Megillot (Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther)

Author(s):  
Robert J. V. Hiebert

This chapter discusses the primary ancient Greek versions of a group of five books in the Hebrew canon that are called the Megillot or Scrolls. Each book in this collection—which consists of Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Esther—is associated with the commemoration of a different event in the Jewish liturgical calendar. In the Septuagint, as transmitted by the Church, these books are not grouped together and there is no specific linkage to that liturgical practice. There are, however, some commonalities among the Greek versions, particularly with respect to certain aspects of the translation and transmission histories of most of them, that create some sense of connection, despite the diversity of their content. This has to do specifically with the so-called Kaige tradition, which features a translation approach marked by a significant degree of formal equivalence to the Semitic source text and distinctive translation equivalents.

2020 ◽  
pp. 126-136
Author(s):  
Константин Рева

В настоящей статье предпринята попытка рассмотреть влияние Придворной певческой капеллы на развитие богослужебной практики Русской Православной Церкви в Синодальный период. После церковного раскола XVII в. продолжающееся развитие богослужебной практики не находило отражения в корпусе богослужебных книг. В XVII в. в Русской Церкви было два практически равновеликих по значению образцовых столичных хора: хор патриарших певчих дьяков и хор государевых певчих дьяков. С упразднением патриаршества и переносом столицы в Санкт¬-Петербург в Синодальный период истории Русской Православной Церкви Придворная певческая капелла стала главным церковным хоровым коллективом, основной обязанностью которого было пение за богослужением в придворных церквях. В XIX в. Придворная певческая капелла была на делена особыми административными правами в церковно-¬певческой сфере, связанны ми с цензурой церковно-¬певческих произведений и подготовкой церковных регентов. Исключительные права по изданию церковно¬-певческих книг в Русской Православной Церкви, закрепленные Святейшим Синодом за Придворной певческой капеллой, стали причиной широкого распространения литургических особенностей богослужения придворных церквей в Российской империи. Практика обязательной аттестации церковных регентов Придворной певческой капеллой усилила распространение не только её церковно-¬музыкальной традиции, но и придворного литургического порядка, что оказало существенное влияние на практику совершения кафедрального и приходского богослужения. Изучение богослужебной практики Русской Православной Церкви в XVIII-XX вв. немыслимо без учёта деятельности и наследия Придворной певческой капеллы. This article attempts to consider the influence of the Court Singing Chapel on the development of divine practice of the Russian Orthodox Church during the synodal period. After the Church split of the 17th century, the continuing development of liturgical practice was not re flected in the corpus of liturgical books. In the XVII century the Russian Church had two almost equal in importance exemplary Metropolitan choirs: the choir of Patriarchal singing deacons and the choir of sovereign singing deacons. With the abolition of the Patriarchate and the transfer of the capital to Saint Petersburg during the Synodal period of the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Court singing Capella became the main Church choral group, whose main duty was to sing at divine services in the court churches. In the 19th century, the Court singing chapel was giv en special administrative rights in the Church singing sphere related to the censorship of Church singing works and the training of Church Regents. The exclusive rights to publish Church sing ing books in the Russian Orthodox Church, which were assigned by the Holy Synod to the Court singing chapel, caused a wide spread of liturgical features of the service of court churches in the Russian Empire. The practice of mandatory certification of Church Regents by the Court singingchapel has increased the spread of not only its Church music tradition, but also the court liturgical order, which has had a significant impact on the practice of performing Cathedral and parish ser vices. The study of the liturgical practice of the Russian Orthodox Church in the XVIII-XX centuries is unthinkable without taking into account the activities and heritage of the court singing chapel.


Philotheos ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 240-259
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Danilović ◽  

The story of David and Goliath is one of the most famous biblical stories. It had an impact on many branches of contemporary art. It is also an inevitable part of religious education and general education in all schools. Knowing the fact that the Church Fathers have an essential part in the lives of many Christians today (in the Orthodox Church, they were role models from the very beginning), it is interesting to see how did they, these original theologians, read and interpret the story of David and Goliath. Was it for them, in the time when the Bible was the most sacred book for all, important as it is for us today? Did people during the sports events of that time talk on the markets about the underdog who struck the giant? Additionally, if one looks at the ancient Greek and Hebrew text, one will find out that the Hebrew version, which was used as the source for most modern translations, is 40% longer than the Greek one. Could the works of the Fathers help us to determine which version of the story is the Holy Scripture for Christians today?


Author(s):  
David G. Hunter

This chapter argues that the emergence of marriage as a symbol and its relation to marriage as ‘sacrament’ were connected to a third factor, namely the emergence of a ‘priestly’ identity for the Western clergy. Hunter shows first that a tradition developed in the third to the fifth centuries in which the single marriage of the clergy (i.e. the prohibition of digamists from ordination) became a privileged symbol of divine–human union, and eventually the union of Christ and the Church; second, that this tradition of single marriage was directly connected to the increased sacralizing of marriage in liturgical practice; and, third, that both of these developments contributed to the identification of the Western clergy as ‘priests’.


Author(s):  
John L. Allen

In Catholic argot, the various rites and rituals of the Church are known as “liturgies,” from the ancient Greek term leitourgia, meaning “work,” referring to the public work of the state done on behalf of the people. The term was used in Greco-Roman...


1988 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. J. Bradley

SummarySymbolic perception of the church door in early English exegetical writings and in medieval liturgical practice is illustrated and discussed as the wider context of a proposal that the arched iron strip at the top of the twelfth-century church door at Stillingfleet, North Yorkshire, represents the rainbow of Noah's Flood, perceived as a reminder ofjudgement past and of judgement still to come, and as a symbol of the covenant between God and humanity. The possibility is considered that on other surviving early medieval church-doors too, the rainbow shape, even if primarily functional or dictated by the shape of the door-opening, and notwithstanding the absence of other figural imagery, may have been recognized as an emblem of the covenant, basis of all church-sanctioned contracts, aptly dislayed on the threshold—where various liturgical or other formal actions had their setting—of the sacred spaces of the domus dei.


2000 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen D. Moore

The arduous task of queering the Song of Songs, a book that is ostensibly an unequivocal celebration of male-female sexual love, was accomplished over many centuries by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church (as well as by Jewish Sages of blessed memory, though they were hampered by a modesty and restraint to which their Christian cousins were seldom subject). Night after night in their cells, by flickering candlelight, they queeried the Song of Solomon, strenuously inquiring after its spiritual meaning and confidently setting it forth. And as they did so their austere cells were transformed into lavish theaters. What follows is a series of preliminary portraits of some of the more remarkable performers.


Scrinium ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-131
Author(s):  
Alexander I. Grishchenko

Abstract This paper presents the new and actually the first diplomatic publication of the unique 16th-century copy of the Church Slavonic Song of Songs translated from a Jewish original, most likely not the proper Masoretic Text but apparently its Old Yiddish translation. This Slavonic translation is extremely important for Judaic-Slavic relations in the context of literature and language contacts between Jews and Slavs in medieval Slavia Orthodoxa.


2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert P. Kennedy

In the second book of his treatise on scriptural interpretation, On Christian Doctrine, Augustine introduces the theme of the obscurity of some biblical texts with a quotation from the notoriously difficult Song of Songs: ‘‘Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes coming up from the washing, which all give birth to twins, and there is not one among them that is barren’’ (4:2). Unsurprisingly, he finds references to baptism and the double commandment of love of God and neighbour. What strikes a modern reader is Augustine’s unembarrassed use of violent imagery to describe how the saints cut off errors and then chew the newly converted until they are soft for digestion by the Church. In later texts, Augustine will advert to the violence of biblical imagery to emphasize the necessity of transformation into the likeness of God and to reinforce the eschatological hope of the Church. This paper will examine the role of difficulty and obscurity in Augustine’s understanding of the process by which Scripture forms and orients its readers to prepare them for the vision of heaven.


Ecclesiology ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 59-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Davie

AbstractFollowing an initial exploration of the teaching of The Church of Jesus Christ, this paper argues that a comparison of The Church of Jesus Christ with the Thirty Nine Articles and recent Anglican ecumenical statements and agreements shows a significant degree of agreement between The Church of Jesus Christ and Anglican theology and ecclesiology. This agreement reflects the fact that both the Anglican tradition and the traditions of the churches in the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe have been shaped by the Reformation. It also shows the influence of a growing ecumenical consensus on ecclesiological issues. However, alongside this agreement there also remain significant points of difference about the relation between divine and human activity in the Church, the importance of tradition, the holiness of the Church and the nature of the Church’s unity. These points of difference need to be explored and debated by Anglicans and members of the Churches of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE).


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