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LECTION, LECTIONARY

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 357 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LECTION, LECTIONARY . The See also:custom of See also:reading the books of See also:Moses in the synagogues on the See also:Sabbath See also:day was a very See also:ancient one in the Jewish See also:Church. The addition of lections (i.e. readings) from the prophetic books had been made afterwards and was in existence in our See also:Lord's See also:time, as may be gathered from such passages as St See also:Luke iv. 16-2o, xvi. 29. This See also:element in See also:synagogue See also:worship was taken over with others into the See also:Christian divine service, additions being made to it from the writings of the apostles and evangelists. We find traces of such additions within the New Testament itself in such directions as are contained in See also:Col. iv. 16; 1 Thess. v. 27. From the 2nd See also:century onwards references multiply, though the earlier references do not prove the existence. of a fixed lectionary or See also:order of lessons, but rather point the other way. See also:Justin See also:Martyr, describing divine worship in the See also:middle of the 2nd century says: " On the day called See also:Sunday all who live incities or in the See also:country gather together to one See also:place, and the See also:memoirs of the Apostles, or the writings of the Prophets are read as See also:long as time permits " (Apol. i. cap. 67).

See also:

Tertullian about See also:half a century later makes frequent reference to the reading of See also:Holy Scripture in public worship (Apol. 39; De praescript. 36; De amina, 9). In the canons of See also:Hippolytus in the first half of the 3rd century we find this direction: " Let presbyters, subdeacons and readers, and all the See also:people assemble daily in the church at time of See also:cock-See also:crow, and betake themselves to prayers, to See also:psalms and to the reading of the Scriptures, according to the command of the Apostles, until I come attend to reading " (See also:canon xxi.). But there are traces of fixed lessons coming into existence in the course of this century; See also:Origen refers to the See also:book of See also:Job being read in Holy See also:Week (Commentaries on Job, See also:lib. i.). Allusions of a similar See also:kind in the 4th century are frequent. See also:John Cassian (c. 38o) tells us that throughout See also:Egypt the Psalms were divided into See also:groups of twelve, and that after each See also:group there followed two lessons, one from the Old, one from the New Testament (De caenob. inst. ii. 4), implying but not absolutely stating that there was a fixed order of such lessons just as there was of the Psalms. St See also:Basil the See also:Great mentions fixed lessons on certain occasions taken from See also:Isaiah, See also:Proverbs, St See also:Matthew and Acts (Hom. xiii. De bapt.). From See also:Chrysostom (Hom. lxiii. in See also:Act.

&c.), and See also:

Augustine (See also:Tract. vi. in Joann. &c.) we learn that See also:Genesis was read in See also:Lent, Job and See also:Jonah in See also:Passion Week, the Acts of the Apostles in Eastertide, lessons on the Passion on See also:Good See also:Friday and on the Resurrection on See also:Easter Day. In the See also:Apostolical Constitutions (ii. 57) the following service is described and enjoined. First come two lessons from the Old Testament by a reader, the whole of the Old Testament being made use of except the books of the Apocrypha. The Psalms of See also:David are then to be sung. Next the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of See also:Paul are to be read, and finally the four Gospels by a See also:deacon or a See also:priest. Whether the selections were ad libitum or according to a fixed table of lessons we are not informed. Nothing in the shape of a lectionary is extant older than the 8th century, though there is See also:evidence that See also:Claudianus Mamercus made one for the church at See also:Vienne in 450, and that See also:Musaeus made one for the church at See also:Marseilles c. 458. The See also:Liber comitis formerly attributed to St See also:Jerome must be three, or nearly three, centuries later than that See also:saint, and the Luxeuil lectionary, or Lectionarium Gallicanum, which See also:Mabillon attributed to the 7th, cannot be earlier than the 8th century; yet the See also:oldest See also:MSS. of the Gospels have marginal marks, and sometimes actual interpolations, which can only be accounted for as indicating the beginnings and endings of liturgical lessons. The third See also:council of See also:Carthage in 397 forbade anything but Holy Scripture to be read in church; this See also:rule has been adhered to so far as the liturgical See also:epistle and See also:gospel, and occasional additional lessons in the See also:Roman See also:missal are concerned, but in the divine See also:office, on feasts when nine lessons are read at See also:matins, only the first three lessons are taken from Holy Scripture, the next three being taken from the sermons of ecclesiastical writers, and the last three from expositions of the day's gospel; but sometimes the lives or Passions of the See also:saints, or of some particular saints, were substituted for any or all of these See also:breviary lessons.

(F. E.

End of Article: LECTION, LECTIONARY

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