observe?

This is an interesing point. Did the Last Supper resemble the Temple sacrifice? There was no alter, only a dinner table (one would presume). When did Christian worship introduce the alter? My guess would be sometime after the destruction of the temple.

I was going to add another interesting parallel: the Real Presence.

The Jews believed that the Temple represented the Real Presence of Yahweh.
Click to expand...
A sacrifice is an offering of an object or life to a deity.
Worship is a service or a showing a reverence to a deity.

So in a sense a Synagogue is a place of worship in showing reverence to God. But the Jews normally thought that Jerusalem was the place of worship because of the one temple where sacrifices were made upon an altar.

The woman,a Samaritan, at the well said to Jesus, a Jew, in John 4:21+:
Our Fathers worshipped on the mountain, while you(Jews) say that Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.
Click to expand...
Jesus said:
…But the hour will come … when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
Click to expand...
Then a footnote in the Jerusalem Bible says:
The Spirit, 14:26+, who makes a new creature of man, 3:5 is also the inspiring principle of the new worship of God. This worship is “in truth” because it is the only worship that meets the conditions revealed by God through Jesus.
Click to expand...
The Catholic Church fullfils the conditions of spirit and truth.
Namely in John 3:5+
I(Jesus) tell you most solemnly, unless a man is born through water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kngdom of God: what is born of the flesh is flesh what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be surprised whn I say You must be born from above.
Click to expand...
In other words, men must first become born of the Spirit to offer the real sacrifice of worship to God. For they belong to God and are the men who are pleasing to him. So they are the ones who offer the true sacrifice.

And what is the true and holy sacrifice? Jesus himself, offered to his Father on behalf of us … salvation. Which took place beginning at the Last Supper, when Jesus took into his hands the bread and wine and said that these were his real body and blood which was about to be offered for the Apostles and for many others, which took place the next day on Calvary. The actual offering of sacrifice took place on the altar of the cross where the Lamb of God, pure and unblemished(without sin), was offered up for the sins of the whole world.

Notice how this totally blends with the last half of our Mass … the offering of bread and wine, the changing of it into Jesus’ body and blood, the offering of the unblemished Lamb(Jesus) to the Father, the consumation of the Lamb by his own holy people, born of God thru the Holy Spirit at Baptism.

So the first part of the Catholic Mass, is the worship of God’s Holy Word, the Scriptures, and in the second part of the Catholic Mass is the worship of God in the true sacrifice of the unblemished Lamb of God for the sins of the world.

So the prediction of Jesus came true, that real worshippers, the baptised who are the priestly people of God, would worship in spirit and truth.

And as you said, an additional note is the real presence of God in our churches(really temples of sacrifice), where the star of Bethlehem still shines so to speak.
 
My wife and I were talking about this a couple weeks ago, when the Gospel with the Parable of the fig tree was read.

She was lector and found two very different interpretations (of who is or is not the gardener or orchard master) in a couple resources (both Catholic) we use to prepare before proclaiming.

…so we looked it up in the Catena Aurea (an EXCELLENT resource for Early Church Father’s Gospel interpretation) and came to the conclusion that maybe… just maybe… the tree is the Synagogues. And Jesus was asking for a stay… And maybe, had things gone differently, our services today might look nearly identical to Synagogue worship.

…And maybe this interpretation might explain the cursing of the fig tree, which is another story that confuses me.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top