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Dining Room Church
Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of domestic residences in Jerusalem that allow us a glimpse of the conditions under which these early Christians may have met. Excavations in one area on the Western Hill (the Upper City) revealed a residential district that included some very large houses. The individual dwelling units were extensive, with inner courtyards characteristic of luxurious villas built in the style of the Hellenistic Roman period. This was where the noble families of Jerusalem lived.
Since house churches did not demand architectural alterations, their archaeological remains are undetectable unless they were subsequently incorporated into a "domus ecclesiae" and/or an "aula ecclesiae."At Corinth, the excavated remains of the Roman villa in the vicinity of the Sicyonian Gate, the house in the vicinity of Temple E and the sumptuous villa at Anaploga are examples of residences in which the early community could have gathered.1
No doubt, early Christians preferred a good-sized home as the venue for a local church gathering, and the patronage system would impose on wealthy members the expectation that they host the gathering. Such a group would spill out from the dining area into the main room and/or courtyard. The dining area was designed to hold nine diners reclining on three couches arranged together as three sides of a square, with the open side toward the open inner space of the house. There was also limited space in the dining room for others sitting on chairs alongside the couches. The inner courtyard or open space was the key to flexibility, for there, people could be placed in any kind of arrangement, depending on space available makeshift dining couches, tables, or seated on the ground.
1"Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Development" editors Ralph P. Martin and Peter H. Davids.
"Dining Room Church."
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