500 Years of the Daily Office Lectionary
In this article and its follow up, “500 Years of the Holy Communion Lectionary,” Fr. Matthew Brench surveys the development of the lectionaries of the Anglican Prayer Book tradition, especially those of the England, the U.S., and Canada, culminating in the present 2019 Prayer Book of the Anglican Church in North America.
The Daily Office Lectionary as found in the first Book of Common Prayer (1549) was very much an original work; the Reformers much lamented the state of daily lectionaries in contemporary monastic tradition: the lessons were short, they jumped through the Scriptures awkwardly, were frequently interrupted by holy days, and books of the Bible were rarely completed. The 1549 Daily Lectionary was, thus, a revolutionary product, reintroducing lectio continua (continuous reading) to the Western Church through the vast majority of the sacred scriptures.
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Early Versions
Two readings were appointed, one for Morning Prayer and one for Evening Prayer: one from the Old Testament or the Ecclesiastical Books (also known as the Apocrypha), and one from the New Testament. The Old Testament lessons were read continuously between the Morning and Evening Prayer. In contrast, the New Testament lessons in either Office were independent: the Gospels and Acts were read in the morning office, and the Epistles in the evening. With a very small handful of exceptions (the division of Luke 1 into two readings being the most noteworthy example), each reading was one whole chapter in length, as the first Prayer Book predates the standardization of the verse numbering system we know today.
Lectio Continua
On average, there were two holy days each month, with specially appointed lessons. The rest of the year was lectio continua. Genesis was read in full, followed by most of Exodus, four chapters of Leviticus, the entire book of Deuteronomy, most of Joshua, then continued without omission all the way through 2 Kings. The books of Chronicles were omitted. Selections of Ezra and Nehemiah followed, then Esther (without the Greek additions).
The histories finished, the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes followed, and then Jeremiah and Lamentations. Only nine chapters of Ezekiel were appointed. Daniel followed, including chapters 13 & 14 (Bel and the Dragon, and the Story of Susanna). The Twelve Minor Prophets followed in canonical order, bringing the reader to the book of Tobit in late September. After that came Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (also known as Sirach), Baruch, the Epistle of Jeremiah (often considered a part of Baruch, specifically chapter 6), and finally the book of Isaiah to round out the year. The New Testament was read three times a year, with the exception of Revelation, which was read only on a couple of holy days.
Changes to the Classic Lectionary
Minor changes were made in the revisions of 1552 and 1559, mainly concerning the provision of specially appointed Old Testament readings for Sundays, resulting in a clever Old Testament annual survey for those who only attended the Daily Office on the Lord’s Day.
By 1662, the lectionary had undergone significant changes, although its overall structure remained unchanged. Thanks to the advent of versification, a number of lessons were shortened from full-chapter length, especially on Sundays and holy days.
Another curious feature of this early lectionary was that, for many holy days, the specially appointed Old Testament lesson was not directly related to the day itself, but served as a continuation of the “Sunday survey” of the Old Testament, picking up where the last Sunday of the year left off.
Developments in the Middle Centuries
From this point on, the trajectory of Daily Office Lectionary revision was consistently in the direction of shorter lessons, resulting in a steadily decreasing coverage of the Bible.
The American lectionaries of 1789 and 1892 followed a similar pattern to the English 1549/1662 lectionary, but divided many chapters in half. This resulted in the New Testament being read only twice a year (finally including Revelation) and trimming out more of the Ecclesiastical Books. Excerpts from 1 and 2 Chronicles were also introduced, interspersed among the readings from 1 and 2 Kings.
Back in England, the Daily Office Lectionary underwent substantial revisions in 1871. To this day, this is the standard (undated) lectionary printed in the 1662 Prayer Book. Like the early American lectionaries, it has thinner coverage of the Old Testament and heavily truncated coverage of the Ecclesiastical Books, while incorporating excerpts from 1 and 2 Chronicles. It also broke with the tradition of Gospels and Epistles being read at different offices: both Morning and Evening Prayer read through both, switching places halfway through the year, and saving Revelation for the end of the year, shared between both offices in the same way that the Old Testament lessons were read.
The 20th Century Changes
The 20th century saw these trends accelerate. The 1662 Prayer Book received an alternative lectionary in 1922. In America, the 1928 Prayer Book introduced a similar entry; both of these took on the new tactic of appointing readings according to the liturgical calendar, rather than the monthly calendar. While there was an obvious gain in reading the Scriptures with the liturgical seasons in mind, this also made the Bible-reading experience more disjointed and the lectionary more difficult for ordinary laymen to follow.
The American lectionary was revised again in 1945 (now the standard daily lectionary in the 1928 book, though the original can still be found in print), making the lessons even shorter and the coverage even thinner. The 1979 Prayer Book, then, introduced a new way of presenting the lectionary: a two-year cycle of three readings per day (Morning and Evening were no longer distinguished, except in the table of holy day readings). Despite having a longer period of time to read the Bible, coverage still decreased; even some ‘unpalatable’ New Testament passages were now omitted from the lectionary.
Bucking this trend was the English lectionary of 1961 (and its Canadian counterpart in 1962), which retained the liturgical-year organization but lengthened the readings (in many cases, even restoring whole-chapter-length readings) to reintroduce some evangelical sensibilities to the Prayer Book tradition.
The Daily Office Lectionary of 2019
It was into this fray that the 2019 Prayer Book entered: most American Anglicans were accustomed to the anemic lectionary of 1979, enthusiastic minorities preferred the 1928 or 1945 lectionary, restorationists were digging up the lectionary of 1662 (or more often unwittingly the 1871 lectionary), and the growing crowds of evangelical converts to Anglicanism knew only of simple Bible-reading plans. While the early drafts experimented with something similar to the English and Canadian lectionaries of the early 1960s, the 2019 Daily Office Lectionary, as established, turned out to be something different, drawing on the best lessons from various eras of Prayer Book lectionary history.
Drawing from the wisdom of 1549 through 1892, our lectionary has returned to the secular, or monthly, calendar. This is much simpler to use and avoids the inherent challenges of completing books of the Bible around liturgical seasons that change in length year by year. Many of the lessons, especially in the Old Testament, are once again whole chapters in length, which also simplifies things for the reader and marks one of the few steps toward longer readings since the Reformation. This has also necessitated the reduction (or outright elimination) of special lessons for many holy days.
However, from 20th-century developments, other cues have been taken. In particular, the fact that many people pray only one Office per day led the designers of our lectionary to keep the Morning and Evening readings independent of one another so that either track can be used in a year. In short, this lectionary is designed to function as either a two-year or a one-year lectionary, depending on how it is used. Thus, it serves both the serious devotees of the Daily Office and the busy once-a-day observers. A potential pick-your-own-adventure pitfall is turned into an instrument of unity.
Coverage
As noted above, no Prayer Book lectionary has ever covered the entire Bible. To do so, at least four chapters need to be read each day of the year, but this is simply not feasible in the Anglican lectionary tradition. This is particularly because of our insistence on reading the New Testament at both offices each day, resulting in our reading of it twice a year (or three times in the original daily lectionary), except for the book of Revelation, which is read once (or not at all, as mentioned above). There simply isn’t enough “space” in a one-year lectionary for the whole Bible. Now, this is mitigated by the removal of the Psalms, which are prayed through each month separately from the lectionary. But much material still has to go to make room.
Equally Edifying?
This is particularly scandalous to the evangelical mind, but our answers have been consistent since the start: not every passage of scripture is equally edifying for public reading. Consider the lengthy Old Testament genealogies in 1 Chronicles, the detailed descriptions of political boundaries in the Book of Joshua, and the repetitive Purity Laws in Leviticus. While all Scriptures are God-breathed and useful, the fact remains that some are more useful than others, or some need more explanation than others in order to profit the reader, or some are simply less applicable to Christian life and doctrine.
Herein we find the answer to another question: why not simply skip the Ecclesiastical Books (or Apocrypha) to make room for the undisputed books of the Old Testament? Again, a discourse on the nature of godliness and ungodliness in Wisdom chapters 1-3 is going to be considerably more edifying for public reading than a list of names of returning exiles in Ezra chapter 2.
Nevertheless, there remains the “completionist” impulse to read the Bible cover to cover. It is not the function of the Daily Office to provide that; the daily office readings are meant to be edifying lessons, not study passages. It is, therefore, more appropriate that people who want to make a point of reading the entire text of the Bible without omission do so beyond the confines of Morning and Evening Prayer. The minor office of Midday Prayer is a convenient liturgical space for adding extra readings to fill in the blanks left by the Morning and Evening Offices.
Photo by wwing from Getty Images Signature, courtesy of Canva. Digitally edited by Jacob Davis.
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In this article and its predecessor, “500 Years of the Daily Office Lectionary,” Fr. Matthew Brench surveys the development of the lectionaries of the Anglican Prayer Book tradition, especially those of the England, the U.S., and Canada, culminating in the present 2019 Prayer Book of the Anglican Church in North America. Like the Daily Office…
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