Paul F. Bradshaw - The Origins of Feasts, Fasts, and Seasons in Early Christianity

Founded in 1897, the Alcuin Club seeks to promote the study of Christian liturgy and worship in general with special reference to worship in the Anglican Communion. The Club has published a series of annual Collections, including A Companion to Common Worship , volumes 1 and 2, edited by Paul F. Bradshaw, a new edition of the classic text Christian Prayer through the Centuries , by Joseph Jungmann (SPCK 2007) and most recently The Worship Mall: Contemporary responses to contemporary culture , by Bryan D. Spinks (SPCK 2010). The Alcuin Liturgy Guide series aims to address the theology and practice of worship, and includes The Use of Symbols in Worship , edited by Christopher Irvine, and two volumes covering the celebration of the Christian Year: Celebrating Christs Appearing: Advent to Christmas , and Celebrating Christs Victory: Ash Wednesday to Trinity , both by Benjamin Gordon-Taylor and Simon Jones. The Club works in partnership with GROW in the publication of the Joint Liturgical Study series, with two studies being published each year.

Members of the Club receive publications of the current year free and others at a reduced rate. The President of the Club is the Rt Revd Michael Perham, its Chairman is the Revd Canon Dr Donald Gray CBE, and the Secretary is the Revd Dr Gordon Jeanes. For details of membership and the annual subscription, contact The Alcuin Club, 5 Saffron Street, Royston, SG8 9TR, or email: alcuinclub@gmail.com

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Published in Great Britain in 2011 by

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Copyright Paul F. Bradshaw and Maxwell E. Johnson 2011

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Scripture quotations are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952 and 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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In memoriam

Thomas Julian Talley, 19242005

Contents

The authors gratefully acknowledge the permission granted by the following copyright holders to reproduce extracts from translations of ancient sources contained in the works listed. Where not otherwise attributed in the notes, translations of other primary sources are by the authors.

Every effort has been made to seek permission to use copyright material reproduced in this book. The publisher apologizes for those cases where permission might not have been sought and, if notified, will formally seek permission at the earliest opportunity.

Thomas J. Talley, The Origins of the Liturgical Year . Copyright 1991 by The Order of Saint Benedict, Inc. Published by Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota. Reprinted with permission.

Raniero Cantalamessa, Easter in the Early Church (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press 1993). Reprinted with permission of the author.

Martin Connell, The Origins and Evolution of Advent in the West, Kilian McDonnell, The Marian Liturgical Tradition and Gabriele Winkler, The Appearance of Light at the Baptism of Jesus and the Origins of the Feast of the Epiphany in Maxwell E. Johnson (ed.), Between Memory and Hope: Readings on the Liturgical Year . Copyright 2000 by The Order of Saint Benedict, Inc. Published by Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota. Used with permission.

Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns , translated and introduced by Kathleen E. McVey. Copyright 1989 by Kathleen E. McVey. Paulist Press, Inc., Mahwah, NJ. Reprinted with permission of Paulist Press, Inc.

Sebastian Brock, Mary in Syriac Tradition in A. Stacpoole (ed.), Marys Place in Christian Dialogue (Wilton: Morehouse-Barlow 1982). Reprinted with permission of the author.

The reader might well have expected this book to be titled The Origins of the Liturgical Year or something similar, just as was Thomas Talleys work, Christians in antiquity did not view the various festivals, fasts and seasons that they experienced through each year as forming a unity, a single entity, and indeed those events themselves did not emerge in any planned or co-ordinated fashion but instead as a number of entirely unrelated cycles, with the result that they tended to overlap or conflict with one another.

The fundamental cycle was that of the seven-day week, which was taken over from Judaism by the first Christians but came to be centred on the Lords day rather than the Sabbath and with different days of the week designated for fasting from those customary among Jews, as the early Church sought to establish its own independent identity. As we shall show, however, the transition from Sabbath keeping to Sunday worship may have been slower than most scholars have previously supposed and to have left some remnants of Sabbath observance in later Christianity, even if the notion of resting on the Sabbath was firmly repudiated.