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APOSTLES TO APOSTLES TO CONSTANTINE CONSTANTINE ((ADAD 31 TO 312) 31 TO 312)

At the Last Supper with his disciples Jesus commanded them to continue to share the Bread and the Cup.

1 Cor. 11:23-26: The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same manner he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus changed everything for his disciples.

After Jesus rose from the dead the Christians worshiped both as Jews and as followers of Jesus.Publicly in the Temple and Synagogue as always …

But now also differently and privately as Christians in homes, for “the Breaking of Bread,” the oldest name for the Eucharist.

The Book of Acts (2:43-47) describes the worship of the Jerusalem community immediately after the Day of Pentecost.

“Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

The Jewish home had always been as much a place of worship as was the temple or the synagogue.

The Passover lamb was sacrificed in the Temple, and the great, public celebration was there. But the Passover meal was shared in the home with family and invited guests. This made sharing the Eucharist in homes feel natural.

The Eucharist was first observed with a complete meal. This had changed by the late New Testament period.Catacomb art portrays the agape or Christian “love feast” – which later became an event held separately from the Eucharist.

The Eucharist became a purely symbolic meal, shared in the context of worship.

Paul and other missionary apostles established Christian communities (“churches”) outside Palestine. These churches met in homes. It was to the church in Corinth that Paul penned his description of Jesus’ commandment to “Do this in remembrance of me,” which led Christians to share the Eucharist.

Ruins of Corinth today.

Larger houses in Corinth were of a typical Mediterranean type, like this one. A similar house plan is found in Greece, Italy, Asia Minor, Syria, and North Africa – with a few local adaptations.

Paul’s letters attest to the existence of “house-churches”: “Greet Prisca and Aquila, who work with me in Christ Jesus,

and who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Greet also the church in their house.” – Romans 16:3-5a

“Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.” – Col. 4:15

“Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our dear friend and co-worker, to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house…” – Philemon 1-2

Thus it came to be that the first uniquely Christian places of worship were ordinary houses that had been turned over to the local church for its use.

The earliest known house-church was excavated at Dura-Europos, a Roman city on the Euphrates River in Syria. It dates from about AD 235.

In the New Testament era and later, the three-fold ordained ministry of the church developed: bishops, presbyters, and deacons.

1. BISHOPS – episkopoi (literally, “overseers”) – were the chief ministers in each town or village, the “successors of the apostles”. Each town had only one church. Only the bishop presided at the Eucharist and at Baptism, and he was the primary preacher and teacher.

2. PRESBYTERS – presbyteroi (literally, “elders”) – were the local ruling council, the “senior men” of the church, and advisers to the bishop. As churches grew and met at more than one place, the local bishop would assign presbyters to represent him there.

3. DEACONS – diakonoi (literally, “agents”) – were the bishop’s chosen agents and personal representatives to carry out a variety of tasks, administrative, charitable, and liturgical on his behalf.

Near the Dura-Europos church in the mid-3rd century was a Jewish synagogue.

• The synagogue could function openly, because Judaism was a legal religion.

• The church had to function secretly, or at least not advertise itself, since Christianity was not a legal religion.

Both the synagogue and the church in Dura-Europos were colorfully decorated.Torah niche (or “ark”) in the synagogue.

Baptistery in the church.

This is how archaeologists think the Dura-Europos house was remodeled to serve as a gathering place for the Christian church. On the left is the original floor plan. On the right is the remodeled floor plan. The room highlighted in red became the baptistery. The area highlighted in green is one room formed by removing a wall, in order to make a worship area for the church.

This is one person’s idea of how the rooms in the Dura-Europos house-church might have been used. In fact, the only room whose function is beyond dispute is the baptistery.

Fresco of Jesus healing the paralytic, from the baptistery of the house-church at Dura-Europos, ca. 235.

Other pictures on this wall include:

•The three women going to the tomb.•Jesus walking on the water.

The early rite of Baptism at Easter has been described for us by Hippolytus (ca. 215)“At the hour in which the cock crows, they shall first pray over the water. 2When they come to the water, the water shall be pure and flowing, that is, the water of a spring or a flowing body of water. 3Then they shall take off all their clothes. 4The children shall be baptized first. All of the children who can answer for themselves, let them answer. If there are any children who cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for them, or someone else from their family. 5After this, the men will be baptized. Finally, the women, after they have unbound their hair, and removed their jewelry. No one shall take any foreign object with themselves down into the water…”

From The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus, xxi.1-4.

After the destruction of the Temple and the City of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70, the division between Jews and Christian became serious.• Christians heeded

Jesus’ warning (Luke 21:20-21) and did not remain in Jerusalem during the Roman siege. This helped make other Jews reject Jewish Christians.

• Booty from the Temple in Jerusalem is shown on the Arch of Titus in Rome, built to commemorate Rome’s victory in the Jewish War of 66-73.

The “secret” nature of the Eucharist – which was celebrated only for the faithful, never in public – helped reinforce ideas that Christianity was a shameful religion, deserving of persecution.• Because the Eucharist was conducted in

secret, many people were ready to believe terrible rumors about Christians, such as that they killed babies and drank their blood, and that they (as well as Jews) worshiped the head of an ass.

• The graffito at right was found scratched into the wall of a building in Rome used in the late 1st c. and after as a school for imperial page boys. The words, in poor Greek, say: “Alexamenos worships [his] god.” The figure of a boy is worshiping a crucified man with the head of an ass. This graffito is the first known association of a cross with Christian worship.

Many of the “houses” that accommodated churches in the first century were humble tenements.

Evidence from early Christian congregations in Rome shows that probably more churches were housed in Roman insulae (apartment buildings) than in large homes of more wealthy people.

The earliest facilities for the church were more like community centers, with rooms for food to be distributed to the poor, clothing supplies, assemblies for worship, gatherings for instruction, and living space for the leaders.

Typical 5-storey 1st c. insula

Cutawayof insulaIn Ostia,theport ofRome.

Under some grand Roman churches lie an earlier Christian basilica and under that a still earlier house church. San Clemente is a good example.

The Church of San Clemente was rebuilt in the 11th c. re-using materials from 4th c. basilica, such as the railings.

These might have been rooms in the 1st c. “church” of San Clemente in Rome.

The Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist were two services, often held at different times and sometimes different places.

The “Liturgy of the Word” was open to all baptized Christians and catechumens (“learners”) who were preparing for Baptism. It was very much like the traditional Jewish synagogue service, with:• Psalms and hymns, • a litany, • readings from Scripture, • one or more sermons, • intercessory prayers,• a blessing and dismissal.

It never included the Kiss of Peace or the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer.

The “Liturgy of the Eucharist” was open only to baptized Christians. If catechumens were present, they were dismissed and the doors were locked behind them. The rite included only:• Psalms and hymns,• the Kiss of Peace,• offertory of bread and wine,• the Great Thanksgiving or

“eucharistic prayer”,• Lord’s Prayer,• distribution of Holy

Communion,• a blessing and dismissal.

Mediterranean houses and Christian house-churches (as well as later churches) contained minimal furniture.• Worshipers stood to pray (in the

position of the figure on the right, from the Roman catacombs), unless told by the deacon to kneel.

• Worshipers moved around the church to be close to the readers, to the bishop as he spoke or prayed, to bring up their offerings of bread and wine, and to receive Holy Communion.

• The only seats were a chair for the bishop and a bench for the presbyters. Everyone else stood through the entire service.

Early altars were small, in comparison with ours today, and usually portable. The usual word in Greek was trapeza, “table,” rather than bomōs, “altar,” though the bread and wine offered there were consistently called the oblation, and the Eucharist the sacrifice.

A stone pedestal altar (5th c).

A cubical table altar of the type usual from 3d c. until the middle ages.

Many Christians were buried in the Roman catacombs – underground cemeteries – in the 2d and 3d centuries, while Christianity was still illegal.The burial niches, called loculi, were originally closed with a cut stone or plaster. All around them were pictures.

Christian and pagan themes are mingled, since non-Christians as well as Christians were buried there.

A portion of the Catacombs of St. Callixtus (3d c).

Catacombs were cemeteries. There is a lot of Christian art in there, and many tombs of martyrs and bishops.

Love feast or agape meal. The Good Shepherd.

Paul Jesus teaching the apostles.

Christians did not hide in the catacombs from persecutors, nor did they worship there.

Crypt of Pope Damasus

The last and greatest Roman persecution of Christians occurred under the Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-311). During the last third of the 3d century, following brutal persecutions

from 250 to 260, Christians grew in numbers and enjoyed relative security, though the penal laws remained on the books. During this time the first buildings deliberately constructed for Christian worship – and colloquially known as “churches” – were erected in many places. Some were very large and expensively adorned.

Diocletian’s Edict against Christians was published in early 303, ordering the destruction of Christian scriptures and places of worship and prohibiting Christians from assembling for worship. One estimate says 3,000–3,500 Christians were killed, while many thousands of others suffered torture, imprisonment, and loss of property.

The persecution ended with Diocletian’s retirement in 311, and successful campaign which ended in Constantine becoming Emperor.

Constantine the Great defeated his rival, Maxentius, in battle – after reportedly having seen a vision of the Chi-Rho monogram of Christ – which he immediately took as his banner (shown on the coin below) and which he had his soldiers paint on their shields.

Constantine, whose mother was a Christian, issued the Edict of Toleration in 313, which made Christianity a legal religion.

Constantine and his mother Helena began a great program of building Christian churches and monuments, including:•St. Peter’s, Rome•The Basilica of the Savior (Lateran), Rome•St. Paul’s-outside-the-Walls, Rome•Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem•Basilica of the Nativity, Bethlehem And many others.

Interior of Constantine’s basilica on the Vatican Hill, built over the tomb of Peter in 325.