Preaching

VIEW:44 DATA:01-04-2020
PREACHING.—In the OT ‘preaching’ is referred to explicitly in the case of Jonah’s preaching in Nineveh (Jon_3:2). The word here used means strictly ‘proclamation,’ and corresponds to the NT word used with reference to our Lord ‘proclaiming’ (as a herald) the advent of the Kingdom of God (e.g. Mat_4:17), which, in its initial stages, was closely associated with the preaching of John the Baptist (cf. Mat_3:1-2). Christian preaching is often described in the NT as a declaration of ‘glad tidings’ (‘evangel,’ ‘gospel’). Strictly, the ‘proclamation’ ought to be distinguished from the ‘teaching’ that followed on it. But in its more extended application ‘preaching’ covers all instruction in religious matters of a homiletlcal character, and especially such as is associated with public worship.
The prophetic preaching hardly falls within this category. The prophets undoubtedly as a rule spoke their discourses (before writing them down). But these allocutions were special in character, and formed no regular part of the public worship.
The preaching of John the Baptist and of Jesus was largely prophetic in character—the gospel may be described as a ‘revival of the spirit of prophecy’—but nevertheless it possessed some affinities with the synagogue preaching, which had become an institution of worship, though in many respects in marked contrast with and independent of it (our Lord constantly addressed the multitudes in the open air).
Preaching as a regular part of the service of public worship was a comparatively late development. Its real beginning can be traced back to the custom inaugurated by Ezra of reading a part of the ‘Law’ or ‘Torah’ at the Sabbath-day assemblages of the people, and on other holy days. On these occasions the lesson from the Law was read in the original Hebrew, and explained in the form of a paraphrase in the Aramaic vernacular by a methurgemân (dragoman) or interpreter. Such translations were called Targums. It was from this practice that preaching in the synagogue was developed—probably as early as the 4th cent. b.c. (cf. Act_15:21). Thus originally the sermon was essentially an exposition (of a legal kind) of some part of Scripture. Two famous teachers of the Law of the 1st cent. b.c. are styled darshanim (‘preachers,’ Pes. 70b), though they were primarily expounders of the Law on its strictly legalistic side. But in process of time the sermon assumed to a large extent a purely edifying character; it utilized the tale, parable, allegory, in enforcing the lessons of morality and religion, and developed truly homiletical features, without, however, losing its Scriptural colouring.
By NT times preaching had evidently become an integral part of the ordinary synagogue service, and in this way it became one of the chief instruments in the propagation of the ‘new teaching.’ Our Lord constantly ‘taught in the synagogues’ (cf. Mat_4:23, Mar_1:21; Mar_6:2, Joh_6:59; Joh_18:20). St. Luke (Luk_4:16 f.) has preserved a compressed account of one such sermon, while in Acts (Act_13:14-41) a fuller report of an exhortation by the great missionary Apostie, delivered in a synagogue, is set forth.
Our Lord’s teaching, and that of the Apostles which He inspired, were marked by a freshness, a spontaneity and power which filled their hearers, accustomed as they were to the more set and laborious exhortations of the scribes, with the utmost surprise. But original as they were in substance, these addresses were still Semitic in form, and we must guard against importing our Western ideas of rhetoric into what were essentially Eastern homilies. The differences between the two are fundamental. While the Western develops a main and principal thought or theme through its logical subdivisions, and usually in a more or less abstract way, the Eastern adds point to point, theme to theme, often in striking antithesis, and strives to employ concrete illustrations and embodiments either figurative or parabolic of the thought. The ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (though its form in the First Gospel is doubtless an extended one) is an excellent illustration of Eastern method in some of these respects. The following example of an old Rabbinic address, based on the words ‘He hath clothed me with garments of salvation,’ which come from the chapter in Isaiah (61) from which Jesus took His text in His address in the synagogue at Nazareth, will illustrate the character of contemporary Jewish sermons:
Seven garments the Holy One—blessed be He—has put on, and will put on from the time the world was created until the hour when He will punish the whole of wicked Edom (= the Roman Empire). When He created the world, He clothed Himself in honour and majesty, as it is said (Psa_104:1): “Thou art clothed in honour and majesty.” Whenever He forgave Israel’s sins He clothed Himself in white; for we read (Dan_7:9): “His garment was white as snow.” When He punishes the people of the world, He puts on the garment of vengeance, as it is said (Isa_59:17): “He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.” The sixth garment He will put on when the Messiah comes; then He will clothe Himself in a garment of righteousness, for it is said: “And he puts on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head.” The seventh garment He will put on when He punishes Edom; then He will clothe Himself in Adom—i.e. red; for it is said (Isa_63:2): “Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel?” But the garment which He will put upon the Messiah, this will shine far, from one end of the earth to the other; for it is said (Isa_61:10): “As a bridegroom decketh himself with a garland.” And the Israelites will partake of His light, and will speak:
“Blessed is the hour when the Messiah shall come!
Blessed the womb out of which He shall come!
Blessed His contemporaries who are eye-witnesses!
Blessed the eye that is honoured with a sight of Him!
For the opening of His lips is blessing and peace;
His speech is a moving or the spirits;
The thoughts of His heart are confidence and cheerfulness;
The speech of His tongue is pardon and forgiveness;
His prayer is the sweet incense of offerings;
His petitions are holiness and purity.
Oh, how blessed is Israel for whom such has been prepared!”
For it is said (Psa_31:19): “How great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee!” ’
Several specimens of the Apostolic preaching are given in the Acts (cf. chs. 2, 7, 8 etc.). To the Jews the Apostles preached the Messiahship of Jesus, basing their appeal mainly on two arguments, viz. (1) the resurrection, and (2) OT prophecy. On this depended the forgiveness of sins, and salvation through Christ. These reports, abbreviated as they obviously are, reveal their essential genuineness by their undeveloped theology (e.g. of the Atonement).
Preaching long continued free and spontaneous among the Christian societies, being exercised in the assembly by private members who possessed the gift of prophecy (cf. e.g. 1Co_14:31), though, of course, the Apostles, while they were alive, would naturally assume, and be accorded, the chief place in this, as in other respects.
G. H. Box.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


is the discoursing publicly on any religious subject. From the sacred records, says Robert Robinson, we learn that when men began to associate for the purpose of worshipping the Deity, Enoch prophesied, Jud_1:14-15. We have a very short account of this prophet and his doctrine; enough, however, to convince us that he taught the principal truths of natural and revealed religion. Conviction of sin was in his doctrine, and communion with God was exemplified in his conduct, Gen_5:24; Heb_11:5-6. From the days of Enoch to the time of Moses, each patriarch worshipped God with his family: probably several assembled at new moons, and alternately instructed the whole company. “Noah,” it is said, “was a preacher of righteousness,” 1Pe_3:19-20; 2Pe_2:5. Abraham commanded his household alter him to keep the way of the Lord, and to do justice and judgment, Gen_18:19; and Jacob, when his house lapsed to idolatry, remonstrated against it, and exhorted all them that were with him to put away the strange gods, and go up with him to Bethel, Gen_35:2-3. Melchisedec, also, we may consider as the father, the priest, and the prince, of his people; publishing the glad tidings of peace and salvation, Genesis 14; Hebrews 7.
Moses was a most eminent prophet and preacher, raised up by the authority of God, and by whom, it was said, came the law, Joh_1:17. This great man had much at heart the promulgation of his doctrine: he directed it to be inscribed on pillars, to be transcribed in books, and to be taught both in public and private by word of mouth, Deu_4:9; Deu_6:9; Deu_17:18; Deu_27:8; Deu_31:19; Num_5:23. He himself set the example of each; and how he and Aaron preached, we may see by several parts of his writings. The first discourse was heard with profound reverence and attention; the last was both uttered and received with raptures, Exo_4:31; Deu_33:7-8, &c. Public preaching does not appear under this economy to have been attached to the priesthood: priests were not officially preachers; and we have innumerable instances of discourses delivered in assemblies by men of other tribes beside that of Levi, Psa_68:11. Joshua was an Ephraimite; but, being full of the spirit of wisdom, he gathered the tribes to Shechem, and harangued the people of God, Deu_34:9; Joshua 24. Solomon was a prince of the house of Judah; Amos, a herdsman of Tekoa; yet both were preachers, and one at least was a prophet, 1 Kings 2; Amo_7:14-15. When the ignorant notions of Pagans, the vices of their practice, and the idolatry of their pretended worship, were in some sad periods incorporated into the Jewish religion by the princes of that nation, the prophets and all the seers protested against this apostasy; and they were persecuted for so doing. Shemaiah preached to Rehoboam, the princes, and all the people at Jerusalem, 2Ch_12:5; Azariah and Hanani preached to Asa and his army, 2Ch_15:1; 2Ch_16:7; Micaiah, to Ahab. Some of them opened schools, or houses of instruction; and there to their disciples they taught the pure religion of Moses. At Naioth, in the suburbs of Ramah, there was one where Samuel dwelt; and there was one at Jericho, and a third at Bethel, to which Elijah and Elisha often resorted. Thither the people went on Sabbath days and at new moons, and received public lessons of piety and morality, 1Sa_19:18; 2Ki_2:2; 2Ki_2:5; 2Ki_4:2-3. Through all this period, however, there was a dismal confusion of the useful ordinance of public preaching. Sometimes they had no open vision, and the word of the Lord was precious, or scarce; the people only heard it now and then. At other times they were left without a teaching priest, and without law. And at other seasons again, itinerants, both princes, priests, and Levites, were sent through all the country, to carry the book of the law, and to teach in the cities. In a word, preaching flourished when pure religion grew; and when the last decayed, the first was suppressed. Moses had not appropriated preaching to any order of men: persons, places, times, and manners, were all left open and discretional. Many of the discourses were preached in camps and courts, in streets, schools, cities, villages; sometimes, with great composure and coolness; at other times, with vehement action and rapturous energy; sometimes, in a plain, blunt style; at other times, in all the magnificent pomp of eastern allegory. On some occasions, the preachers appeared in public with visible signs, with implements of war, with yokes of slavery, or something adapted to their subject. They gave lectures on these, held them up to view, girded them on, broke them in pieces, rent their garments, rolled in the dust, and endeavoured, by all the methods they could devise, agreeably to the customs of their country, to impress the minds of their auditors with the nature and importance of their doctrines. These men were highly esteemed by the pious part of the nation; and princes thought proper to keep seers and others who were scribes, who read and expounded the law, 2Ch_34:29-30; 2Ch_35:15. Hence, false prophets, bad men, who found their account in pretending to be good, crowded the courts of princes. Jezebel, an idolatress, had four hundred prophets of Baal; and Ahab, a pretended worshipper of Jehovah, had as many pretended prophets of his own profession, 2Ch_18:5.
When the Jews were carried captive into Babylon, the prophets who were with them inculcated the principles of religion, and endeavoured to possess their minds with an aversion to idolatry; and, to the success of preaching, we may attribute the re-conversion of the Jews to the belief and worship of one God; a conversion that remains to this day. The Jews have since fallen into horrid crimes; but they have never since this period lapsed into gross idolatry, Hosea 2, 3; Ezekiel 2; 3:34. There were not wanting, however, multitudes of false prophets among them, whose characters are strikingly delineated by the true prophets, and which the reader may see in Ezekiel 13; Isaiah 56; Jeremiah 23. When the seventy years of the captivity were expired, the good prophets and preachers, Zerubbabel, Joshua, Haggai, and others, having confidence in the word of God, and being concerned to possess their natural, civil, and religious rights, endeavoured, by all means, to extricate themselves and their countrymen from that mortifying state into which the crimes of their ancestors had brought them. They wept, fasted, prayed, preached, prophesied, and at length prevailed. The chief instruments were Nehemiah and Ezra; the former was governor, and reformed the civil state; the latter was a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, and applied himself to ecclesiastical matters, in which he rendered the noblest service to his country, and to all posterity. He collected and collated MSS. of the sacred writings, and arranged and published the books of the holy canon in their present form. To this he added a second work, as necessary as the former: he revised and new modelled public teaching, and exemplified his plan in his own person. The Jews had almost lost, in the seventy years captivity, their original language; that was now become dead; and they spoke a jargon made up of their own language and that of the Chaldeans, and other nations, with whom they had been mingled. Formerly, preachers had only explained subjects: now they were obliged to explain words; words which, in the sacred code, were become obsolete, equivocal, or dead. Houses were now opened, not for ceremonial worship, as sacrificing, for this was confined to the temple; but for moral and religious instruction, as praying, preaching, reading the law, divine worship, and social duties. These houses were called synagogues; the people repaired thither for morning and evening prayer; and on Sabbaths and festivals, the law was read and expounded to them. We have a short but beautiful description of the manner of Ezra's first preaching, Nehemiah 8. Upward of fifty thousand people assembled in a street, or large square, near the water gate. It was early in the morning of a Sabbath day. A pulpit of wood, in the fashion of a small tower, was placed there on purpose for the preacher; and this turret was supported by a scaffold, or temporary gallery, where, in a wing on the right hand of the pulpit, sat six of the principal preachers; and in another on the left, seven. Thirteen other principal teachers, and many Levites, were present also, on scaffolds erected for the purpose, alternately to officiate. When Ezra ascended the pulpit, he produced and opened the book of the law, and the whole congregation instantly rose up from their seats, and stood. Then he offered up prayer and praise to God. The people bowing their heads and worshipping the Lord with their faces to the ground; and at the close of the prayer, with uplifted hands, they solemnly pronounced, “Amen! Amen!” Then all standing, Ezra, assisted at times by the Levites, read the law distinctly, gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. The sermons delivered so affected the hearers, that they wept excessively; and about noon the sorrow became so exuberant and immeasurable, that it was thought necessary by the governor, the preacher, and the Levites, to restrain it. “Go your way,” said they, “eat the fat, and drink the sweet, send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared.” The wise and benevolent sentiments of these noble souls were imbibed by the whole congregation, and fifty thousand troubled hearts were calmed in a moment. Home they returned, to eat, to drink, to send portions, and rejoice, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them. Plato was living at this time, teaching dull philosophy to cold academics; but what was he, and what was Xenophon, or Demosthenes, or any of the Pagan orators, in comparison with these men? From this period to that of the appearance of Jesus Christ, public preaching was universal; synagogues were multiplied, vast numbers attended, and elders and rulers were appointed for the purpose of order and instruction.
The most celebrated preacher that arose before the appearance of Jesus Christ was John the Baptist. He was commissioned from heaven to be the harbinger of the Messiah. His subjects were few, plain, and important. His style was vehement, his images bold, his deportment solemn, his action eager, and his morals strict. But this bright morning star gave way to the illustrious Sun of righteousness, who now arose on a benighted world. Jesus Christ certainly was the Prince of teachers. Who but can admire the simplicity and majesty of his style, the beauty of his images, the alternate softness and severity of his address, the choice of his subjects, the gracefulness of his deportment, and the indefatigableness of his zeal? Let the reader charm and solace himself in the study and contemplation of the character, excellency, and dignity of this divine teacher, as he will find them delineated in the evangelists.
The Apostles copied their divine Master. They formed multitudes of religious societies, and were abundantly successful in their labours. They confined their attention to religion, and left the schools to dispute, and politicians to intrigue. The doctrines they preached they supported entirely by evidence; and neither had nor required such assistance as human laws or worldly policy, the eloquence of schools or the terror of arms, could afford them.
The Apostles being dead, every thing came to pass as they had foretold; the whole Christian system, in time, underwent a miserable change; preaching shared the fate of other institutions, and the glory of the primitive church gradually degenerated. Those writers whom we call the fathers, however, held up to view by some as models for imitation, do not deserve that indiscriminate praise ascribed to them. Christianity, it is true, is found in their writings; but how sadly incorporated with Pagan philosophy and Jewish allegory! It must, indeed, be allowed, that, in general, the simplicity of Christianity was maintained, though under gradual decay, during the first three centuries. The next five centuries produced many pious and excellent preachers, both in the Latin and Greek church, though the doctrine continued to degenerate. The Greek pulpit was adorned with some eloquent orators. Basil, bishop of Caesarea, John Chrysostom, preacher at Antioch, and afterward patriarch, as he was called, of Constantinople, and Gregory Nazianzen, who all flourished in the fourth century, seem to have led the fashion of preaching in the Greek church; Jerom and Augustine did the same in the Latin church. The first preachers differed much in pulpit action; the greater part used very moderate and sober gestures. They delivered their sermons all extempore, while there were notaries who took down what they said. Sermons in those days were all in the vulgar tongue: the Greeks preached in Greek, the Latins in Latin. They did not preach by the clock, so to speak, but were short or long as they saw occasion; though an hour was about the usual time. Sermons were generally both preached and heard standing; but sometimes both speaker and auditors sat, especially the aged and the infirm. The fathers were fond of allegory; for Origen, that everlasting allegorizer, had set them the example. Before preaching, the preacher usually went into a vestry to pray, and afterward to speak to such as came to salute him. He prayed with his eyes shut in the pulpit. The first word the preacher uttered to the people when he ascended the pulpit was, “Peace be with you;” or, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all;” to whom the assembly first added, “Amen,” and in after times they answered, “And with thy spirit.” Degenerate, however, as these days were, in comparison of those of the Apostles, yet they were golden ages in comparison with the times that followed, when metaphysical reasoning, mystical divinity, yea, Aristotelian categories, and reading the lives of saints, were substituted in the place of sermons. The pulpit became a stage where ludicrous priests obtained the vulgar laugh by the lowest kind of wit, especially at the festivals of Christmas and Easter.
But the glorious Reformation was the offspring of preaching, by which mankind were reformed; there was a standard, and the religion of the times was put to the trial by it. The avidity of the common people to read the Scriptures, and to hear them expounded, was wonderful; and the papists were so fully convinced of the benefits of frequent public instruction, that they, who were justly called unpreaching prelates, and whose pulpits, to use an expression of Latimer, had been “bells without clappers” for many a long year, were obliged for shame to set up regular preaching again. The church of Rome has produced some great preachers since the Reformation, but none equal to the reformed preachers. And a question naturally arises here, which it would be unpardonable to pass over in silence, concerning the singular effect of the preaching of the reformed, which was general, national, universal reformation. In the dark times of popery there had arisen now and then some famous popular preachers, who had zealously inveighed against the vices of the times, and whose sermons had produced sudden and amazing effects on their auditors; but all these effects had died away with the preachers who had produced them, and all things had gone back into their old state. Law, learning, commerce, society at large had not been improved. Here a new scene opens; preachers arise less popular, perhaps less indefatigable and exemplary; their sermons produce less striking immediate effects; and yet their auditors go away and agree by whole nations to reform. Jerom Savonarola, Jerom Narni, Capistran, Connecte, and many others, had produced, by their sermons, great immediate effects. When Connecte preached, the ladies lowered their head dresses, and committed quilled caps by hundreds to the flames. When Narni taught the people in lent, from the pulpits of Rome, half the city went from his sermons crying along the streets, “Lord, have mercy upon us;” so that in only one passion week, two thousand crowns' worth of ropes were sold to make scourges with; and when he preached before the pope to the cardinals and bishops, and painted the sin of non-residence in its own colours, he frightened thirty or forty bishops, who heard him, home to their diocesses. In the pulpit of the university of Salamanca, he induced eight hundred students to quit all worldly prospects of honour, riches, and pleasure, and to become penitents in divers monasteries. We know the fate of Savonarola, and others might be added; but all lamented the momentary duration of the effects produced by their labours. Narni himself was so disgusted with his office, that he renounced preaching, and shut himself up in his cell to mourn over his irreclaimable contemporaries; for bishops went back to the court, and rope makers lay idle again.
Our reformers taught all the good doctrines which had been taught by these men, and they added two or three more, by which they laid the axe to the root of the apostasy, and produced general reformation. Instead of appealing to popes and canons, and founders and fathers, they only quoted them, and referred their auditors to the Holy Scriptures for law. Pope Leo X did not know this when he told Prierio, who complained of Luther's heresy, “Friar Martin has a fine genius.” They also taught the people what little they knew of Christian liberty; and so led them into a belief that they might follow their own ideas in religion, without the consent of a confessor, a diocesan, a pope, or a council. They went farther, and laid the stress of all religion on justifying faith.
Since the reformers we have had multitudes who have entered into their views with disinterestedness and success; and in the present times, both in the church and among other religious societies, names might be mentioned which would do honour to any nation; for though there are too many who do not fill up that important station with proportionate piety and talents, yet we have men who are conspicuous for their extent of knowledge, depth of experience, originality of thought, fervency of zeal, consistency of deportment, and great usefulness in the Christian church.
The preceding sketch will show how mighty an agent preaching has been in all ages, in raising, and maintaining, and reviving the spirit of religion. Wherever it has had this power, let it however be remarked, it has consisted in the declaration, the proclamation, of the truth of God, as contained in his early revelations to man, and afterward embodied in the Holy Scriptures. The effect too has been produced by preachers living themselves under the influence of this truth, and filled “with faith and the Holy Ghost,” depending wholly upon God's blessing for success, and going forth in his name, with ardent longing to “win souls,” and to build up the church in knowledge and holiness. For preaching is not a profession; but a work of divine appointment, to be rightly discharged only by him who receives a commission from God, and fulfils it as under his eye, and in dependence upon his promise, “Lo, I am with you alway.”
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.


The Bible often mentions preaching and teaching together, for the two are closely related. It seems at times that there is little difference between them. The same person was usually both a preacher and a teacher (Mat_4:23; Mat_11:1; Act_5:42; Act_15:35; Col_1:28; 1Ti_2:7; 2Ti_4:2; see TEACHER).
Sometimes preaching is proclamation, such as in announcing the good news of the gospel to those who need it (Luk_4:18; Luk_9:6; Act_8:4; Act_8:12; Act_8:40; Act_17:18; Gal_1:11; Gal_1:16; 1Th_2:9), while teaching is more concerned with the instruction of those who already believe the gospel (Joh_14:26; Act_18:11; Act_20:20; 1Co_4:17; Col_2:7; Col_3:16; 1Ti_4:11). Teaching is necessary also for those who do not believe (Luk_4:31; Luk_5:3; Luk_21:37; Act_4:2; Act_5:21; Act_5:25; Act_18:11; 2Ti_2:24-26), while preaching the great facts of the gospel of Jesus Christ is still necessary to challenge the believer (Rom_1:15; Rom_16:25; 2Co_4:5; Col_1:28; 2Ti_4:2).
It is therefore probably better not to make too sharp a distinction between preaching and teaching. To preach the gospel is to preach Christ. God’s message for believers and non-believers centres in him. The gospel is more than just the message of salvation; it is the whole new life in Jesus Christ (1Co_1:23-25; 1Co_15:1-2; 1Co_15:11-12; 2Co_1:19-22; 2Co_4:5-6; see GOSPEL).
Authority in preaching
God wants the world to learn about him, to know him personally and to be instructed in what he desires for them. He has therefore revealed himself; he has spoken to the human race he created. He has done this dramatically through his Son Jesus Christ, but he has also given a written revelation through the Scriptures (Joh_1:1; Joh_1:14; 2Ti_3:16-17; Heb_1:1-2; 2Pe_1:20-21).
Since God has given these Scriptures to his people, those who preach and teach them have a special responsibility to God. God has entrusted his revelation to them, and therefore they must be careful how they use it. They must make it known in a manner that is faithful to its meaning and at the same time beneficial to the hearers (1Co_4:1-2; 2Ti_2:15).
Preachers and teachers, though they reveal and announce a message that is not their own, should treat that message as if it were their own. It must become, as it were, part of them before they give it out to others (Jer_20:8-9; Eze_2:8-10; Eze_3:1-3; Rev_10:8-11). They are doing more than merely passing on someone else’s message; they are instructing their hearers (Act_20:20). But the only authority in their instruction is that of the Word they preach (Act_20:27). The spiritual authority of the message comes from God, not from the preacher (1Co_1:17; 1Co_2:1-5; 1Co_4:1-2; 2Co_4:7).
Honesty in preaching
If preachers are dependent on God for the benefits their preaching brings to others, they will express their dependence through constant prayer. They will also live righteously, so that their lives are consistent with their message (1Th_1:5; 1Ti_4:16). Yet they must put thought and effort into their ministry (Col_1:28-29) and must work constantly at improving the quality of their performance (1Ti_4:13-15).
Among the dangers that preachers face is the temptation to adjust the message to win approval from the audience. This is the fault for which false prophets were consistently condemned in the Old Testament (Isa_30:8-11; Jer_5:31; Jer_23:16-17; Jer_23:21-22). By contrast true messengers of God say what needs to be said, whether or not it is what people want to hear (Jer_1:17; Mic_3:8; Mar_12:14; 2Ti_4:2). Whatever Scripture he is expounding, they interpret and apply it honestly. They do not twist it to make it mean something different from what the biblical author intended (2Co_4:2). At all times their concern is to gain God’s approval, not to win people’s praise (2Ti_2:15; cf. Joh_12:43).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.


Preaching
is usually and with literal correctness defined as the act of delivering religious discourses. But this definition fails to suggest the most important signification of the term. That can only be reached by considering it as designating the objective idea of a great and peculiar appointment of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this broad but legitimate sense, preaching means more than an individual act or series of acts. It represents an institution of Christianity which has been in existence some nineteen centuries, and an agency of religious influence destined to continue in action throughout the whole period of human affairs.
I. The Proper Chcaracter and Design of Preaching. As Christ himself was the Divine Word made flesh, so, lessening to employ human agency for the promotion of his kingdom among men, he made a special appropriation of man's distinguishing faculty of speech by appointing it as the primary and principal means of diffusing God's word of truth and message of salvation throughout the world. Having chosen disciples from among his own earliest hearers, “he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach” (Mark 3, 14). To those disciples he said, “What I tell you in darkness that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear that preach ye upon the house-tops” (Mat_10:27). As had been foreshadowed in prophecy, so Christ represented the preaching of the Gospel to the poor as the distinguishing characteristic of his kingdom. The great Preacher himself, having completed his earthly mission, crowned it with the ever-binding command given to his disciples, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mar_16:15). Christian preaching, therefore, implies not only preachers, but hearers. It presupposes a personal conviction and a deep sense of truth in the mind of the preacher, accompanied by a purpose to transfer his convictions to the minds and hearts of his hearers. Although preaching is designed to embody an important element of instruction yet, if properly executed, it rises in character superior to lecturing, or any (If the forms of didactic discourse. It resembles the best forms of demonstrative address, but transcends all secular oratory in the moral grandeur of its themes, and especially in its specific design of enlightening and quickening the consciences of men as a means of affecting their earthly character and their eternal destiny.
II. Historical Development. — Prior to Christ, preaching was but little more known among the Jews than among the Gentiles. It had been to some extent anticipated by several of the prophets, the greatest and last of whom was John the Baptist; but, from the time that Christ began his public ministry, preaching became common and constant. Following our Lord's ascension, the apostolic ministry of preaching was elevated and vitalized by the gift of the Holy Ghost. The gift of tongues and the manifestation of the tongues of fire were alike designed to aid and encourage them in their work of evangelization. Hence, whether in the Temple, in synagogues, or in prisons, they preached Christ and him crucified as the power of God and the wisdom of God; and, when scattered abroad by persecution, “they went everywhere preaching the Word” (Act_8:4). It was thus that the Gospel became rapidly diffused throughout the Roman empire, which, in an important sense, represented “all the world” of that period.
It seems safe to believe that, had the apostolic zeal and fidelity in preaching been maintained without interruption, the triumphs of the Gospel would have been continuous, and perhaps ere this coextensive with the habitable world. But, unfortunately, the 2nd and 3rd centuries witnessed the introduction into the Church of two classes of influences which had a tendency to reduce the number of preachers and limit the work and influence of preaching. The first was that of asceticism (q.v.), which, by a powerful but mistaken impulse, sent into deserts and caves, and afterwards into monasteries, thousands of earnest men, whose lives were thus withdrawn from evangelical activity and wasted in penances and self- torture. The second was that of ceremonialism, SEE CEREMONY, by which the preaching office was taken away from the majority of the clergy, and for the greater part limited to bishops. Bingham states the limitation in these words:
“Preaching anciently was one of the chief offices of a bishop; insomuch that in the African churches a presbyter was never known to preach before a bishop in his cathedral church till Austin's time, and St. Austin was the first presbyter in that part of the world that ever was allowed to preach in the presence of his bishop.... It is true, in the Eastern churches presbyters were sometimes allowed to preach in the great church before the bishop; but that was not to discharge him of the duty, for still he preached a sermon at the same time after then… 11 the lesser churches of the city and country about, this office was devolved upon presbyters as the bishop's proper assistants; 1and the deacons, except in the aforementioned cases (of reading the homilies of the liathers, and when the presbyter was sick or infirm), were not authorized to perform it” (Antiq. Christian Church, bk. 14 ch. 4).
Not only was preaching shorn of its aggressive power by being thus limited and subordinated under the influence of a growing ceremonialism, but in some places it was for long periods scandalously neglected. Sozomen, the historian, “relates of the Church of Rome in his time that they had no sermons either by the bishop or any other.” Some have thought Sozomen mistaken; but Cassiodorus, who was a senator and consul at Rome, quotes the same out of Sozomen in his Historia Tripartita, without correction, and further says that no one can produce any sermons preached to the people by any bishop of Rome before those of Leo. The revival of preaching by Leo appears to have been but temporary; for, according to Surius, a Roman writer, it was afterwards discontinued for five hundred years together, till Pius Quintus, like another Leo, revived the practice. Not merely at Rome, but through large portions both of the Latin and Greek churches, preaching, instead of being a constant custom, was rare and exceptional during the long period between the 6th and 16th centuries. It ceased to be a regular part of the services of the Sabbath, although it was retained as a part of the ceremonial of ordinations, while on festival days it took the form of panegyrics or eulogies upon the Virgin and the saints.
The preaching of the Crusades (q.v.) by Peter the Hermit, St. Bernard, and others, and the organization of the Dominicans (q.v.) as a preaching order of monks, may be considered as exceptional to the usual practice of the mediteval Church. Some other exceptions, however, of a far better character, and followed by better results, are also to be credited to the Church of the Middle Ages, while on the other hand it was disgraced by Tetzel and others, who used preaching as an agency for the sale of indulgences. But preaching never again became general till after the Reformation. It was seized tupon by Luther and the other reformers as a means of propagating scriptural truth and exposing the corrupt doctrines and practices which had crept into the Church, and from that time forward preaching became frequent and universal among Protestants. Its influence in the Protestant world has reacted upon Romanism, so that long since, in all Protestant countries, and to some extent elsewhere, preaching has become a regular Sunday service in Roman Catholic churches, performed not only by bishops, but by presbyters and deacons, as well as by monks of several different orders.
III. Preaching-places and Customs. — In New Testament times our Lord and his apostles found places for preaching wherever people could be assembled. The mountain-side, the shores of seas and rivers, the public street, private houses, the porch of the Temple, the Jewish synagogue, and various other places were found available for the proclamation of the Gospel. So far as the preaching customs of the first period of Christianity can be inferred from authentic records, they were simple in the extreme. Sometimes the message of the preacher was communicated in conversation, and when delivered in a more formal manner it rarely had any other accompaniments than the reading of the Sacred Word and prayer. For a considerable time there could have been no Church edifices adapted to the convenient preaching and hearing of the Word; but the earliest structures erected for Christian worship doubtless had that design in view. It was, therefore, a corruption in practice when churches began to be constructed for ceremonial display-as with altars for the celebration of mass, niches for images, and long-drawn aisles for processional parades. The conversion of heathen temples and basilicas into Christian churches, which in the 4th century became common, tended largely to foster and extend that form of corruption. At the period named, the most common form of preaching was that of the exhortation and the homily. A few of the great preachers, like Cyril, Chrysostom, and Augustine, delivered courses of homilies in daily succession, especially during Lent. More commonly short exhortations, sometimes two, three, or even four in succession, were delivered either at morning or evening prayer, or both. This was more particularly true in cities and the large churches, and it was only when presbyters and deacons were authorized to preach that preaching could be furnished with frequency or regularity in villages or country-places. Sometimes large assemblies were gathered at the graves of martyrs to hear panegyrics upon the virtues of those who had suffered death in persecution.
The custom of preaching extempore was at first general, but after a time yielded, in the case of ordinary preachers, to that of reciting discourses not infrequently composed by others. Preachers frequently preceded their discourses by a brief prayer for divine assistance. Following prayer was the salutation “Peace be unto you,” or “The Lord be with you;” to which the people responded, “Peace be with thy spirit.” Sometimes the salutation gave place to a benediction, as may be seen in several of Chrysostom's homilies. Sometimes a text of Scripture was taken as a basis of the discourse, sometimes several were taken for the same object, and sometimes none. Generally the discourse was concluded with a doxology. It was usual for preachers to sit and the people to stand during the delivery of the discourse. It was common for the people when pleased by the utterances of a preacher to give applause by clapping their hands and by vocal acclamations. Sometimes handkerchiefs were waved and garments tossed aloft. At other times groans and sobs and tears were the responses made by sympathetic hearers. So great value was attached to the discourses of some of the more venerable and eloquent preachers that ready writers were employed to report the words they uttered. Copies of reported discourses were circulated among those who prized them, and were held for reading to other assemblies. In this way the homilies of the fathers descended to later times, when they could be better preserved and more rapidly multiplied by printing. During the medieval period, where preaching was not wholly abandoned, sermons and homilies were to a great extent substituted by postils (q.v.), which were very brief addresses delivered at the conclusion of the mass, and holding about the same relation to the preceding ceremonies of worship that a postscript holds to a letter, or a marginal note to the text of a book.
The preaching customs of modern times differ in minor particulars somewhat with reference to differences of national habits, but more with reference to the predominance of the idea of worship or of religious address. In a certain class of churches the services are conducted with primary reference to forms of worship. In churches of that class, by whatever name designated, preaching is made subordinate. In other churches the leading idea of a Sabbath assembly is that of an audience gathered together to receive instruction from the Word of God, both as read from the sacred page and as declared by his appointed messengers. In the latter, preaching is regarded as of principal importance, prayer and psalmody being auxiliary to it.
The principal places for preaching in modern times are churches constructed with primary reference to that object. It may be here remarked that even in Europe church architecture has been greatly modified since the period of the Reformation, in a perhaps unconscious adaptation to the more general practice of preaching. Few large cathedrals have been built, but many churches of smaller proportions, and more available as auditoriums. Protestant churches in all countries are supplied with permanent seats for audiences, and, with rare exceptions, the pulpit occupies the central position allotted in Roman Catholic countries to the principal altar. On the continent of Europe movable seats only are used in the Roman Catholic churches, but in countries distinctively Protestant, pews or fixed sittings are generally introduced to accommodate hearers during the preaching services. But preaching, especially among Protestants, has by no means been limited to churches. While maintained with regularity in them, it has been extended as a missionary agency to highways and market places, to public commons, to natural amphitheatres, to groves, to ships' decks, to extemporized tabernacles, and even to music-halls and theatres. In short, zealous evangelists show themselves ready, both in civilized and heathen countries, to preach wherever and whenever their fellow men can be gathered to hear them.
IV. Literature. — The literature of preaching may be divided into two classes-the first embracing publications relating to the art and science of preaching, and t he second embracing the printed products of preaching, whether postils, homilies, or sermons. Of the first class, an extensive list is given in connection with the article on HOMILETICS SEE HOMILETICS (q.v.). Of the second, it would be easy to enumerate authors and books by hundreds. For select and classified lists, SEE PULPIT ELOQUENCE; SEE SERMONS. Of recent books of the first class. the following may be named: Mullois (M. l'Abbé Isidore; translated by George Percy Badger), The Clergy and the Pulpit in their Relations to the People (N. Y. 1867, 12mo); Hood, Lamps, Pitchers, and Trumpets: Lectures on the Vocation of the Preacher (1James , 2 d series, ibid. 1869, 2 vols. 12mo); Parker, Ad Clerum: Advices to a Young Preacher (Bost. 1871, 12mo); Broadus, Preparation and Delivery of Sermons (Phila. 1871, 12mo); Beecher, Yale Lectures on Preaching (1James , 2 nd, and 3rd series, N. Y. 1872-74, 3 vols. 12mo); Storrs, Preaching without Notes (ibid. 1875, 12mo); Hall, God's Word through Preaching (ibid. 1875 12mo); Broadus, Lectures on the History of Preaching (ibid. 1876, 12mo); Taylor, The Ministry of the Word (ibid. 1876, 12mo); Brooks, Lectures on Preaching (ibid. 1877, 12mo); Dale, Nine Lectures on Preaching (ibid. 1878, 12mo). (D. P. K.)

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





Norway

FACEBOOK

Participe de nossa rede facebook.com/osreformadoresdasaude

Novidades, e respostas das perguntas de nossos colaboradores

Comments   2

BUSCADAVERDADE

Visite o nosso canal youtube.com/buscadaverdade e se INSCREVA agora mesmo! Lá temos uma diversidade de temas interessantes sobre: Saúde, Receitas Saudáveis, Benefícios dos Alimentos, Benefícios das Vitaminas e Sais Minerais... Dê uma olhadinha, você vai gostar! E não se esqueça, dê o seu like e se INSCREVA! Clique abaixo e vá direto ao canal!


Saiba Mais

  • Image Nutrição
    Vegetarianismo e a Vitamina B12
  • Image Receita
    Como preparar a Proteína Vegetal Texturizada
  • Image Arqueologia
    Livro de Enoque é um livro profético?
  • Image Profecia
    O que ocorrerá no Armagedom?

Tags