1. THE READING OF THE EPISTLE
Immediately after the Prokeimenon, the deacon proclaims :
. Wisdom!
The lector, vested in the stikhar, stands before the solea in the center
of the church and chants the title of the Epistle :
The reading of the Epistle of the holy Apostle Paul to the
N-.
Deacon : Let us be attentive.
The lector intones the Epistle proper to the day or occasion, beginning
with the word :
Brothers.••
When the Epistle reading is finished, the priest says in a low
voice:
Peace be to you.
And the deacon answers, also in a low voice :
Wisdom. Let us be attentive. 1
The heart of the Liturgy of the Catechumens, the synaxis, is the
reading of the Holy Scriptures. The origin of this service is found
in the Liturgy ofthe synagogue (see above, p. 31). The highlights of
this rite were the Parascha and the Haftara, readings from the Law
and from the Prophets respectively. 2
Since they were Jews, the very
first Christians were familiar with this ritual and continued to frequent
both the Temple and the synagogue services. After the final breach
with Judaism, when they held their own somewhat modified service,
the Christians retained the readings from Sacred Writ as its most
1
The Russian recension has the cantor answering, " And to your spirit. "
• E. Schi.irer, Geschichte des judischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi (4th edit.;
Leipzig, 1907), Vol. II, pp. 497-544.

2. prominent feature. They naturally added selections from the writings
of the Apostles and from the Gospels. St. Paul himselfinstructed his
converts to have his letters read in their new assemblies : " When
this letter has been read out to you, see that it is read out in the
Laodicean church too, and that you read the letter they have received
at Laodicea" (Col. 4:16; cf. also I Thess. 5:27).
Paul went out to the far comers of the then known world, gained
converts, and founded churches to continue the work begun there.
When a church had been firmly established and a bishop or priest
had been ordained to care for the increasing flock, the Apostle would
move on to the next city. He would write to people in his earlier
foundations, give them advice, instruction and admonition. These
letters were read to the faithful at the Sunday synaxis. The bishop
or priest would say in effect : " We have received a letter from the
Apostle Paul; now if you will all listen, it shall be read to
you. " This is precisely what happens even now in the Liturgy of
the Catechumens, but in a much more formal way. " Let us be
attentive " is simply a more solemn way of saying, " Listen
carefully. "
Any bishop to whom such a letter was sent had copies forwarded
to other churches. In this way, all of St. Paul's letters, or Epistles,
and those ofSt. John, St. Peter, etc., were circulated in the primitive
Christian communities. At first, they were read and reread quite
frequently, for the simple reason that they were only few. Besides,
the divinely inspired wisdom they contained would benefit the
Christians, no matter how often they were repeated.
In early days, there was no set pattern for the readings. They
were read from beginning to end, or until the bishop signaled the
reader to stop. During Justin's time, for instance, they were read
" as long as the time allows. " 8
The next time the Christians
assembled, the reader would continue with the passage where he had
left off before.
In some places at least, in addition to the Epistles, letters from
other bishops were read. Such as the Gesta of St. Ignatius of
Antioch, of St. Clement, and of St. Cyprian, and the Acts of the
•Justin, First Apology, chap. 67; above, p. 42.

3. Martyrs. Great interest was aroused by such letters-especially
those written by Christians awaiting execution for their faith.'
Many such letters described the unflinching loyalty of those who
had already gone out into the arena to be tom by wild beasts, nailed
to crosses and set afire, etc. The thought of dying for the faith was
never far from the mind ofeven the most ordinary Christian in those
days. Most realized that they would eventually be arrested, but the
essential question was whether they could go through with it or
would become apostates. Letters of exhortation and encouragement
from others preparing for the supreme trial would be sources of
special interest and inspiration. With the end of the persecutions,
this practice was gradually discontinued in most places and the
readings were restricted to selections from the Scriptures. 6
The readings were always in the vernacular. If the Christian
communities had groups of people speaking different languages,
special provision was made to have special assemblies for each lan-
guage group. As late as the end of the fourth century, for example,
Etheria tells us that at Jerusalem the readings were in Greek, but for
those who could not understand Greek, in Syrian. 6
Gradually, the initial freedom regarding the amount of reading
diminished, and more or less equal portions were assigned for each
service. Such portions were marked off in the margin of the Scrip-
tures and thus a new term was born : pericope (from the Greek
• The first testimony of such readings from martyrs at the synaxis is contained
in the second-century Acts of Apollonius (n. 47, Bibliothek der Kirchevater, XIV,
pp. 327 f.). The Third Council of Carthage (A.D. 397) in its 36th Canon (Mansi,
Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima C()llectio, III, 924), expressly sanctioned
such a practice for Masses celebrated on their individual feasts. Augustine attested
to the practice in his day (Roetzer, Des hi. Augustinus Schriften als liturgie-geschicht-
liche Que/le [Munich, 1930], 62 f., 107 f.).
• In some Churches, the custom died hard. At Milan, such a practice was
still observed in the year 1024, as is evident from the letter of Paul and Gebhart,
tw0 clerics from Regensburg (J. Mabillon, Museum Italicum [Paris, 1724], 2,
p. 97). For Gaul, see Gregory of Tours, De gloria mart., I, 86 (PL 71, 781) and
De mirac. S. Martini, II, 29; 49 (PL 71, 954> 963); also, cf. Expoiitio ant. liturgiae
gallicanae Germano Parisiensi ascripta (edit. J. Quasten, [Opuscula et Textus, ser.
liturg., 3; Miinster, 1934], 13 f.) and Lectionary of Luxeuil (edit. P. Salmon, Le
lectionnaire de Luxeuil [Rome, 1944], 27 ff., 181 f.).
• Aetheriae Peregrinatio, chap. 47 (CSEL, XXXIX, 99). Epiphanius, in fact,
mentions the office of translator of lections and homilies (Expositio fol., chap. 21
[PG 41, 825]).

4. 7te:pLxorrYj, " a portion cut off. " 7
Since books were not paged, and
the Bible had not been divided into verses, an index giving the first
and last words of each pericope was made. Such indexes, called
synaxaria in Greek, are known from the fourth century. 8
The next
development consisted in giving not only the headings but also the
whole text ofthe lessons; a complete book arranged thus would then
be called the Apostolos, Euaggelion, Synaxarion, etc., depending on
whether it contained the Epistles, Gospels, or other readings. The
Byzantine Church still uses this system; so do most of the other
Eastern Churches.
The only uniformity regarding the number of readings in the first
few centuries seemed to be that every synaxis should have at least
two, the last of which was to be the Gospel as the " crown of all the
holy Scriptures. " •
Gradually, however, the number of lessons became fixed in each
Church. Perhaps the most common arrangement consisted in two
readings from the Old Testament, a direct inheritance from the
synagogue service, followed by two readings from New Testament.
This ancient practice is clearly indicated in the Apostolic Constitu-
tions, in both Book II and Book VIII (see above, pp. 145 and 108 f.
, respectively), and traces ofit can still be found in the Syrian Jacobite
Rite. 10
The Chaldaic Rite, which has faithfully preserved so many
Semitic traits, has also kept the two lessons from the Old Testament
(the first always from the Pentateuch) before its Epistle and Gospel. 11
By the fourth century, however, liturgical development in most
Churches had reduced the two Old Testament pericopes to one.
The direct Syro-Antiochene antecedents of the Byzantine Rite and
the Rite of Constantinople itself were no exceptions; as both Basil
and Chrysostom testify, each had three lessons : (a) the Prophets,
'From about the time of the Talmud, the Jews had a fixed cycle with definitely
outlined passages (parashoth) arranged for each Sabbath. Cf. I. Elbogen, Der
jadische Gottesdienst in seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung (2nd edit. Frankfurt,
1924), pp. 159-162.
•In the Western Church, similar arrangements of the lessons were made in
the comes, libri comites, or libri comici.
• Origen, In Joann., i, 4 (PG 14, 26).
10 Cf. A. Baumstark, Nichtevangelische syrische Perilwpenordnung des ersten
Jahrtausends (Munster i. W., 1921), pp. 16-19.
11 Baumstark, op. cit., pp. 16-19; Brightman, LEW, 256, 1.25.

5. (b) the Epistle, and (c) the Gospel. 19
The Armenian Rite, derived
from the ancient Rite of Constantinople, still has three lections, the
first of which is always from the Old Testament Prophets. 13
Traces
of this practice are also found in the Western Church. The Latin
Rite, for example, has three lessons on Wednesday and Friday of
Holy Week, Ember Wednesday, and on Wednesday of the fourth
week of Lent; the old Gallican Rite had three; 14
so also the Rite of
Toledo. 15
The suppression of the Old Testament pericopes took
a different form in the Coptic and Ethiopian Liturgies, where the
two Old Testament lections were replaced by two more New Testa-
ment lections, bringing their number to four : (1) Epistles of St. Paul,
(2) the Catholic Epistles, (3) the Acts, and (4) the Gospels. 18
The final step in the evolution of the Byzantine and Roman Rites
was the total suppression of the Old Testament reading : only the
Epistle and the Gospel were left in the Mass. Other Byzantine
liturgical services have kept the Old Testament readings, e.g.,
Vespers, Matins, etc. In the Latin Mass, the Old Testament reading
was reinstated in 1970. It is unknown just when this final sup-
pression took place in the Byzantine Liturgy; certainly by the ninth
century, as we know from Anastasius Bibliothecarius. 17
but evidence
prior to the eighth century is far from certain. 18
Mostly because of
11 For the Cappadocian Church, cf. Basil, In sanctum baptisma, 1 (PG 31,
425 AB); also In psalmum, 28, 7 (PG 29, 304). For the Antiochene Church,
cf. Chrysostom, In Rom., XXlv, 3 (edit. Montfaucon 9, 697 E), De baptismo Christi,
2 (edit. cit., 2, 369 C), and Cur in Pentecoste, 5 (edit. cit., 3, 89), for the reading of
the Prophets and Epistle : for the reading of the Gospel, cf. In Matt., i, 6 (edit.
cit., 7, 13 B). For the Church at Constantinople, cf. Chrysostom, In ep. ad He-
braeos homil., VIII, 4 (edit. cit., 12, 91 BC, or PG 6o, 217); In Actus apost. homil.,
XXIX, 3 (edit. cit., 9, 229, or PG 6o, 217) and In II ad Thess, homil., III, 4 (edit.
cit., 11, 527-528 or PG 62, 485); etc.; also cf. Theodore Sykeota (d. A.D. 613),
n. 16, Acts SS. Apr., III, 37.
13
Brightman, LEW, pp. 371-372.
" Duchesne, Origines du culte chretien (Paris, 1909), p. 185.
u PL 85, 109-111, etc.
10
Brightman, LEW, pp. 76-78, 152-154, 255-258, 212-215.
17 C. 879 (edit. N. Borgia, Il commentario liturgico di s. Germano Patriarco
Constantinopolitano e la versione latina di Anastasio Bibliotecario [Grottaferrata,
1912], pp. 25 ff.). Here, the Epistle is given between the Prokeimenon and the
Alleluia chant, but no mention is made of the reading from the Prophets.
18 E.g., St. Germanus I of Constantinople in his Commentarius liturgicus, nn.
28 ff. (edit. N. Borgia, op. cit., pp. 25 ff.), does not mention the reading of the

6. Byzantine influence, the Greek Liturgies of St. James and St. Mark
have also entirely deleted the lections from the Old Testament since
the eleventh century and now have only two lessons, the Epistle and
the Gospel. 19
The Scriptural pericopes in the original synaxis followed through
from one service to another in an unbroken, continual series, the
lectio continua. The voluminous commentaries of the Fathers in
both the Eastern and the Western Churches on the Old and New
Testaments are in fact preached after such scriptural readings. With
the introduction of the great feast days into the Liturgy, the conti-
nuity was broken, for on those days lessons were chosen which were
more properly accommodated to the given feast. This system still
prevails in the Byzantine Church as regards both the Epistle and
the Gospel.
The cycle ofEpistle and Gospel readings begins, not with the litur-
gical year on September 1, but with Easter Sunday, and continues
daily until Palm Sunday of the following year-a system of Byzan-
tine invention which cannot be traced back beyond the eighth
century. There are exceptions to the continuous reading of the
Epistle cycle, but the order is clearly discernible. 20
Prophets, but then neither does he mention the Epistle. Cf. however, J. A. Jung-
mann, Mass of the Roman Rite, Vol. I (New York: Benziger, 1951), p. 395.
1
• Cf. Brightman, LEW, pp. 36 ff., u8 f.
" See schema of the Byzantine-Slav cycle ofEpistle readings on p. 443. Besides
the interruptions for the great feast days already mentioned, the most notable
disruption of order occurs when a new Epistle is begun : thus, while the weekdays
begin and continue the reading of the new Epistle, the next several Saturdays and
Sundays still continue with the final chapter of the preceding one.
Another notable disruption of order is the " interpolated weeks. " The pre-fast
period of the Triodion always begins on the 10th Sunday before Easter and the
same Epistles and Gospels recur each year not only during Lent but also during
the pre-fast Triodion period. Easter, however, does not occur on a fixed date each
year. When Easter is late in a given year and the period between it and that of
the previous year is more than fifty-two weeks, one or more weeks of lections must
be " interpolated " before the beginning of the pre-fast Triodion period (i.e.,
before the 10th Sunday before Easter). Ifthere is only one extra week, the Epistles
of the 29th week are repeated for that extra week. When two weeks must be
interpolated, then the Epistles for the 29th and 17th weeks are repeated; when
three extra weeks have to be taken care of, then the Epistles for the 29th, 31st,
and 17th weeks are repeated for these extra weeks just before the Triodion period.
If the interpolated limit of four weeks occurs, then we have the following arrange-
ment : the Epistles for the 29th and 31st weeks are repeated; this is followed by
Epistles of the 32nd week; lastly, the Epistles for the 17th week are repeated just
before the pre-fast Triodion period.

7. Week
EASTER
St. Thomas
Myrrh-bearing Women
Paralytic
Samaritan Woman
Blind Man
Fathers of Council
PENTECOST
1st after Pentecost
2nd "
3rd "
4th "
5th "
6th "
7th "
8th "
11th ,,
12th •
13th "
14th "
15th "
16th "
17th "
18th "
19th "
20th
21st "
22nd "
23rd "
24th "
25th "
26th "
27th "
28th "
29th "
30th "
31St ,,
32nd "
33rd "
ANNUAL CYCLE OF THE GOSPELS
Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri.
John
Matt.
Luke
John
Matt.
John
Matt.
John
Luke
John
Matt.
John
Matt.
Sat.
John
Matt.
Sun.
John
John
Mark
John
Matt.
Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Matt. Matt.
Luke Luke Luke Luke Luke Luke Luke
Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
• Also Sunday of
Publican &
Pharisee
34th " " " " " " " " " Prodigal Son
35th " " " " " " " " ~' Meat Fast
'-"-Ch~ee-s_e_F_as_t_W_eek____L_uk_e__L_uke___a--fu~.-.--L~uk-e--a~-l~it-.-+-Ma~-tt-.~ Matt. ' Cheese Fast
First Week of Lent a-lit. a-lit. Pre- a-lit. Pre- Mark ~
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
sanct. " sanct. " Mark
t---6th__'_'__"_'_'____"___'_'__~·--~·---~·-,__~Jo
7hn__~J_o_hn---l=F Palm Sun,
Holy Week Matt. Matt. John Matt. a-lit. Matt.

8. In nearly all the Eastern Churches, the lector chants the Epistle; 21
the Byzantine is no exception. This has been the unbroken tradition
ofthe Church from the very early centuries of Christianity. In the
middle of the second century, Justin Martyr mentions that the
" commentaries ofthe Apostles" and the" writings ofthe Prophets "
are read by the" reader." u Abundant evidence since then is not
wanting. Even in the Latin Rite, the reading of the Epistle was
reserved to the lector in the first seven or eight centuries. aa Whether
or not this was consciously copied from Jewish practice is unknown,
but we do know that in the synagogue liturgy the lessons were read
by special readers who had been trained to read Hebrew. It is
obvious that in the Christian Church the reader always had to have
a certain amount of education for his office. Another unbroken
tradition is the vesture ofthe lector. Whenever the lector performed
his service he was vested in the stikhar(ion); this probably dates
back to the beginning when the linea was the standard garment worn
in daily life. When secular fashions changed in the fourth century,
the Church kept the linea (now known as the stikhar(ion) in the
Byzantine Church).
Like the Jewish synagogue which had a tribune, .. the early
Christian church in both East and West had an elevated place on
which stood a small, movable reading desk; this was called the ambo, 16
11 The exceptions are the Maronite Rite, which has been Latinized, and the
Cbaldaic since the seventh century; cf. Abraham bar Lipheh, Interpretatio offi-
ciorum eccl. (edit. R.H. Connolly, p. I72); cf. also Ps. George of Arbela, Expositio
ojficiorum eccles., IV, chap. 6 (edit. R. H. Connolly, p. I5).
u Justin, First Apology, chap. 67, cf. above, p. 42.
11 One of the first references designating the subdeacon as the reader of the
Epistle in the Latin Church was the Ordo Rom., I, n. IO (PL 78, 942). Amalarius
(850) still opposed the newly introduced practice, since neither the ordination
of the subdeacon nor ecclesiastical legislation till then had assigned this duty
to him (De eccl. off., II, 11 [PL rn5, Io86]). Bemold of Constance (1100) still
speaks of this practice as being based on custom only (Micrologus, c. 8 [PL I5I,
982]). Though the ceremony of giving the subdeacon the book of Epistles at
ordination dates back to the thirteenth century (cf. de Puniet, Das r0mische Ponti-
fikale, I, I74), the Latin missal still permitted the lector to read the Epistle at
Mass when no subdeacon was present (cf. Rirus celebr., VI). Vatican II changed
this and reverted to the ancient practice of having a " reader " read the Epistle.
.. As Ezra did, in Neh. 8:4.
.. Cyprian, Ep. 38, 2 (CSEL, III, 580 f.); 39, 4 (583 f.); Canon I5 of Council
of Laodicea (Mansi, op. cit., II, 567); Apostolic Constitutions, Book II, 57, 5 (Qua-
sten, Monumenta eucharistica et liturgia vetustissima [Bonn, I935-I937), 182).

9. from the Greek &.vcx~cx(ve:Lv (to walk up). The term ambo first
appears in the Council of Laodicea. 28
But either with or without
the desk, this was the place from which the lector read the lessons.
Probably most early ambos were made of wood, but some of the
later models were of costly marble, often enormous in size and
decorated with mosaics, reliefs, gilt, etc. 27
That of St. Sophia at
Constantinople was large enough and rich enough to be used for
the coronation ceremonial of emperors. 28 Most Greek churches
still have the early form of ambo, usually placed at the side. All
that remains of the ancient ambo in Byzantine-Slav churches is the
semicircular extension before the iconostas on which is placed the
analoj, or lectern for reading the Gospel; it is still called the ambon,
or amvon. In addition to this, the Ruthenian Church has preserved
another vestige of the ancient ambo in the form of the tetrapod, a
desklike table on which are placed the crucifix, candles and, an icon;
at the tetrapod (which stands before the ambo) baptisms, confir-
mations, and marriages are performed as well as certain other services
either in whole or in part. 29
For the chanting of the Epistle, how-
ever, the lector no longer ascends the ambo nor uses the tetrapod; he
stands on the floor in the middle ofthe church before them. In the
Byzantine-Slav Liturgy, the Epistle, or "Apostle," as it is commonly
called, 30 is always chanted recto tono, but with certain cadences or
melodic figures to indicate the various punctuation marks, etc. It
can best be described as speech-song. The Church probably bor-
rowed this method from the culture of antiquity. 31
It avoids two
extremes. On the one hand, it obviates any semblance of passionate
•• Mansi, op. cit., II, 567.
17 Cf. H. Leclercq, "Ambon," DACL, I, 1330-1347.
•• Some of the cliurches of Rome have fine examples of ambos in marble.
Perhaps the oldest is that in S. Clemente (reconstructed in the twelfth century);
the best known of the later models, enriched with marble mosaics or Cosmati
work, are in S. Maria in Ara Coeli and S. Maria in Cosmedin. Ravenna and
several cliurches in southern Italy have other fine examples of early ambos.
•• E.g., the Parastas, a service for the dead; some of the "All-Night Vigil"
services, etc.
•
0
In the West, the Epistle was also often called Apostolus, e.g., in the Gregorian
Sacramentary; cf. PL 78, 25.
31 For literary references, see 0. Case!, Das Gediichtnis des Herrn in der altchrist-
lichen Liturgie (Ecclesia Orans, z; Freiburg, 1918), 14, n. I.

10. speech whereby the lector could inject his own sentiments, mood or
emotion into the sacred text. On the other hand, it avoids the
monotony of the severe tonus rectus, unbroken by any cadence
whatever, which is not appropriate for festive occasions. The
speech-song's only object is the congregation's practical under-
standing of the text.