Altar

An altar is a structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches and other places of worship. They are used particularly in Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism (until the destruction of the Second Temple), and Modern Paganism. Many historical faiths also made use of them, including Roman, Greek and Norse religion.Horned altar at Tel Be'er Sheva, Israel.Ancient Greek kylix showing a hoplite offering a sacrifice before an altar, around 480 BC. Ancient Agora Museum of Athens in the Stoa of AttalusThe ancient Altar of Pergamon, reconstructed at the Pergamon museum, Berlin.The Opferstein or Sacrifice Rock at Maria Taferl, Austria. It was used by the ancient Celts to make sacrifices upon and is now located in the plaza of the basilica there.The altar with ciborium at All Saints Anglican church, Bristol, EnglandThe Lord's Table in St Barnabas' Church, Dulwich (Diocese of Southwark)Altar in Bunyip, Victoria, AustraliaAltar at Grace Cathedral, San FranciscoAltar at Anglo-Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd (Rosemont, Pennsylvania)Davies, J. G. 'Altar.' In The Encyclopedia of Christianity, edited by Erwin Fahlbusch and Geoffrey William Bromiley, 42-43. Vol. 1. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1999. ISBN 0-8028-2413-7 An altar is a structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches and other places of worship. They are used particularly in Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism (until the destruction of the Second Temple), and Modern Paganism. Many historical faiths also made use of them, including Roman, Greek and Norse religion. Old English had various spellings alter, altar etc. Finally 'altar' may have been influenced by the French autel derived from Latin words altare meaning podium or stage and adolere to adore, in this sense meaning to worship, honour and offer sacrifices to influence forces beyond human understanding. Altars (Hebrew: מזבח‎, mizbe'ah, 'a place of slaughter or sacrifice') in the Hebrew Bible were typically made of earth or unwrought stone. Altars were generally erected in conspicuous places. The first altar recorded in the Hebrew Bible is that erected by Noah. Altars were erected by Abraham, by Isaac, by Jacob, and by Moses. After the theophany on Mount Sinai, in the Tabernacle—and afterwards in the Temple—only two altars were used: the Altar of Burnt Offering, and the Altar of Incense. The word 'altar', in Greek θυσιαστήριον (see:θυσία), appears twenty-four times in the New Testament. In Catholic and Orthodox Christian theology, the Eucharist is a re-presentation, in the literal sense of the one sacrifice being made 'present again'. Hence, the table upon which the Eucharist is consecrated is called an altar. Altars occupy a prominent place in most Christian churches, both Eastern (Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Ancient Church of the East) and Western (the Roman Catholic Church, churches of the Anglican Communion, Methodists, Lutherans, and some Reformed) branches. Commonly among these churches, altars are placed for permanent use within designated places of communal worship (often called sanctuaries). Less often, though nonetheless notable, altars are set in spaces occupied less regularly, such as outdoors in nature, in cemeteries, in mausoleums/crypts, and family dwellings. Personal altars are those placed in a private bedroom, closet, or other space usually occupied by one person. They are used for practices of piety intended for one person (often referred to as a private devotion). They are also found in a minority of other Protestant worship places, though the term 'Communion table', which avoids the sacrificial connotations of an altar, is preferred by Churches in the Reformed tradition. The altar plays a central role in the celebration of the Eucharist, which takes place at the altar on which the bread and the wine for consecration are placed. The area around the altar is seen as endowed with greater holiness, and is usually physically distinguished from the rest of the church, whether by a permanent structure such as an iconostasis, a rood screen, altar rails, a curtain that can be closed at more solemn moments of the liturgy (as in the Armenian Apostolic Church and Armenian Catholic Church), or simply by the general architectural layout. The altar is often on a higher elevation than the rest of the church. In Reformed and Anabaptist churches, a table, often called a 'Communion table', serves an analogous function. Churches generally have a single altar, although in the Western branches of Christianity, as a result of the former abandonment of concelebration of Mass, so that priests always celebrated Mass individually, larger churches have had one or more side chapels, each with its own altar. The main altar was also referred to as the 'high altar'. Since the revival of concelebration in the West, the Roman Missal recommends that in new churches there should be only one altar, 'which in the gathering of the faithful will signify the one Christ and the one Eucharist of the Church.' But most Western churches of an earlier period, whether Roman Catholic or Anglican, may have a high altar in the main body of the church, with one or more adjoining chapels, each with its own altar, at which the Eucharist may be celebrated on weekdays.