Changes

Judaism and Early Christianity

1,448 bytes added, 00:15, September 28, 2009

→‎II. Ecclesiology

Today the Orthodox form of "bishop-priest-deacon" holds to this early understanding given that the bishops and the priests ("priest" a derivative of "presbyter") are the elders of the church.

'''The Function of the Church: A Christian Synagogue?'''

This section may be more difficult by contrast with that concerning "offices." After all, the Orthodox reader may forget that other Christians do not view the church, and likely not the Orthodox church, as the visible, present manifestation of divine grace in the world. Naturally, one is tempted to arrange a ''sorites'' of arguments with demonstrative interlinking chain of "proofs" that this is the case with a triumphalistic Orthodoxy in view. Instead, the intention here is to offer the terms and idioms concerning the Christian community and deliberate whether the Jewish synagogue helped to shape these ideas.

But the religious activities were most important to be sure. The far-flung Jewish communities throughout the ancient world needed a center and the synagogue institutions provided one for them. Even in Judea, albeit with a streamlined service that centered on devotion to reading of the ''Torah'', the synagogue remained as a standard of Jewish religious life. Elsewhere, it was not unusual for the synagogal community to expand its prayers; one might say that it may well have been intended as a substitute for the acts of the Temple cult.

While there have been contenders for the "house synagogue" such evidence is not overwhelmingly positive. Indeed, what one finds is that in this era hundreds of synagogues within and without Judea were built(except for perhaps the immediate generations following the Bar-Kokba rellion). The synagogue was, after all, a community affair, the building was the physical plant within which people could pray, read, and learn. Judgements on civic and financial matters took place and affirmed the synagogue as the center of the community, particularly outside Judea.

~~Both~~ In regards to the popular view that the synagogue suppressed a female role it is clear that both male and female members participated, the latter inasmuch as females were permitted. ~~It is possible~~ The evidence indicates that early on the community tradition ~~was to allow~~ allowed a more energetic female presence in the synagogue including the recitation of blessings, prayers, and reading from the scroll. Though apparently this role decreased to the point that by the end of the fifth century it would have been unthinkable for such to occur in a synagogue until modern times. Nonetheless, the seating of male with female was the norm and not the exception in the synagogue of the Hellenistic era, countering the trend of male and female division in both pagan associations and Christian churches. The synagogue, then, was not only a religious center but also a national center. One may look about today in US cities and see that the local Hindu or Islamic center functions not only as a transmitter of religious ideals but also offers national or ethnic examples to its population. Reminders of the "old ways" are not only religious but may be integrated with the political, national, or ethnic strains of the people. And so it was with the ancient synagogue or the modern synagogue or "Jewish Center"; not only the religious activity but also the mundane affairs take place within. The Christian church, on the other hand, was not quite the same in its function. Granted, one may argue that certainly there were parallels between the church and the synagogue--what else did they have to use? But several items show how different as well as similar were the functions of the Christian church, whether a "house church" or a dedicated structure for that task.

===III. Ethics===

Drchadwick

232

edits

OrthodoxWiki β

Changes

Judaism and Early Christianity

OrthodoxWiki ^β