The Old Testament is filled with the history of ancient Israel. It relates to us stories and facts of what the people of Israel endured, as well as what their way of life was like. In Genesis we find out the lifestyles of many people. For example, we read about Abraham and Sarahs hospitality, the Sodomites and Gomorites, who did not please God, as well as how to people acted in the times of Noah. The book of Exodus is filled with the history of Israel when they were slaves in Egypt, and led to freedom by Moses. During this time a enslavement, God reveals to Moses how His people are ought to worship him. in Exodus 20:22-26, God tells Moses to make Him an altar and to sacrifice their whole burnt offerings on it. About 2,000 years later, after
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He spends his whole life trying to please and interact with God through his actions, but the main interaction a Christian has with God is through the eucharist. This sacrament is also called holy communion since the faithful are mystically communing with God. As Fr. Thomas Hopko states, The eucharist is the center of the Church 's life. Everything in the Church leads to the eucharist, and all things flow from it. As the pre-communion prayers state, the Eucharist is truly Christ 's body and precious Blood. The interaction between worshiper and his Creator reaches its climax through the Eucharists since they are joined together. This is why the Divine Liturgy is celebrated so frequently: Every Sunday and on major feast days in parishes, and daily in monasteries around the …show more content…
We see similarities in the structure of the Holy of Holies as well as in the vestments of the priest. Margret Barker notes that Christian churches, such as the church of the Holy Sepulcher were “built in conscious imitation of the Temple and its priesthood.” In Hebrews, the author does an incredible job explaining the structure of the Jewish temple. The reader is easily able to find similarities between the temple and the orthodox church. In verse 9:4-5 he mentions that on top of the ark of the covenant “were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.” This shows us that God is enthroned upon the cherubim; hence God’s throne in Israel 's midst, the mercy seat, has a cherub on each side, which explains the reason why the Orthodox Christian altar is flanked by cherubim. In the Orthdoox Church, our Holy of Holies is the altar area, also known as the θυσιαστήριον. In the Greek, the word for sacrifice is Θυσια, so this is why the altar is given this name since it is the place where the sacrifice takes place. It is separated from the people with a large screen with a curtain, just like the sanctuary in the Temple. The access into this Holy area is allowed only by the ordained clergy (priests, deacons, bishops) just as the Holy of Holies was accessed only by the ordained High Priest. The early Christian notion of liturgy was one of heaven on earth and, in that respect, the church structure was
He spends his whole life trying to please and interact with God through his actions, but the main interaction a Christian has with God is through the eucharist. This sacrament is also called holy communion since the faithful are mystically communing with God. As Fr. Thomas Hopko states, The eucharist is the center of the Church 's life. Everything in the Church leads to the eucharist, and all things flow from it. As the pre-communion prayers state, the Eucharist is truly Christ 's body and precious Blood. The interaction between worshiper and his Creator reaches its climax through the Eucharists since they are joined together. This is why the Divine Liturgy is celebrated so frequently: Every Sunday and on major feast days in parishes, and daily in monasteries around the …show more content…
We see similarities in the structure of the Holy of Holies as well as in the vestments of the priest. Margret Barker notes that Christian churches, such as the church of the Holy Sepulcher were “built in conscious imitation of the Temple and its priesthood.” In Hebrews, the author does an incredible job explaining the structure of the Jewish temple. The reader is easily able to find similarities between the temple and the orthodox church. In verse 9:4-5 he mentions that on top of the ark of the covenant “were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.” This shows us that God is enthroned upon the cherubim; hence God’s throne in Israel 's midst, the mercy seat, has a cherub on each side, which explains the reason why the Orthodox Christian altar is flanked by cherubim. In the Orthdoox Church, our Holy of Holies is the altar area, also known as the θυσιαστήριον. In the Greek, the word for sacrifice is Θυσια, so this is why the altar is given this name since it is the place where the sacrifice takes place. It is separated from the people with a large screen with a curtain, just like the sanctuary in the Temple. The access into this Holy area is allowed only by the ordained clergy (priests, deacons, bishops) just as the Holy of Holies was accessed only by the ordained High Priest. The early Christian notion of liturgy was one of heaven on earth and, in that respect, the church structure was