What is a Holy Kiss? Should Christians Still Do the Holy Kiss?
Posted: Monday, December 28, 2009
by Mogama
http://www.mogama.info
The holy kiss is mentioned five times in the New Testament. Paul called it “a holy kiss"( Romans 16:26; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thessalonians. 5:26) , but Peter referred to it as “a kiss of love" (1 Peter 5:14). Christian writers later mentioned it as “the kiss of peace", “the Lord's kiss", or “the kiss".
Acts 20:37 records the only expression of the holy kiss by New Testament believers: “They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him." Thus the elders from Ephesus bid Paul farewell with holy kisses, which could have been lips-to-neck or lips-to-cheek.
The holy kiss is so called to distinguish it from a sensual or customary kiss. In The Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, "The kiss, the instinctive token of amity and affection from the earliest times, found a place in the life and worship of the Christian church. The symbol of peace and love could nowhere find a more appropriate home, in its highest and purest ideal, than in the religion of peace and love."
In his book Love in the New Testament , James Moffat wrote, "The holy kiss was exchanged by primitive Christians who felt they were members of a real family...Tertullian observes at the end of the second century that no prayer was complete apart from the kiss that followed in the congregation" (pages 245-246).
The Mennonite Encyclopedia describes the holy kiss as "...a symbol of love and fellowship in the history of the Christian church. It was not the same as the common kiss among friends in the Roman world, nor the common Jewish salutation among friends, for it was a 'holy' kiss observed only among the members of the church."
Often the holy kiss was practiced at baptism. “Cyprian reported that the one baptizing a convert, as well as the entire church, greeted the newly baptized with the holy kiss " (Mennonite Encyclopedia).
Is the holy kiss still applicable to followers of Christ? It is still practiced by Mennonites (Anabaptists), liturgical churches (particuarly Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox) and the Apostolic Christian Church, which considers the holy kiss a New Testament command for all Christians to practice. The founder of that denomination, S. H. Froehlich, said in 1846, "This holy kiss is known as a holy kiss, that it may be set apart from that of common usage, as a holy thing, and also that it may not degenerate into a lifeless form". Ten years later Froehlich, "This spiritual union and holy fellowship (among believers) finds expression in the brotherly kiss, if this kiss truly be the expression of brotherly love."
However, this denomination limits the kiss so that a man may kiss another man, and a woman may kiss another woman, but a man and a woman may only speak to each other and shake hands, not do the holy kiss. That limitation goes as far back as Justin Martyr in his description of second-century Christian worship, “Then let the men apart, and the women apart, salute each other with a kiss in the Lord."
From the Ante-Nicene Fathers, we find this instruction about a church service in the third and fourth centuries, "Let the deacon say to the people, 'let no one have any quarrel against another; let no one come in hypocrisy. Then, let the men give the men, and women the women, the Lord's kiss. But let no one do it with deceit as Judas betrayed the Lord with a kiss" (Volume III, page 421).
It appears that the widespread use of the holy kiss as part of Christian worship began to disappear from churches from the fifth century and into the Middle Ages, though pockets of devoted Christians continued the practice.
According to The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge , after the Middle Ages, the holy kiss was replaced with “the practice of kissing the alter, the sacred elements, or the stole by the clergy, and the kissing of the hand by both the clergy and laity" ( page 347).
The essence of the holy kiss is to serve as a physical and visible expression of love and peace among followers of Jesus Christ who consider one another as members of God's holy family.
Perhaps a water-down “holy kiss" is the greeting time during which worshipers shake hands in today's churches. At Church For All, we exchange 'holy hugs'. Not exactly “the kiss", but it's a start.
The holy kiss is so called to distinguish it from a sensual or customary kiss. In The Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, "The kiss, the instinctive token of amity and affection from the earliest times, found a place in the life and worship of the Christian church. The symbol of peace and love could nowhere find a more appropriate home, in its highest and purest ideal, than in the religion of peace and love."
In his book Love in the New Testament , James Moffat wrote, "The holy kiss was exchanged by primitive Christians who felt they were members of a real family...Tertullian observes at the end of the second century that no prayer was complete apart from the kiss that followed in the congregation" (pages 245-246).
The Mennonite Encyclopedia describes the holy kiss as "...a symbol of love and fellowship in the history of the Christian church. It was not the same as the common kiss among friends in the Roman world, nor the common Jewish salutation among friends, for it was a 'holy' kiss observed only among the members of the church."
Often the holy kiss was practiced at baptism. “Cyprian reported that the one baptizing a convert, as well as the entire church, greeted the newly baptized with the holy kiss " (Mennonite Encyclopedia).
Is the holy kiss still applicable to followers of Christ? It is still practiced by Mennonites (Anabaptists), liturgical churches (particuarly Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox) and the Apostolic Christian Church, which considers the holy kiss a New Testament command for all Christians to practice. The founder of that denomination, S. H. Froehlich, said in 1846, "This holy kiss is known as a holy kiss, that it may be set apart from that of common usage, as a holy thing, and also that it may not degenerate into a lifeless form". Ten years later Froehlich, "This spiritual union and holy fellowship (among believers) finds expression in the brotherly kiss, if this kiss truly be the expression of brotherly love."
However, this denomination limits the kiss so that a man may kiss another man, and a woman may kiss another woman, but a man and a woman may only speak to each other and shake hands, not do the holy kiss. That limitation goes as far back as Justin Martyr in his description of second-century Christian worship, “Then let the men apart, and the women apart, salute each other with a kiss in the Lord."
From the Ante-Nicene Fathers, we find this instruction about a church service in the third and fourth centuries, "Let the deacon say to the people, 'let no one have any quarrel against another; let no one come in hypocrisy. Then, let the men give the men, and women the women, the Lord's kiss. But let no one do it with deceit as Judas betrayed the Lord with a kiss" (Volume III, page 421).
It appears that the widespread use of the holy kiss as part of Christian worship began to disappear from churches from the fifth century and into the Middle Ages, though pockets of devoted Christians continued the practice.
According to The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge , after the Middle Ages, the holy kiss was replaced with “the practice of kissing the alter, the sacred elements, or the stole by the clergy, and the kissing of the hand by both the clergy and laity" ( page 347).
The essence of the holy kiss is to serve as a physical and visible expression of love and peace among followers of Jesus Christ who consider one another as members of God's holy family.
Perhaps a water-down “holy kiss" is the greeting time during which worshipers shake hands in today's churches. At Church For All, we exchange 'holy hugs'. Not exactly “the kiss", but it's a start.
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