The other night I got to thinking

The other night I got to thinking, “Isn’t it interesting that in Bible days the people knew their Bibles so well.” I mean, when Jesus and the Apostles preached, they could just reference stories and the people knew what they were talking about. This is true for the epistles as well. Why was that?

My conclusion? They knew their Bible so well because of the public reading of the Word. The Jews had a plan for the systematic reading of the Bible. When I got home I did a little research on the practice of the Jews in the first century. Here is some of what I learned:

“We can presume that every community had a copy of the Torah…Individuals may have owned  their own copies of some of the biblical texts, but this was no doubt the exception rather than the rule.” Therefore, the synagogue was where it was read.

The Ancient Precedence for the Reading of the Torah

Exodus 24:12 And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them. “Thus from the very beginning the Torah was intended to be read publicly.”

Deuteronomy 31:9-13  10 And Moses commanded them [the priests], saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,  11 When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 

Joshua 8:34-35 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel…

Nehemiah 8:1-8  So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

Josephus, the Jewish historian, wrote of Moses in the Law, “permitting the people to leave off their other employments, and to assemble together for the hearing of the law, and learning it exactly, and this not once or twice, or oftener, but every week.”

Thus we find this well established in the New Testament

Acts 15:21 For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.

Acts 13:15 And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. 
“word of exhortation” refers to preaching, expository preaching it would seem

Luke 4:16-30  16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. 17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book [to Isa 61:1-2]...
 
In my research I learned that there were two plans or models for reading through the Law. One was to read through the Law (Genesis through Deuteronomy) once every year. The other was to do this once every three years. This is called lectio continua. That is, they would read a portion of the Law on the sabbath and the next sabbath they would begin reading where they left off the last week. This would continue until they had finished reading the Torah. And when they finished they would start the cycle again.

And actually, there were two Scripture lessons: “the Law and the Prophets, which in the Jewish division of the Scriptures also included the historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. Thus, Moses was read every Sabbath and so were the Prophets. Unlike the torah, the [prophets] were not read as a lectio continua but were specifically chosen to complement the torah lessons and provided the key to their interpretation.” This means that the core of the synagogue service was the reading of Scripture.

I know there are those who would dismiss this out of hand as Jewish practice under the Law, one that can therefore be disregarded. Yet the Apostle Paul wrote (1 Tim 4:13): Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. This refers to public reading

And this was the practice of the early church. Justin Martyr, in his description of Christian worship, says: “And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.”

“The lectio continua was carried over from the synagogue into Christian worship and remained the basic rule for the first few centuries of the church, as we see in the sermons of Origen, Augustine, Chrysostom, etc. It was eventually supplanted, however, by lectionaries and the liturgical calendar.”

Thus, both the Jews and the earliest Christians had as a central part of their worship the reading of the Scriptures, accompanied by comments on the passage read.

Is this just a historical survey? No. It is yet another plea for the church today to return to the biblical model of worship, and to systematically read the Scriptures when we assemble.

Some of the sites I visited:

http://opc.org/os.html?article_id=342#note27

http://www.massexplained.com/2011/09/the-rise-of-the-synagogue/
I know this is a Catholic page and that some people will react violently to it; scroll down to The Scriptures and the Synagogue for the relevant section

http://www.torahresource.com/EnglishArticles/TriennialCycle.pdf