CHAPTER II

THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS

IN the preceding chapter we have seen that the fundamental conceptions of European civilization-the notion of social progress through righteousness and the solemnization of life through the idea of personal communion with the divine-have been derived both by Jews and Gentiles from the Old Testament, which thus becomes a spiritual bond between them. But it is not alone merely the outlines of this civilization which are common to Jew and Gentile; many of the details are identical, and for the same reason, because derived from the folkways of ancient Israel. During the first fifteen Christian centuries the culture of Christendom was, in large measure, created by the Church, and both in creed and ritual the undivided Western Church, in its beginnings and largely throughout its career, was Jewish in form and

tone.

This is seen both in ritual and in institutions, as well as in doctrine. The Common Prayer, both of Church and Synagogue, is based upon the Psalter, "the hymn-book of the Second Temple." When one speaks of a Te Deum or a Magnificat, a Miserere, or In exitu Israel, the reference is to the Psalms of the Vulgate as used in the Roman Church.' The Trisagion of the Greek Church is merely the Kedushah of the Jewish service, itself derived from the angelic respond of Is. 6, 3. The central function of the Church service, the mass (or in Protestant churches the communion), derives its "elements," in the last resort, from the wine and unleavened bread used at the home service of the Passover, and Bickell has shown that the original ritual of the mass is derived from that of the Seder service in Jewish homes on the first night of the Passover.2 The First and Second Lessons of the Church, derived respectively from the Old and New Testaments, are simply an imitation of the practice of the Synagogue to read

1On the general influence of the Psalms on Christian life and thought, see Prothero, The Psalms in History and Biography, in "Everyman's Library."

'Messe und Pascha, 1872; English translation, The Lord's Supper and the Passover Ritual, London, 1892.

sections from the Law and the Prophets every sabbath. There are even indications that at an early stage the same passages were read in both places of worship at the same period of the year.1 Churches are "oriented" because synagogues had their holy ark against the eastern walls so that worshippers might face towards Jerusalem. The eastern position of the priest, over which such violent controversies have arisen in the Church, is due to the same cause. The vestments of priests and bishops can be traced back to those of the Israelite priests. The font of baptism is immediately derived from the Mikweh, or ritual bath of Jewish practice, though now only used in the Church for new-born infants. The Church altar represents, in position and significance, the holy of holies of the Jewish Tabernacle and Temple. The position of the pulpit recalls that of the "Bemah," from which the Jewish homilist of talmudic times used to utter his expository or consoling words. Anointing was a Jewish custom long before it was a Christian one; indeed, the word "Messiah" simply means "anointed," as does its Greek equiva

1 See my article, Triennial Cycle, in Jewish Encyclopedia,

vol. xii.

lent "Christ."

The notion of church asylum

is clearly derived from that of the cities of refuge in the Levitical scheme.

The Church owes nearly as much of its institutions to Jewish example as of ritual and ceremonial. Thus Hatch has shown that, in all probability, the bishop derives from the gabbai or treasurer or "overseer" (hence the name "Episcopus") of the synagogue. One may even conjecture that the peculiar form of the episcopal blessing with two erect fingers is merely a modification of the priestly blessing with hand uplifted and the fingers separated in pairs. The elders of the Church are but a duplicate of the elders of the Synagogue. Visiting the sick was one of the recognized modes of Jewish corporal charity long before it became a characteristic of Christian philanthropy. It is still a matter of dispute whether hospitals did not originate among Jews. But there can be little doubt that the charity boxes of churches came from the same practice in the synagogues. Simon ben Shetah established religious schools among Jews long before there is any trace of Sunday-schools among Christians. The whole method of ordination of priests is a direct descendant of the

Semikah or laying on of hands of Jewish practice, which gave the power to "bind and loose" just as in the Christian Church. The missionary character of early Christianity was only a repetition of the missionary spirit of the Judaism of the time which Harnack grants was a preparation for the Christian mission. Even the Canon Law of the Church has not been without influence from Jewish sources. To quote but one example: The tables of forbidden relations are, in the main, derived from the Levitical laws about incest, and it is well known that the objection to marrying a deceased wife's sister was based upon Leviticus 19.3

But it is not alone in the externalities of ritual and institutions that this dependence of Christianity on Judaism can be traced; the fundamental ideas of the theologies of both religions are practically identical. "The Kingdom of Heaven" is so essentially a Jewish conception that few outsiders, who use the expression, are aware of its exact meaning. So scrupulous

1 Mission and Expansion of Christianity, vol. i, p. 55.

2

Aptowitzer, Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, vol. i, p. 217, seq.; vol. ii, p. 55, seq.

'Lagarde, The Law Not to Marry a Deceased Wife's Sister, Leyden, 1878.