a certain text. Justin’s mixed quotations may also point to the use of a Gospel harmony, which may point to the existence of the canonical Gospels as well as Marcion’s.16
As the Gospels were brand-new texts in Justin’s time, so was the total lack of conventions to use them in a typically Christian way. Justin’s group did not perform reading sessions that were standardized or ritualized beyond what was normal for groups of philosophers. There was neither a yearly cycle of festivals,17 nor a well-established catechetical corpus that insiders of the group could be expected to have mastered. Justin’s designation for these texts, their use in the meetings of his group, and the fact that he does not quote a single line verbatim would be absurd, if these four books had already been the undisputed basis of the Christians’ identity and liturgy for roughly a century. Justin’s group read and discussed Gospel material among other texts because they were interesting, new, and controversial. However, they chose the reading material for similar reasons that may have led to the establishment of the Liturgy of the Word later. Old Testament Prophets and canonical Gospels establish and proclaim an anti-Marcionite stance.
5 Celebrations of Torah in Judaism
If the Christian custom to read the Gospels in formalized meetings should emulate rabbinic celebrations of Torah reading, one may construct Christian Liturgies of the Word as created in opposition to their Jewish parallels. In that case, one may wonder what it means that the Gospel does not seem to replace the Torah or why the reading of the Gospel was furnished with special authority by its assignment to certain members of the clergy, if it should have been regarded as inferior to a preceding Old Testament reading.
5.1 Paragons of Jewish Philosophers: Therapeutai and Therapeutrides
Philo claims that Therapeutai and Therapeutrides can be found everywhere in the ancient world, but especially near Alexandria and in a place above the Mareotic Lake living in solitary, detached houses (which they never leave throughout six days of the week).1 Regarding books, they only possess “laws, oracles (delivered) through the prophets, hymns” as well as other material that is useful for knowledge and piety.2 They read the Holy Scriptures and “have also writings (syngrammata) of men of old, the founders of their way of thinking, who left many memorials (mnēmeia3) of the form used in allegorical interpretation …”4.
This group is Philo’s allegory for ideal congregations of Jews. They meet on the seventh day of the week in order to listen to a discourse of the (male) senior scholar among them. Every fiftieth day, they celebrate a festival, beginning with prayer, then reclining for a banquet, first listening to an exegetical speech concluded with hymn-singing. After a frugal meal of bread (seasoned with some hyssop) and water, they hold a vigil of singing and dancing.5 Philo’s Jews-as-philosophers do not read any text at their gatherings. This group is fictional in a narrow sense (of real persons living near the Mareotic sea and everywhere around the Mediterranean). The properties that they share with Justin’s group are not due to a Judeo-Christian tradition. Such similarities are due to the fact that both Justin and Philo present their own groups as philosophers—like other Greeks and Romans with similar interests.
5.2 Ritualization of Rabbinic Study Sessions
An inscription of the early first century C.E. from Jerusalem mentions a synagogue built for the “reading of the Law and the teaching of the commandments” and adds that the donor, Theodotos, also built “the guest room, the chambers, and the water fittings, as an inn for those in need from foreign parts …”.1 Torah reading is thus established as an activity of Diaspora groups and mentioned by a priest.2 As the corpus of rabbinic texts does not yield reliable information for this epoch, the shape of actual performances of Torah reading that could have influenced Christians of Justin’s time, cannot be recovered. Intellectuals such as Rabbis, Justin’s Christian group, Pythagorean philosophers, and other groups studied and expounded texts. The typically rabbinic performance of Torah reading developed at the same time as the emergence of Christianity.3 Thus, the Tannaim study the sacrificial laws that prescribe the sacrifices on the festival days when these sacrifices were offered in the Temple.4 This practice of anamnetic reading was not or not only motivated by an interest in the understanding of texts. It enabled the rabbis to perform a sacred obligation.5
Rabbinic services of Torah reading neither provide a structural model for the Christian sequence of a Liturgy of the Word followed by the Eucharist (or the other way round) nor for the internal staging of a hierarchy of importance between different corpora of texts. There is no reason to assume any interdependence between the development of the typically Christian and rabbinic ritualization of the reading of sacred texts. Serious studies cannot reach firmer conclusions than “It is not unreasonable to assume some historical relationship …” between the rabbinic Sabbath morning liturgy and analogous performances in Christianity.6
5.3 The Gospels and the Haggadah of Pesach
It has been claimed that the Gospels or the Passion Narratives should have been written in order to be read or recited during (Proto-/Judaeo-) Christian celebrations of the Pascha as a replacement of the Haggadah of Pesach. The Haggadah is not, however, a literary genre, but a single text. It is first attested in the tenth century. The conclusion of the central rabbinic textual corpora provides a terminus post quem for the composition of the oldest recensions of the Haggadah.1 The Gospels already circulated for half a Millennium before the Haggadah was conceived. Christian groups started to celebrate the Pascha—perhaps as an anti-Pesach—around the middle of the second century.
6 Conclusions
In search of liturgical Gospel readings as part of a Liturgy of the Word, first traces emerge in the third century. The custom is well established at the end of the fourth century. The assessment of predecessors of this practice requires a distinction between testimonies for interests of groups in these texts and a ritualized performance of readings. The mere existence of the texts proves that they were read. It does not point to communal, let alone ritualized readings. Origen’s testimony points to a much less standardized situation than it can be reconstructed for sources of the later fourth century. Tertullian discusses scriptural texts at meetings of his Christian group. He does not yet know a Liturgy of the Word. Justin’s session of philosophical studies preceding the Eucharist on the Days of Helios is the only possible predecessor of both the Liturgy of the Word and any communal study of Gospel material. However, the claim that Gospel readings began in the latter part of the second century cannot only be based on this argumentum e silentio, because the late first and early second centuries are notoriously undocumented in the history of Christianity. Further arguments are required.
Justin’s meetings on the Days of Helios are at most remote prototypes of Liturgies of the Word. As leader of a group of philosophers and as a staunch anti-Marcionite, Justin reacted quickly to the newest trends in Christianity. He put the correct versions of the new compositions as well as other texts that supported his approach (apparently Old Testament texts) on the reading list of his group. Justin’s brand of Christianity vanished with the demise of Christian groups organized as circles of philosophers.1 Even if the practice to study and discuss texts independent of one’s sympotic table-talk was neither liturgical nor typically Jewish or Christian, the sudden emergence of Gospel material together with (Old Testament) Prophets cannot be attributed to the novelty of this literature, let alone to a kind of ecclesiastical authority. The choice of texts manifests Justin’s opposition against Marcion. Second century additions to Marcion’s Gospel (cf. Luke 4:16–22; 24:27) and Justin’s reading assignment of “prophets” point into the same direction. Anti-Marcionism is not a re-alignment of Christian and Jewish customs, but an innovative elevation of the role played by the Old Testament in Christianity.
This is borne out by the observation that the emergence
