Scott pointed out that the Early Church followed the synagogue model of worship and quickly developed a Temple/Synagogue pattern to their worship. This actually should not be in the least surprising, since Our Lord Jesus Christ is Jewish. When on earth, he worshiped as a Jewish believer, attending both Synagogue (beyt knesset) and Temple. Sacrifices were offered for him after his birth, as required by the Law, and I am quite sure that he offered sacrifices as well, if only because of the silence of Scripture and Talmud on that issue. (Given that the scribes and Pharisees were looking for ways to damage him, I must assume that he offered the appropriate sacrifices, otherwise there would have certainly been criticism of him on that issue.)
In fact, the New Testament pictures him as teaching in both Temple and Synagogue (beyt knesset) as the rabbis did. But, I have just one question for those who insist that nothing may be begun unless it has the strict warrant of Scripture. Where in the Old Testament, in either Law or Prophets, does God sanction the Synagogue (beyt knesset) as a place of worship?
Let me give you a quote from an article on the Synagogue:
During the Babylonian captivity the Men of the Great Assembly began the process of formalizing and standardizing Jewish services and prayers that did not depend on the functioning of the Temple in Jerusalem. Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, one of the leaders at the end of the Second Temple era, promulgated the idea of creating individual houses of worship in whatever locale Jews found themselves. This contributed to the saving of the Jewish people by maintaining a unique identity and a portable way of worship despite the destruction of the Temple, according to many historians.
So, the Synagogue is a providential historical development. It was providential for the Jews and it was providential for the Church. All the early worship of the Church followed the pattern of the Synagogue, down even to some of the details of the worship. The procession of the Gospel book is a complete parallel to the procession of the Torah before its reading, to give just one example. But, uhm, where is the Old Testament mandate for the beginning of such a worship? It is true that Our Lord Jesus hallowed the Synagogue by his presence in them, but that is post its development. So, I ask again, on what Scriptural grounds was a worship started and houses of prayer built that became so crucial to Jews and Christians alike?
The answer is that there is no Scriptural warrant for the Synagogue. It was a strictly providential development. And, God not only did not punish the Jews for developing the Synagogue, he blessed the Jews and through the Jews blessed the Christians with the outline for what today is often called the Liturgy of the Word.
Therefore, to argue, as some do, that nothing can be in the worship save that which is explicitly commanded in Scripture is fully contradicted by the development of the Synagogue. Rather, Scripture itself shows us that God may, and does, choose to work in providential ways that may neither be written in Scripture nor prophesied by the Holy Spirit, but are part of the Providence of God. To cite Old Testament scripture to try to prove that anything begun in worship without strict Scriptural warrant is somehow “strange fire” flies in the very face of both the Old and New Testament witness to the blessings of God upon the Synagogue.
Thus, following the Old Testament pattern and following Our Lord Jesus’ continual presence in various synagogues, the Church has providentially developed worship patterns which do follow Temple and Synagogue but also have their own identity and particulars, not all of which need be listed in Scripture in order for them to be fully valid and enforceable.
And now, a couple of final notes. First, the development of the Synagogue, its persistence in Judaism to this day, and the way that no Jew questions its existence shows a type of Holy Tradition at work in Judaism. That is, despite the fact that there is no Scriptural warrant for the Synagogue, nevertheless I have not read any arguments, in either Judaism or Christianity, against its existence after the Babylonian Exile and during New Testament times. Nor have I read any arguments that the Synagogue is merely a “tradition of men.” Rather, both Jews and Christians accept that the Synagogue is a sound and godly worship center. In other words, it is a type of Holy Tradition. Thus, there is even Scriptural warrant, in the development of the Synagogue, for the idea of Holy Tradition.
This is good stuff…