Where Did the Church Get the Word Liturgy?

Many Christian are aware that the Greek word liturgy (λειτουργία or leitourgia) derives from roots that mean “work of the people.” This is one of those cases in which etymology can lead you astray. In its civic context, the word originally referred to any public service which a citizen performed at his own expense. Although the work or gift could involve supporting the public religious cult, the word's use was not limited to religion. Any work of public service or civic good could be a leitourgia. 

The word acquired its distinctively Christian usage, however, through the early Christian scriptures. The Greek translation of the Old Testament (commonly known as the Septuagint) was the Bible of the early Church. In the Greek version of Exodus and Joel, leitourgia is one of the words used to describe the ritual service of the temple and its priests.

Similarly, in the writings that would become the New Testament, leitourgia also refers to worship in the temple, both literally and figuratively. Luke 1:23 says that Zechariah (father of John the Baptist) returned home when he completed “the days of his leitourgia ” in the temple. Using the language of the temple cult, Hebrews 8:6 tells us that Jesus is our great High Priest who “has been given a leitourgia that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.” In Hebrews, the liturgy of the earthly temple foreshadows the liturgy of the heavenly temple, where Jesus is both priest and sacrifice.

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