2 Corinthians 13:12

Salute one another with a holy kiss.

THE HOLY KISS

Dummelow called this "the token of brotherhood in the early church.[28] Other references to it in the New Testament are Rom. 15:16,1Cor. 16:20,1 Thessalonians 5:26, and 1 Peter 5:14. Peter called it the "kiss of love"; but it is called the "holy kiss" elsewhere. This form of brotherly greeting, however, existed long before Christianity. Jesus rebuked the Pharisee for withholding the customary kiss of greeting (Luke 7:45), and Judas used it treacherously in the betrayal (Mark 14:44f). Carver said the practice came from "the Jewish synagogues, where the sexes were segregated in worship."[29] It is plain that Paul was not here commanding a form of greeting, but regulating a custom that already existed. Kelcy understood this verse to mean, "The kiss of greeting, a social custom of the times, was not to be a meaningless formality; it was to be holy."[30] Lipscomb also took the same view of this, saying, "The object of the Holy Spirit in referring to the kiss was to regulate a social custom, and not to institute an ordinance."[31] "Like our handclasp today, the kiss was a symbol of mutual confidence; and, where the Corinthians were concerned, a sign of the healing of old divisions."[32]

Paul's reference to the "holy" kiss thus contained an embryonic warning of things to come. The Christian congregations continued to use it as Christianity spread over the world; and the historical churches soon developed the custom into a liturgy. Plumptre tells how the custom was observed about the third century, as described in Apostolic Constitutions. Instructions were sent to the churches with this:

Let the deacons say to all, "Salute ye one another with a holy kiss"; and let the clergy salute the bishop, the men of the laity salute the men, and the women were to salute the women. Deacons were to watch that there was no disorder during the act.[33]

Another very early testimony regarding this kiss, and the abuses that had crept into the observance of it, was given by Clement of Alexandria, thus:

Love is not proved by a kiss ... There are those that make the church resound with a kiss, not having love itself within. The shameless use of a kiss occasions foul suspicions and evil reports ... Gentle manners require that a kiss be chaste and with a closed mouth. There is an unholy kiss, full of poison, counterfeiting sanctity. "This is the love of God," says John, "That we keep his commandments," not that we stroke each other on the mouth.[34]

Despite abuses, the custom prevailed until the thirteenth century, when the Western Church abolished it, and substituted "the act of kissing a marble or ivory tablet, upon which some sacred object, such as the crucifixion, had been carved."[35] The device was passed from one person to another during the observance of what by that time had become a "rite"; and the device itself was called "the Osculatorium."[36]

[28] J. R. Dummelow, op. cit., p. 944.

[29] Frank G. Carver, op. cit., p 644.

[30] Raymond C. Kelcy op. cit. p 78.

[31] D. L. Lipscomb, op. cit., p. 174.

[32] Philip E. Hughes, op. cit., p. 488.

[33] E. H. Plumptre, Ellicott's Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1959), Vol. VIII, p. 416.

[34] Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor in Ante-Nicene Father (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1956), Vol. II, p. 291.

[35] Ibid., p. 417.

[36] Ibid.