THE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THE EARLY CHURCH

Summary

After fifty years, the theory of Gerhard Kunze on the development of the reading of the Old Testament in the Christian Church needs a critical reexamination. In the course of this review, a new hypothesis is formulated, starting from the idea that the Christians of the New Testament and some time afterwards did not need a reading from the Old Testament in their gatherings at home on Sundays, because they had already heard the Torah and the Prophets in their synagogues on Sabbaths, together with many other (Jews and) Jewish Christians. We have to wait until the second, and in many places even the third century, before this natural relationship was broken. Only then did they feel the need to bring the reading of the Old Testament in a different manner over to the Sunday and the eucharist. Three elements are put together in this hypothetical reconstruction: the reading of the Scriptures, the difference between Sabbath and Sunday, and the availability of one or more gospel books.