The Jewish Roots of the Liturgy
The Jewish Roots of the Liturgy
SermonIndex
c. 100 BC – AD 500
Jewish prayers and rules of worship from the Mishnah and the prayer book set beside the Didache, First Clement, Justin, the Apostolic Tradition and the later liturgies.
Synagogue, Table and Temple
How much of the church’s service came from the synagogue and the table of the Jewish home is one of the great questions of liturgical history. This part puts the Jewish texts and the earliest Christian texts side by side and lets you read both. The Christian passages are quoted from the pages of this site and the Jewish ones from public-domain books; each can be checked at the link beside it.
A caution
A caution before you read. The Jewish prayers are quoted from Singer’s prayer book of 1890, and the Mishnah was written down about AD 200. The oldest Christian prayers here are earlier than any Jewish prayer book. Where a parallel is shown, it points to a shared pattern of worship, not to a Christian text copied from a Jewish one. Wherever scholars disagree, we say so.
What is new in the church’s service
Not everything in the church’s service has a Jewish source. The words of institution over the bread and cup, the Sunday assembly (Justin’s “day called Sunday”), the baptismal rite, the epiclesis, the Christian creeds and the kiss of peace as a rite are all new. What the Jewish background supplies is the frame: the blessing over the table, the reading and teaching of Scripture, the fixed hours of prayer and the people’s Amen.
The Jewish Service in Outline
The Shema and its blessings
Two blessings before the Shema and one after it in the morning (the Qedushah comes in the first of them in the later rite). Mishnah, Berakoth 1:4: “two benedictions before it and one after it in the morning”.
The Tefillah (Amidah)
The Eighteen Benedictions said standing, three times a day. Mishnah, Berakoth 4:3: “the eighteen benedictions are to be said daily”.
The reading of the Law
Called-up readers read in turn from the scroll, with a blessing before and after; the number varied from three to seven. Mishnah, Megillah 4:1–2: “three, four, five, six or seven readers, depending on the day”. Luke 4:16–17: “Jesus stood up to read”.
The Prophets
A passage from the Prophets, on the Sabbath and festivals, chosen to match the Law. Mishnah, Megillah 4:2: “a section from the Prophets is read on those days”. Acts 13:15: “the rulers send to Paul after the reading of the Law and the Prophets”.
The interpreter
A translator rendered the Hebrew into Aramaic, verse by verse. Mishnah, Megillah 4:4: “the Law is read to the interpreter one verse at a time”.
The word of exhortation
A sermon by a member of the congregation or a visitor. Acts 13:15: “Paul is invited to give a word of exhortation”. Luke 4:20–21: “Jesus sat down and spoke”.
The priests’ blessing
Where priests were present, they raised their hands in the blessing of Numbers 6. The Mishnah requires ten men for the full service. Mishnah, Megillah 4:3: “with fewer than ten present the Shema is not repeated, no one leads the prayers, the priests do not raise their hands and the Law and Prophets are not read”.
The Sources
Josephus and Philo (first century AD)
Say that the Law was read and taught in synagogues every Sabbath, and describe the Temple’s daily service. Eyewitness or near it, but they say little about the wording of prayers.
The New Testament (about AD 50–100)
Jesus and Paul read and preach in synagogues (Luke 4; Acts 13); Jews pray at the hour of prayer in the Temple (Acts 3:1). Contemporary; gives the shape of the service, not its prayers.
The Didache and 1 Clement (about AD 50–120)
Christian prayers whose shape matches the Jewish grace and the Amidah. The earliest Christian texts of prayers; no Hebrew side-by-side from the same period.
The Mishnah (written down about AD 200)
Rules for blessings, readings and prayers, with debates of the houses of Hillel and Shammai from before AD 70. The oldest Jewish source with the rules of the service; it gives few of the words.
Prayer books (complete prayer books from about the ninth century; Singer’s edition is 1890)
The full wording of the benedictions, the Qedushah and the grace after meals. Late. The structure is old, but the words have grown and changed.
Singer, Daily Prayer Book
The Authorised Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire, with a new translation by the Rev. S. Singer (7th ed., London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1904). Orthodox rite as printed in 1904; the translation is Singer’s of 1890.
Mishnah (De Sola and Raphall)
Eighteen Treatises from the Mishna, translated by D. A. de Sola and M. J. Raphall (London, 1843). Mishnah compiled about AD 200; it records debates of the first-century schools of Hillel and Shammai.
Union Haggadah
The Union Haggadah: Home Service for the Passover (New York: Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1923). 1923.
Edersheim, The Temple
Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services as They Were at the Time of Jesus Christ (London: Religious Tract Society, 1874; Edersheim died 1889). 1874.
Oesterley, Jewish Background
W. O. E. Oesterley, The Jewish Background of the Christian Liturgy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925). 1925.
King James Version
The Holy Bible, King James Version (1769 text, as on SermonIndex). 1611.
The Parallels
A short blessing over the cup, and one over the bread (Same pattern)
Jewish text, Mishnah, Berakoth 6:1 (the form of blessing for each food): “who createst the fruit of the vine … who bringest forth bread from the earth” Jewish text, Singer, Kiddush for Sabbath evening, p. 174: “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who createst the fruit of the vine.” Christian text, Didache 9:2, the cup first: “First concerning the cup, we give thanks to thee, our father, for the holy vine of David thy child, which thou didst make known to us through Jesus thy child; to thee be glory for ever.” Christian text, Didache 9:3, then the bread: “And concerning the broken bread: we give thee thanks, our Father, for the life and knowledge which thou didst make known to us through Jesus thy child. To thee be glory for ever.” At a Jewish meal each food has its own short blessing, and on the Sabbath and festivals the cup is blessed first. The Didache keeps the pattern, a separate thanksgiving for the cup and the bread, but fills it with new content: the vine of David and the life made known through Jesus. Each ends with the doxology “to thee be glory for ever”. The debate: Luke 22:17–19 also puts a cup before the bread. Whether the Didache’s meal is the eucharist, an agape, or both is argued.
Thanks for creation and food: “who givest food to all flesh” (Close parallel)
Jewish text, Singer, Grace after Meals, first blessing, p. 280: “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who feedest the whole world with thy goodness, with grace, with lovingkindness and tender mercy; thou givest food to all flesh, for thy lovingkindness endureth for ever.” Christian text, Didache 10:3: “Thou, Lord Almighty, didst create all things for thy name's sake, and didst give food and drink to men for their enjoyment, that they might give thanks to thee, but us hast thou blessed with spiritual food and drink” Christian text, Apostolic Constitutions 7, a prayer at dinner: “Thou art blessed, O Lord, who nourishest me from my youth, who givest food to all flesh.” The first blessing of the Jewish grace after meals thanks God as the one who feeds the whole world. The Didache’s third thanksgiving does the same in its own words, then adds spiritual food and drink for the church. The prayer for dinner in the Apostolic Constitutions (fourth century) even keeps the Jewish phrase “who givest food to all flesh”. The debate: Louis Finkelstein (1928) and J.-P. Audet (1958) argued that Didache 10 follows the three blessings of the Jewish grace; others think the likeness is of pattern only. The Jewish wording in Singer is much later than the Didache, so the match is of order and ideas, not of copied sentences.
“We thank thee”: the second blessing and what replaces it (Same pattern)
Jewish text, Singer, Grace after Meals, second blessing, p. 280: “We thank thee, O Lord our God, because thou didst give as an heritage unto our fathers a desirable, good and ample land, and because thou didst bring us forth, O Lord our God, from the land of Egypt” Christian text, Didache 10:2: “We give thanks to thee, O holy Father, for thy holy name which thou didst make to tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality which thou didst make known to us through Jesus thy child.” Both prayers open with “We thank thee” and name what God has given. In the Jewish grace those gifts are the land, the exodus, the covenant and the Law; in the Didache they are the name of God dwelling in the heart, knowledge, faith and immortality made known through Jesus. The slot is the same; the content is Christian. The debate: Scholars who see the Jewish grace behind Didache 10 treat this as the clearest case of a Christian prayer built on a Jewish frame. Others note that “we thank thee” is the ordinary way to begin any Greek or Hebrew prayer of thanks.
“Have mercy on Jerusalem” becomes “Remember thy church” (Close parallel)
Jewish text, Singer, Grace after Meals, third blessing, p. 281: “Have mercy, O Lord our God, upon Israel thy people, upon Jerusalem thy city, upon Zion the abiding place of thy glory” Jewish text, Singer, the Amidah, tenth benediction, p. 48: “lift up the ensign to gather our exiles, and gather us from the four corners of the earth” Christian text, Didache 10:5: “Remember, Lord, thy church, to deliver it from all evil and to make it perfect in thy love, and gather it together in its holiness from the four winds to thy kingdom which thou hast prepared for it.” The third Jewish blessing prays for Jerusalem and Zion; the Amidah asks God to gather the exiles from the four corners of the earth. The Didache prays for the church in the same breath: deliver her, make her perfect, gather her from the four winds into the kingdom. Jerusalem is replaced by the church and the ingathering of Israel by the gathering of the elect. The debate: The “four winds” also come from Matthew 24:31. Whether the Didache borrowed the Jewish blessing or both drew on the same biblical language is open.
The leader’s invitation and the people’s answer (Same pattern)
Jewish text, Mishnah, Berakoth 7:3 (the invitation to the thanksgiving after meals): “If three [form the party] he [who says grace] says, "Let us bless Him of whose gifts we have eaten."” Jewish text, Singer, Grace after Meals, pp. 279–280: “Let us say grace. The others respond: — Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for ever.” Christian text, Apostolic Tradition 4, the bishop’s thanksgiving: “The Lord be with you. And all shall say And with thy spirit. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up unto the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord. It is meet and right.” Christian text, Apostolic Constitutions 8: “we lift it up unto the Lord. The high priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord. All the people: It is meet and right so to do” Before the grace after meals the one who leads calls the others to bless God, and they answer. Before the great thanksgiving the Christian bishop does the same: “Let us give thanks to the Lord”, answered by the people. “Lift up your hearts” has no Jewish counterpart. The debate: Some liturgical scholars have traced the opening dialogue to the Jewish call to grace; others, such as Paul Bradshaw, caution that a shared habit of calling a company to prayer does not prove descent.
“Holy, holy, holy”: the Qedushah and the Sanctus (Shared text, debated link)
Jewish text, Singer, Morning Service, the Yotzer blessing, p. 39: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts : the whole earth is full of his glory.” Jewish text, Singer, Morning Service, the Yotzer blessing, p. 39: “Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place” Jewish text, Oesterley, 1925, p. 146: “it is well known that all the great Liturgies from the fifth century onwards contain it” Christian text, 1 Clement 34:6 (about AD 96): “ten thousand times ten thousand stood by him, and thousand thousands ministered to him, and they cried holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Sabaoth, the whole creation is full of his glory.” Christian text, Apostolic Constitutions 8: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts, heaven and earth are full of his glory: be thou blessed for ever” Christian text, Liturgy of St James: “Holy, holy, holy, O Lord of Sabaoth, the heaven and the earth are full of thy glory. Hosanna in the highest; blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” The synagogue’s Qedushah joins the angels’ song of Isaiah 6:3 to the response “Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place”, and it comes in the blessing before the Shema and in the Amidah. The Christian Sanctus has the same verse, and 1 Clement already tells of the angels crying it. Nearly every full anaphora after the Apostolic Tradition has it. The debate: This is the best-known and most disputed parallel. Some hold that the Sanctus entered the eucharist from the synagogue’s Qedushah; others that it came straight from Isaiah and Revelation 4:8. The Qedushah’s own wording in the first century is uncertain, and the Apostolic Tradition has no Sanctus at all.
The Eighteen Benedictions and the long prayer of Clement (Close parallel)
Jewish text, Singer, Morning Service, Amidah, first benedictions, p. 45: “Thou sustainest the living with lovingkindness, quickenest the dead with great mercy, supportest the falling, healest the sick, loosest the bound” Jewish text, Singer, Morning Service, Amidah, p. 47: “Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed … save us and we shall be saved” Jewish text, Singer, Morning Service, the last benediction of the Amidah: “Grant peace, welfare, blessing, grace, lovingkindness and mercy unto us and unto all Israel, thy people.” Christian text, 1 Clement 59:4 (about AD 96): “save those of us who are in affliction, have mercy on the lowly, raise the fallen, show thyself to those in need, heal the sick, turn again the wanderers of thy people, feed the hungry, ransom our prisoners, raise up the weak, comfort the faint-hearted” Christian text, 1 Clement 60:4: “give concord and peace to us and to all that dwell on the earth, as thou didst give to our fathers who called on thee in holiness with faith and truth” The Amidah, prayed standing three times a day, runs through God’s power to raise the fallen and heal the sick, then asks for healing, for the ingathering, and for peace. The long prayer at the end of 1 Clement (about AD 96, from Rome) has petitions in a very similar order: raise the fallen, heal the sick, feed the hungry, ransom the prisoners, give concord and peace. The intercessions of the later liturgies keep the same kinds of petition. The debate: No one thinks Clement copied a written Amidah; the Eighteen Benedictions were still being shaped. The likeness is taken as evidence of common synagogue prayer that a Roman Christian knew.
The reading of the Law and the Prophets, and the sermon (Close parallel)
Jewish text, Mishnah, Megillah 4:1: “He who commences the reading of the Holy Law, shall say the [first] blessing before reading it, and he who concludes the reading, shall say the last blessing to be said after reading it.” Jewish text, Mishnah, Megillah 4:2: “and seven on the Sabbath … a section from the Prophets must be read on those days” Jewish text, Mishnah, Megillah 4:4: “One verse only of the law may at one time be read to the meturgeman, or interpreter” Scripture, Luke 4:16, 17, 20: “he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. … And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down.” Scripture, Acts 13:15: “And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.” Christian text, Justin, First Apology 67 (about AD 155): “the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.” Christian text, Apostolic Constitutions 8: “after the reading of the law and the prophets, and our epistles, and Acts, and the Gospels” Christian text, Apostolic Constitutions 2 (psalms between the lessons): “let some other person sing the hymns of David, and let the people join at the conclusions of the verses” This is the closest match of all. The synagogue read from the Law and the Prophets, with a blessing before and after, an interpreter, and a word of exhortation (Luke 4; Acts 13). Justin’s Sunday service about AD 155 does the same with the prophets and the apostles’ memoirs, then the president’s address; later church orders add the epistles and Gospels and keep the psalm between the lessons. The debate: The Mishnah was written down about AD 200; the first-century evidence for the synagogue reading is in Luke 4, Acts 13 and Acts 15:21. Whether the Christian lectionary followed a Jewish yearly cycle is much argued.
Prayer three times a day (Close parallel)
Jewish text, Mishnah, Berakoth 4:1: “The morning prayer [may be said] until noon.” Jewish text, Mishnah, Berakoth 4:3: “Man must daily say the eighteen benedictions.” Scripture, Acts 3:1: “Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.” Christian text, Didache 8:3: “pray thus three times a day.” Christian text, Apostolic Tradition 36: “If at the third hour thou art at home, pray then and give thanks to God” Christian text, Apostolic Constitutions 7: “pray thus thrice in a day” Jews prayed at fixed hours, which the rabbis tied to the daily offerings in the Temple, and the Mishnah calls for the Eighteen Benedictions each day. The Didache tells Christians to say the Lord’s Prayer three times a day; Hippolytus’s hours (third, sixth and ninth, with the night watches) give each hour a Christian meaning. The debate: Acts 3:1 shows the apostles keeping the Temple hour of prayer. Whether the Christian hours came straight from the Jewish ones or developed separately is still open.
Lighting the lamp at the evening meal (Shared practice)
Jewish text, Mishnah, Berakoth 8:5 (a dispute of the houses of Shammai and Hillel): “According to Beth Shammai, the form of blessing on the light is … who created the light of fire” Christian text, Apostolic Tradition (a later addition), the lamp: “An evening service, that included bringing in the lamp, is widespread in early Christianity and is eventually derived from Judaism” The Mishnah records a dispute between the schools of Shammai and Hillel, both before AD 70, about the blessing over the light at the evening meal. The Apostolic Tradition’s evening thanksgiving with the lamp, in the Ethiopic version, is a Christian counterpart, and Easton’s own note says that this kind of lamp service goes back to Judaism. The debate: The text is among the later additions to the Apostolic Tradition and may not be Hippolytus’s. A lamp-lighting service is also described by the pilgrim Egeria in Jerusalem about AD 384, and it became the evening office of the East.
Washing the hands before the blessing (Shared practice)
Jewish text, Mishnah, Berakoth 8:2: “Beth Shammai say, the hands must be washed first, and the goblet [for the blessing] be filled afterwards.” Jewish text, Singer, Grace before meals, p. 278: “who hast sanctified us by thy commandments, and hast given us command concerning the washing of the hands.” Christian text, Cyril of Jerusalem, Lecture 23 (about AD 350): “the deacon who gives to the priest water to wash … to the presbyters who stand round God's altar” Washing the hands before the blessing at a meal is a Jewish custom that the Mishnah discusses in a dispute between the houses of Hillel and Shammai. In Jerusalem about AD 350 the deacon brings water to the priest and the presbyters before the eucharistic prayer. Cyril explains that this is a sign of a clean heart, not of bodily cleanness. The debate: Cyril’s own reading is moral rather than ritual, and the gesture may have come into the liturgy from ordinary custom as much as from Jewish practice.
The Passover meal and the Last Supper (Shared practice)
Jewish text, Mishnah, Pesachim 10:1 (the Passover night): “a person shall not have less than four cups of wine” Jewish text, Mishnah, Pesachim 10:7: “A third cup of wine is then poured out, and the grace after meals is said.” Jewish text, Union Haggadah (1923), Introduction: “the third follows the grace after the meal” Scripture, Luke 22:15, 20: “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: … Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” Scripture, 1 Corinthians 10:16: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” Christian text, Apostolic Tradition 4, the thanksgiving: “taking bread and giving thanks to thee said: … Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you. And likewise also the cup, saying: This is my blood, which is shed for you.” In the Synoptic Gospels the Last Supper is a Passover meal, and Luke places the cup “after supper”, which is where the Mishnah puts the third cup, after the grace. Paul calls the eucharistic cup “the cup of blessing”, the Jewish name for the cup over which grace was said. The church’s eucharistic prayer grew from this table blessing. The debate: John’s Gospel puts the supper before the Passover. Scholars still dispute whether Jesus held a Passover meal or a similar fellowship meal, and the Mishnah’s Passover rules are later than the first century.
The people’s Amen (Close parallel)
Jewish text, Mishnah, Berakoth 8:8: “must be made when an Israelite pronounces a blessing” Christian text, Justin, First Apology 67: “the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen” In the synagogue and at the table the listener answered every blessing with “Amen”. Justin says the same of the Christian people after the president’s thanksgiving, and the prayers of the Apostolic Tradition end with it. The word is Hebrew and was never translated. The debate: The practice is so widespread in Judaism and early Christianity that nobody doubts the link; the dispute is only over how much of the structure around it came with it.