www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Lectionary Questions

I was recently asked why the Gospel is most frequently read from Luke. My initial response was that the lectionary cycles through all four of the Gospels, but if there are more readings from Luke it might be because Luke is the longest of the four.

I took the lectionary list from here [archeparchy.ca] and used Word to find the number of each. It said

Matthew 138
Mark 83
Luke 145
John 87

So it appears Luke, followed closely by Matthew, is the most popular. We're almost twice as likely to hear Matthew or Luke than we are to hear Mark or John.

Does anyone here know how the lectionary was initially determined? Does anyone know if my initial thought is accurate above (Luke is more common because it is longer)? Does anyone have anything to add which might be interesting on this topic?

Any takers?

Actually, there are 350 days specified in the ordinary cycles of the Byzantine Apostolos and Evangelion (i.e., excluding the readings from the menaia).
There statistics are as follows:
Matthew 94;
Mark 70;
Luke 100;
John 50;
aliturgical 36 (i.e., normally no celebration of the Divine Liturgy).

The cycle of readings from the Menaia (i.e., for the feast days celebrated on a fixed day in the year) have a similar spread, although, of course, Mark's Gospel barely appears.

In the Byzantine rite, the cycle of Gospel readings is as follows.
St Matthew: read from 1st week after Pentecost (starting Whit-Monday) until the end of the 11th week; then read only on Saturdays and Sundays; other days have St Mark.
St Luke: starts on the Monday following the Sunday (following the Sunday) after the feast of Holy Cross (14 September).
St Mark: Saturdays and Sundays of Great Lent (other days being aliturgical); when Matthew�s Gospel runs out, 12th week after Pentecost; weekdays when Luke�s Gospel runs out.
St John: Easter to Pentecost (Paschaltide).

The readings for the liturgy started settling down around the end of the fourth century. (Remember: it was then that St John Chrysostom fought to have the Book of Revelations excluded from the cycle of readings.)

It seems to have become fixed around the 9th century, when the Old Testament readings started no longer being proclaimed during the divine liturgy.

If you're interested, send me your e-mail address, and I'll send you a spreadsheet with all the readings.