Changes

===The Worship of the Early Aramaic Church===

===The Worship of the Early Aramaic Church===

What is know about the life and worship of the earliest Aramaic community, is derived from an Aramaic (Syriac) document, once thought to be from a later "Judaizing" element within the Church, but now known, by comparison with linguistic affinities to the  Dead Sea Scrolls in conjunction with the Gospel of John, to come from the first century, from the time that the church was still Jewish. This document is the "Odes of Solomon". The "Odes" are earlier than most literature of the New Testament. There, Gentile Christians are exhorted to be tolerant and caring for the remaining early Jewish believers in their midst. Here in the Odes of Solomon, Jewish believers are urged to be tolerant and caring of the Gentiles who had come to faith and were now in their midst. "And the Gentiles, who had been dispersed, were gathered together; But I [Jesus speaking] was not defiled by My love (for them); Because they had praised Me in High Places. (Odes Sol. 10:5). They went out early each morning before work and prayed together with arms outsteched, the fashion of worship of a slightly later gentile prayer position, considering this outstreching the "sign of the cross" - "I extended my hands and approached my Lord, For the expansion of my hands is His sign, And my extension is the common cross; That was lifted up on the way of the Righteous One." (A History of Christianity in Asia, Vol. l., Samuel Hugh Moffett, Orbis,{Odes Sol.42:1,2,}, 1998, pg.52). The Odes, have either a joining of Biblical passages, or the thought of such passages prior to their writing. An example is Ode 41:12-15 bringing together the prologue of the Gospel of John and Philippians 2. "His word is with us on the way; The Saviour who gives life and does not reject (us); The Man who humbled Himself, but was exalted because of His own Righteousness...;And Light dawned from the Word, that was before time in Him."

What is known about the life and worship of the earliest Aramaic community, is derived from an Aramaic (Syriac) document, once thought to be from a later "Judaizing" element within the Church, but now known, by comparison with linguistic affinities to the  Dead Sea Scrolls in conjunction with the Gospel of John, to come from the first century, from the time that the church was still Jewish. This document is the "Odes of Solomon". The "Odes" are earlier than most literature of the New Testament. There, Gentile Christians are exhorted to be tolerant and caring for the remaining early Jewish believers in their midst. Here in the Odes of Solomon, Jewish believers are urged to be tolerant and caring for the Gentiles who had come to faith and were now in their midst. "And the Gentiles, who had been dispersed, were gathered together; But I [Jesus speaking] was not defiled by My love (for them); Because they had praised Me in High Places. (Odes Sol. 10:5). They went out early each morning before work and prayed together with arms outsteched, the fashion of worship of a slightly later gentile prayer position, considering this outstretching the "sign of the cross" - "I extended my hands and approached my Lord, For the expansion of my hands is His sign, And my extension is the common cross; That was lifted up on the way of the Righteous One." (A History of Christianity in Asia, Vol. l., Samuel Hugh Moffett, Orbis,{Odes Sol.42:1,2,}, 1998, pg.52). The Odes, have either a joining of Biblical passages, or the thought of such passages prior to their writing. An example is Ode 41:12-15 bringing together the prologue of the Gospel of John and Philippians 2. "His word is with us on the way; The Saviour who gives life and does not reject (us); The Man who humbled Himself, but was exalted because of His own Righteousness...;And Light dawned from the Word, that was before time in Him."

There is little to be said in the Odes about the organization of this early Aramaic Church. The "Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons" of the roughly contemporaneous New Testament are not mentioned, but that may not mean much. As Samuel Moffett wrote about this matter, "[hymns]are rarely required to sing of bureaucracies". The closest to a list of ministries is from Ode 12:4 - "...the interpreters of His beauty, and the narrators of His Glory, and the confessors of His purpose, and the preachers of His mind, and the teachers of His works."

There is little to be said in the Odes about the organization of this early Aramaic Church. The "Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons" of the roughly contemporaneous New Testament are not mentioned, but that may not mean much. As Samuel Moffett wrote about this matter, "[hymns]are rarely required to sing of bureaucracies". The closest to a list of ministries is from Ode 12:4 - "...the interpreters of His beauty, and the narrators of His Glory, and the confessors of His purpose, and the preachers of His mind, and the teachers of His works."