ABSTRACT
The importance of the Jewish antecedents of the Church's life of prayer can hardly be over-estimated. 1 The earliest Christians prayed at the times and according to the forms established by Temple and synagogue practice (see Acts 2:46; 3:1, 11; 5:12–21). Catacomb paintings also suggest that they adopted the most common Jewish position of prayer, standing with arms outstretched and palms upward. Later as the church moved into the Greco- Roman world, its religious forms and practices began to be incorporated into Christianity. And it is the language of Hellenism in which the earliest Church recorded its prayers.
