Worship, Revised and Expanded Edition: Reformed according to Scripture

by Hughes Oliphant Old

A second passage of Scripture that tells us how the Scriptures were read and preached in the synagogue is found in the Gospel of Luke. It is the familiar story of Jesus preaching in the synagogue of Nazareth. We can assume that the service began with the traditional psalmody and the traditional prayers. We can also assume that the law was read in the manner that by then was traditional. Jesus was called to the platform. It was already an old custom that a visiting rabbi should be invited to read a passage of Scripture and then to comment on it. Jesus was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, and he opened it to the place he had in mind. He stood at the pulpit and read the passage. The book was closed and handed to an attendant, who replaced it in the ark, a great cupboardlike chest where the copies of sacred Scriptures were kept. While this was being done, a psalm may well have been sung, and Jesus sat down in the seat of Moses, a great thronelike chair behind the pulpit, and began to preach.