Eutychus

Alan Knox at his blog The Assembling of the Church, discusses Stephen Catto’s Reconstructing the First-Century Synagogue: A Critical Analysis of Current Research.  In his post, Sacred Meals in the Synagogue,  Knox summarizes Catto’s findings:

Catto describes four “worship practices” that he says were common to first century synagogues. He says that those synagogues practiced 1) sanctity (cleansing or purity), 2) Scripture reading and teaching, 3) Prayer (including hymns), and 4) Sacred meals.

Yes, you read that correctly. Catto suggests that first century synagogue meetings included meals as a form of “worship”. In fact, he points out that many synagogue buildings included dining rooms for the meal.

Books like Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna have argued that the early church represented a radical break from the worship practices of 1st century Judaism.  They assert that the early church did not imitate the synagogues’ use of purpose-built buildings, and had a form of worship that was more a spontaneous, free-flowing time of fellowship, in which table fellowship was prominent.  Catto’s book suggests that the fellowship was not distinctive to the NT church.

Knox concludes:

If Catto is correct, and I have much more studying to do before I form an opinion, then eating and drinking together were considered a form of worship to some Jews around the time of the New Testament. Thus, the concept “breaking bread” together would not be a foreign concept to the new church. Certainly, there would be difference between the communal meals of the synagogue and the communal meals of the church. Primarily, for the church, Jesus Christ is both the host and the benefactor of the meal, and the meal provides an outward demonstration of the fellowship that the church possesses because of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

I welcome examining contemporary church pratices in light of the New Testament. But I believe that much of the arguments presented by such writers as Viola and Barna rely on shoddy historical work, and, more importantly, portray a distorted view of the NT church.  Catto’s book, then, is potentially an important corrective.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 7:50 am and is filed under Church Life, Theology.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.