Temple Themes in Christian Worship

"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 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. -- The Good Bookstall

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

1. The Temple: A brief history and why there was controversy over the true temple.; Temple world view, introducing key terms such as covenant, atonement, resurrection, incarnation.; 2. Priesthood and high priesthood: Jesus the great high priest.; Melchizedek.; 3. Baptism varieties of early practice, original rituals, change in meaning in 4th century.; Baptism as resurrection.; 4. Eucharist: The shape of the liturgy, temple roots of wine and bread, the meaning of atonement, renewing the covenant.; Early texts including New Testament variants.; 5. Visions: Seeing the Lord, divine presence in worship.; 6. Scripture: The use of the Bible in worship, how the early church understood the Old Testament, typology in worship, lectionaries.; Teaching the Bible.; 7. Music: Role of music in the temple.; Hymns as the worship of angels, living the angel life.; Cosmic harmony. The Therapeuts.; 8. Prayers: The Lord's Prayer, the earliest written liturgies.; 9 Festivals and Pilgrimages: How and when Easter was celebrated, finding the true cross, Christmas.; Pilgrimage to Palestine after the time of Constatine. Egeria.; 10. Churches: The earliest evidence for church buildings.; Constantine's churches, Justinian's churches.