THE HISTORY OF SERMONS

 

“And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” —Paul of Tarsus in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5

Is the sermon really the center of a gathered meeting of the church?  We have been led to think of it as essential.  But is it?  Sermons do not appear in the New Testament as we have been led to believe.

The earliest recorded Christian source for regular sermonizing is found during the late second century. Clement of Alexandria lamented the fact that sermons did so little to change Christians. Yet despite its recognized failure, the sermon became a standard practice among believers by the fourth century. [Viola, Frank; Barna, George. Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (p. 89). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition. ]

If this is true, then what about the preaching in the New Testament? According to Frank Viola this kind of speaking, which we now consider "expository" preaching originated with the Sophists:

To find the headwaters of the sermon, we must go back to the fifth century BC and a group of wandering teachers called sophists. The sophists are credited for inventing rhetoric (the art of persuasive speaking). They recruited disciples and demanded payment for delivering their orations. [Viola, Frank; Barna, George. Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (p. 89). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.]  

What made these Sophists such ideal people for our modern concept of preaching?  Viola goes on to quote Edwin Hatch, Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages:

The sophists were expert debaters. They were masters at using emotional appeals, physical appearance, and clever language to “sell” their arguments. In time, the style, form, and oratorical skill of the sophists became more prized than their accuracy. This spawned a class of men who became masters of fine phrases, “cultivating style for style’s sake.” The truths they preached were abstract rather than truths that were practiced in their own lives. They were experts at imitating form rather than substance. The sophists identified themselves by the special clothing they wore. Some of them had a fixed residence where they gave regular sermons to the same audience. Others traveled to deliver their polished orations. (They made a good deal of money when they did.) Sometimes the Greek orator would enter his speaking forum “already robed in his pulpit gown.” He would then mount the steps to his professional chair to sit before he brought his sermon. [Viola, Frank; Barna, George. Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (pp. 89-90). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.] 

The famous three-point-sermon, which is popular now in preaching circles and seminary homiletic classes had a pagan origin: "The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC) gave to rhetoric the three-point speech. “A whole,” said Aristotle, “must have a beginning, a middle, and an end.” In time, Greek orators implemented Aristotle’s three-point principle into their discourses. [Viola, Frank; Barna, George. Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (p. 90). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.].  Today, most "churches" look for "great preachers".  This has not changed much since Pagan Greek times:

Orators could bring a crowd to a frenzy simply by their powerful speaking skills. Teachers of rhetoric, the leading science of the era, were the pride of every major city. The orators they produced were given celebrity status. In short, the Greeks and Romans were addicted to the pagan sermon—just as many contemporary Christians are addicted to the “Christian” sermon. [Viola, Frank; Barna, George. Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (pp. 90-91). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.] 

But how did these practices filter down to the Churches?  Viola goes on to explain:

...many pagan orators and philosophers were becoming Christians. As a result, pagan philosophical ideas unwittingly made their way into the Christian community. Many of these men became the theologians and leaders of the early Christian church. They are known as the “church fathers,” and some of their writings are still with us. [Viola, Frank; Barna, George. Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (p. 91). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.]

So instead of being wary of Pagan practices, the churches of the third century around the time of Cyprian, we read:

So a new style of communication was being birthed in the Christian church—a style that emphasized polished rhetoric, sophisticated grammar, flowery eloquence, and monologue. It was a style that was designed to entertain and show off the speaker’s oratorical skills. It was Greco-Roman rhetoric. And only those who were trained in it were allowed to address the assembly! [Viola, Frank; Barna, George. Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (p. 92). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.]

But how was this different from the Apostolic "preaching"?  Most think that Paul did this kind of preaching based on Acts 20.8-10: "And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him."  But this is deceptive since the word "preaching" does not stand for the monologue that we are used for. This KJV translation misrepresents what was going on in that meeting.  The Greek word translated "preach" in Acts is the Greek dialegomai.  It represents an exchange, a give, and take, a dialog between Paul and his listeners.

In a word, the Greco-Roman sermon replaced prophesying, open sharing, and Spirit-inspired teaching.[42] The sermon became the elitist privilege of church officials, particularly the bishops. Such people had to be educated in the schools of rhetoric to learn how to speak.[43] Without this education, a Christian was not permitted to address God’s people. As early as the third century, Christians called their sermons homilies, the same term Greek orators used for their discourses.[44] Today, one can take a seminary course called Homiletics to learn how to preach. Homiletics is considered a “science, applying rules of rhetoric, which go back to Greece and Rome.” [Viola, Frank; Barna, George. Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (pp. 92-93). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.] 

Chapter and Verses Added In the Bible

The Bible did not always have chapters and verses.  In fact, it was not always in one volume as we know it today.  Before the printing printed the Bible (1435):

The work of copying the Scriptures was undertaken in earnest in the monasteries in the Middle Ages.  Several thousand monasteries were established across Europe, and for many of the monks making copies of the Scriptures was their chief task. They became the true guardians of the text and produced literally thousands of magnificent Bibles. Teams of scribes and artists worked with parchment to produce incredibly beautiful works of art. A scribe taking dictation might use as many as 80 quills a day, and artists embellished the work with intricate designs and illustrations. 

By the late Middle Ages, the production of both religious and secular texts passed to professional copyists. Booksellers placed shops near the universities and to cathedral schools, and so the book trade mushroomed. Of course, most people in the Middle Ages were illiterate, and so picture Bibles full of wonderful illustrations became popular. 

Because of the huge size of complete Bibles, they were divided into several volumes, and each was very costly. Only the rich and the universities could afford them.

Chapters were not put in until the English archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton (A Roman Catholic)  devised chapters for the Bible in the early 13th century, which are still used today.  It was not until Robert Etienne in the 1551 edition of the Greek New Testament.  In English, William Whittingham (1524-1579) included these verses in Geneva Bible.  Matthew's Bible had markings called "lectern markings".  But certainly, in apostolic churches and early churches, there were no such Bible Studies as we imagine them today.  Books were studied, but they had no way to find specific verses in the Bible, assuming they had a complete copy of it.

In light of all this can we visualize an early apostolic assembly? First, we must not assume that everyone had a copy of even one epistle or gospel. Second, we must not assume that all could read. There would have been no reference to chapters or verses.  So, it is likely, that if an apostle would have been present, he might have dominated the conversation, but there would have been interaction between the apostle and the rest of the group, as indicated in Acts 20 and I Corinthians 14.  But what if an apostle would not have been present?  It is possible that they might have possessed a copy of a gospel or epistle and this would have been read in the congregation, in which someone who knew how to read, would have read it to the rest and then it would have been discussed (Col. 4.16).

Conclusion

It seems that no matter which of these choices we think likely happened, what did NOT happen, was a sermon or some form liturgical structure.  The meeting was orderly but unstructured.  We leave it to our readers to compare their practices with these.