Temple Themes in Christian Worship [Paperback]

Margaret Barker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 24, 2008

For a long time scholarship has been seeking the origins of Christian worship in the synagogue. In this new major book, Margaret Barker traces the roots of Christian worship back to the Jewish temple. By proposing a temple setting, a great deal more can be explained, and the existing rather limited resources can be more fruitfully used. By working with a great variety of sources (canonical, extra-canonical and Fathers, all presented here in tranlsation), it is possible to reconstruct something of the early Christian world view, which shows the Church as the conscious continuation of the temple worship.

Fundamental practices such as baptism and the Eucharist had Temple Roots, and familiar words in the liturgy of the church such as Maranatha and Hallelujah derived from the ancient belief that the Lord appeared in the Temple. Jesus was the God of Israel manifested as a the Great High Priest, and the Christians were his new angel priesthood, singing the angelic liturgy to restore and renew the earth.

The chapters in this book cover baptism, in theology and practice, the Eucharist, with special emphasis on the symbolism of the elements, the significance of music and hymns, festivals and pilgrimage, use of the Scriptures, both what the early Christians used and how they read them, prayers, including the Lord's prayer, and the shape of church buildings.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A short review cannot hope to do justice to the richness and complexity of this book, which is full of intriguing suggestions." - Church Times, 2008

Mention - New Testament Abstracts, Vol. 52 No. 3, 2008

"Baker moves seamlessly between Older Testament, Apocryphal, New Testament, and Patristic writings...There are many insights in this book that help us appreciate the theology of worship in the ancient church. We need not be drawn into the enthusiasm that suggests that temple theology answers all questions about ancient Christian worship." —Frank C. Senn, Worship, November 2008

"For the last decade, Margaret Barker has been publishing intriguing books about the biblical foundations of Christian worship. Her latest, Temple Themes in Christian Worship...is her most comprehensive to date. Her thesis is that early Christian worship, as evidenced by the New Testament and patristic writers, derives from the worship of the temple, rather than, say, from Hellenistic mystery religions or the Jewish synagogue...Barker gets a lot into her book, and a lot is right. Alongside Danielou's The Bible and the Liturgy and Jeff Meyer's The Lord's Service, it's a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Old Testament roots of Christian worship." —Peter J. Leithart, Credenda, Summer 2008

'[This book] serves to synthesize [Barker's] previous work as well as add fresh material and suggestions ... She manages to integrate texts/translations from greatly differing contexts to show their possible interconnectedness in the realm of Temple worship, and consequently can present with creative persuasion the links between early Christian worship and the worlds of the first and second Temple.' Theological Book Review, Volume 20, No 2, 2008

"This fascinating book moves beyond conventional wisdom and opens up new vistas."

International Review of Biblical Studies, vol. 54:2007/08

"...an impressive array of evidence."

USUS Antiquor, Vol 1 January 2010

Negative review - DO NOT USE
"The frustrating style, coupled with weak argumentation filled with logical non sequiturs and the highly disputable nature of many of her conclusions, do not commend the book to anyone but the most dedicated and critical reader. This is unfortunately, since I believe the most fundamental thesis of her work - namely, that the OT temple exercised a formative influence upon the origin of early Christian worship - is a valid one that deserves far greater attention than it typically receives." —Max J. Roglund, Erskine Theological Seminary, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
(Max J. Roglund, Erskine Theological Seminary Journal Of Evangelical Theological Society )

“Baker moves seamlessly between Older Testament, Apocryphal, New Testament, and Patristic writings…There are many insights in this book that help us appreciate the theology of worship in the ancient church. We need not be drawn into the enthusiasm that suggests that temple theology answers all questions about ancient Christian worship.” –Frank C. Senn, Worship, November 2008

“For the last decade, Margaret Barker has been publishing intriguing books about the biblical foundations of Christian worship. Her latest, Temple Themes in Christian Worship…is her most comprehensive to date. Her thesis is that early Christian worship, as evidenced by the New Testament and patristic writers, derives from the worship of the temple, rather than, say, from Hellenistic mystery religions or the Jewish synagogue…Barker gets a lot into her book, and a lot is right. Alongside Danielou’s The Bible and the Liturgy and Jeff Meyer’s The Lord’s Service, it’s a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Old Testament roots of Christian worship.” –Peter J. Leithart, Credenda, Summer 2008

The book will mainly be of interest to scholars but the more general reader can benefit from a detailed and intriguing account of both temple and early church worship. (, )

About the Author

Margaret Barker is a former President of the Society for Old Testament Study, and author of numerous works, including The Older Testament, The Lost Prophet, The Gate of Heaven, The Great Angel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: T&T Clark Int'l (March 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0567032760
• ISBN-13: 978-0567032768
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #339,503 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Understanding of Ancient Rituals, August 16, 2008

By 

S. E. Moore (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Temple Themes in Christian Worship (Paperback)

My only criticism of this book is that it repeats many of the ideas in the author's previous books. Some of this material may be redundant to Christians brought up in the Orthodox traditions, but to Protestant Christians like myself, prepare to be enlightened. When we sing the old hymn, "give me that old time religion", we may have to look to the Orthodox traditions of the eastern churches to find it. I still feel that the Reformation was necessary, but when Protestants did away with the liturgy and replaced the Eucharist with the preacher man and his sermon as the focal point of the worship service, they threw the baby out with the dirty bath water.

The earliest Christian worship was modelled on the rituals and beliefs of an earlier form of Jewish Temple rituals which predated the Babylonian exile and which was still practiced by cetain Jewish sects into the first century. Barker explains why there is such a rift between modern Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. Christianity was not a Hellenized form of Messianic Judaism, but preserves an older form of Judaism which the Jewish reformers all but obliterated when the second Temple was built.

Fragments of this ancient "First Temple" Judaism can be found in the Psalms, Ezekiel's chariot vision, Isaiah's throne vision and suffering servant, Daniel's Son of Man vision,and Jewish apocalyptic writings and non-canonical books such as Enoch, The Ascension of Isaiah, Jubilees,
and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

In this form of Judaism, Yahweh, the Lord of Israel, could be seen face to face. Human beings could be resurrected by ascending to Heaven and transformed into angels. Yahweh could be incarnate in a human being who had undergone such a heavenly transformation and could be seated at the right hand of God. This was, no doubt, Jesus' own self-understanding which is why he is worshipped by Christians. Jesus took the Temple rituals and made them his own. Christians worship Jesus as the Lord because Jesus believed this about himself.

In ancient Israel, kings were anointed and became royal high priests, Sons of God, modelled after the Heavenly high priest, Melchizedek. The Temple was modelled after the universe with the Holy of Holies representing Heaven itself. When the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, he wore the name of the Lord and, in a sense, was transformed into the Lord and thus worshipped in that capacity.

While reaffirming the rituals of the liturgy, Barker challenges many of what we were taught in Sunday school and by our pastors. Baptism was modeled after the initiation ceremony of the High Priest whereby the High Priest was anointed and transformed into a divine being. The Eucharist was not modeled after the Passover meal but the Day of Atonement ritual which restored the ancient covenant. The priests consumed the uncooked portion of the sacrifice, ie the blood, as a sin offering, to bear the sins of the world. The bread can be traced to the Bread of the Presence, eaten by the High Priest on the Sabbath which represented the Lord feeding His priests and imparting wisdom upon them. By singing the Psalms and hymns in the liturgy, Christians invoke the presence of the Lord as the priests did in the Temple. This joining of the angels in Heaven in worship is so grahically illustrated in Revelation written by John who was undoubtedly a member of the Jewish priesthood. The Lord's Prayer can be understood as an invocation of the presence of the Lord and His kingdom.

After reading Barker, I don't believe we need to modernize Christianity or try to make it conform to Rabbinic Judaism which Messianic congregations try to do. What we need is a new and more accurate understanding of the ancient rituals we already have.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Revolution in Christian Studies, September 10, 2009

By 

Paul T. Smith (Salt Lake City, UT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Temple Themes in Christian Worship (Paperback)

Once in a very great while, a scholar will develop an entirely new explanation for an historical period whose ground had been plowed many times. Is there anything left to discover about the early Christian church? In the case of "Temple Themes in Christian Worship" the answer is a resounding "yes." Margaret Barker's work bids well to revolutionize studies in this field.