Difference between revisions of "Church"
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==The possibly first Church Structure== | ==The possibly first Church Structure== | ||
| − | On [[Mount Zion]] in [[Jerusalem]], identified wrongly as such by the Crusaders, close to the present day Roman Catholic [[Dormition Abbey]], and entering the room below that of the Last Supper of Jesus, one views the huge remembrance stone indicating the tomb of [[King David]] from Crusader times. Outside the tomb enclosure, there are are usually orthodox Jews praying. But behind the remembrance stone on the wall of the room facing the Temple Mount, one can see the niche at the exact height above the ground for the scrolls of the Bible to be placed. This indicates that the room had originally been a synagogue. Walking around the outside of the room in the courtyard, one can see the "Herodian" stone blocks with their characteristic and tell-tale incised borders. So this room was originally built in the first century. Further, the stones were of different sizes and shapes indicating that this was their secondary placement having been brought here from elsewhere, perhaps the destroyed temple area itself. During the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, an artillery shell landed in the courtyard, shattering the successive layers of plaster of the room within, until the last layer could be seen, extending down past the Ottoman Turk, Early Muslim, Crusader, Byzantine period floor levels, | + | On [[Mount Zion]] in [[Jerusalem]], identified wrongly as such by the Crusaders, close to the present day Roman Catholic [[Dormition Abbey]], and entering the room below that of the Last Supper of Jesus, one views the huge remembrance stone indicating the tomb of [[King David]] from Crusader times. Outside the tomb enclosure, there are are usually orthodox Jews praying. But behind the remembrance stone on the wall of the room facing the Temple Mount, one can see the niche at the exact height above the ground for the scrolls of the Bible to be placed. This indicates that the room had originally been a synagogue. Walking around the outside of the room in the courtyard, one can see the "Herodian" stone blocks with their characteristic and tell-tale incised borders. So this room was originally built in the first century. Further, the stones were of different sizes and shapes indicating that this was their secondary placement having been brought here from elsewhere, perhaps the destroyed temple area itself. During the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, an artillery shell landed in the courtyard, shattering the successive layers of plaster of the room within, until the last layer could be seen, extending down past the Ottoman Turk, Early Muslim, Crusader, Byzantine period floor levels, ending at the original 1st century floor. This was further confirmation that the room was built in the first century. There were prayers in Greek to Jesus inscribed on the wall. This indicates that the synagogue was a hellenistic oriented Jewish Christian synagogue (similar to the New Testament reference of the Jewish "synagogue of the Libertins"). It also explains why the room, right across the valley from the Temple Mount, was not oriented to it in the usual way that the worshippers would face the temple, but was rather facing north in the exact direction of the both the later "Constantinian" Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the most recent "Gordon's Calvary" - the two contenders for the site of the crucifixtion, burial and resurrection of Jesus. |
| − | This "Kibla" or prayer direction is in accord with ancient practice of facing the direction of importance . For the Old Testament and Judaism, facing Jerusalem and, in particular if within Jeruselem, facing the temple; for Islam (after it disavowed Jerusalem as the kibla), facing Mecca; and, at one time,for Christians, facing the East, the direction of the rising sun (Mal.3) and also the direction from which Christ would return. | + | This "Kibla" or prayer direction is in accord with ancient practice of facing the direction of importance. For the Old Testament and Judaism, facing Jerusalem and, in particular if within Jeruselem, facing the temple; for Islam (after it disavowed Jerusalem as the kibla), facing Mecca; and, at one time, for Christians, facing the East, the direction of the rising sun (Mal.3) and also the direction from which Christ would return. |
The mosaic Byzantine [[Madaba map]] of Jerusalem shows the location and the room as being adjacent to another structure - the Church of the Holy Apostles, indicating that it was considered as particularly important or held holy in the Byzantine period. The later huge Crusader period Church of St. Mary, built at the same spot as the earlier Byzantine church, is shown by archeology to have actually included the room within the Church structure. This then was the most likely first Church and home to the Believers in Jesus before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The "Church House", possibly the home of Mark, that would later be called "[[The Church of the Holy Apostles]]" and the "Mother of all Churches" - (The Liturgy of St. James). | The mosaic Byzantine [[Madaba map]] of Jerusalem shows the location and the room as being adjacent to another structure - the Church of the Holy Apostles, indicating that it was considered as particularly important or held holy in the Byzantine period. The later huge Crusader period Church of St. Mary, built at the same spot as the earlier Byzantine church, is shown by archeology to have actually included the room within the Church structure. This then was the most likely first Church and home to the Believers in Jesus before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The "Church House", possibly the home of Mark, that would later be called "[[The Church of the Holy Apostles]]" and the "Mother of all Churches" - (The Liturgy of St. James). | ||
Revision as of 06:10, May 16, 2008
A church is a building in which worship, usually of a Christian nature, takes place.
A church in which a bishop resides is known as a cathedral.
Sometimes the term "Church" is used to refer to a collective Christian body such as the Catholic Church or the total body of believers.
The possibly first Church Structure
On Mount Zion in Jerusalem, identified wrongly as such by the Crusaders, close to the present day Roman Catholic Dormition Abbey, and entering the room below that of the Last Supper of Jesus, one views the huge remembrance stone indicating the tomb of King David from Crusader times. Outside the tomb enclosure, there are are usually orthodox Jews praying. But behind the remembrance stone on the wall of the room facing the Temple Mount, one can see the niche at the exact height above the ground for the scrolls of the Bible to be placed. This indicates that the room had originally been a synagogue. Walking around the outside of the room in the courtyard, one can see the "Herodian" stone blocks with their characteristic and tell-tale incised borders. So this room was originally built in the first century. Further, the stones were of different sizes and shapes indicating that this was their secondary placement having been brought here from elsewhere, perhaps the destroyed temple area itself. During the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, an artillery shell landed in the courtyard, shattering the successive layers of plaster of the room within, until the last layer could be seen, extending down past the Ottoman Turk, Early Muslim, Crusader, Byzantine period floor levels, ending at the original 1st century floor. This was further confirmation that the room was built in the first century. There were prayers in Greek to Jesus inscribed on the wall. This indicates that the synagogue was a hellenistic oriented Jewish Christian synagogue (similar to the New Testament reference of the Jewish "synagogue of the Libertins"). It also explains why the room, right across the valley from the Temple Mount, was not oriented to it in the usual way that the worshippers would face the temple, but was rather facing north in the exact direction of the both the later "Constantinian" Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the most recent "Gordon's Calvary" - the two contenders for the site of the crucifixtion, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
This "Kibla" or prayer direction is in accord with ancient practice of facing the direction of importance. For the Old Testament and Judaism, facing Jerusalem and, in particular if within Jeruselem, facing the temple; for Islam (after it disavowed Jerusalem as the kibla), facing Mecca; and, at one time, for Christians, facing the East, the direction of the rising sun (Mal.3) and also the direction from which Christ would return.
The mosaic Byzantine Madaba map of Jerusalem shows the location and the room as being adjacent to another structure - the Church of the Holy Apostles, indicating that it was considered as particularly important or held holy in the Byzantine period. The later huge Crusader period Church of St. Mary, built at the same spot as the earlier Byzantine church, is shown by archeology to have actually included the room within the Church structure. This then was the most likely first Church and home to the Believers in Jesus before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The "Church House", possibly the home of Mark, that would later be called "The Church of the Holy Apostles" and the "Mother of all Churches" - (The Liturgy of St. James).
Etymology
The word church comes, through the Old English circe, from the Koine Greek κυριακον (kyriakon), which means "Lord's House".