Pulpit: what is it, meaning, location, history

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

In translation from the Greek language "pulpit" - elevation. In an Orthodox church, from a small ledge in the center of the s alt, the priest delivers Sunday sermons. During the liturgy, the Gospel is read, the deacon pronounces the words of a special prayer - the litany. For all these activities, the pulpit is used.

What is solea? This is a ledge in front of the iconostasis, rising several steps above the floor level. During the divine service with the participation of the bishop, there is a pulpit on the pulpit to address the people.

Church is a ship

Orthodox church is a thoughtful symbolic structure. The church personifies the "ship of salvation", which, like the ark of the righteous Noah, will deliver its passengers from the raging ocean of the modern world. The interior of the temple, architecture and interior details are arranged in the strictest accordance with Orthodox tradition. That is why the house of the Lord is unlike other earthly structures.

Internal architecture of the temple

Everyone who has ever been to the Orthodox Church noticed the extraordinary, unearthlyatmosphere. This effect is achieved by building the temple in accordance with the records in the tradition, which originates from the laws of the Old Testament. The first temple was built before the coming of the Savior. In those days, the Jews were nomads and livestock breeders, so their temple was located in a tent and was portable. The canons of the interior decoration of the tabernacle were given to Moses by the Lord himself on Mount Sinai.

This is how Josephus describes the first temple:

“The interior of the tabernacle was divided in length into three parts. This tripartite division of the tabernacle represented in some way the view of the whole world: for the third part, which was located between the four pillars and was impregnable by the priests themselves, meant in a certain way Heaven consecrated to God; the space for twenty cubits, as if representing the earth and the sea, over which people have a free way, was determined for the priests alone”(Antiquities of the Jews, book III, ch. 6)

Ritual sacrifices

The main place of the church, which has survived to this day, was the altar - the altar. Before the advent of Christ, ritual killings of animals were practiced. Usually livestock breeders sacrificed a lamb, farmers laid on the altar the fruits of their labors: vegetables, cereals and fruits. Animal sacrifice was necessary in those days so that people would not exterminate each other, God does not need the blood of an innocent animal, but seeing the aggressive disposition of the Old Testament people, He established the law of sacrifice. The final sacrifice, the Lamb crucified on the cross, was the Son of God. Since then, the New Testament began, and the sacrifice at the liturgy became bloodless.

Detailsrecommendations for the construction of the temple are found in texts from the beginning of the fourth century. The details reveal the writings of the holy fathers of the period of the fourth-eighth century from the birth of Christ. What is the Pulpit and how it looks is well described in their writings by Maxim the Confessor, Andrew of Crete, John of Damascus. And other revered righteous.

The church pulpit (photo below) shows a priest standing on it, behind him, in the open Royal Doors, you can see an altar - an altar.

The Resurrection of Christ

On the third day after the crucifixion of the Savior, the myrrh-bearing women found the stone that closed the entrance to the tomb, rolled off. An angel sat on a stone, telling the frightened women about the Resurrection of Christ. From that moment on, all believers became involved in His immortality. Sacrifice made salvation possible. Since then, the Body and Blood of Christ have been served to parishioners from the pulpit.

What is the Eucharist: by taking communion and confessing, following the example of the disciples at the Last Supper before the arrest of the Savior, the Orthodox receive the remission of sins and the opportunity to enter after death into a better world, the Kingdom of Heaven. It was this stone that became the prototype of the pulpit. The priest, like an angel at the tomb, proclaims to the flock the good news of the salvation of man.

Sermon on the Mount

During His ministry, Christ spoke to the people on the mountain. The people kept coming and coming, about five thousand people gathered, not counting women and children. Everyone wanted to hear the Messiah. Time in a conversation with God flew by unnoticed, people got hungry, and fromfood was only some bread and fish.

Jesus called the disciples and commanded them to give each of them half the fish and the bread. The disciples marveled, but fulfilled the will of the Teacher. They broke off halves, but the food did not end. As soon as everyone was full, the leftovers were put into large baskets. It is hard to believe in a miracle, but it is accurately described in several ancient manuscripts. Interestingly, the mountain from which Christ preached also represents the pulpit.

What is this building, we have already learned - it imitates the elevation from which Jesus addressed the flock.