DOMINUS VOBISCUM: THE BACKGROUND OF A LITURGICAL FORMULA*

The new service-book of the Dutch Reformed Church 1 gives in several of its formularies as an optional introduction to prayer the dialogue be­ tween minister and congregation: "The Lord be with you." R. "And with thy spirit." , 'Let us pray. "

To Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran Christians it is a familiar part of the liturgy, because it belongs to the age-old heritage of Christianity. As such it was taken over by the committee which prepared the revision of the Dutch Reformed Liturgy. But what is the meaning 01 this dialogue both in its constituent elements and in its ? It is not out of place to raise this question, because the church of our days is not helped by ancient formularies as such, but only by a living expression of its faith 2. It is somewhat startling to read in this connection the following statement by a Jesuit who is one of the leading authorities in the liturgical field: In einem aus heutigem Empfinden geschaffenen Gottesdienst würden wir kaum auf den Gedanken kommen, dass der Vorbeter zuerst die Gemeinde begrüssen soll, noch weniger würden wir daran denken, ihn diesen Gruss im Verlauf der Gebetsstunde öfters wiederholen zu lassen 3 •

I have consulted many books and various experts, but did not receive a satisfactory answer; it seemed as though this formula is so customary and revered that nobody asks for its meaning. The first occurrence of the dialogue is-according to the present knowledge of sources-found in the Church Order of Hippolytus (c. 200): it goes before and is connected with the to the great eucharistie prayer4 • In later stages of liturgical development it is used on several other occasions as an introduction to prayer and to the reading of the . It is remarkable that this particular form is restricted to the Western and Egyptian traditions; in the other Eastern liturgies the salutation has a different wording, viz.: "Peace be withyou' , or the formula of 2 Cor. 13: 13 5 • Which is the older form, or are they riyal developments? These and other interesting questions about the spread and use of this introductory greeting in the course of history cannot be investigated here, though much is still obscure 6. For the present paper it is sufficient to establish the existence of the formula at about 200 AD; 7 DOMINUS VOBISCUM 363

here attention will be focused on the origin and meaning of these short sentences. The interpretation of the dialogue does not appear so simple as its wording. It is usual to refer to the , generally to Judges 6:12 and Ruth 2:48 • To be sure there the greeting "the Lord with you"g occurs, but it should be observed that in the former it is not followed by an answer resembling that of the liturgy and in the latter the response of Boaz' reapers is: "The Lord bless you." What is the origin of "and with thy spirit"? Here one is suddenly sent to the New Testament, 2 Tim. 4:22: "the Lord with thy spirit", but this text is not a response; it is a special form of greeting. Nowhere is it explained how these texts, derived from such different surroundings, or others which are sometimes men­ tioned like Luke 1:28, Gal. 6:18, 2 Thess. 3:16 have become fused into this one dialogue. Influence of an unimportant book like Ruth is quite incredible. Frör finds the background of the priestly salutation in the liturgical practice of the apostolic church as mirrored in the Pauline let­ ters, and says that the response of the people probably goes back to "die älteste urchristliche Zeit" 1 o. This last statement is a mere guess apart from its vagueness, because the texts adduced (Gal. 6:18, Philern. 25, 2 Tim. 4:22) do mention the Spirit, but are not answers ofthe people; they stand, as seen from the formal side, on the same level as the texts he quotes for the greeting of the . Jungmann cites these texts as evidence for greetings in daily life. According to this author the priest calls for attention in prayer and listening to the Gospel; the form of a greeting is very appropriate, he says, because it calls for an echo and these two elements create an atmosphere "heiliger Gottesnähe, in der sich die Liturgie vollziehen soll" 11. The answer is a Semitic expression for: "and also with you". Frör finds this too flat. The salution is an acclamation, ofthe same force as "Maranatha": "Die Gabe dieses jetzt unter uns gegenwärtigen Herrn, seine eschatologische Heilsgabe soll unter euch sein"; in combination with the response it means that in the presence ofthe risen Lord "sichjedesmal der Knoten der Liebe und Ein­ tracht zwischen Pfarrer und Gemeinde aufs Neue schürzt" 12. There is every reason to take up this question again, since these explanations do not appear to be satisfactory. Frör's interpretation suf­ fers from a certain "pan-liturgism" which sees everywhere in the Pauline the background of the liturgy whenever a simple parallel in wording between them and the much later liturgies is found 13. But even if one takes the wider view about the "Sitz im Leben", viz. the ordinary daily salutation, one touches upon the difficulty-often met in form­ criticism-that the form as such prevails over the contents. It seems to me far more important to ask what was expressed in this greeting than to