Алтарь

Алтарь (лат. altaria, от altus — высокий), жертвенник, а также важнейшая часть христианского храма. А. на открытом воздухе, первоначально земляные или каменные, в Древней Греции и Древнем Риме приобретали характер грандиозных сооружений, отделанных мрамором с рельефами (пергамский А., около 180 до н. э., Античное собрание, Берлин). В христианском культе, заменившем кровавые жертвоприношения символическими, А. начали называть стол в храме, на котором совершалось «таинство превращения хлеба и вина в тело и кровь Христа». Христианские А. украшались, кроме скульптуры, золотом и драгоценными камнями (А. церкви Сант-Амброджо в Милане, 824—859). В католическом храме название А. перешло и на воздвигавшуюся на нём или за ним декоративную стенку, обычно с живописью и скульптурой (А. работы Донателло в церкви Сант-Антонио в Падуе, 1446—50). С 8 в. появились переносные А. - складни с живописью на створках. Позднее живописные А. выполнялись для храмов и достигали больших размеров (А. братьев ван Эйк, оконченный в 1432, для церкви святого Бавона, Гент). В обиходе А. называют всю восточную часть храма, отделённую алтарной преградой, а в православном храме (где стол для таинства именовался «престолом»)—иконостасом (с начала 15 в.).

АЛТАРЬ — место для жертвоприношений, а так­же — часть культового здания, где совершается богослужение. А. в Древней Греции и Риме часто облицовывали мрамором, украшали рельефами и орнаментом (римский А. Августа, пергамский А. и др.). Христианские А. иногда отделывались, кроме скульптуры, золотом и драгоценными кам­нями (А. св. Амвросия в Милане). В католическом храме название А. перешло и на воздвигавшуюся за ним декоративную стенку, обычно богато укра­шавшуюся скульптурой и живописью (алтари 15—17 вв., например Гентский А. живописцев Ван Эйк, алтари в Риме работы Л. Бернини и др.). В православном храме А. (или престол) отделялся от остальной части здания сначала алтарной пре­градой, а затем — высоким иконостасом, и на­звание А. распространялось на всю восточную часть храма, завершённую обычно одной или тремя апсидами.

Алта́рь (лат. altarium) — жертвенник (от altaria — навершие жертвенника, приспособление для сжигания жертвы: altus — высокий, ara — возвышенное место для жертвоприношения; жертвенник).

Распространено мнение, что у древних народов А. был местом, где они приносили жертву своим божествам. Это ошибка. Жертвы приносили на специальных жертвенниках, а А. был символом божества и местом, где располагались священные предметы. Случаев совмещения А. и жертвенника известно немного, в основном у античных греков и семитских народов. Обычно сооружался из природных материалов (камней, земли, глины и т. д.) в святых местах: на полянах, у ручья, в роще, то есть там, где впервые или наиболее ярко произошло взаимодействие с божеством. В Древней Греции приобрёл вид храмов (см., например, известный Пергамский алтарь в Берлине).

В христианстве термин «А.» имеет два значения.  

На православном христианском Востоке А. называют восточную часть христианского храма, находящуюся на возвышении, предназначенную для священнослужителей и обычно отделённую от средней части храма иконостасом. В центре алтарной части храма находится престол в виде квадрата, на котором обычно находится антиминс, крест и Евангелие. Под престолом или в антиминсе находится часть святых мощей — в соответствии с древней христианской традицией совершать литургию на гробницах мучеников в катакомбах. В А. обычно находится также жертвенник или особый стол для совершения проскомидии. В храме может быть несколько А. и престолов. На одном престоле дозволяется в день служить литургию только один раз.

В греческих Церквах святой А. называют греч. ἰερòν Βῆμα.

По канонам Восточной Церкви, в А. дозволяется входить только священно- и церковнослужителям и при совершении таинства Крещения. На практике делается исключение для помогающих в алтаре мужчин (алтарников); в женских монастырях их заменяют, согласно канонам, монахини преклонного возраста (15 правило Никифора Исповедника). Бывают и другие исключения.

Таким образом, А. восточной церковной традиции наследует свойства Адитума языческих храмов.  

В дореволюционной России в А. во время богослужения мог присутствовать, по благословению настоятеля, кто-либо из особенно известных и уважаемых прихожан.

Президенты В. В. Путин и Д. А. Медведев неоднократно присутствовали в А. во время богослужения, как и другие видные церковные ктиторы. В 2001 году, по сведениям некоторых СМИ, президент Путин причащался в алтаре Храма Христа Спасителя за Пасхальной литургией (официальные церковные источники этого не подтверждают).

Согласно церковному праву принимать Св. Тайны в А. могут только епископы, пресвитеры и диаконы, а также православные цари (постановления Соборов: Лаодикийского 14 и 19; VI Вселенского 69; VII Вселенского 14). Однако в современной практике в исключительных ситуациях (например, в Великий четверг) в А. причащаются и миряне. В частности, такого права удостаиваются студенты некоторых духовных учебных заведений, но не на регулярной основе.  

На Западе А. называется сам престол, на котором совершается Евхаристическая Жертва; часть храма, в которой он находится, именуется пресвитерием.

Часто А. называется также алтарный образ или алтарная композиция — живописное изображение или композиция из живописных, скульптурных и архитектурных элементов, размещенная над престолом (напр., «Гентский алтарь» Яна ван Эйка).

An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship. Today they are used particularly in Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Taoism, as well as LaVeyan Satanism, Thelema, Neopaganism, and in Ceremonial magic. Judaism did so until the destruction of the Second Temple. Many historical faiths also made use of them, including Greek and Norse religion.

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, (Adonai-nissi).

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. Significantly, Hebrews 13:10   shows Christians having an altar of which those who did not believe in Jesus could not partake, a reference to the eternal, once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ, thus fulfilling the sacrificial laws of the Old 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 Eucharistic meal (the Bread and the Wine) is eaten is called an altar.

Altars occupy a prominent place in the sanctuaries of many churches, especially those belonging to the ancient Christian traditions, such as the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian, Roman Catholic, and Anglican Churches. They are also found in many Protestant worship places. It plays a central role in the celebration of the Eucharist. A priest (or minister in Protestant circles) celebrates at the altar, on which the bread and the wine 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 or altar rails, by a curtain that can be closed at more solemn moments of the liturgy, as in the Armenian Apostolic Church andArmenian 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. In some colloquial usage, the word "altar" is used to denote the altar rail also, although this usage is technically incorrect.

Churches generally have a single altar, although in the West, where concelebration had formerly fallen into disuse and 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 existing Western churches, 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.

Architecturally, there are two types of altars: those that are attached to the eastern wall of the chancel, and those that are free-standing and can be walked around, for instance when incensing the altar.

In the earliest days of the Church, the Eucharist appears to have been celebrated on portable altars set up for the purpose. Some historians hold that, during the persecutions, the Eucharist was celebrated among the tombs in theCatacombs of Rome, using the sarcophagi (see sarcophagus) of martyrs as altars on which to celebrate. Other historians dispute this, but it is thought to be the origin of the tradition of placing relics beneath the altar.

When Christianity was legalized under Constantine the Great and Licinius, formal church buildings were built in great numbers, normally with free-standing altars in the middle of the sanctuary, which in all the earliest churches built in Rome was at the west end of the church. "When Christians in fourth-century Rome could first freely begin to build churches, they customarily located the sanctuary towards the west end of the building in imitation of the sanctuary of the Jerusalem Temple. Although in the days of the Jerusalem Temple the High Priest indeed faced east when sacrificing on Yom Kippur, the sanctuary within which he stood was located at the western end of the Temple. The Christian replication of the layout and the orientation of the Jerusalem Temple helped to dramatize the eschatological meaning attached to the sacrificial death of Jesus the High Priest in the Epistle to the Hebrews."[ The ministers (bishop, priests, deacons, subdeacons, acolytes), celebrated the Eucharist facing east, towards the entrance. Some hold that for the central part of the celebration the congregation faced the same way. After the sixth century the contrary orientation prevailed, with the entrance to the west and the altar at the east end. Then the ministers and congregation all faced east during the whole celebration; and in Western Europe altars began, in the Middle Ages, to be permanently placed against the east wall of the chancel.

Most rubrics, even in books of the seventeenth century and later, such as the Pontificale Romanum, continued to envisage the altar as free-standing. The rite of the Dedication of the Church   continued to presume that the officiating Bishop could circle the altar during the consecration of the church and its altar. Despite this, with the increase in the size and importance of the reredos, most altars were built against the wall or barely separated from it.

In almost all cases, the eastward orientation for prayer was maintained, whether the altar was at the west end of the church, as in all the earliest churches in Rome, in which case, the priest celebrating Mass faced the congregation and the church entrance, or whether it was at the east end of the church, in which case the priest faced the eastern apse and had his back to the congregation. This diversity was recognized in the rubrics of the Roman Missal from the 1604 typical edition of Pope Clement VIII to the 1962 edition of Pope John XXIII: "Si altare sit ad orientem, versus populum …"  

The present rules regarding the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite liturgy declare a free-standing main altar to be "desirable wherever possible." Similarly, in the Anglican Communion, the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer assumed an altar fixed against the wall, until Prayer Book revision in the twentieth century removed language which assumed any particular form of altar.

As well as altars in the structural sense, it became customary in the West to have what in Latin were referred to asaltaria portatilia (portable altars), more commonly referred to in English as "altar stones". When travelling, a priest could take one with him and place it on an ordinary table for saying Mass. They were also inserted into the centre of structural altars especially those made of wood. In that case, it was the altar stone that was considered liturgically to be the altar. The Pontificale Romanum contained a rite for blessing at the same time several of these altar stones. In the East the antimension served and continues to serve the same purpose. In the West, the obligation to use one for the celebration of Mass has not been encouraged.

The term "movable altar" or "portable altar" is now used of a full-scale structural altar, with or without an inserted altar stone, that can in fact be moved. 

Such altars are found in Roman Catholic churches awaiting restructuring from an arrangement in which a priest celebrated Mass at a remote high altar, usually facing away from them, to one in which he is closer to the congregation and generally facing them. Both Catholic and Protestant churches use them to celebrate the Eucharist in places other than a church or chapel (such as outdoors or in an auditorium). In those Protestant churches in which the focus of worship is not on the Eucharist, which may be celebrated rarely, and in churches which want to make use of both a fixed and free-standing altar at different services, they are not only movable but are in fact occasionally moved. Churches that have adhered to the Protestant Reformation have favoured as altars free-standing wooden tables placed in the quire away from the east wall and the high altar, and without any altar stone.

The Eastern Catholic Churches each follow their own traditions, which in general correspond to those of similarEastern Orthodox or Oriental Orthodox Churches. The rules indicated here are those of the Latin Church.

The Latin Church distinguishes between fixed altars (those attached to the floor) and movable altars (those that can be displaced), and states: "It is desirable that in every church there be a fixed altar, since this more clearly and permanently signifies Christ Jesus, the Living Stone (1 Peter 2:4; cf. Ephesians 2:10). In other places set aside for sacred celebrations, the altar may be movable." 

A fixed altar should in general be topped by a slab of natural stone, thus conforming to tradition and to the significance attributed to the altar, but in many places dignified, well-crafted solid wood is permitted; the supports or base of a fixed altar may be of any dignified solid material. A movable altar may be of any noble solid material suitable for liturgical use. 

The liturgical norms state:

It is fitting that the tradition of the Roman liturgy should be preserved of placing relics of martyrs or other saints beneath the altar. However, the following should be noted:

a) Relics intended for deposition should be of such a size that they can be recognized as parts of human bodies. Hence excessively small relics of one or more saints must not be deposited.

b) The greatest care must be taken to determine whether relics intended for deposition are authentic. It is better for an altar to be dedicated without relics than to have relics of doubtful credibility placed beneath it.

c) A reliquary must not be placed on the altar or in the table of the altar but beneath the table of the altar, as the design of the altar may allow. 

This last norm explicitly excludes the practice customary in recent centuries of inserting relics into a specially created cavity within the table of an altar oraltar stone. Placing of relics even in the base of a movable altar is also excluded. 

"In building new churches, it is preferable for a single altar to be erected, one that in the gathering of the faithful will signify the one Christ and the one Eucharist of the Church. In already existing churches, however, when the old altar is so positioned that it makes the people's participation difficult but cannot be moved without damage to artistic value, another fixed altar, skillfully made and properly dedicated, should be erected and the sacred rites celebrated on it alone. In order that the attention of the faithful not be distracted from the new altar the old altar should not be decorated in any special way." 

The altar, fixed or movable, should as a rule be separate from the wall so as to make it easy to walk around it and to celebrate Mass at it facing the people. It should be positioned so as to be the natural centre of attention of the whole congregation. 

The altar should be covered by at least one white cloth, and nothing else should be placed upon the altar table other than what is required for the liturgical celebration. Candlesticks and a crucifix, when required, can be either on the altar or near it, and it is desirable that the crucifix remain even outside of liturgical celebrations.

Altars in the Anglican Communion vary widely. At the time of the Reformation, altars were fixed against the east end of the church, and the priests would celebrate the Mass standing at the front of the altar. Beginning with the rubrics of the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI published in 1552, and through the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (which prevailed for almost 300 years), the priest is directed to stand "at the north syde of the Table [altar]." This was variously interpreted over the years to mean the north side of the front of a fixed altar, the north end of a fixed altar (i.e., facing south), the north side of a free-standing altar (presumably facing those intending to receive the Elements who would be sitting in the quire stalls opposite), or at the north end of a free-standing altar placed lengthwise in the chancel, facing a congregation seated in the nave.

Often, where a celebrant chose to situate himself was meant to convey his churchmanship (that is, more Reformed or more Catholic). The use of candles ortabernacles were banned by canon law, with the only appointed adornment being a white linen cloth.

Beginning with the Catholic Revival in the 19th century, the appearance of Anglican altars took a dramatic turn in many churches. Candles and, in some cases, tabernacles were reintroduced. In some churches two candles, on each end of the altar, were used; in other cases six - three on either side of a tabernacle, typically surmounted by a crucifix or some other image of Christ.

In Anglican practice, conformity to a given standard depends on the ecclesiastical province and/or the liturgical sensibilities of a given parish. In the Parson's Handbook, an influential manual for priests popular in the early-to-mid-twentieth century, Percy Dearmer recommends the size of an altar be "as nearly as possible 3 ft. 3 in. high, and at least deep enough to take a corporal [the square of linen placed underneath the Communion vessels] 20 in. square with a foot or more to spare." He also recommends that the altar stand upon three steps for each of the three sacred ministers, and that it be decorated with a silk frontal in the seasonal colour. In some cases, other manuals suggest that a stone be set in the top of wooden altars, in the belief that the custom be maintained of consecrating the bread and wine on a stone surface. In many other Anglican parishes, the custom is considerably less rigorous, especially in those parishes which use free-standing altars. Typically, these altars are made of wood, and may or may not have a solid front, which may or may not be ornamented. In many Anglican parishes, the use of frontals has persisted.

When altars are placed away from the wall of the chancel allowing a westward orientation, only two candles are placed on either end of it, since six would obscure the liturgical action, undermining the intent of a westward orientation (i.e., that it be visible to the congregation). In such an arrangement, a tabernacle may stand to one side of or behind the altar, or an aumbry may be used.

Sensibilities concerning the sanctity of the altar are widespread in Anglicanism. In some parishes, the notion that the surface of the altar should only be touched by those in holy orders is maintained. In others, there is considerably less strictness. Nonetheless, the continued popularity of altar rails in Anglican church construction suggests that a sense of the sanctity of the altar and its surrounding area persists. In most cases, moreover, the practice of allowing only those items that have been blessed to be placed on the altar is maintained (that is, the linen cloth, candles, missal, and the Eucharistic vessels).

A wide variety of altars exist in various Protestant denominations. Some Churches, such as Lutheran and Methodist will have altars very similar to Anglican or Catholic ones keeping with their more sacramental understanding of the Lord's Supper. In Protestant churches from Reformed, Baptist, Congregational, and Non-denominational backgrounds, it is very common for the altar-like table to have on it only an open Bible and a pair of candlesticks; it is not referred to as an "altar" because they do not see Communion as sacrificial in any way. Many of these groups use a very simple wooden table, known as a Communion Table, adorned perhaps with only a lengthwise linen cloth, again to avoid any suggestion of a sacrifice being offered. Such Communion Tables often bear the inscription: "Do This in Remembrance of Me", which they believe indicates Holy Communion as being a memorial rather than a sacrament. Such a table is normally not consecrated or blessed in any manner, and may be temporary, being moved into place only when there is a Communion Service. Most Protestant denominations have no altar or Communion Table at all, the sanctuary being dominated only by a large, centralized pulpit.

Some evangelical churches practice what is referred to as an altar call, whereby those who wish to make a new spiritual commitment to Jesus Christ are invited to come forward publicly. It is so named because the supplicants gather at the altar located at the front of the church (however, the invitation is referred to as an "altar call", despite the fact that most Protestant denominations which have this practice do not have altars or Communion tables). Most altar calls occur at the end of thesermon. Those that come forward will usually be asked to recite a sinner's prayer, which, in the Protestant understanding, if truly heart-felt indicates that they are now "saved". They may also be offered religious literature, counselling or other assistance. Many times it is said that those who come forth are going to "be saved". This is a ritual in which the supplicant makes a prayer of penitence (asking for his sins to be forgiven) and faith (called in Protestantism "accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior").

Altar calls may also invite those who are already fully members of the Christian community to come forward for specific purposes other than conversion; for example, to pray for some need, to rededicate their lives after a lapse, or to receive a particular blessing (such as the Gifts of the Holy Spirit) or if they are called to certain tasks such as missionary work.

Altars in Lutheran churches are often similar to those in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. Lutherans believe that the altar represents Christ and should only be used to consecrate and distribute the Eucharist.  Lutheran altars are commonly made out of granite, but other materials are also used. A crucifix is to be put above the altar.  Sometimes relics are also placed around the altar.