Early Christian Nighttime Worship

N Saint Paul's earliest literary effort as in his latest, there occurs a figure of speech, curiously emphatic, employing the imagery of night and day, of darkness and light.1 In the former the Apostle states that, although night is ordinarily a time for sleep or revelry, Christians, as children of the daylight, must remain awake and sober during the night and must also be suitably clothed as for warfare with the forces of darkness. In the latter passage the thought is virtually identical: let us spend our nights not as the pagans do, let us rather abandon the ways of darkness and don armor befitting the dawn. So impressive indeed are his words that they suggest something other than a merely literary device. In fact they imply that the major Christian service of his time was celebrated during the hours of darkness or between dusk and dawn. The evidence for that practice in the first century, although somewhat inferential, is fairly strong. The only service positively alluded to by the Apostle is the Eucharistic assembly,2 which, because of reference to a supper of the Lord and because of the circumstance of its institution on the night in which he was betrayed, very likely took place during the hours of darkness. The other three accounts of the Eucharist,3 although later than the Pauline record, are in agreement with it in preserving the tradition of institution at night. In the New Testament books written after Saint Paul the indications of nighttime services appear to be even weightier. It is possible, for example, that the account relating to Nicodemus may reflect such an occasion.4 If so, we have in it an intimation of the catechetical inst uction which preceded baptism and which was followed by a homily or sermon. In the Matthaean resurrection-story the stateme t which the guard was bribed to make ("his disciples came by night and stole him away"5) implies popular knowledge that Christi n activity took place during the darkness. Two, possibly three, of the late accounts of r surrection-appearances seem to be narrated in Eucharistic terms. If so, we have further evidence of night assemblies for worship: the Lucan Emmaus-apparition which occurred in the evening twilight" ("first dark") and the Johannine Galilaean appearance which occurred in the twilight of early morning.7 If the passage following the Emmaus account is to be reckoned here, its story belongs definitely to the night.8 When we turn to the book of Acts, we find a number of unambiguous instances which leave no doubt about the practice at the end of the first century. The church was praying ceaselessly for Saint Peter while he was in prison; when he was set free by angelic interference it was to a night assembly of the church that he went.9 It was during the night that a religious service followed by the sacrament of Baptism occurred in Philippi.10 A quite noteworthy instance is the fairly detailed account of the service in Troas at which young Eutychus fell asleep."1 Several other passages may embody allusions to or reflections of the night services: the miraculous release of Saints Peter and John from prison during the night,12 the two occasions of an angel's promise to Saint Paul in a vision that he would