gave me the task of writing an intro to the occasional use of the Apocrypha in Lutheran liturgy for his upcoming Daily Divine Service Book. I had known that a reading from Sirach was assigned to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin in CPH's Luther Bible. What I had suspected, but hadn't bothered to confirm, was that that was no isolated instance, that the Apocrypha was read extensively at services in the Lutheran Church of old.
So I checked out the Magdeburg Book (Lutheran, early 17th century), and sure enough. There it was: the entirety of Tobit, Judith, 1 & 2 Maccabees all assigned to successive Matins and Vespers on some of the weeks following the feast of the Trinity.
It whets my appetite for the upcoming reader's edition of the Apocrypha that CPH is readying in the hopes that Lutherans of today will begin rediscovering these books that Dr. Luther insisted were "useful" and "good to read."
12 comments:
I was thinking about this the other day. We've covered Wisdom. Have you planned on going through any of the other books at the Wednesday evening study?
We should wait till it comes out from CPH, Becky, and then work out way through some of the other writings. Wisdom was great, wasn't it? I got to do the notes on the first ten chapters of that for the upcoming book.
My husband and I just finished reading through Wisdom for our night-time reading together. We're reading 1 Maccabees now. I'm eagerly anticipating the CPH edition.
Bethany Kilcrease
Of potential related interest. In the book "Fifty Years In The Lutheran Ministry" ( available on archive.org ) is a comment by the author regarding Dr. John Daniel Kurtz, if I have it right he was the 1st Pres of the MD synod and later the General Synod in the states in 1820 or so.
The author makes this comment of Kurtz, "He was the first man I ever heard preach from a text in the Apocrypha, but it was a very unusual practice with him." ( p.23).
Naturally all of this predates the arrival of Missouri folks to the states.
One other item that is interesting to me. I spent a fair bit of time reading Jewish liturgies in english from late 1800's early 1900's ( they didn't get translated to English till very late ).
In these liturgies I find there are readings from the duetero canonical books. Not many but some.
I found that surprising and fascinating.
I do not have my sources handy, if you want say so and I'll dig them out.
The only self-standing apocryphal OT book actually read from at Orthodox services is Wisdom.
Then there are a few verses from Baruch, Psalm 151, Manasseh's prayer, and the hymn of the three holy children.
The prayer for travellers mentions Archangel Rapahel being sent to Tobias, from the book of Tobit.
That's pretty much it.
Is it appropriate to say "This is the Word of the Lord" after a reading from the Apocrypha?
Wisdom? Good book indeed, but Sirach is also known as Eccleciasticus because it was so commonly used it was called the "church book" by St Cyprian et seq, and as far as Jewish liturgy goes, is the basis of the Amidah, the Sabbath version of which is the model for the Gloria (you remember, what the church prayed standing for 1500 years until the post Vatican II era "This Is The Feast" all but replaced it).
Vincent,
I'd be most interested in anything you can dig up.
Anon,
I think in Chemnitz' mind, if you could say it after a selection from the NT apocrypha (which we do all the time), why not for an OT? But the old "Here endeth the reading" solveth the problem. :)
Terry,
Worthy is Christ sure has not replaced Gloria in Excelsis around these parts!
Sorry to disappoint, PE: but that's the harsh, cold & painfully merciless truth.
The reason is that we only read from the OT on the eve of Great Feasts, about a dozen in number, and there're only three readings chosen for each.
And the readings are typological, and Wisdom has some [e.g., 2:12-20], but Sirach not really; so that's why we read Wisdom on only a few occasions, but no Sirach.
Hey Lucian, good to hear from you! My point was not to dispute about readings from Apocryphal books, but to point out particularly Sirach's liturgical influence not in being read but in its background to what would become the Gloria.
Unfortunately I do not live in the same parts as PW. Here DSI is to all intents and purposes the new "Common Service" and the Gloria has become, in good Vatican II option A option B or something else style, This Is The Feast or whatever the praise band comes up with.
I have emailed you with the examples and the liturgical works they are drawn from.
If for some reason the email address on your profile isn't valid and you don't get it let me know.
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