The Influence Of The Synagogue On Early Christian Worship

The New Testament records that Jesus and his disciples, as well as early Christian preachers such as Paul and Barnabas, attended the synagogue assemblies. The true influence of the synagogue on early Christian worship, however, is difficult to assess. Contacts between Christians and Jews continued up to the fourth century; thus, in the postNew Testament period Jewish influence can be seen in the development of Christian prayer and the Christian calendar. That Jewish worship influenced ancient Christian liturgy is widely assumed in contemporary liturgical studies. However, the scholarly landscape has shifted enormously in the years since the publication of W. O. E. Oesterley's The Jewish Background of the Christian Liturgy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925) and C. W. Dugmore's The Influence of the Synagogue Upon the Divine Office (London: Humphrey Milford, 1944). Biblical and historical studies since the Second World War have demonstrated the diversity and complexity of first-century Ju…