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  • From: "John Dickson" <dicksonj AT bigpond.net.au>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Pauline Worship Service: Public or Private?
  • Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:37:51 +1000


Daniel Street writes:
> My question revolves around 1Cor 14:20-25. [snip]
> My question is: to what extent
> were early Christian assemblies or worship
> meetings considered to be "public space"?
> To what extent do you think unbelievers were
> welcome? And, finally, do you believe there
> is a good possibility that some church
> assemblies took place in public areas, i.e.
> not in private homes?
In relation to Corinth, Rom 16:23 - and, in particular, the presence of the
adjective hOLOS - suggests believers did not meet in a 'public space' as
such but in a home, presumably a large one. However, I wouldn't want to draw
a great distinction here. Privacy is a commodity valued and guarded far more
highly today than in first century Corinth. Prominent homes were often
centres of business and social affairs, as well as family life. In addition,
travelling philosophers regularly used the homes of leading men and women
for their 'public' meetings.
Christian gatherings in Corinth must have looked part social event (food and
wine) and part philosophers' gathering. I doubt very much that outsiders
would have walked into such a meeting 'off the street', as it were, but we
are probably to assume that persons such as Gaius issued an open invitation
to members so that they felt free to invite to the gatherings whomever they
wanted. I suspect the 'visitors' mentioned in 1 Cor 14 are to be thought of
as guests of one of the congregation members. The high level of social
integration expressed by some members of the church (1 Cor 8 and 10) may
well have made this a regular occurrence, regular enough, at least, for Paul
to appeal to it in his apologia for prophecy in chap 14.
Your instinct about the 'openness' of Christian gatherings is well founded,
I believe. We know that synagogue services of the Diaspora were 'open' to
outsiders. It would be astonishing if Christian gatherings were any less so.
And there is every reason - in view of the mission orientation of the
Pauline communities - to think they were more so.
Regards,
John Dickson
Macquarie University
Sydney, Australia









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