Synagogue

SYNAGOGUE

A word which primarily signifies an assembly; but, like the word church, came at length to be applied to the buildings in which the ordinary Jewish assemblies for the worship of God were convened. From the silence of the Old Testament with reference to these places of worship, many commentators and writers of biblical antiquities are of opinion that they were not in use till after the Babylonish captivity; and that before that time, the Jews held their social meetings for religious worship either in the open air or in the houses of the prophets. See 2Ki 4:23 . In Psa 74:8, it is at least very doubtful whether the Hebrew word rendered synagogues, refers to synagogue-buildings such as existed after the captivity. Properly the word signifies only places where religious assemblies were held. In the time of our Savior they abounded.Synagogues could only be erected in those places when ten men of age, learning, piety, and easy circumstances could be found to attend to the service, which was enjoined in them. Large towns had several synagogues; and soon after the captivity their utility became so obvious, that they were scattered over the land, and became the parish churches of the Jewish nation. Their number appears to have been very considerable; and when the erection of a synagogue was considered a mark of piety, Luk 7:5, or a passport to heaven, we need not be surprised to hear that they were multiplied beyond all necessity, so that in Jerusalem alone there were not fewer than 460 or 480. They were generally built on the most elevated ground, and consisted of two parts. The westerly part of the building contained the ark or chest in which the book of the law and the section of the prophets were deposited, and was called the temple by way of eminence. The other, in which the congregation assembled, was termed the body of the synagogue. The people sat with their faces towards the temple, and the elders in the contrary direction, and opposite to the people; the space between them being occupied by the pulpit or reading desk. The seats of the elders were considered more holy than the others, and are spoken of as “the chief seats in the synagogues,” Mat 23:6 . The women sat by themselves in a gallery secluded by latticework.The stated office-bearers in every synagogue were ten, forming six distinct classes. We notice first the Archisynagogos, or ruler of the synagogue, who regulated all its concerns and granted permission to address the assembly. Of these there were three in each synagogue. Dr. Lightfoot believes them to have possessed a civil power, and to have constituted the lowest civil tribunal, commonly known as “the council of three,” whose office it was to judge minor offences against religion, and also to decide the differences that arose between any members of the synagogue, as to money matters, thefts, losses, etc. To these officers there is perhaps an allusion in 1Co 6:5 . See also JUDGMENT. The second officer-bearer was “the angel of the synagogue,” or minister of the congregation, who prayed and preached. In allusion to these, the pastors of the Asiatic churches are called “angels,” Jer 2:3 .The service of the synagogue was as follows: The people being seated, the “angel of the synagogue” ascended the pulpit, and offered up the public prayers, the people rising from their seats, and standing in a posture of deep devotion, Mat 6:5 Mar 11:25 Luk 18:11,13 . The prayers were nineteen in number, and were closed by reading the execration. The next thing was the repetition of their phylacteries; after which came the reading of the law and the prophets. The former was divided into fifty-four sections, with which were united corresponding portions from the prophets; (see Mal 13:15,27 15:21) and these were read through once in the course of the year. After the return from the captivity, an interpreter was employed in reading the law and the prophets, Neh 8:2-8, who interpreted them into the Syro-Chaldaic dialect, which was then spoken by the people. The last part of the service was the expounding of the Scriptures, and preaching from them to the people. This was done either by one of the officer, or by some distinguished person who happened to be present. The reader will recollect one memorable occasion on which our Savior availed himself of the opportunity thus afforded to address his countrymen, Luk 4:20 ; and there are several other instances recorded of himself and his disciples teaching in the synagogues. See Mat 13:54 Mar 6:2 Joh 18:20 Mal 13:5,15,44 14:1 17:2-4,10 18:4,26 19:8. The whole service was concluded with a short prayer or benediction.The Jewish synagogues were not only used for the purposes of divine worship, but also for courts of judicature, in such matters as fell under the cognizance of the Council of Three, of which we have already spoken. On such occasions, the sentence given against the offender was sometimes, after the manner of prompt punishment still prevalent in the East, carried into effect in the place where the council was assembled. Hence we read of persons being beaten in the synagogue, and scourged in the synagogue, Mat 10:17 Mar 13:9 Mal 22:19 26:11 2Co 11:24 . To be “put out of the synagogue,” or excommunicated from the Jewish church and deprived of the national privileges, was punishment much dreaded, Joh 9:22 12:42 16:2. In our own day the Jews erect synagogues wherever they are sufficiently numerous, and assemble on their Sabbath for worship; this being conducted, that is, the reading or chanting of the Old Testament and of prayers, in the original Hebrew, though it is a dead language spoken by few among them. Among the synagogues of Jerusalem, now eight or ten in number, are some for Jews of Spanish origin, and others for German Jews, etc., as in the time of Paul there were separate synagogues for the Libertines, Cyreians, Alexandrians, etc., Mal 6:9 .

Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

Synagogue

1. The name.-The name synagogue (, Aram. , Heb. , assembly, like , Septuagint for either or , congregation) denotes primarily the religious community of Jews (Sir 24:23, Luk 12:11, Act 9:2; Act 26:11; also used by the Judaeo-Christians [Epiphan. Haer. xxx. 18; Harnack, ad Hermas Mand. xi. 9]) but became afterwards the regular term for the Jewish place of worship. Aram. (see E. Levy, Neuhebr. und chald. Wrterbuch ber die Talmud-im und Midraschim, Leipzig, 1876-89, s.v.) = Heb. , the house of the congregation (Mishna throughout); so Philo, ed. Mangey, ii. 458; Jos. Ant. XIX. vi. 3, Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) II. xiv. 4-5, VII. iii. 3; Cod. Theodos. xvi. 8. Often is used for , house of prayer (Septuagint to Isa 56:7; Isa 60:7; Philo, ed. Mangey, ii. 523, 535, 568, 596, 600; Jos. Vita, 54; Act 16:13), for (Philo, ed. Mangey, ii. 168), and for = Sabbath place in an edict of Augustus (Jos. Ant. XVI. vi. 2). Through the Pauline writings (Fr. glise) became the exclusive name for the Christian Church in the double sense of congregation and house of worship (Schrer, GJV [Note: JV Geschichte des jdischen Volkes (Schrer).] ii.3 [Leipzig, 1898] 433, 443; but cf. F. Spitta, Zur Geschichte und Litteratur des Urchristentums, ii. [Gttingen, 1896] 343).

2. Origin.-Like the beginnings of all great movements in history, the origin of the institution is wrapped in obscurity. The ancients ascribed it to Moses (Philo, ed. Mangey, ii. 168; Jos. c. Apion. ii. 17; Act 15:21, Targ. [Note: Targum.] Exo 18:20; cf. Targ. [Note: Targum.] Jdg 5:2, 1Ch 16:39, Isa 1:13, Amo 5:12). But the Mosaic system of sacrifices had no provision made for regular prayers; and so the identification of the house of the people (Jer 39:8 [see Rashi and imi]) with the synagogue is without foundation. The synagogue is a new creation for which the Exile alone offered the conditions (see Wellhausen, Isr. und jd. Gesch.6, pp. 149, 194). As the prescribed sacrifices could not be offered on foreign soil, which was regarded as unclean (Amo 7:17, Eze 4:13), another organized form of worship became an imperative necessity. In place of the priesthood, whose exclusive domain was the Temple with its sacrificial cult, a new class of men in the Exile voiced the needs of the people, accentuating the significance of prayer and song as the more spiritual elements of the Divine service, and at the same time appealed to the people, like the prophets of old, by words of warning and consolation, offering public instruction through the Word of God, whether spoken or read. Such a class of men were the anvm, the meek ones, asdm, the godly ones, or kedshm, the holy ones, of the Psalms; they had devotional assemblies of their own (Psa 1:5; Psa 26:12; Psa 89:7; Psa 107:32; Psa 111:1; Psa 149:1). To them, in fact, the Psalm literature owes in the main its origin, and they coined the language of prayer (see I. Lceb, La Littrature des pauvres dans la Bible, Paris, 1892); hence the abundance of prayers in the post-Exilic literature (1Ch 17:16-27; 1Ch 29:10-19, 2Ch 6:14-42; 2Ch 14:11; 2Ch 20:6-12, Ezr 9:6-15, Neh 9:6-38, Dan 2:20-23; Dan 9:4-19, also Isa 36:15-20), not to mention the apocryphal books such as the Maccabees, Enoch, Judith, etc. Music and song likewise occupy a prominent place in the Chronicles and the Psalms, while they are ignored in the Priestly Code. The very fact that the Exilic seer speaks of an house of prayer for all peoples (Isa 56:7; cf. Septuagint to Isa 60:7) indicates the existence of places for devotional assemblies of the people in the Exile. King Solomons dedication prayer, which was composed in the Exile (1Ki 8:46 ff.), also shows that the exiled Jews prayed in the land of the enemy with their faces turned towards Jerusalem, exactly as did Daniel (Dan 6:10). Such devotional assemblies were held on the banks of rivers (Psa 137:1; cf. Eze 1:3, Dan 8:2), the Sabbath, which assumed a higher meaning in the Exile (see Wellhausen, loc. cit.), as well as the feast and fast days offering the incentives to the same (Isa 58:4; Isa 58:13, Zec 7:5; cf. 2Ki 4:23). To such assemblies the writings of Deutero-Isaiah were in all likelihood addressed (cf. L. Herzfeld, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, Leipzig, 1871, i. 132); and the composition of the prophetical books in their present shape, with the message of comfort at the end of each portion or book, if not also that of the Pentateuch (cf., for instance, Lev 27:34 as the conclusion of the Holiness Code), seems to have been made with such devotional assemblies in view. Whether the new religious spirit which emanated from Persia under Cyrus exerted a re-awakening influence on Judaism, as E. Meyer (Geschichte des Alterthums, Stuttgart, 1884-1901, iii. 122-200) asserts, or not, it is certain that Parsiism had a large share in the shaping of the synagogal liturgy, as pointed out by Graetz (Geschichte der Juden, ii. [1876] 409-418, note 14) and J. H. Schorr (He-l, vii. [1865], viii. [1869]).

3. History.-The words of Eze 11:16 (see Targ. [Note: Targum.] Meg. 29a), To Israel scattered among the nations I shall be a little sanctuary, were actually verified through the synagogue, as Bacher (see article Synagogue in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) ) states. It is noteworthy that the synagogue at Shf Ythb near Nahardea in Babylonia was in the 2nd cent. taken to be the work of King Jehoiachin, who was said to have had the stones and the earth brought from Jerusalem; and it was claimed to be the seat of the Shekinah like the Temple of yore, the statue erected there (against the Jewish Law) being probably a Persian symbol of the Divine Presence (Meg. 29a; Rsh hash. 24b; Kohler, MGWJ [Note: GWJ Monatsschrift fr Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums.] xxxviii. [1893] 442). The claim of being the seat of the Shekinah was also raised for another old synagogue at Hzl (Meg. 29a). Another one was ascribed to Daniel (Erb. 21a).

The earliest testimony for the existence of the synagogue in Palestine is found in Psa 74:6 : They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land (so Symmachus and Aquila for ). Most commentators refer the psalm to the Maccabaean time, though it seems strange that the destruction of the synagogues should not have been mentioned in the Maccabaean books. H. L. Strack (PRE [Note: RE Realencyklopdie fr protestantische Theologie und Kirche.] 3 xix. 224) refers the psalm to the war of Artaxerxes Ochus (359-333 b.c.). Wellhausen (loc. cit.) thinks that the synagogue took the place of the ancient bmth (high places)-a view which seems to be confirmed by Targ. [Note: Targum.] on 1Ch 16:39 and 1Ma 3:46; cf. imi on Jdg 20:1. Possibly the rule to have the synagogue in the heights of the city (Ts. Meg. iv. 23; cf. Tan. Beuothai, ed. S. Buber, Wilna, 1885, p. 4; Shabb. 11a; Epiphan. Haer. lxxx. 1) has some connexion with this ancient practice. On the other hand, the site of the synagogue was, on account of the necessary ablutions, preferably chosen near some flowing water or at the seaside, as is shown by the Halicarnassus decree (Jos. Ant. XIV. x. 23: They may make their proseuches at the seaside, following the customs of their fathers; cf. Act 16:13). Hence also the interpretation of the well in the field (Gen 29:2), that is the synagogue (Ber. R. lxx. 8). Owing to this, the synagogue was frequently outside the city (id. 73b, Shab. 24b, Rashi; Tan. ay Srh, ed. Buber, p. 7; r. . . 236; cf. Mekilta B, 1; Shemh R. on Exo 9:29; Philo, ed. Mangey, ii. 298). There being no special provision made for a synagogue within the Temple, the Hall of the Hewn Stones was used for the daily prayer (Tmd iv-v), but Rabbi Joshua of the 1st cent. (Ts. Suk. iv. 5) speaks of a synagogue and a school-house on the Temple hill near by. The term (= 481, being the numerical value of the letters) in Isa 1:21 causes the Haggdist to speak of 480 synagogues which Jerusalem had besides the Temple (Jer. Meg. 73d, Keth B. 35c, kh R. Introd. 12; Babl. Keth. has erroneously 394). It is certain that the number was quite large, as may be seen from Act 6:9 (cf. 2:5-11), according to which each settlement of foreign Jews had a synagogue of its own-Alexandrians (cf. Ts. Meg. iii. 6, iv. 13), Cyrenians, Cilicians, and Asiatics. Epiphanius (de Mensuris, 14) speaks of seven on Zion. Josephus (Vita, 54) mentions the Great Synagogue at Tiberias, where during the Roman war political meetings took place (see also rb. x. 10). In the 5th cent. Tiberias had thirteen synagogues (Ber. 8a), one in the village of Tiberias (Pes. R. 196b). The synagogue at Caesarea, where the revolt against Rome was started (Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) II. xiv. 4-5), continued its existence under the name of the synagogue of the revolution to the 4th cent. (Jer. Bik. iii. 65d), and was probably the one in which Rabbi Abbahu had his frequent disputes with the Church Fathers (H. Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, iv.3 [1893] 288). The Gospels mention the synagogues of Capernaum (Mar 1:21 and ||s) and Nazareth (Luk 4:16 and ||) wherein Jesus taught. The former was built for the Jews by the Roman centurion, a proselyte (Luk 7:5-6). About the interesting ruins discovered in recent times of many synagogues in Galilee from the 1st and 2nd centuries, possibly even that of Capernaum, see Schrer, GJV [Note: JV Geschichte des jdischen Volkes (Schrer).] ii.4 [1901] 517, note 59. At Sepphoris, the seat of the academy of Rabbi Judah, the prince, of the 2nd cent., one synagogue was called the great Synagogue (Pes. 136b); another one, probably after an engraved symbol, the Synagogue of the Vine (Jer. Nzr, vii. 56a). The wealth spent on the synagogue at Lydda gave the Rabbis cause for complaint (Jer. Sheklm, v. 49b). As Philo (ed. Mangey, ii. 168) says, each city inhabited by Jews had its synagogue for instruction in virtue and piety (cf. Ts. B.M. xi. 23 and Sanh. 17b).

The oldest synagogue on record is that built in Alexandria under Ptolemy III. (247-221 b.c.) and dedicated to him and his sister Berenice according to the inscription discovered in 1902 (Schrer, GJV [Note: JV Geschichte des jdischen Volkes (Schrer).] ii.4, 497, iii.4 [1909] 41). The large Jewish population had many synagogues in the different quarters of the city (Philo, ed. Mangey, ii. 568), the largest and most famous of which was the one built in the shape of a basilica and described in glowing colours (Ts. Suk. iv. 6, Jer. Suk. v. 55a, Babl. Suk. 51a); it was totally destroyed under Trajan (Graetz, Gesch. der Juden, iv.3 117). The legendary narrative 3Ma 7:17-20 tells of the founding of a synagogue at Ptolemais in Southern Egypt under Ptolemy IV. In Syria the most famous was the Great Synagogue at Antioch, to which the brazen vessels carried off from the Temple at Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes were presented by his successors (Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) VII. iii. 3). Damascus also had a number of synagogues; in these Paul the Apostle preached (Act 9:2-20). Throughout Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece and its islands, in cities such as Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, and Corinth, the synagogues, being the gathering-places for Jews and God-fearing half-proselytes (Act 13:16; Act 13:26; Act 13:43; Act 17:17), offered a sphere of activity to St. Paul and his fellow-workers (Act 13:5; Act 13:14; Act 14:1; Act 16:13; Act 17:1; Act 17:10; Act 17:17; Act 18:4; Act 18:7). In Rome there were quite a number of synagogues at the time of Augustus (Philo, ed. Mangey, ii. 569), and the inscriptions discovered in recent times mention nine different ones named either after persons, such as Augustus, Agrippa, and Volumnus, or after places, such as Campus (Martius) and the Subura, or after the language of the members, Hebraic or the vernacular, one after the trade lime burners, and another after an engraved symbol the Synagogue of the Olive Tree. A synagogue of Severus is mentioned in Ber. R. ix. 5 quoted by imi on Gen 1:3 (Schrer, GJV [Note: JV Geschichte des jdischen Volkes (Schrer).] iii.4, 83g). On disputes held there by Palestinian masters with Romans and Christians under Domitian see H. Vogelstein and P. Rieger, Geschichte der Juden in Rom, i. [Berlin, 1896] 29.

4. Form and furniture of the synagogue.-Like the Alexandrian Great Synagogue and the Hall of Hewn Stones in the Temple (Ym, 25a), the synagogue at Tiberias had the form of a basilica with a double row of pillars (Midr. Tehillm on Psalms 93 [end]). As to the style of the synagogue, as shown by the ruins in Galilee see Schrer, GJV [Note: JV Geschichte des jdischen Volkes (Schrer).] ii.4 446; their orientation, however, does not conform to the rule that they should be directed towards the East, corresponding with the tabernacle (Num 3:38). However, the same was also the rule for the Church (Apost. Const. ii. 57, 3, 14; cf. Tylor, PC [Note: C Primitive Culture (E. B. Tylor).] 3, London, 1891, ii. 426 ff.).

The chief furniture was the , ark (Meg. iii. 1, Taan. ii. 1), in which the scrolls were kept covered with cloth or put in a case, over which was spread a baldachin (kilah) or curtain (prketh, Exo 26:31; Jer. Meg. 73d, 75b). It was placed near the upper end of the synagogue, and in front of it stood the delegate of the congregation, who offered the prayer (Ber. v. 3, 4 and elsewhere). In the centre was the bmh (= , platform) made of wood (S, vii. 8; Suk. 51b; cf. Neh 8:4 Authorized Version , the pulpit of wood), called in more modern times almemar, the Muhammadan al-minbar (Jewish Encyclopedia , s.v. Almemar); upon it stood or sat in a chair called the seat of Moses (Mat 23:2; cf. article China in Jewish Encyclopedia iv. 37a) those who read from the scroll of the Law or other sacred books, which were placed upon the lectern, called after the Greek (see Levy, Wrterbuch, s.vv. and ), or the tablets. There were also chairs set for the elders and the scribes (Ts. Suk. iv. 6, Mat 23:6 and ||). For the candelabra (menrh) see Ts. Meg. iii. 3, Jer. Meg. 74a.

5. Organization of the synagogue.-The members of a religious community having a synagogue for its centre-and there were, as shown above, often many in the larger cities-were called bene hakkeneseth, sons of the synagogue (Meg. ii. 5, iii. 1). The number required for the formation of a synagogue community was ten (Bekr. v. 5, Zbm, iii. 2, Ts. Meg. iv. 3, Sanh. i. 6). At the head was a ruler, rsh hak-keneseth (Ym, vii. 1, S, vii. 7) = (Mar 5:22, Luk 13:14, Act 13:15; cf. Luk 8:41), whose function was to maintain order in the synagogue and to decide who should conduct the service. The subaltern officer, who had to carry out the orders of the former, assisting him in keeping order, hand the sacred scroll to the reader and return it to its place (S, vii. 7, Luk 4:20), take charge of the palm branches of the Sukkth feast (Suk. iv. 4), and give the signal for the service (Ts. Suk. iv. 6, Sifr Nu 39) and for the suspension from work on Sabbath and Holy-day Eve (Ts. Suk. iv. 12), was called azzan hak-keneseth = (Epiph. Haer. xxx. 11). He also assisted in the instruction of the school children by showing the passage that was to be read (Shab. 13) and acted as lictor of the synagogue court in scourging offenders (Mak. iii. 12, Ts. Mak. v. 12). In the course of time, however, he rose in rank while officiating in smaller congregations as leader in prayer and as instructor (Jer. Yeb. xii. 13a, Jer. Ber. ix. 12, Babl Meg. 23h, Mas. Sferm x. 8, xiv. 1; Pir de R.E. xii. [end]). For the various functions of the service itself no permanent official existed in the ancient time, and he who was to lead in prayer was selected by the congregation-mostly through its ruler-as the representative, or the delegate of the community, shela zbbr, and upon being invited in the usual formula-at least in the Talmudic period-Come and bring for us the offering, he stepped in front of the ark to offer the prayer (Ber. v. 3-5, Jer. Ber. iv. 8b). In Mishnaic times it seems that the functions of reciting the Shem (the proclamation of the Unity of God, Deu 6:4-9, and its corollaries Deu 11:13-21 and Num 15:37-41), with its accompanying benedictions, of reading from the Prophets, and of offering the Priestly Blessing at the close of the service were all preferably assigned to one person (Meg. iv. 5); but this was by no means the case originally (see below). For the reading from the Pentateuch different members of the congregation were called up, on Sabbath seven, on the Day of Atonement six, on festival days five, on New Moon and semi-festivals four, and on the second and fifth weekdays and Sabbath afternoons three (Meg. iv. 1-2), and as a rule Aaronites first and Levites afterwards (Gin, v. 5). The one who was to translate the text into the vernacular (Aramaic), called metrgemn (Meg. iv. 4), was, however, permanently engaged. The more learned men of the congregation, and especially learned guests, were as a rule invited to read the last portion and some portion from the Prophets, which they afterwards expounded in a sermon. This prophetic portion was called in Aramaic aphart (Heb. haphthrh-word of dismissal; whence the name of the last reader, maphr [see Levy, Wrterbuch, s.v. ], Tan. Termh, 1; Luk 4:16 f.).

It was principally on Sabbath and festival days, when the people were at leisure, that the service was well attended, and accordingly the weekly lesson from the Torah was read in full (cf. Philo, ed. Mangey, ii. 282, 630, 458); wherefore the synagogue was called the Sabbath place par excellence (Jos. Ant. XVI. vi. 2; cf. Bachers quotation from Payne Smith, article Synagogue, in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) iv. 636b). On Monday and Thursday the villagers coming to the cities for the court or the market attended the synagogue in sufficient numbers to have a portion of the Torah read (Ts. Taan. ii. 4). On week days only larger cities had the required ten men of leisure (balnm || Meg. i. 3, Sanh. 17b; see Jewish Encyclopedia , article Balanim) for the daily service; later it became a fixed custom to engage ten men of leisure for the holding of the daily service where the attendance was too small.

6. The service: its elements and its development.-The Divine service assumed at the very outset a two-fold character: it was to offer common devotion and public instruction. But the devotional part, again, consisted at the very beginning, as far as we can trace it, of two elements: (a) the confession of faith, (b) the real prayer (tefillh).

(a) The confession of faith, termed in the Mishna the acceptance of the yoke of sovereignty of God, abblath l Malkt Shmayim (Ber. ii. 2), by the recital of the Shema (Deu 6:4-9; Deu 11:13; Deu 11:21, Num 15:37-41), was preceded by two benedictions, one containing the praise of the Lord as the Giver of light in view of the rising sun each morning, and of the Withdrawer of the light of day each evening, and another containing the praise of the Lord as Giver of the Law to Israel, His chosen people, and followed by one benediction beginning with a solemn attestation of the monotheistic truth proclaimed in the Shem, and ending with the praise of God as the Redeemer of Israel with reference to the deliverance from Egypt mentioned in the closing verse of the Shem chapters (Num 15:41). That this part is very old is shown, not merely by the discussion of the oldest Rabbinical schools concerning the details of observing the commandment found in Deu 6:7 : When thou liest down, and when thou risest up, but by Josephus source (Ant. IV. viii. 13), which ascribes to Moses the recital of the Shem and of the benediction for Israels redemption. But what Philo tells of the Therapeutes, that they prayed each morning and evening for the light of heaven (ed. Mangey, ii. 475), and Josephus of the Essenes, that they offer prayers handed down from their fathers towards the rising sun as if supplicating for its rising, that is to say, with hands outstretched towards the streaks of light coming forth (Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) II. viii. 5; cf. Enoch lxxxiii. 11, Wis 16:28, Sib. Orac. iii. 591f.), which corresponds with what the Talmud says (Ber. 9b, Jer. Ber. i. 3a) of the Vethm, the enduring, conscientiously pious (another name for the Essenes), that they recited the Shem at the time of the radiance of the morning sun, points almost with certainty to Zoroastrian influence (see, besides Graetz, Schorr, and Kohler, also T. K. Cheyne, The Origin and Religious Contents of the Psalter [BL [Note: L Bampton Lecture.] ], London, 1891, pp. 283, 448), and thus indicates a time when these prayers were offered under the open sky.

(b) The real prayer (tefillh) consisted of either eighteen benedictions or seven benedictions on Sabbath and festival days. In both cases the three opening and three concluding benedictions were the same. On week days, however, twelve specific prayers are offered between these, six concerning human life in general and five concerning the national life of the Jewish people, the twelfth containing the supplication that all the prayers offered either collectively or individually be heard, whereas on Sabbaths and festivals only one specific prayer with reference to the day is offered.

The three opening benedictions are: (1) Birkath bth, the praise of the God of the fathers, dwelling on the merits of the patriarchs and closing with the words Shield of Abraham; (2) Gebrth, the praise of the Divine Omnipotence, as manifested in cosmic life and in the future resurrection: it closes, Blessed be Thou who revivest the dead; (3) edshh, the sanctification of the Lord by the heavenly hosts: it closes with, Blessed be Thou, the holy God. The three concluding benedictions are: (1) Abdh, prayer for the favourable acceptance of the Divine service in the Temple, which, since the destruction of the Temple, has been changed into a prayer for the restoration of the sacrificial cult: it now closes, Blessed be Thou who restorest Thy Shekinah to Zion; (2) Hdh, thanksgiving for all the bounties of life and the wondrous doings of Providence; (3) Birkath Khanm, the benediction connected with the Priestly Blessing (Num 6:24-27), which formed the conclusion of the service.

The twelve week-day benedictions are: (1) prayer for knowledge and wisdom; (2) for spiritual regeneration; (3) for Divine forgiveness; (4) for the redemption of those in bondage; (5) for the healing of the sick; (6) for the produce of the year; (7) for the gathering of the dispersed of Israel; (8) for the restoration of a reign of righteousness; (9) originally for the destruction of the kingdom of arrogancy (= the heathen powers): after the Bar Cochba war, however, it was changed into a curse of the heretics and (Christian) informers in the service of Rome; (10) prayer for the leading authorities, the Zaddm, the asdm, the elders, the remnant of the Sferm, and the proselytes; (11) originally a prayer for the restoration of the Davidic dynasty in Jerusalem, afterwards divided into a prayer for Jerusalems restoration as the city of God and another for the Branch of David-hence arose nineteen instead of eighteen week-day prayers (cf. Ts. Ber. ii. 25, Jer. Ber. ii. 4d-5d, iv. 8ac, Rsh hash. iv. 49c; Leka Tob Wathanan; Yal on 1 Samuel 2; Ber. 28bf.); (12) prayer for the acceptance of all petitions (see Schrer, GJV [Note: JV Geschichte des jdischen Volkes (Schrer).] ii.4 540). As to the age of these prayers in their original form, the mention of the Sanhedrin, elders, and the remnant of the Sferm in the 10th (resp. 13th) prayer indicates the Maccabaean, if not the pre-Maccabaean, time (cf. also Sir 51:12 and Schrer, GJV [Note: JV Geschichte des jdischen Volkes (Schrer).] ii.4 542 n. [Note: . note.] , 156). The three opening and three concluding benedictions have been preserved in a more elaborate and original form in the ancient Church liturgy that came down under the name of Clement (Apost. Const. vii. 33-35, 37-38, viii. 37), the opening and concluding formulas being almost identical (see article Didascalia in Jewish Encyclopedia iv. 593 ff.). The Sabbath and Holy-day benediction (Apost. Const. vii. 36) has also the original Jewish character. All these prayers evidently originated in Hasidaean circles, and were only afterwards reduced in length to suit the people at large, as the synagogue became a common institution (see also L. Zunz, Gttesdienstliche Vortrge der Juden2, Frankfort a.M., 1892, pp. 379-383, and G. Dalman, Die Worte Jesu, Leipzig, 1898, p. 299 ff.). As a matter of fact, the entire angelology of the first Shema benediction and of the third of the eighteen benedictions is, like those in the ancient Church liturgy, altogether Essene in character, intended only for the initiated into the higher wisdom, and the popularization of these prayers was as much the work of the synagogue as was the propagation of religious knowledge among the people-a work begun by the Levites (Neh 8:7; Neh 9:5, 2Ch 19:8; 2Ch 31:2; 2Ch 35:3; Test. Levi, viii. 7; Ym, 26a; Tan. Wara, 4; Num. R., i., iii., v.) and achieved in the course of centuries through the synagogue by the Pharisees (see R. T. Herford, Pharisaism, London, 1912, pp. 80-83).

The reading from the Law introduced by Ezra (Neh 8:5) became soon afterwards a fixed custom for each Sabbath, and so the Pentateuch was completed at first in triennial (possibly originally septennial [cf. Deu 31:10]) and later in annual cycles (Zunz, op. cit., p. 3 f.), it having been divided at first into 154 and afterwards into 54 sections accordingly. The seven men called up for public reading seem to have been originally identical with the seven leading men of each community (Meg. 26a; Jos. Ant. IV. viii. 14, Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) II. xx. 5), probably the eberr (Ts. Bik. iii. 12, Ber. iv. 7, and elsewhere), but were afterwards chosen from among all the members of the synagogue. The reading from the Prophets which followed that from the Pentateuch (Act 13:15) is probably of an older origin than the latter; its selection was left to the preacher of the day (Luk 4:17), but afterwards the selection for each Sabbath and Holy-day was fixed so as to correspond with the character of the day or the Pentateuch section.

7. Women in the synagogue.-Women could not be members of the synagogue, though they seem to have performed synagogal functions of their own, and so prominent women were elected as mothers of the synagogue (Mater Synagogae [Schrer, GJV [Note: JV Geschichte des jdischen Volkes (Schrer).] iii.4 88]). They attended the service (Act 16:13, Ab. Zr 38b, S 22a), but could take no part in the common service (Ts. Meg. iv. 11, Bab [Note: ab Babylonian.] . Meg. 23a). They were without doubt at all times (Ts. Suk. iv. 11, Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] Suk. 51b; cf. Philo, ad. Mangey, ii. 482; id. 81a; Chrysos. Hom. 74 in Matt., quoted by Lcew) separated from the men by some sort of wall or barrier (against Lcew, Gesammelte Schriften, iv. 62 f., and Bacher, loc. cit.). See also Schrer, GJV [Note: JV Geschichte des jdischen Volkes (Schrer).] ii.4 521, 527, where the emporium found in the ruins of the ancient synagogue is correctly assigned by him to the women.

8. Schoolhouse.-The synagogue was at the outset the place for public instruction (Philo, ed. Mangey, ii. 168: Their houses of worship are nothing but schools of wisdom and virtue; and Jos. c. Apion. ii. 17-18), and at an early time elementary schools for the young were established therein, or near by (Jer. Keth. xiii. 35c; M.K. iii. 31d; Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] id. 30a; Ber. 17a; Meg. 28b; B.B. 21; Gi. 58a).

9. Other uses of the synagogue.-To eat, drink, or sleep in the synagogue was regarded as profanation, but it was used for funeral addresses (Ts. Meg. iii. 7; Bab [Note: ab Babylonian.] . Meg. 28b), for public announcement, especially of charity donations (Lev. R. xxxii. 6; Schrers quotation of Mat 6:2 refers to the Temple [see articles Alms in Jewish Encyclopedia i. and Didascalia, ib. iv. 591d-592a]). The ancient asdm or Essenes seem to have had their meals in, or near, the synagogue, and the poor were housed and fed in rooms adjoining it (Pes. 101a; Kohler, MGWJ [Note: GWJ Monatsschrift fr Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums.] xxxvii. 494). Punishment by scourging was inflicted in the synagogue (Mat 10:17; Mat 23:34, Act 26:11).

10. The synagogue discipline.-The maintenance of the synagogue community required certain disciplinary measures to keep obnoxious or hostile elements out. The following were the different forms of exclusion or excommunication used against unsubmissive members.

(1) erem, anathema-a term used since 2Es 10:8 (see articles Anathema and Ban in Jewish Encyclopedia ) in the sense of absolute exclusion from the congregation (M.. 16a; 1Co 16:22, where the Greek is followed by the Aramaic formula Mrn ath [thou art accursed] Gal 1:8), for which also the term is used (Joh 9:22; Joh 12:42; Joh 16:2; Apost. Const. II. xliii. 1, III. viii. 3, IV. viii. 3; the Syrian Didascalia is less exact).

(2) Niddy, conditional or temporary exclusion-a term used chiefly in Mishna (Taan. iii. 8, M.. iii. 1-2; dy. v. c; Midd. 112; Jer. M.. 81a; Bab [Note: ab Babylonian.] . Ber. 19a; M. 16-17; B.. 112b ff.; Ned. 7b, and elsewhere). It corresponds with (Luk 6:22; Apost. Const. II. xvi. 3, 4; xxi. 3, 7; xxviii. 2, 4; xl. 2; xlvi., xlvii. 3; xlviii. 1; III. viii. 2; VI. xliii. and VII. ii. 8; also in the later ecclesiastical rules [VIII. xxviii. 3, 7, 8; xxxii. 5; xlvii. 5, 8ff.]); probably also with , 3Jn 1:10.

(3) Nezphh, severe public reprimand implying a seven days seclusion in accord with Num 12:14 (cf. Sifr, ad loc.; M.. 16a; Shab. 115a), found as early as the 1st cent. b.c. in Apost. Const. II. xvi. 3-4; cf. article Didascalia in Jewish Encyclopedia iv. 589d, against Hamburger, article Bann, p. 150.

(4) Shammat, handing over to desolation (from shamminion with another lady called Euodiaemmh = , 1Co 5:5; cf. Jos. Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) II. viii. 8 and Jewish Encyclopedia i. 561-562; M.. 17a).

(5) L, execration-a milder form of shammat resorted to by the Talmudic leader in Babylonia (see article in Levy, Wrterbuch; M.K. 16d; cf. Jdg 5:23, Deu 27:15-26).

(6) Corporal punishments such as the thirty-nine stripes for transgression of Mosaic commandments (Deu 25:3, 2Co 11:24) or beating for rebelliousness against the Rabbinical authorities-Makkath Mardth (Nzr iv. 3, 2Co 11:25, Act 16:22). The entire disciplinary system, which in the course of time became rather less severe in the same measure as heresy and antagonism ceased within the synagogue (M.. 16ab), was no longer clearly understood in Talmudic times; it receives better light, however, from the Essene Church rules preserved in the Apost. Const. II. xl. 2-43 and 47, as shown above. It is from the ancient Hasidaean synagogue that the Christian Church adopted her own disciplinary system.

Literature.-E. Schrer, GJV [Note: JV Geschichte des jdischen Volkes (Schrer).] ii.4 [Leipzig, 1907] 497-541, where the entire literature is given; W. Bacher, article Synagogue, in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) . Especially to be mentioned are L. Lcew, Der synagogale Ritus (= Gesammelte Schriften, Szegedin, 1889-1900, iv. 1-71, v. 21-33); K. Kohler, Ueber die Ursprnge und Grundformen der synagogalen Liturgie, in MGWJ [Note: GWJ Monatsschrift fr Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums.] xxxvii. [1893] 441-451, 489-497; W. O. E. Cesterley and G. H. Box, The Religion and Worship of the Synagogue, London, 1907; W. Bousset, Religion des Judentums2, Berlin. 1906, pp. 83, 197f., 197 ff.; J. Wellhausen, Israelitische und jdische Geschichte6, do., 1907, pp. 193 f., 199f.; I. Elbogen, Der jdische Gottesdienst in seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung, Leipzig, 1913.

K. Kohler.

Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church

SYNAGOGUE

A place where the Jews meet to worship God.

Fuente: Theological Dictionary

Synagogue

The place of assemblage of the Jews. This article will treat of the name, origin, history, organization, liturgy and building of the synagogue.

I. NAME

The Greek sunagogé, whence the Latin synagoga, French synagogue, and English synagogue, means a meeting, an assembly; and is used by the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew . The Aramaic translation is (cf. Arabic Kanîsah, a church) to which is akin the New Hebrew . The place of assemblage was termed in New Hebrew, , , meeting house, i. e., oikos sunagoges. In the course of time, the single word synagogue came to mean not only the meeting but the meeting-house, the teaching thereof and, in the broadest sense, the body politic of the Jews. This broad sense of the word synagogue is seen in John’s use of ’aposunagogós , “excommunicated” or “put out of the synagogue” (cf. ix, 22; xii, 42; xvi, 2). Another Greek name for synagogue in use among Hellenistic Jews, is proseuké, shortened after the analogy of sunagogé, from oikos proseukos, house of prayer (cf. Philo, “In Flacc.”, §§6, 7; “Ad Gaium”, §§20, 23, 43). This phrase is in the Septuagint translation of Isaias (lvi, 7): “My house shall be called the house of prayer () for all nations.” The Latinized proseucha of Juvenal (Sat., III, 296) means the Jewish house of prayer or synagogue. Josephus (Antiq., XVI, vi, 2) cites an edict of Augustus which calls the Synagogue sabbateíon, the Sabbath-house.

II. ORIGIN

Obscurity enshrouds the first beginnings of the synagogue. The Jerusalem Talmud (in Ex., xviii, 20) dates it from the time of Moses; so, too, the tradition of the Alexandrian Jews, according to the witness of Philo, “De Vita Mosis” (III, 27) and Josephus, “Contra Apion.” (II, 17). This rabbinical tradition is not reliable. It was probably during the Babylonian captivity that the synagogue became a national feature of Hebrew worship. Afar from their Temple, the exiled Jews gathered into local meeting-houses for public worship. Sacrifice was denied them; prayer in common was not. The longer their exile from the national altar of sacrifice, the greater became their need of houses of prayer; this need was met by an ever-increasing number of synagogues, scattered thrroughout the land of exile. From Babylonia this national system of synagogue worship was brought to Jerusalem. That the synagogue dates many generations earlier than Apostolic times, is clear from the authority of St. James: “For Moses of old time [’ek geneon ’archaíon] hath in every city them that preach him in the synagogues, where he is read every sabbath” (Acts 15:21).

III. HISTORY

From the outset of Christianity the synagogue was in full power of its various functions; the New Testament speaks thereof fifty-five times. The word is used to denote the body politic of the Jews twelve times: twice in Matthew (x, 17; xxiii, 34); once in Mark (xiii, 9); three times in Luke’s Gospel (viii, 41; xii, 11; xxi, 12), and four times in his Acts (vi, 9; ix, 2; xxii, 19; xxvi, 11); and twice in the Johannine writings (Revelation 2:9; 3:9). The more restricted meaning of meeting-house occurs forty-three times in the New Testament — seven in Matthew (iv, 23; vi, 2, 5; ix, 35; xii, 9; xiii, 54; xxiii, 6); seven times in Mark (i, 21, 23, 29, 39; iii, 1; vi, 2; xii, 39); twelve times in Luke’s Gospel (iv, 15, 16, 20, 28, 33, 38, 44; vi, 6; vii, 5; xi, 43; xiii, 10; xx, 46), and fourteen times in his Acts (ix, 20; xiii, 5, 14, 42; xiv, 1; xv, 21; xvii, 1, 10, 17; xviii, 4, 7, 19, 26; xix, 8); twice in John (vi, 59; xviii, 20); once in James (ii, 2). Our Lord taught in the synagogues of Nazareth (Matthew 13:54; Mark 6:2; Luke 4:16), and Capharnaum (Mark 1:21; Luke 7:5; John 6:59). Saint Paul preached in the synagogues of Damascus (Acts 9:20), Salamina in Cyprus (Acts 13:5), Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13:14), Iconium (xiv, 1), Philippi (xvi, 13), Thessalonica (xvii, 1), Borœa (xvii, 10), Athens (xvii, 17), Corinth (xviii, 4, 7), and Ephesus (xviii, 19). It is worthy of note that despite his frequent use of the Jewish meeting-house, St. Paul in his stern antagonism never once deigns to make mention of the synagogue. He designates Judaism by the term “circumcision”, and not, as do the Evangelists, by the word “synagogue”. And even in speaking of the Jews as “the circumcision”, St. Paul avoids the received word peritomé, “a cutting around”, a word employed by the Alexandrian Philo for Judaism and reserved by the Apostle for Christianity. The sworn foe of the “false circumcision” takes a current word katatomé, “a cutting down”, and with the vigorous die of his fancy, stamps thereon an entirely new and exclusively Pauline meaning — the false circumcision of Judaism.

At the time of the destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) there were in the city itself 394 synagogues, according to the Babylonian Talmud (Kethuth, 105a); 480, according to the Jerusalem Talmud (Megilla 73d). Besides these synagogues for the Palestinian Jews, each group of Hellenistic Jews in Jerusalem had its own synagogue — the Libertines, the Alexandrians, the Cyrenians, the Cilicians, etc. (Acts 6:9). Josephus speaks of the synagogue which Agrippa I erected in Dora (Antiq., XIX, vi, 3), of the Cæsarean synagogue which revolted against Rome (Bell. Jud., II, xiv, 4), of the great synagogue of Tiberias (Vita, 54), and of the synagogue of Antioch in Syria to which the sacred vessels were borne away in the time of the Seleucid War (Bell. Jud., VII, iii, 3). Philo is authority for the existence, during the first century A. D., of many synagogues in Alexandria (Leg. ad Gaium, 20), and of not a few in Rome (Ibid., 23). In Northern Galilee, are numerous ruins whose style of architecture and inscriptions are indications of synagogues of the second and, maybe, the first century A. D. The Franciscans are now engaged in the restoration of the ruined synagogue of Tel Hum, the site of ancient Capharnaum. This beautiful and colossal synagogue was probably the one in which Jesus taught (Luke 7:5). Of the ruined synagogues of Galilee, that of Kefr Bir’im is the most perfectly preserved. Various Greek inscriptions, recently discovered in Lower Egypt, tell of synagogues built there in the days of the Ptolemies. A marble slab, unearthed in 1902 some twelve miles from Alexandria, reads: “In honour of King Ptolemy and Queen Berenice, his sister and wife, and their children, the Jews (dedicate) this proseuché. Both the Jerusalem and the Babylonian Talmud make mention of numerous Galilean synagogues which were centres of rabbinical literary, and religious and politican influence at Sepphoris, Tiberias, Scythopolis, etc. Every Jewish settlement was obliged by Talmudic law to have its synagogue; the members of the community could oblige one another to the building and maintaining thereof; indeed the members of the Jewish community were designated “sons of the synagogue”. For further history of the synagogue, see JEWS AND JUDAISM.

The Great Synagogue is worthy of special mention, as to it is assigned, by Jewish tradition, the important rôle of forming the Canon of the Old Testament. It is said to have been founded by Esdras in the middle of the fifth century B. C., and to have been a permanent and legislative assemblage for two and a half centuries. The Mishnah (Pirke Aboth, I, 1) claims that the Prophets handed down the Torah to the men of the Great Synagogue. “Aboth Rabbi Nathan” (a post-Talmudic treatise) paraphrases this statement by including the last three Prophets in this assemblage: “Aggeus, Zacharias and Malachias received [the Torah] from the Prophets; and the men of the Great Synagogue received from Aggeus, Zacharias and Malachias”. How long this supposedly authoritative body held control of the religion of Israel, it is impossible to tell. Jewish chronology from the Exile to Alexander’s conquest is far from clear. Rabbi Jeremiah (Jerus. Talmud, Berakot, 4d) says that one hundred and twenty elders made dictions of Kiddush and habdalah. The Talmud, on the contrary (Peah, II, 6), hands down Torah from the Prophets to the Zugoth (Pairs) without the intervention of the Great Synagogue. Be the Great Synagogue of Jewish tradition what it may, historical criticism has ruled it out of court. Kuenen, in his epoch-making monograph “Over die Mannen der groote synagoge” (Amsterdam, 1876), shows that a single meeting came to be looked upon as a permanent institution. The Levites and people met once and only once, probably on the occasion of the covenant described by Nehemias (Nehemiah 8-10), and the important assemblage became the nucleus round which were wrapped the fables of later Jewish tradition. Such is the conclusion of W. R. Smith, “The Old Testament in the Jewish Church”, p. 169; Ryle, “Canon of the Old Testament”, p. 250; Buhl, “Canon and Text of the Old Testament”, p. 33; Driver, “Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament”, 6th ed., p. 7.

IV. ORGANIZATION

(1) Judicial. The “sons of the synagogue” were governed by a council called bêth dîn, “house of justice”; or sunédrion “council” (transliterated , Sanhedrin); or boulé, “council”. The members of this council were twenty-three in larger towns, seven in smaller; and were called ’árchontes, “rulers” (Matthew 9:18, 23); Luke, viii, 41), or presbúteroi, “ancients” (Luke 7:3). The “rulers of the synagogue” had it in their power to punish by excommunication, scourging and death. (a) Excommunication from the synagogal community was termed herem, , ’anáthema, (see ANATHEMA). Both the Hebrew and Greek words mean that an object is “sacred” or “accursed” (cf. Arabic hárîm, the harem, a precinct sacred to the women of a household or the mosque of a community). (b) Scourging (, cf. Makkoth, III, 12; mastigón, cf. Matthew 10:17; 23:34; déro,, cf. Mark 13:9; Acts 22:19) was thirty-nine stripes (Makkoth, III, 10; 2 Corinthians 11:24) laid on by the “servant of the synagogue”, hazzan, ‘uperétes, for minor offences. Three elders made up a tribunal competent to inflict the penalty of scourging. It is likely by this lesser tribunal that Our Lord refers: “Whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment”, ’énochos ’éstai te krísei (Matthew 5:22). (c) The death penalty was inflicted by the Sanhedrin in full session of twenty-three elders (cf. Sanhedrin I, 4). To this penalty or to that of excommunication should probably be referred Our Lord’s words: “And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council”, ’énochos ’éstai to sunedrío (Matthew 5:22).

(2) Liturgical. The “ruler of the synagogue”, (Mark 5:22, 35, 36,, 38; Luke 8:49; 13:14; Acts 13:15; 18:8, 17), rôsh hákkeneséth (Sota, VII, 7) presided over the synagogue and its services. This presidency did not prevent the “sons of the synagogue” from freely officiating. Witness the freedom with which Our Lord and St. Paul stood up to explain the Scriptures in the various synagogues of Palestine and the Diaspora. The hazzan, “servant”, handed the scrolls to the readers and taught the children.

V. LITURGY

There were five parts in the synagogue service:

(1) The Shema’ is made up of Deut., vi, 4-9; xi, 13-21; Num., xv, 37-41 — two opening blessings for morning and evening, one closing blessing for morning and two for evening. These benedictions are named Shema‘ from the opening word, the imperative : “Hear, O Israel; Jahweh our God is one Jahweh”. The origin of the Shema‘, as of other portions of Jewish liturgy, is unknown. It seems undoubtedly to be pre-Christian. For it ordains the wearing of the phylacteries or frontlets — prayer-bands borne upon the arm and between the eyes — during the recitation of the great commandment of the love of God (cf. Deuteronomy 6:8; 11:18). These philacteries (phulaktéria) are called in the Talmud, “the prayer which is for the hand”, , and “the prayer which is for the head”, . The wearing of the two bands was in vogue in Christian times (Matthew 23:5; Josephus, “Antiquit.”, IV, 8:13).

(2) The Prayer is called “the eighteenth”, Shemónéh ‘esréh ), because of its eighteen benedictions and petitions. There are two recensions — the Babylonian, which is commonly in use, and the Palestinian, which Schechter recently discovered in a Cairo genizah (MSS.-box). Dalman (Worte Jesu, p. 304) considers that petitions 7, 10-14, are later than the destruction of Jerusalem (A. D. 70). The twelfth petition of the Palestinian recension shows that the Christians were mentioned in this daily prayer of the synagogue:

“May the Christians and heretics perish in a moment; May they be blotted out of the book of life; May they not be written with the just.”

The Babylonian recension omits , Christians. The Lord’s prayer is made up, in like manner, out of petitions and praises, but in a very unlike and un-Jewish spirit of love of enemies.

(3) Torah. The Jerusalem Talmud (Megilla, 75a) tells us that the reading of the Law on sabbaths, feast-days, new moons, and half feast-days is of Mosaic institution; and that Esdras inaugurated the reading of Torah on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. This Talmudic tradition, though not very reliable, points to a very ancient custom. The law is divided into fifty-four sections, sedarîm, which make up a pericopic sabbath reading of the Pentateuch. Special readings are assigned for special sabbaths; seven readers are called upon at random, and each reads his share.

(4) The Prophets. Parallel to the pericopic reading of Torah is a pericopic reading from the Prophets, or second part of the Hebrew Canon. These sections are chosen with a view to exemplify or drive home the lesson from the Law which precedes. The name of the section from the Prophets, haphtara (from Hiph‘il of , “to dismiss”), indicates that at first the synagogue service here came to a close.

(5) The Scripture Lesson. Even by the time of Christ, the exposition of Scripture was part of the synagogal liturgy (Matthew 4:23; Mark 1:21; 6:2). Any of the brethren might be called upon to give the “word of exhortation” (Acts 13:15). The Talmudic statute (Megilla, IV, 4) was that the methúrgeman, interpreter, paraphrase the section from Torah one verse at a time and the section from the Prophets one to three verses at a time. These paraphrases are called tárgûmîm; a lengthy exposition of a section is a midrash. There was formerly an antiphonal chanting of one or other of Psalms cv-cvii, cxi-cxix, cxvi-cxviii, cxxv, cxxxvi, cxxxxvi-cl. The precentor chanted verse after verse and the choir repeated the first verse of the psalm. At the end he chanted the doxology and called upon the people to answer “Amen”, which they did.

VI. BUILDING

(1) Site. In Palestine, the synagogues were built within the city. In the Diaspora,a site was generally chosen outside the city gate and either by the seaside or river-side (Acts 16:13). The Tosephta (Megilla, IV, 22) ordains that the synagogue be in the highest place of the city and face to the east. The ruins of Galilean synagogues show no observance of this ordinance.

(2) Style of Architecture. There seems to have been no established style of synagogal architecture. Until recent years, the synagogue has been built in whatsoever style had vogue in the place and at the time of building. The ruined synagogue of Merom is in severe Doric. That of Kafr Bir’im is in a Græco-Roman modification of Corinthian. The building is quadrangular in form. On the main façade there are three doorways, each of which has a highly ornamented architrave; above the centre doorway is a carefully carved Roman arch. Later on, Russian synagogues were built in decidedly Russian style. In Strasburg, Munich, Cassel, Hanover, and elsewhere the synagogues show the influence of the different styles of the churches of those cities. The cruciform plan is naturally not followed; the transepts are omitted. Synagogues of Padua, Venice, Livorno and other Italian cities are in the Renaissance style. Since the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, Moorish forms have gradually come to be considered the distinctive trait of synagogal architecture. El Transito and Santa Maria la Blanca, both in Toledo, are two of the finest examples of this Moorish architecture under Jewish influence.

(3) Interior Setting. The Ark, arôn tébah, containing the sacred scrolls, stood at the eastern end opposite the entrance to the rectangular building. In the center was a raised platform (bema, ), and thereupon the lectern (’analogion, ). This elevated platform is also called “Almenar”, a word corrupted from the Arabic Al-minbar, the “chair”, the “pulpit”. These two furnishings are the most essential interior settings of the synagogue. The Ark was originally but a niche in the wall. In time, as the most dignified feature, it received most concern in the decorative scheme. Nowadays, it is raised on high, approached by three or more steps and covered by an elaborately embellished canopy. The Almenar, too, has undergone various embellishments. It is approached by steps, sometimes has seats, is railed in and at times surrounded by a grille, round about or on both sides of it, are the seats for the congregation (klintér, ). The first seats, protokathedría (cf. Matthew 23:6; Mark 12:39; Luke 11:43 and 20:46) are those nearest the Ark; they are reserved for those who are highest in rank (cf. Tosephta, Megilla, IV, 21). Women, at least since the Middle Ages, sit in galleries to which they enter by stairways from the outside. These galleries were formerly set very high; but now are low enough to show both the Ark and the Almemar.

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     SCHÜRER, Gesch., II (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1873), 427-64, tr. (Edinburgh, 1885-87); GRÄTZ, Gesch., IV-XI (Leipzig, 1863-88); ZUNZ, Gottesdienstliche Vorträge der Juden (Berlin, 1832); DALMAN, Synagogaler Gottesdienst, in HERZOG’s Real- Encyklopädie; ABRAHAMS, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (London, 1896); LÖW, Der Synagogale Ritus in Monatschrift, 1884, IV, 1-71; KOHLER, Ueber die Ursprüngs u. Grundformen der synagogalen Liturgie in Monatschrift, 1893, XXXVII, 441-51.

WALTER DRUM. Transcribed by WGKofron In memory of Fr. John Hilkert, Akron, Ohio. Fidelis servus et prudens, quem constituit Dominus super familiam suam.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIVCopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia

Synagogue

(; other equivalent terms are or , i.e. chapel; Heb. , or assembly of God; Aramaic , ), in the Jewish place of worship in post-Biblical and modern times. However obscure the origin of these establishments, they eventually became so important and characteristic as to furnish a designation of the Jewish Church itself in later literature.

It may be well to note at the outset the points of contact between the history and ritual of the synagogues of the Jews, and the facts to which the inquiries of the Biblical student are principally directed. 1. They meet us as the great characteristic institution of the later phase of Judaism. More even than the Temple and its services, in the time of which the New Test. treats, they at once represented and determined the religious life of the people. 2. We cannot separate them from the most intimate connection with our Lord’s life and ministry. In them he worshipped in his youth and in his manhood. Whatever we can learn of the ritual which then prevailed tells us of a worship which he recognized and sanctioned; which for that reason, if for no other, though, like the statelier services of the Temple, it was destined to pass away, is worthy of our respect and honor. They were the scenes, too, of no small portion of his work. In them were wrought some of his mightiest works of healing (Mat 12:9; Mark 23; Luk 13:11). In them were spoken some of the most glorious of his recorded words (4:16; Joh 6:59); many more, beyond all reckoning, which are sot recorded (Mat 4:23; Mat 13:54; Joh 18:20, etc.). 3. There are the questions, leading us back to a remoter past. In what did the worship of the synagogue originate? What type was it intended to reproduce? What customs, alike in nature, if not in name, served as the starting-point for it? 4. The synagogue, with all that belonged to it, was connected with the future, as well as with the past. It was the order with which the first Christian believers were most familiar, from which they were most likely to take the outlines, or even the details, of the worship, organization, and government of their own society. Widely divergent as the two words and the things they represented afterwards became, the ecclesia had its starting- point in the synagogue.

I. Name and its Signification. The word , which literally signifies a gathering, is not unknown in classical Greek (Thucyd. 2, 18; Plato, Republ. 526 D), but became prominent in that of the Hellenists. It appears in the Sept. as the translation of not less than twenty-one Hebrew words in which the idea of a gathering is implied (Tromm, Concordant. s.v.). But, although the word is there used to denote any kind of gathering, heap, mass, or assemblage, such as a gathering of fruits (for the Heb. , , Exo 23:16; Exo 34:22), of water (, , Gen 1:9; Lev 11:36), a heap of stones (, Job 8:17), a band of singers (, Jer 31:4; Jer 31:13), a mass or multitude of people or soldiers (, , Isa 24:22; Eze 37:10), a tribe or family (, 1Ki 12:21), etc., yet its predominant usage in this version is to denote an appointed meeting of people either for civil or religious purposes, thus being synonymous with . This is evident from the fact that the Sept. uses 130 times for the Hebrew , and twenty-five times for , which in seventy instances is rendered in the same version by . The synonymous usage in the Sept. of these two expressions is also seen in Pro 5:14, where and stand in juxtaposition for the Hebrew and .

In the books of the Apocrypha, the word, as in those of the Old Test., retains its general meaning, and is not used specifically for any recognized place of worship. For this the received phrase seems to be (1Ma 3:46; 3Ma 7:20). In the New Test., however, we find , like , used metonymically, more especially for an appointed and recognized Jewish place of worship (Mat 4:23; Mat 6:2; Mat 6:5; Mat 9:35, etc.). Sometimes the word is applied to the tribunal which was connected with or sat in the synagogue in the narrower sense (Mat 10:17; Mat 23:34; Mar 13:9; Luk 21:12; Luk 12:11). Within the limits of the Jewish Church it perhaps kept its ground as denoting the place, of meeting of the Christian brethren (James 2, 2). It seems to have been claimed by some of thepseudo-Judaizing, half-Gnostic sects of the Asiatic churches for their meetings (Revelation 2, 9). It was not altogether obsolete, as applied to Christian meetings, in the time of Ignatius (Fp. ad Trall. c.v; ad Polyc. c. 3). Even in Clement of Alexandria the two words appear united as they had done in the Sept. ( , Strom. 6:633). Afterwards, when the chasm between Judaism and Christianity became wider, Christian writers were fond of dwelling on the meanings of the two words which practically represented them, and showing how far the synagogue was excelled by the ecclesia (August. Enarr. in Psalms 80; Trench, Synonyms of N.T. 1). The cognate word, however, , was formed or adopted in its place, and applied to the highest act of worship and communion for which Christians met (Suicer, Thesaur. s.v.).

More definite than the Greek term synagogue is the ancient Hebrew name, beth tephillah ( , , or simply ) = house of prayer (Act 16:13, for which the Syriac rightly has ; Josephus, Life, 54), which is now obsolete, or beth hak-keneseth ( ) = house of assembly, which has superseded it. This definite local signification of the term synagogue among the Jews has necessitated the use of another expression for the members constituting the assembly, which is or , to express our secondary sense of the word .

II. History of the Origin and Development of the Synagogue.

1. According to tradition, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob instituted the prayers three times a day (Berakoth, 26 b), and had places of worship (comp. the Chaldee paraphrases of Onkelos, Jonathan ben-Uzziel, and the Jerusalem Targum on Gen 24:62-63; Gen 25:27). We are informed that there were synagogues, in the time of the pious king Hezekiah (Sanhedrin, 94 b); that the great house ( ) was a stupendous synagogue; that the many houses of Jerusalem ( ) which Nebuchadnezzar burned (2Ki 25:9) were the celebrated 480 synagogues that existed in Jerusalem (Jerusalem Megillah, 3, 1), and that in Babylon the synagogue was to be seen in which Daniel used to pray (Erubin, 21 a). We have thetestimony of Benjamin of Tudela, the celebrated traveler of the Middle Ages, that he himself saw-the synagogues built by Moses, David, Obadiah; Nahum, and Ezra (Itinerary, 1, 90, 91, 92, 106, 153, ed. Ascher [London, 1840]). It is in harmony with this tradition that James declares Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day (Act 15:21; comp. Philo, 2. 167, 630; Josephus, Apion, 2, 18; Baba Kama, 82 a; Jerusalem Megillah, 4,1). But these are simply traditions, which love to invest everything with the halo of the remotest antiquity.

2. In the Old Test. itself we find no trace of meetings for worship in synagogues. On the one hand, it is probable that if new moons and Sabbaths were observed at all, they must have been attended by some celebration apart from, as well as at, the tabernacle or the Temple (1Sa 20:5; 2Ki 4:23). On the other, so far as we find traces of such local worship, it seems to have fallen too readily into a fetich religion, sacrifices to ephods and teraphim (Jdg 8:27; Jdg 17:5) in groves and on high-places, offering nothing but a contrast to the reasonable service, the prayers, psalms, instruction in the law, of the later synagogue. The special mission of the priests and Levites under Jehoshaphat (2Ch 12:7-9) shows that there was no regular provision for reading the book of the law of the Lord to the people, and makes it probable that even the rule which prescribed that it should be read once every seven years at the Feast of Tabernacles had fallen into disuse (Deu 31:10). With the rise of the prophetic order we trace a more distinct though still a partial approximation. Wherever there was a company of such prophets, there must have been a life analogous in many of its features to that of the later Essenes and Therapeutse, to that of the coenobia and monasteries of Christendom. In the abnormal state of the polity of Israel under Samuel, they appear to have aimed at purifying the worship of the high-places from idolatrous associations, and met on fixed days for sacrifice and psalmody (1Sa 9:12; 1Sa 10:5).

The scene in 1Sa 19:20-24 indicates that the meetings were open to any worshippers who might choose to come, as well as to the sons of the prophet, the brothers of the order themselves. The only pre-exilian instance which seems to indicate, that the devout in Israel were in the habit of resorting to pious leaders for blessings and instruction on stated occasions is to be found in 2Ki 4:23, where the Shunammite’s husband asks, Wherefore wilt thou go to him (Elisha) today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath. Yet 2Ki 22:8, etc.; 2Ch 34:14, etc., testify undoubtedly against the existence of places of worship under the monarchy. The date of Psalms 24 is too uncertain for us to draw any inference as to the nature of the synagogues of God ( , meeting-places of God), which the invaders are represented as destroying (Psa 24:8). It may have belonged to the time of the Assyrian or Chaldaean invasion (Vitringa, De Synag, p. 396-405). It has been referred to that of the Maccabees (De Wette, Psalmen, ad loc.), or to an intermediate period when Jerusalem was taken and the land laid waste by the army of Bagoses, under Artaxerxes II (Ewald, Poet. Biich. 2, 358). The, assembly of the elders, in Psalms 107, 32, leaves us in like uncertainty.

3. During the Exile, in the abeyance of the Temple worship, the meetings of devout Jews probably became more systematic (Vitringa, De Synag. p. 413-429; Jost, Judenthum, 1, 168; Bornitius, De Synagog. in Ugolino, Thesaur. 21), and must have helped forward the change which appears so conspicuously at the time of the Return. The repeated mention of gatherings of the elders of Israel, sitting before the prophet Ezekiel and hearing his word (Eze 8:1; Eze 14:1; Eze 20:1; Eze 33:31), implies the transfer to the-land of the Captivity of the custom that had originated in the schools of the prophets. One remarkable passage may possibly contain a more distinct reference to them. Those who still remained in Jerusalem taunted the prophet and his companions with their exile, as outcasts from the blessings of the sanctuary. Get ye far from the Lord; unto us is this land; given in a possession. The prophet’s answer is that it was not so. Jehovah was as truly with them in their little sanctuary as he had been in the Temple at Jerusalem. His presence, not the outward glory, was itself the sanctuary (11, 15, 16). The whole history of Ezra presupposes the habit of solemn, probably of periodic, meetings (Ezr 8:15, Neh 8:2; Neh 9:1; Zec 7:5). To that period, accordingly, we may attribute the revival, if not the institution, of synagogues, or at least of the systematic meetings on fasts for devotion and instruction (Zec 8:19). Religious meetings were also held on Sabbaths and fasts to instruct the exiles in the divine law, and to admonish them to obey the divine precepts (Ezr 10:1-9; Neh 8:1; Neh 8:3; Neh 9:1-3; Neh 13:1-3). These meetings, held near the Temple and in other localities, were the origin of the synagogue, and the place in which the people assembled was denominated , the house of assembly; hence, also, the synagogue in the Temple, itself. The elders of this synagogue handed the law to the high-priest (Mishna, Yoma, 7:1; Sotah, 7:7, 8), aided in the sacrifices (Tamid, 5, 5), took charge of the palms used at the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkah, 4:4), accompanied the pilgrims who brought their first-fruits (Tosiphta Bikkurim, 2), officiated as judges (Makkloth, 3, 12), and superintended the infantschools (Sabbath, 1, 3). Assuming Ewald’s theory as to the date and occasion of Psalms 124, there must, at some subsequent period, have been a great destruction of the buildings, and a consequent suspension of the services. It is, at any rate, striking that they are not in any way prominent in the Maccabean history, either as objects of attack or rallying-points of defense, unless we are to see in the gathering of the persecuted Jews at Maspha (Mizpal), as at a place where they prayed aforetime in Israel (1Ma 3:46), not only a reminiscence of its old glory as a holy place, but the continuance of a more recent custom. When that struggle was over, there appears to have been a freer development of what may be called the synagogue parochial system among the Jews of Palestine and other countries. The influence of John Hyrcanus, the growing power of the Pharisees, the authority of the Scribes, the example, probably, of the Jews of the dispersion (Vitringa, De Synag. p. 426), would all tend in the same direction. Well-nigh every town or village had its one or more synagogues. Where the Jews were not in sufficient numbers to be able to erect and fill a building, there was the , or place of prayer, sometimes open, sometimes covered in, commonly by a running stream or on the sea-shore, in which devout Jews and proselytes met to worship, and, perhaps, to read (Act 16:13; Josephus, Ant. 14:10, 23; Juvenal, Sat. 3,. 296). Sometimes the term (= ) was applied even to an actual synagogue (Josephus, Life, 54). Eventually we find the Jews possessing synagogues in the different cities of Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Egypt, and wherever they resided. We hearof the apostles frequenting the synagogues in Damas-cus, Antioch, Iconium, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, etc. (Act 9:2; Act 9:20; Act 13:14; Act 14:1; Act 17:1; Act 10:17; Act 18:4; Act 18:19; Act 19:8). There were numerous synagogues in Palestine: in Nazareth (Mat 13:54, Mar 6:2; Luk 4:16), Capernaum (Mat 12:9; Mar 1:21; Luk 7:5; Joh 6:59), etc.; and in Jerusalem alone there were 480 (Jerusalem Megillah,. 3, 1; Jerusalem Kethuboth, 13) to accommodate the Jews from foreign lands who visited the Temple. There were synagogues of the Libertines, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, Cilicians, and of the Asiatics (Act 6:9; comp. Tosiphta Megillah, 2; Babylon Megillah, 26 a). When it is remembered that more than 2,500,000 Jewscame together to the metropolis from all countries to celebrate the Passover (Josephus, Ant. 6:9, 3; Pesachim, 64 a), this number of synagogues in Jerusalem. will not appear at all exaggerated. An idea may be formed of the large number of Jews at the time of Christ, when it is borne in mind that in Egypt alone, from the Mediterranean to the border of Ethiopia, there resided nearly a million of Jews (Philo, Against Flaccus, 2, 523), and that in Syria, especially in the metropolis, Antioch, the Jews constituted a large portion of the population (Gratz [2nd ed.] 3, 282).

III. Site, Structure, Internal Arrangement, Use, and Sanctity of the Synagogue.

1. Taking the Temple as the prototype, and following the traditional explanation of the passages in Pro 1:21 and Ezr 9:9, which were taken to mean that the voice of prayer is to be raised on heights ( ), and that the sanctuary was therefore erected on a summit ( ), the Jewish canons decreed that synagogues are to be built upon the most elevated ground in the neighborhood, and that no house is to be allowed to overtop them (Tosiphta Megillah,3; Maimonides, lad Ha-Chezaka Hilchoth Tephila, 11:2). So essential was this law deemed, and so strictly was it observed in Persia, even after the destruction of the Temple, that Rab (A.D. 165-247) prophesied a speedy ruin of those cities in which houses were permitted to tower above the synagogue, while rabbi Ashi declared that the protection of Sora was owing to the elevated site of its synagogues (Sabbath, 11 a). Lieut. Kitchener, however, states (Quar. Statement of the Pal. Explor. Fund, July, 1878, p. 123 sq.) that the ruins of the fourteen specimens of ancient synagogues extant in Palestine (all in Galilee) do not correspond to these Talamudical requirements as to location, nor yet to those below as to position; for they are frequently in rather a low site, and face the south if possible. Failing of a commanding site, a tall pole rose from the roof to render it conspicuous (Leyrer, in Herzog’s Real-Encyklop. s.v.).

The riverside outside the city was also deemed a suitable spot for building the synagogue, because, being removed from the noise of the city, the people could worship God without distraction, and, at the same time, have the use of pure water for immersions and other religious exercises (Act 16:13; Josephus, Ant. 14:10, 23; Juvenal, Sat. 3, 12, etc.; see also the Chaldee versions on Gen 24:62). SEE PROSEUOHA.

The building was commonly erected at the cost of the district, whether by a church-rate levied for the purpose, or by free gifts, must remain uncertain (Vitringa, De Synagog. p. 229). Sometimes it was built by a rich Jew, or even, as in Luk 7:5; by a friendly proselyte. In the later stages of Eastern Judaism it was often erected, like the mosques of Mohammedans, in the tombs of famous rabbins or holy men.

2. The size of a synagogue, like that of a church or chapel, varied with the population. We have no reason for believing that there were any fixed laws of proportion for its dimensions, like those, which are traced in the tabernacle and the Temple. The building itself was generally in the form of a theatre; the door was usually on: the west, so that, on entering, the worshippers might at once face the front, which was turned towards Jerusalem, since the law is that all the worshippers in Israel are to have their faces turned to that part of the world where Jerusalem, the Temple, and the Holy of Holies are (Berakoth, 30 a). This law, which is deduced from 1Ki 8:29; Psa 28:2, and the allegorical interpretation of Son 4:4, also obtained among the early Christians (Origen, Hom. 5. 1 Nurn. in Opp. 2, 284) and the Mohammedans (Koran, c. 2). SEE KEBLAH.

Hence all the windows are said to have been generally in the eastern wall, so that the worshippers might look towards the holy city, in accordance with Dan 6:10. Like the Temple, the synagogue was frequently without a roof, as may be seen from the following remark of Epiphanius: There were anciently places of prayer without the city, both among the Jews and the Samaritatas; there was a place of prayer at Sichem, now called Neapolis, without the city in the fields, in the form of a theater, open to the air, and without covering, built by the Samaritans, who in all things imitated the Jews (Contr. Hceres. lib. 3, Haer. 80). It was this, coupled with the fact that the Jews had no images, which gave rise to the satirical remark of Juvenal

Nil prseter nubes et cceli nume adorant. (Sat. 14:98.)

In some places there were temporary summer and winter synagogues; they were pulled down and re-erected at the beginning of each season, so that the style of building might be according to the period of the year (Baba Bathra, 3 b).

3. In. the internal arrangement of the synagogue we trace an obvious analogy, mutatis mutandis, to the type of the tabernacle. At the wall opposite the entrance, or at the Jerusalem end, stood the wooden chest or ark () containing the scrolls of the law. It stood on a raised base with. several steps ( = subsellium, , Jerusalem Megillah, 3, 1), which the priests mounted when they pronounced the benediction (Num 6:24-26) upon the congregation. Hence the phrase , which was retained after the destruction of the Temple to describe the act of giving the benediction to the people by the priests (Raosh Ha- Shandh, 31 b; Sabbath, 118 b). It is necessary to bear in mind that the ancient name for this ark is (comp. Mishna, Berakoth, 5, 3, 4; Taanith, 2, 1, 2; Megillah, 4:4, etc.), the name afterwards given to it () being reserved for the ark-of-the-covenant table, which was wanting in the second Temple. There was a canopy () spread over the ark, under which were kept the vestments used during the service (Jerusalem fegillah, 3). In some places the ark or chest had two compartments, the upper one containing the scrolls of the law, and the lower the synagogical garments of the officers of the community. The ark was not fastened to the wall, but was free so that it might easily be taken outside the door of the synagogue in case a death occurred in the place of worship, in order that the priests should be able to attend the service; or be removed into the streets when fasts and lays of humiliation were kept (Mishna, Taanith, 2, 1). SEE FAST.

In later times, however, a recess was made in the wall, and the ark was kept there. This recess was called the Sanctuary ( ). The same thought was sometimes developed still further in the name of Kophereth, or Mercy-seat, given to the lid or door of the chest, and in the veil which hung before it (Vitringa, p. 181). On certain occasions the ark was removed from the recess and placed on the rostrum ( = ) in the middle of the synagogue (Tosiphta MIegillah, 3; Mainsonides, lad Ha-Chezaka Hilchoth Lulab, 7:23). SEE TABERNACLES, FEAST OF. Within the ark, as above stated, were the rolls of the sacred books. The rollers round which they were wound were often elaborately decorated, the cases for them embroidered or enameled, according to their material. Such cases were customary offerings from the rich when they brought their infant children on the first anniversary of their birthday to be blessed by the rabbi of the synagogue.

In front of the ark was the desk of the leader of the divine worship; and as the place of the ark was amphitheatral, the desk was sometimes lower and sometimes higher than the level of the room. Hence the interchangeable phrases he who descends before the ark ( ) and he who ascends before the ark ( ) used to designate the leader of divine worship 3 the synagogue (Mishna, Taanith, 2, 2; Berakoth, 5, 4; Rosh Ha-Shanah, 4:7; Meaillah, 4:3, 5, 7, etc.).

The next important piece of furniture was the rostrum or platform ( , = , ), capable of containing several persons (Neh 8:4; Neh 9:4; Josephus, Ait. 4:8,12)., On this platform the lessons from the law and the prophets were read, discourses delivered, etc. (Mishna, Sotah, 8:8; Babylon Sukkah, 51b; Megillah, 26 b). 8. EHAPHTARAH. There were no arrangements made at first for laying down the law while reading, and the one upon whom it devoted to read a portion of the pericope had to hold the roll in his hand till the second one came up to read, and relieved him of it. Afterwards, however, there was a reading-desk ( = ) on this platform, and the roll of the law was laid down during pauses, or when the methurgeman ( = brterpreter) was reciting in the vernaciuiar of the country the portion read (Yoma, 68 b: Megillah, 26 b; Jerusalem Megillah, 3). The reading-desk was covered with a cloth (), which varied in costliness ac-cording to the circumstances of the congregation (Megillah, 26 b). When the edifice was large this platform was generally in the center, as was the case in the synagogue at Alexandria (Sukkah, 51 b).

There were also arm chairs ( = , = ), or seats of honor (), for the elders of the synagogue, the doctors of the law, etc. (Mat 23:2; Mat 23:6; Mar 12:39; Lukexi, 43; Sukkah, 51 b; Maimonides, Ill choth Tephila, 10, 4), to which the wealthy and honored worshipper was invited (Jam 2:2-3). They were placed in front of the ark containing the law, or at the Jerusalem end, in the uppermost part of the synagogue, and these distinguished persons sat’ with their faces to the people, while the congregation stood facing both these honorable ones and the ark (Tosiphta Megillah, 3). In the synagogue at Alexandria there were seventy-one golden chairs, according to the number of the members of the Great Sanhedrim (Sukkah, 51 b). SEE SANHEDRIM. In the synagogue of Bagdad the ascent to the holy ark was composed of ten marble steps, on the upper-most of which were the stalls set apart for the prince of the Captivity and the other princes of the house of David (Benjamin of Tudela, Itinerary, 1, 105, ed. Ascher, Lond. 1840).

There was, moreover, a perpetual light ( ), which was evidently in imitation of the Temple light (Exo 28:20). This sacred light was religiously fed by the people, and in case of any special mercy vouchsafed to an individual, or of threatening danger, a certain quantity of oil was vowed for the perpetual lamp. This light was the symbol of the human soul (Pro 20:27), of the divine law (Pro 6:23), and of the manifestation of God (Eze 43:2). It must, however, be remarked that though the perpetual lamp forms an essential part of the synagogical furniture to the present day, and has obtained among the Indians, Greeks, Romans, arid other nations of antiquity (Rosenmller, Mogenland, 2, 156), yet there is no mention made of it in the Talmud. Other lamps, brought by devout worshippers, were lighted at the beginning of the Sabbath, i.e. on Friday evening (Vitringa, p. 198).

As part of the fittings, we have also to note

(1) another chest for the Haphtaroth, or rolls of the prophets;

(2) Alms-boxes at or near the door, after the pattern of those at the Temple, one for the poor of Jerusalem, the other for local charities;

(3) Notice-boards, on which, were written the names of offenders who had been put out of the synagogue;

(4) A chest for trumpets and other musical instruments, used at the New-Years, Sabbaths, and other festivals (Vitringa, Leyrer, loc. cit.).

The congregation was divided, men on one side, women on the other, a low partition, five or six feet high, running between them (Philo, De Vit. Contempl. 2, 476). The arrangements of modern synagogues, for many centuries, have made the separation more complete by placing the women in low side-galleries, screened off by lattice-work (Leo of Modena, in Picart, Cerem. Relig. 1).

4. Besides meetings for worship, the synagogues, or, snore properly, the rooms connected with them, were also used as courts of justice for the local Sanhedrim (Targum Jonathan on Amo 5:12; Amo 5:15; Jerusalem Sanhedrin, 1, 1; Jerusalem Baba Metsia, 2, 8; Babylon Kethuboth, 5 a; Sabbath, 150 a) and in it the beadle of the synagogue administered the forty stripes save one to those who were sentenced to be beaten (Mishna, Makkoth, 3, 12; comp. Mat 10:17; Mat 23:34). Travelers, too, found an asylum in the synagogue; meals were eaten in it (Pesachim, 101; Bereshith Rabba, 100. 45), and children were instructed therein (Kiddushin, 30 a; Baba Bathra, 21 a; Taanith, 24 b; Berakoth, 17 a; Yebamoth, 65 b). This, however, did not detract from its sanctity; for the synagogue once used for the divine worship was only allowed to be sold on certain conditions (Mishna, Megillah, 3, 1, 2). When the building was finished, it was set apart, as the Temple had been, by a special prayer of dedication. From that time it had a consecrated character. The common acts of life, such as reckoning up accounts, were forbidden in it. No one was to pass through it as a short cut. Even if it ceased to be used, the building was not to be applied to any base purpose might not be turned, e.g., into a bath, a laundry, or a tannery. A scraper stood outside the door that men might rid themselves, before they entered, of anything that would be defiling (Leyrer, loc. cit., and Vitringa).

IV. The Officers and Government of the Synaggogue. The synagogues of the respective towns were governed by the elders (, , Luk 7:3), who constituted the local Sanhedrim, consisting either of the twenty-three senators or the three senators assisted by four principal members of the congregation (fegillah, 27; Josephus, Ant. 4:8,14; War, 2, 20, 5; Act 7:5; Act 21:8), as this depended upon the, size and population of the place. SEE SANHEDRIM.

Hence these authorized administrators of the law were alternately denominated shepherds ( = , Jerusalem Peah, 8; Babylon Chagigah, 60; Sabbath, 17 a; Act 20:28; Eph 4:11), the rulers of the synagogue, and the chiefs ( = , , Mat 9:18; Mat 9:23; Mar 5:22; Luk 8:41; Act 13:15) and overseers ( =, Mishna, Tamid, 5, 1).

The president of the Sanhedrim was ex officio the head or chief of the synagogue, and was therefore, , the ruler of the synagogue (Mishna, Yoma, 7:1; Sofah, 7:7), while the other members of this body, according to their various gifts, discharged the different functions in the synagogue (1Ti 5:17), as will be seen from the following classification. SEE HIGH-PRIEST.

1. The Ruler of the Synagogue ( = ) and his two Associates. Though the supreme official, like the two other members of the local court, had to be duly examined by delegates from the Great Sanhedrim, who certified that he possessed all the necessary qualifications for his office (Maimonides, lad Ha-Chezaka Hilchoth Sanhedrin, 2, 8), yet his election entirely depended upon the suffrages of the members of the synagogue. The Talmud distinctly declares that no ruler (=) is appointed over a congregation, unless the congregation is consulted (Berakoth, 55 a). But, once elected, the ruler was the third in order of precedence in the Temple synagogue i.e. first came the high-priest, then the chief of the priests (), and then the ruler of the synagogue (Mishna, Yoma, 7:1; Sotah, 7:7), while in the provincial synagogues the respective rulers were supreme, and had the principal voice in the decision and distribution of the other offices. His two judicial colleagues aided him in the administration of the law. SEE ARCH- SYNAGOGUES.

2. The Three Amoners ( = ; Php 1:1; 1Ti 3:8; 1Ti 3:12; 1Ti 4:6). The office of aflmoner was both very responsible and difficult; as the poor-taxes were of a double nature; and in periodically collecting and distributing the alms the almoner had to exercise great discretion from whom to demand them and to whom to give them. There were, first, the alms of the dish (), consisting of articles of food which had to be collected by the officials daily, and distributed every evening, and to which every one had to contribute who resided thirty days in one place; and there were, secondly, the alms of the box (), consisting of money which was collected every Friday, was distributed weekly, and to which every one had to contribute who resided, ninety days in one place. Two authorized persons had to collect the former and three the latter. They were obliged to keep together, and were not allowed, to put into their pockets any money thus received, but were to throw it into the poor-box. The almoners had the power of exempting from these poor rates such people as they believed to be unable to pay, and to enforce the tax on such as pretended not to be in a position to contribute. They had also the power to refuse alms to any whom they deemed unworthy of them. All the three almoners had to be present at the distribution of the alms. The greatest care was taken by the rulers of the synagogue and the congregation that those elected to this office should be men of honesty, wisdom, justice, and have the confidence of the people (Baba Bathra, 8; Aboda Sara, 18; Taanith, 24; Maimonides, lad Ha-Chezaka Hilchoth Mathenath Anyim, 9). Brothers were ineligible to this office; the almoners ( ) were not allowed to be near relations, and had to be elected by the unanimous voice of the people (Jerusalem Peah, 8).

3. The Legate of the Congregation, or the Leader of Divine Worship ( = , ). To give unity and harmony to the worship, as well as to enable the congregation to take part in the responses, it was absolutely necessary to have one who should lead the worship. Hence, as soon as the legal number required for public worship had assembled (), the ruler of the synagogue ( = ), or, in his absence, the elders ( = ), delegated one of the congregation to go up before the ark to conduct divine service. The function of the apostle of the ecclesia ( ) was not permanently vested in any single individual ordained for this purpose, but was alternately conferred upon any lay member who was supposed to possess the qualifications necessary for offering up prayer in the name of the congregation.

This is evident from the reiterated declarations both in the Mishna and the Talmud. Thus we are told that any one who is not under thirteen years of age, and whose garments are not in rags, may officiate before the ark (Mishna, Megillah, 4:6); that if one is before the ark = ministers for the congregation], and makes a mistake [in the prayer], another one is to minister in his stead, and he is not to decline it on such an occasion (Mishna, Berakoth, 5, 3). The sages have transmitted that he who is asked to conduct public worship is to delay a little at first, saying that he is unworthy of it; and if he does not delay, he is like unto a dish wherein is no salt; and if he delays more than is necessary, he is like unto a dish which the salt has spoiled. How is he to do it? The first time he is asked, he is to decline; the second time, he is to stir; and the third time, he is to move his legs and ascend before the ark (Berakoth, 34 b). Even on the most solemn occasions, when the whole congregation fasted and assemble with the president and vice-president of the Siedrim for national humiliation and prayer, no stated minister is spoken of; but it is said that one of the aged men present is to deliver a penitential address, and another is to offer up the solemn prayers (Mishna, Taanith, 2, 1-4). SEE FAST.

On ordinary occasions, however, the rabbins, who were the rulers of the synagogue, asked their disciples to act as officiating ministers before the ark (Berakoth, 34 a). But since the sages declared that if the legate of the congregation ( = , ) commits a mistake while officiating, it is a bad omen for the congregation who delegated him, because a man’s deputy is like the man himself (Mishna, Berakoth, 5, 5); and, moreover, since it was felt that he who conducts public worship should both be able to sympathize with the wants of the people and possess all the moral qualifications befitting so holy a mission, it was afterwards ordained that even if an elder ( = ) or sage is present in the congregation, he is not to be asked to officiate before the ark; but that man is to be delegated who is apt to officiate, who has children, whose family are free from vice, who has a proper beard, whose garments are decent, who is acceptable to the people, who has a good and amiable voice, who and understands how to read the law, the prophets, and the Hagiographa, who is versed in the homiletic, legal, and traditional exegesis, and who knows all the benedictions of the service (Mishna., Taanith, 2, 2; Gemara, ibid. 16 a, b; Maimonides, fad Ha-Chezaka Hilchoth Tephila, 8:11, 12; comp. Timothy 3:1-7; Tit 1:1-9). As the legate of the people, the most sacred portions of the liturgy (e.g. , , , ), which could only be offered up in the presence of the legal number, were assigned to him (Berakoth, 21 b, and Rashi, ad loc.), and he was not only the mouthpiece of those who were present in the congregation on the most solemn feasts, as on the Great Day of Atonement and New Year, but he was the surrogate of those who, by illness or otherwise, were prevented from attending the place of worship (Rosh Ha-Shanah, 35; Maimonides, lad Ha-Chezaka Hilchoth Tephila, 8:10).

4. The Interpreter, or Maethurgeman (, ). After the Babylonian captivity, when the Hebrew language was rapidly disappearing from among the common people, it became the custom to have an interpreter at the reading-desk () by the side of those who were alternately called up to read the several sections of the lessons from the law and the prophets. SEE HAPHTARAH.

This methurgeman had to interpret into Chaldee or into any other vernacular of the country a verse at a time when the lesson from the law was read, as the reader was obliged to pause as soon as he finished the reading of a verse in Hebrew, and was not allowed to begin the next verse till the methurgeman had translated it; while in the lesson from the prophets three verses were read and interpreted at a time (Mishna, Megillah, 4:4). The reader and the interpreter had to read in the same tone of voice, and the one was not allowed to be louder than the other (Berakoth, 45 a). The interpreter was not allowed to look at the law while interpreting, lest it should be thought that the paraphrase was written down. The office of interpreter, like that of conducting public worship, was not permanently vested in any single individual. Any one of the congregation who was capable of interpreting was asked to do so. Even a minor, i.e. one under thirteen years of age, or one whose garments were in such a ragged condition that he was disqualified for reading the lesson from the law, or a blind man, could be asked to go up to the reading-desk and explain the lesson (Mishna, Megillah, 4:5; Maimonides, lad HaChezaka Hilchoth Tephila, 12:10-14).

5. The Chazzan, or Attendant on the Synagogue ( = ), was the lowest servant, and was more like the sexton or the beadle in our churches. He had the care of the furniture, to open the doors, to clean the synagogue, to light the lamps, to get the building ready for service, to summon the people to worship, to call out () the names of such persons as were selected by the ruler of the synagogue to come up to the platform to read a section from the law and the prophets, to hand the law to ordinary readers, or to the ruler of the synagogue when it had to be given to the high-priest, in which case the took the law from the chazan, gave it to the chief priest, who handed it to the high- priest (Mishna, Yoma, 8:1; Sotah, 7:7); he had to take it back after reading (Luk 4:17-20), etc. Nothing, therefore, can be more clear than the position which this menial servant occupied in the synagogue in the time of Christ and a few centuries after. The Talmud distinctly declares that the chazan is the beadle or the sexton of the congregation, and not the legate or the angel of the church ( ; comp. Tosiphta Yoma, 68 b; and Mishna, Berakoth, 7:1, for the meaning of ).

The notion that his office resembled that of the Christian deacon, as well as the assertion that, like the legatus and the elders, he was appointed by the imposition of hands, has evidently arisen from a confusion of the chazan in the days of. Christ with the chazan five centuries after Christ. Besides, not only was this menial servant not appointed by the imposition of hands, but the legatus himself, as we have seen, had no laying-on of hands. It was about A.D. 520, when the knowledge of the Hebrew language disappeared from among the people at large, that alterations had to be introduced into the synagogical service which involved a change in the office of the chazan. As the ancient practice of asking any member to step before the ark and conduct the divine service could not be continued, it was determined that the chazan, who was generally also the schoolmaster of the infant school, should be the regular reader of the liturgy, which he had to recite with intonation (Masecheth Sopherim, 10:7; 11:4; 14:9,14; Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, 5, 26). 6. The Ten Batlanin, or Men of Leisure ().

No place was denominated a town, and hence no synagogue would legally be built in it, which had not ten independent men who could be permanently in the synagogue to constitute the legal congregation whenever [required (Mishna, Megillah, 1, 3; Maimonides, lad Bachezaka Hilchoth Tephila, 11:1). These men of leisure were either independent of business because they had private means, or were stipendiaries of the congregation, if the place had not ten men who could entirely devote themselves to this purpose (Rashi, On Megillah, 5 a). They; had to be men of piety and integrity (Baba Bathra, 28 a; Jerusalem Megillah, 1, 4). By some (Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. in Mat 4:23, and, in part, Vitringa, p. 532) they have been identified with the above officials, with the addition of the alms-collectors. Rhenferd, however (Ugolino, Thesaur. vol. 21), sees in them simply a body of men, permanently on duty, making up a congregation (ten being the minimum number), so that there might be no delay in beginning the service at the proper hours, and that no single worshipper might go away disappointed. The latter hypothesis is supported by the fact that there was a like body of men, the Stationarii or Viri Stationis of Jewish archaeologists, appointed to act as permanent representatives of the congregation in the services of the Temple (Jost, Gesch. des Judenth. 1, 168-172). It is of course possible that in many cases the same persons may have united both characters, and been, e.g., at once otiosi and alms-collectors. In the Middle Ages these ten Batlanin consisted of those who discharged the public duties of the synagogue, and were identical with the rulers of the synagogue described above. Thus Benjamin of Tudela tells us that the ten presidents of the ten colleges at Bagdad were called the Batlanin, the leisure men, because their occupation consisted in the discharge of public business. During every day of the week they, dispensed justice to all the Jewish inhabitants of the country, except on Monday, which was set aside for assemblies under the presidency of R. Samuel, master of the college denominated Gaon Jacob, who on that day dispensed justice to every applicant, and who was assisted therein by the said ten Batlanin, presidents of the colleges (Itinerary, 1, 101, ed. Ascher, Lond. 1840). This seems to favor the opinion of Herzfeld that the ten Batlanin are the same as the ten judges or rulers of the synagogue mentioned in Aboth, 3, 10, according to the reading of Bartenora (Haorayoth, 3 b, etc.; comp. Gesch. des Volkes Israel, 1, 392).

V. Worship.

1. Its Time. As the Bible prescribes no special hour for worship, but simply records that the Psalmist prayed three times a day (Psalm Iv, 18), and that: Daniel followed the same example (Dan 7:11), the men of the Great Synagogue decreed that the worship of the synagogue should correspond to that of the Temple. To this end they ordained that every Israelite is to offer either public or private worship to his Creator at stated hours three times a day (a) in the morning () at the third hour = 9 A.M., being the time when the daily morning sacrifice was offered; (b) in the afternoon or evening () at the ninth hour and a half = 3:30 P.M., when the daily evening sacrifice was offered; and (c) in the evening (), or from the time that the pieces and the fat of the sacrifices, whose blood was sprinkled before sunset, began to be burned till this process of burning, was finished. As this process of burning, however, sometimes lasted nearly all night, the third prayer could be offered at any time between dark and dawn (Mishna, Berakoth, 4:1; Gemara, ibid. 26 b; Pesachim, 58 a; Jerusalem Berakioth, 4:1; Josephus, Ant. 14:4, 3).

It is this fixed time of worship which accounts for the disciples assembling together at the third hour of the day (i.e. 9 A.M.) for morning prayer () on the Day of Pentecost (Act 2:1-15), and for Peter and John’s going up to the Temple at the ninth hour (i.e. 3 P.M.) for () evening prayer (Act 3:1), as well as for Cornelius’s prayer at the same hour (10:30). The statement in Act 10:9, that Peter went up upon the house-top to pray about the sixth hour (=12 M.), has led some of our best expositors to believe that the hour mentioned in Act 3:11; Act 10:30 is the time when the third prayer was offered. The two passages, however, and the two different hours refer to one and the same prayer, as may be seen from the following canon: We have already stated that the time for the evening prayer () was fixed according to that of the daily evening sacrifice, and since this daily evening sacrifice was offered at the ninth hour and a half (=3.30 P.M.), the time of prayer was also fixed for the ninth hour and a half (=3.30 P.M.), and this was called the Lesser Minchah ( ).

But as the daily evening sacrifice was offered on the fourteenth of Nisan ( ) at the sixth hour and a half (=12.30 P.M.), when this day happened to be on a Friday ( ), SEE PASSOVER, it was enacted that he who offers his evening prayer after the sixth hour and a half (=12.30 P.M.) discharges his duty properly. Hence, as soon as this hour arrives, the time of obligation has come, and it is called the Great Minchah: ( ; Maimonides, lad HaChezaka Hilchoth Tephila, 3, 2; Berakoth, 26 b). This mistake is all the more to be regretted, since the accuracy in such minute- matters on the part of the sacred writers-shows how great is the trustworthiness of their records, and how closely and strictly the apostles conformed to the Jewish practices. The prayers three times a day were not absolutely required to be offered in public worship in the synagogue every day. The times of public worship were (a) Monday and Thursday, which were the two market-days in the week, when the villagers brought their produce into the neighboring town and their matters of dispute before the local Sanhedrim, which held its court in the synagogue (Jerusalem Megillaah, 5, 1, Baba Kama, 32 a), and on which the pious Jews fasted (Mar 2:18; Luk 5:33; Luk 18:12; Act 10:30); (b) the weekly Sabbath; and (c) feasts and fasts. But though not obligatory, yet it was deemed specially acceptable if the prayers were offered even privately in the synagogue, since it was inferred from Mal 3:16 that the Shechinah is present where two or three are gathered together.

2. The Legal Congregation. Though it was the duty of every Israelite to pray privately three times a day, yet, as we have already seen, it was only on stated occasions that the people: assembled for public worship in the legally constituted congregation, and recited those portions of the liturgy which could not be uttered is private devotion. Ten men, at least, who had passed the thirteenth year of their age ( ) were required to constitute a legitimate congregation () for the performance of public worship. This number, which evidently owes its origin to the completeness of the ten digits, is deduced from the expression , in Num 14:27, where it is said how long shall I bear with this () congregation? referring to the spies. As Joshua and Caleb are to be deducted from the twelve, hence the appellation congregation remains for the ten, and this number is therefore regarded as forming the legal quorum (Mishna, Sanhedrim, 1, 6; Maimonides, lad Haa-Chezaka Hilchoth Tephila, 11:1). The Shema () must not be solemnly recited, nor must one go before the ark to conduct public worship, nor must the priests raise their hands to pronounce the benediction, nor must the lessons from the law or the prophets be read… unless there are ten persons present (Mishna, Megillah, 4:3).

3. Ritual. The most important features in the institutions of the synagogue are the liturgy, the reading of the law and the prophets, and the homilies. To know the exact words of-the prayers which our Savior and his apostles recited when they frequented the synagogue is to us of the utmost interest. That the Jews in the time of Christ had a liturgical service is certain; but it is equally certain that the present liturgy of the synagogue embodies a large admixture of prayers, which were compiled after the destruction of the second Temple. Though the poetic genius of the psalmists had vanished and the Temple music was, hushed, yet numerous fervent and devout spirits were still unquenched in Israel. These earnest spirits made themselves audible in the synagogue in most devout and touching prayers, embodying the new anxieties, the novel modes of persecution and oppression which the Jews had to endure from the children of Christianity the religion newly born and brought up in the lap of Judaism who deemed it their sacred duty to heap unparalleled sufferings upon their elder brothers. These prayers, formed after the model of the Psalms, not only ask the God of Israel to pity the sufferers, to give them patience to endure, and in his own time to confound their enemies and free them from all their troubles, but embody the teachings of the sages and the sentiments propounded by the Haggadists in the Sabbatic homilies. Hence, in describing the ritual of the synagogue, it is most essential to separate the later element from the earlier portions. As it is beyond the limits of this article to trace the rise, progress, and development of all the component parts of the liturgy in its present order, we shall simply detail those portions which are, undoubtedly, the ancient nucleus, which, beyond a question, were used by our Savior and his disciples, and around which the new pieces- were grouped in the course of time.

(1.) The Hymnal Group ( ). Just as the Temple building was the prototype for the synagogue edifice, so the Temple service was the model for the ritual of the synagogue. Hence, just as the Temple service consisted of the priests reciting the ten commandments, pronouncing the benediction upon the people (Num 6:24-27), the offering of the daily morning and evening sacrifice, the Levites chanting Psalms 115, 116; 1Ch 16:8-22 () during the morning sacrifice, and Psalms 116; 1Ch 16:23-36 () during the evening sacrifice, so the ritual of the synagogue consisted of the same benediction, the chanting of the sacrificial psalms-as the sacrifices themselves could not be offered except in the Temple and sundry additions made by Ezra and the men of the Great Synagogue. It is for this reason that the ritual began with the Temple psalms. These were followed by the group consisting of Psalms 100 [19, 34, 91, 135, 136, 33, 92], 93, 145-150 those enclosed in brackets being: omitted on the Sabbath 1Ch 29:10-13; Neh 9:6-12; Exodus 14:30-15, 18, and sundry sentences not found in the Bible, denominated the order of the Hymnal Sentences or musical periods. The use of this hymnal group as part of both the Temple and the synagogue service is of great antiquity, as is attested by the Seder Olam, 14 and Masecheth Sopherim; see also Sabbath, 118 b, where we are told that was ordained by David, and by the Sopherim, or scribes.

(2.) The Shema, or Keriath Shema ( ). This celebrated part of the service was preceded by two benedictions, respectively denominated the Creator of Light ( ) and Great Love ( ), and followed by one called Truth (, now expanded into ). The two introductory benedictions were as follows:

(a.) Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who createst light and formest darkness, who makest peace and createst all things! He in mercy causes the light to shine upon the earth and the inhabitants thereof, and in goodness renews every day the work of creation. Blessed art thou, the Creator of light!

(b.) With great love hast thou loved us, O Lord our God; thou hast shown us great and abundant mercy, O our Father and King, for the sake of our forefathers who trusted in thee! Thou who didst teach them the love of life, have mercy upon us, and teach us also to praise and to acknowledge thy unity in love. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who in love hast chosen thy people! (Mishna, Tamid, 5, 1; Berakoth, 11 b). Thereupon the ten commandments were recited, which, however, ceased at a very early period, because the Sadducees declared that this was done to show that this was the most essential portion of the revealed law (Mishna, Tamid, 5, 1, with Berakoth, 14 b). Then came the Shema proper, consisting of Deu 6:4-9; Deu 11:13-21; Num 15:37-41; which was concluded with benediction

(c), entitled True and Established ( ), as follows: It is true and firmly established that thou art the Lord our God and the God of our forefathers; there is no God besides thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord, the redeemer of Israel! (Mishna, Berakoth, 1, 4; Gemara, ibid. 13 a; Mishna, Tamid, 5, 1. Gemara, ibid. 32 b). There is evidently an allusion to the reading of the Shema in the reply which our Savior gave to the lawyer who asked him, Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? when the lawyer forthwith recited the first sentence of the Shema (Luk 10:26). SEE SHEMA.

(3.) The third portion which constituted the ancient liturgy embraces the Eighteen. Benedictions ( ), called, , the Prayer (). They are as follows:

a. () Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, the God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; great, omnipotent, fearful, and most high God, who bountifully showest mercy, who art the possessor of all things, who rememberest the pious deeds of our fathers, and sendest the Redeemer to their children’s children, for his mercy’s sake is love, O our King, Defender, Savior, and Shield! Blessed art thou, O Lord, the shield of Abraham!

b. ( ) Thou art powerful, O Lord, world without end; thou bringest the dead to life in great compassion, thou holdest up the falling, healest the sick, loosest the chained, and showest thy faithfulness to those that sleep in the dust. Who is like unto thee, Lord of might, and who resembles thee (a Sovereign killing and bringing to life again, and causing salvation to flourish)? Arid thou art sure to raise the dead. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who raisest the dead!

c. ( ) Thou art holy, and thy name is holy, and’ the holy ones praise thee every day continually. Blessed art thou, 0 Lord, the holy God!

d. ( ) Thou mercifully bestowest knowledge upon men and teachest the mortal prudence. Mercifully bestow upon us, from thyself, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who mercifully bestowest knowledge!

e. () Our Father, lead us back to thy law; bring us very near, O our King, to thy service, and cause us to return in sincere penitence into thy presence! Blessed art thou, O Lord, who delightest in repentance!

f. () Our Father, forgive us, for we have sinned; our King, pardon us, for we have transgressed; for thou art forgiving and pardoning. Blessed art thou, O Lord, merciful and plenteous in forgiveness!

g. () Look at our misery, contend our cause, and deliver us speedily, for thy name’s sake, for thou art a mighty deliverer, blessed art thou, O Lord, the deliverer of Israel!

h. () Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed; save us, and we shall be saved; for thou art our boast. Grant us a perfect cure for all our wounds; for thou, O Lord our King, art a faithful and merciful Physician. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who healest the sick of thy people Israel!

i. ( ) Bless to us, O Lord our God, for good this year, and all its kinds of produce; send thy blessing upon the face of the earth; satisfy us with thy goodness, and bless this year as the years bygone. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who’blessest the seasons!

j. () Cause the great trumpet to proclaim our liberty; raise the standard for the gathering of our captives, and bring us together from the four corners of the earth. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who gatherest together the dispersed of Israel!

k. () Reinstate our judges as of old, and our councillors as of yore; remove from us sorrow and sighing; and do thou alone, O Lord, reign over us in mercy and love, and judge us in righteousness and justice. Blessed art thou, O Lord the King, who lovest righteousness and justice!

l. () Let the apostates have no hope, and let those who perpetrate wickedness speedily perish; let them all be suddenly cut off; let the proud speedily be uprooted, broken, crushed, and humbled speedily in our days. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who breakest down the enemy and humblest the proud!

m. ( ) On the righteous, on the pious, on the elders of thy people, the house of Israel, on the remnant of the scribes, on the pious: proselytes, and on us, bestow, O Lord our God, thy mercy; give ample: reward to all who trust in thy name in sincerity, make our portion with them forever, and let us not be ashamed, for we trust in thee! Blessed art thou, O Lord, the support and refuge of the righteous!

n. () To Jerusalem thy city in mercy return, and dwell in it according to thy promise; make it speedily in our day an everlasting building, and soon establish therein the throne of David. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who buildest Jerusalem! ( ) The branch of David, thy servant, speedily cause to flourish, and exalt his horn with thy help, for we look to thy help all day. Blessed art thou O Lord, who causest to flourish the horn of David!

o. ( ) Hear our voice, O Lord our God; have pity and compassion on us, and receive with mercy and acceptance our prayers, for thou art a God hearing prayer and supplications. Our King, do not send us empty away from thy presence, for thou hearest the prayers of thy people Israel in mercy! Blessed art thou, O Lord, who hearest prayer!

p. () Be favorable, O Lord our God, to thy people Israel, and to their prayer; restore the worship to thy sanctuary, receive lovingly the burnt- sacrifice of Israel and their prayer, and let the service of Israel thy people be always well-pleasing to thee. May our eyes see thee return to Zion in love. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who restorest thy Shechinah to Zion!

q. () We thankfully confess before thee that thou art-the Lord our God, and the God of our fathers, world without end, and that thou art the shepherd of our life and the rock of our salvation from generation to generation; we render thanks unto thee and celebrate thy praises. Blessed art thou, O Lord, whose name is goodness, and whom it becomes to praise!

r. ( ) Bestow peace, happiness, blessing, grace, mercy, and compassion upon us and upon the whole of Israel, thy people. Our Father, bless us all unitedly with the light of thy countenance, for in the light of thy countenance didst thou give to us, O Lord bur God, the law of life, loving- kindness, justice, blessing, compassion, life, and peace. May it please thee to bless thy people Israel at all times, and in every moment, with peace. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who blessest thy people Israel with peace!

These eighteen (really nineteen) benedictions are mentioned in the Mishna, Rosh Hashanah, 4; Berakoth, 4:3; Tosiptta Berakoth, 3; Jerusalem Berakoth, 2; Meillah, 17 a. We are distinctly told that they were orlained by the one hundred and twenty elders of the Great Synagogue (Megillah, 17 b; Berakoth, 33 a; Siphre on Deu 33:2), and we know that the representatives of the people ( ) recited them in the Temple every day (Sabbath, 24 b), that the priests pronounced three of them upon the people every morning in the Hall of Squares ( ) in the Temple-court, and that the high-priest prayed the sixteenth () and the seventeenth () sections of this litany on the Great Day of Atonement (Yoma, 68 b). There can therefore be no doubt that our Savior and his apostles joined in these prayers when they resorted to the synagogue, and that when the apostles went on the top of the house to pray at the stated hour (Act 1:13; Act 10:9) these benedictions formed part of their devotions. It must, however, be remarked that the first three and the last three benedictions are the oldest; that benedictions d. to m. were compiled during the Maccabean struggles and the Roman ascendency in Palestine; and benediction n. was most probably compiled after the destruction of the second Temple. But though these three groups (viz. the hymnal group, the Shema, and the eighteen benedictions) constituted the liturgy of the Jews when engaged in public or private devotion during the period of the second Temple, yet there were other prayers which could only be recited at public worship when the legal number () were properly assembled.

4. The order of the public worship in the synagogue was as follows:

(1.) Morning Service. The congregation having washed their hands outside the synagogue, and being properly assembled, delegated one of their number to go before the ark and conduct public worship. This legate of the congregation (), who, like the rest of the congregation, was arrayed in his fringed garment, and with the phylacteries on his head and left arm, SEE FRINGE; SEE PHYLACTERY, began with reciting the Kadish (), the people responding to certain parts, as follows: Exalted and hallowed be his great name in the world which he created according to his will; let his kingdom come in your lifetime and in the lifetime of the whole house of Israel very speedily. [Legate and congregation] Amen. Blessed be his great name, world without end. [Legate alone] Blessed and praised, celebrated and exalted, extolled and adorned, magnified and worshipped, be thy holy name blessed be he far above all benedictions, hymns, thanks, praises, and consolations which have been uttered in the world. [Legate and congregation] Amen. [Legate alone] May the prayers and supplications of all Israel be graciously received before their Father in heaven. [Legate and congregation] Amen. [Legate alone] May perfect peace descend from heaven, and life upon us and all Israel. [Legate and congregation] Amen. [Legate alone] May he who makes peace in his heaven confer peace upon us and all Israel. [Legate and congregation] Amen. The similarity between this very ancient Kadish and the Lord’s Prayer needs hardly to be pointed out. After this the legate recited in a loud voice the first sentence of the Shema, the rest being recited quietly by him and the congregation. Then followed the eighteen benedictions, for the third of which the Kedushah () was substituted in public worship. It is as follows: Hallowed be thy name on earth as it is hallowed in heaven above, as it is written by the prophet, and one calls to the other and says [Congregation], Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of Sebaoth; the whole earth is filled with his glory! [Legate] Those who are opposite them respond: [Congregation] Blessed be the glory of the Eternal, each one in his station. [Legate] And in thy Holy Word it is written, thus saying: [Congregation] The Lord shall reign forever, thy God, O Zion, from generation to generation. Halleluiah! [Legate] From generation to generation we will disclose thy greatness, and forever and ever celebrate thy holiness; and thy praise shall not cease in our mouth, world without end, for thou, O Lord, art a great and holy King. Blessed art thou, holy God and King! On Monday, Thursday, Sabbath, feasts and fasts, lessons from the law and prophets were read, and (with the exception of Monday and Thursday) discourses delivered by the rabbins. The service concluded with the priests pronouncing the benediction (Num 6:24-27).

(2.) The Afternoon and Evening Prayer. Some of the psalms in the hymnal group were omitted, otherwise the service was similar to that of the morning. The public worship of the feasts and fasts is described in the articles on the respective festivals, and in the article HAPHTARAH SEE HAPHTARAH . The other prayers which precede and follow the three ancient groups in the present liturgy of the synagogue are not described in this article because they are of later origin. SEE LITURGY.

VI. Judicial Authority.

1. As the officers of the synagogue were also the administrators of justice, the authority which each assembly possessed extended to both civil and religious questions. The rabbi’s, or the heads of the synagogue, as it is to the present day, were both the teachers of religion and the judges of their communities. Hence the tribunals were held in the synagogue (Luk 12:11; Luk 21:12), and the chazzan, or beadle, who attended to the divine service had also to administer the stripes to offenders (Luk 4:17-20; comp. Mishna, Makkoth, 3, 12; and Mat 10:17; Mat 23:34; Mar 13:9; Act 22:19; Act 26:11). The rabbins who had diplomas from the Sanhedrim, and, after the Sanhedrim ceased, from the Gaonim of the respective colleges at Sora and Pumbaditha (q.v.), and who were chosen by the different congregations to be their spiritual heads with the consent of the assembly, selected such of the members as were best qualified to aid them in the administration of the communal affairs. These constituted a local self-governing and independent college; they issued all the legal instruments, such as marriage contracts, letters of divorce, bills of exchange, business contracts, receipts, etc. They had the power of inflicting corporal punishment on any offender, or to put him out of the synagogues (=excommunicate) altogether (Mat 18:15-17; Joh 9:22; Joh 12:42; Joh 16:2). The punishment of excommunication, however, was very seldom resorted to, as may be seen from the fact that though Christ arid his apostles opposed and contradicted the heads of the synagogue, yet they were not put out of the synagogue. In some cases they exercised the right even outside the limits of Palestine, of seizing the persons of the accused and sending them in chains to take their trial before the Supreme Council at Jerusalem (Act 1:2; Act 22:5).

2. It is not quite so easy, however, to define the nature of the tribunal and the precise limits of its jurisdiction. In two of the passages referred to (Mat 10:17; Mar 13:9) they are carefully distinguished from the , or councils, yet both appear as instruments by which the spirit- of religious persecution might fasten on its victims. The explanation commonly given that the council sat in the synagogue, and was thus identified with it, is hardly satisfactory (Leyrer, in Herzog’s Real-Encyklop s.v. Synedrien). It seems more probable that the council was the larger tribunal of twenty-three, which sat in every city, SEE COUNCIL, identical with that of the seven, with two Levites: as assessors to each, which Josephus describes as acting in the smaller provincial towns (Ant. 4:8,14; War, 2, 20, 5); and that under the term synagogue we are to understand a smaller court, probably that of the ten judges mentioned in the Talmud C. (Gem. Hieros. Sanhedr. loc. cit.), consisting either of the elders, the chazzan, and the legate, or otherwise (as Herzfeld conjectures, 1, 392) of the ten Batlanin, or otiosi (see above, IV, 6).

VII. Relations of the Jewish Synagogue to the Christian Church. It is hardly possible to overestimate the influence of the system thus developed. To it we may ascribe the tenacity with which, after the Maccabean struggle, the Jews adhered to the religion of their fathers, and never again relapsed into idolatry. The people were now in no danger of forgetting the law, and the external ordinances that hedged it round. If pilgrimages were still made to Jerusalem at the great feasts, the habitual religion of the Jews in, and yet more out of, Palestine was connected much more intimately with the synagogue than with the Temple. Its simple, edifying devotion, in which mind and heart could alike enter, attracted the heathen proselytes who might have been repelled by the bloody sacrifices of the Temple, or would certainly have been driven from it unless they could make up their minds to submit to circumcision (Act 21:28). SEE PROSELYTE. Here, too, as in the cognate order of the scribes, there was an influence tending to diminish and ultimately almost to destroy the authority of the hereditary priesthood. The services of the synagogue required no sons of Aaron; gave them nothing more than a complimentary precedence.

SEE PRIEST; SEE SCRIBE. The way was silently prepared for a new and higher order, which should rise in the fullness of time out of the decay and abolition of both the priesthood aid the Temple. In another way, too, the synagogues everywhere prepared the way for that order. Not Moses only, but the prophets were read in them every Sabbath day; and thus the Messianic hopes of Israel, the expectation of a kingdom of heaven, were universally diffused.

1. It will be seen at once how closely the organization of the synagogue was reproduced in that of the Ecclesia. Here also there was the single presbyter bishop, SEE BISHOP, in small towns, a council of presbyters under one head’in large cities. The legatus of the synagogue appears in the (Rev 1:20; Rev 2:1), perhaps also in the , of the Christian Church. To the elders as such is given the name of Shepherds (Eph 4:11; 1Pe 5:1). They are known also as (Heb 13:7). Even the transfer to the Christian proselytes of the once distinctively sacerdotal name of , foreign as it was to the feelings of the Christians of the apostolic age, was not without its parallel in the history, of the synagogue; Sceva, the exorcist Jew of Ephesus, was probably a chief priest in this sense (Act 19:14). In the edicts of the later Roman emperors, the terms and are repeatedly applied to the rulers of synagogues (Cod. Theodos. De Jud., quoted by Vitringa, De Decem Otiosis, in Ugolino, Thes. 21). Possibly, however, this may have been, in part, owing to the presence of the scattered priests, after the destruction of the Temple, as the rabbins or elders of what was now left to them as their only sanctuary. To them, at any rate, a certain precedence was given in the synagogue services. They were invited first to read the lessons for the day. The benediction of Num 6:22 was reserved for them alone.

2. In the magisterial functions of the synagogue also, we may trace the outline of a Christian institution. The , either by itself or by appointed delegates, was to act as a court of arbitration in all disputes among its members. The elders of the Church were not, however, to descend to the trivial disputes of daily life ( ). For these any men of common sense and fairness, however destitute of official honor and position ( ), would be enough (1Co 6:1-8). For the elders, as for those of the synagogue, were reserved the graver offences against religion and morals. In such cases they had power to excommunicate, to put out of the Ecclesia, which had taken the place of the synagogue, sometimes by their own authority, sometimes with the consent of the whole society (1Co 5:4). It is worth mentioning that Hammond and other commentators have seen a reference to these judicial functions in Jam 2:2-4. The special sin of those who fawned upon the rich was, on this view, that they were judges of evil thoughts, carrying respect of persons into their administration of justice. The interpretation, however, though ingenious, is hardly sufficiently supported.

3. The ritual of the synagogue was to a large extent the reproduction (here also, as with the fabric, with many inevitable changes) of the statelier liturgy of the Temple. It will be enough, in this place, to notice in what way the ritual, no less than the organization, was connected with the facts of the New Test, history, and with the life and order of the Christian Church. Here too, we meet with multiplied coincidences. It would hardly be an. exaggeration to say that the worship of the Church was identical with that of the synagogue, modified

(a) by the new truths, (b) by the news institution of the supper of the Lord, (c) by the spiritual charismata.

(1.) From the synagogue came the use of fixed forms of prayer. To that the first disciples had been accustomed from their youth. They had asked their Master to give them a distinctive one, and he had complied with their request (Luk 11:1), as the Baptist had done before for his disciples, as every rabbi did for his. The forms might be, and were, abused. The Pharisee might in synagogues, or, when the synagogues were c1osed, in the open street, recite aloud the devotions appointed for hours of prayer, might gabble through the Shema (Hear, O Israel, etc., from Deu 6:4), his Kadish, his Shenmneh Esreh, the eighteen Berakoth, or blessings, with the vain repetition which has reappeared in Christian worship. But for the disciples this was, as yet, the true pattern of devotion, and their Master sanctioned it. To their minds there would seem nothing inconsistent with true heart-worship in the recurrence of a fixed order ( , 1Co 14:40), of the same prayers, hymns, doxologies, such as all liturgical study leads us to think of as existing in the apostolic age. If the gifts of utterance which characterized the first period of that age led for a time to greater freedom, to unpremeditated prayer if that was in its turn succeeded by the renewed predominance of a formal fixed order, the alternation and the struggle which have reappeared in so many periods of the history of the Church were not without their parallel in that of Judaism. There also was a protest against the rigidity of an unbending form. Eliezer of Lydda, a contemporary of the second Gamaliel (cir. A.D. 80-115), taught that the legate of the synagogue should discard even the Shemoneh Esreh, the eighteen fixed prayers and benedictions of the daily and Sabbath services, and should pray as his heart prompted him. The offense against the formalism into which Judaism stiffened was apparently too great to be forgiven. He was excommunicated (not, indeed, avowedly on this ground), and died at Caesarea (Jost, Gesch. des Judenth. 2. 36,45).

(2.) The large admixture of a didactic element in Christian worship, that by which it was distinguished from all Gentile forms of adoration, was derived from the older order. Moses was read in the synagogues every Sabbath day (Act 15:21), the whole law being read consecutively, so as to be completed, according to one cycle, in three years, according to that which ultimately prevailed and determined the existing divisions of the Hebrew text (Leyrer, loc. cit.), 2 the fifty-two weeks of a single year. SEE BIBLE. The writings of the prophets were read as second lessons in a corresponding order. They were followed by the Lerash, the (Act 13:15), the exposition, the sermon of the synagogue. The first Christian synagogues, we must believe, followed this order with but little deviation. It remained for them before long to add the other Scriptures which they had learned to recognize as more precious even than the law itself, the prophetic word of the New Test., which, not less truly than that of the Old, came, in epistle or in narrative, from: the same Spirit. SEE SCRIPTURE.

(3.) To the ritual of the synagogue we may probably trace a practice, which has sometimes been a stumbling-block to the student of Christian antiquity, the subject-matter of fierce debate among Christian controversialists. Whatever account may be given of it, it is certain that Prayers for the Dead appear in the Church’s worship as soon as we have any trace of it after the immediate records of the apostolic age. It has been well described by a writer whom no one can suspect of Romish tendencies as an immemorial practice. Though Scripture is silent, yet antiquity plainly speaks. The prayers have found a place in every early liturgy of the world. (Ellicott, Destiny of the Creature, serm. 6). How, indeed, we may ask, could it have been otherwise? The strong feeling shown in the time of the Maccabees, that it was not superfluous and vain to pray for the dead (2 Macc. 12, 44), was sure, under the influence of the dominant Pharisaic scribes, to show itself in the devotions of the synagogue. So far as we trace back these devotions, we may say that there also the practice is immemorial, as old, at least, as the traditions of the Rabbinic fathers (Buxtorf, De Synagog. p. 709, 710; M’Caul, Old Paths, ch. 38). The writer already quoted sees a probable reference to them in 2Ti 1:18 (Ellicott, Past. Epistles, ad loc.). But it is by no means certain that Onesiphorus was at that time dead. SEE DEAD, PRAYERS FOR THE.

(4.) The conformity extends, also, to the times of prayer. In the hours of service this was obviously the case. The third, sixth, and ninth hours were, in the times of the New Test. (Act 3:1; Act 10:3; Act 10:9), and had been, probably, for some time before (Psa 55:17; Dan 6:10), the fixed times of devotion, known then, and still known, respectively as the Shacharith, the Minchah, and the Arabith; they had not only the prestige of an authoritative tradition, but were connected respectively with: the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom, as to the first originators, their institution was ascribed (Buxtorf; De Synagog. p.280). The same hours, it is well known, were recognized, in the Church of the second, probably also in that of the first century (Clem. A Strom. loc. cit.; Tertull. De Orat. c. 25). The sacred days belonging to the two systems seem, at first, to present a contrast rather than a resemblance; but here, too, there is a symmetry which points to an original connection. The solemn days of the synagogue were the second, the fifth, and the seventh; the last, or Sabbath, being the conclusion of the whole. In whatever way the change was brought about, the transfer of the sanctity of the Sabbath to the Lord’s day involved a corresponding change in the order of the week, and the first; the fourth, and the sixth became to the Christian society what the other days had been to the Jewish.

The following suggestion as to the mode in which this transfer was effected involves, it is believed, fewer arbitrary assumptions than any other, SEE SABBATH, and connects itself with another interesting custom, common to the Church and the synagogue. It was a Jewish custom to end the Sabbath with a feast, in which they did honor to it as to a parting king. The feast was held in the synagogue. A cup of wine, over which a special blessing had been spoken, was handed rounds (Jost, Gesch. des Judenth. 1, 180). It is obvious that, so long as the apostles and their followers continued to use the Jewish mode of reckoning so long, i.e., as they fraternized with their brethren of the stock of Abraham this would coincide in point of time with their on the first day of the week. A supper on what we should call Sunday evening would have been to them on, the second. By degrees, SEE LORDS SUPPER the time became later, passed on to midnight, to the early dawn of the next day. So the Lord’s sipper ceased to be a supper really. So, as the Church rose out of Judaism, the supper gave its holiness to the coming, instead of deriving it from the parting day. The day came to be , because it began with the . Gradually the Sabbath ceased as such to be observed at all. The practice of observing both, as in the Church of Rome up to the fifth century, gives us a trace of the transition period. SEE SUNDAY.

(5.) From the synagogue, lastly, came many less conspicuous practices, which meet us in the liturgical life of the first three centuries. Ablution, entire or partial, before entering the place of meeting (Heb 10:22; Joh 13:1-15; Tertull. De Orat. 100. 11); standing and not kneeling, as the attitude of prayer (Luk 18:11; Tertull. ibid. 100. 23); the arms stretched out (Tertull. ibid. c. 13); the face turned towards the Keblah of the east (Clem. Al. Strom. loc. cit.); the responsive Amen of the congregation to the prayers and benedictions of the elders (1Co 14:16). In one strange exception at custom of the Church of Alexandria we trace the wilder type of Jewish, of Oriental devotion. There, in the closing responsive chorus of the prayer, the worshippers not only stretched out their necks and lifted up their hands, but leaped with wild gestures ( ), as if they would fain rise with their prayers to heaven itself (Clem. Ad. Strom. 7,40). This, too, reproduced a custom of the synagogue. Three times did the whole body of worshippers leap up simultaneouslyas they repeated the greater sanctus hymn of Isaiah 6 (Vitringa, p. 1100 sq.; Buxtorf, ch. 10).

VIII. Literature. Jerusalem Megillah, c. 3; Maimonides, lad Ha- Chezakailchoth Tephila; Vitringa,. De Syngoga Vetere (Weissenfels, 1726); Zulz, Diegottesdienstlichen Vortrdge der Juden (Berlin, 1832), p. 366 sq.; id. Die Ritus des synagogalen Gottesdienstes (ibid. 1859); Edelmann, Higajon Leb (Kinigsb. 1845); Herzfeld, Geschichte des Volces Israel (Nordhausen, 1855-1857), 1, 24-30, 127, 391-394; 2, 129-134, 183- 223; Jost,. Geschichte des Judenthums (Leipsic, 1857-58), 1, 38 sq., 168 sq., 262 sq.; Duschak, Illustrite Monatsschrift fr die gesammten Intersessen des Judenthums (Lond. 1865), 1, 83 sq., 174 sq., 409 sq. See also Burmann, Exercitt. Acad. 2, 3 sq.; Reland, Anti. Sacr. 1, 10; Carpzov- Appar. p. 307 sq.; Hartmann, Verbind. des A.T. mit d. Neuen, p. 225 sq.; Brown, Antiquities of the Jews, 1, 590 sq.; Allen, Modern Judaism, ch. 19; the monographs of Bornitz, De Vet. Synagogis (Vitemb. 1650); Leovardic, De Synagoga et Ecclesia (s. 1. et an.); Rhenferd, De Otiosis Synagogce (Franec. 1686); id. Archisynagogus Otiosus (ibid. 1688); Tentzel, De Proseuchis Samar. (Vitemb. 1682); and the dissertations cited by Darling, Cyclop. Bibliog. col. 1811. SEE WORSHIP.

Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

Synagogue

(Gr. sunagoge, i.e., “an assembly”), found only once in the Authorized Version of Ps. 74:8, where the margin of Revised Version has “places of assembly,” which is probably correct; for while the origin of synagogues is unknown, it may well be supposed that buildings or tents for the accommodation of worshippers may have existed in the land from an early time, and thus the system of synagogues would be gradually developed.

Some, however, are of opinion that it was specially during the Babylonian captivity that the system of synagogue worship, if not actually introduced, was at least reorganized on a systematic plan (Ezek. 8:1; 14:1). The exiles gathered together for the reading of the law and the prophets as they had opportunity, and after their return synagogues were established all over the land (Ezra 8:15; Neh. 8:2). In after years, when the Jews were dispersed abroad, wherever they went they erected synagogues and kept up the stated services of worship (Acts 9:20; 13:5; 17:1; 17:17; 18:4). The form and internal arrangements of the synagogue would greatly depend on the wealth of the Jews who erected it, and on the place where it was built. “Yet there are certain traditional pecularities which have doubtless united together by a common resemblance the Jewish synagogues of all ages and countries. The arrangements for the women’s place in a separate gallery or behind a partition of lattice-work; the desk in the centre, where the reader, like Ezra in ancient days, from his ‘pulpit of wood,’ may ‘open the book in the sight of all of people and read in the book of the law of God distinctly, and give the sense, and cause them to understand the reading’ (Neh. 8:4, 8); the carefully closed ark on the side of the building nearest to Jerusalem, for the preservation of the rolls or manuscripts of the law; the seats all round the building, whence ‘the eyes of all them that are in the synagogue’ may ‘be fastened’ on him who speaks (Luke 4:20); the ‘chief seats’ (Matt. 23:6) which were appropriated to the ‘ruler’ or ‘rulers’ of the synagogue, according as its organization may have been more or less complete;”, these were features common to all the synagogues.

Where perfected into a system, the services of the synagogue, which were at the same hours as those of the temple, consisted, (1) of prayer, which formed a kind of liturgy, there were in all eighteen prayers; (2) the reading of the Scriptures in certain definite portions; and (3) the exposition of the portions read. (See Luke4:15, 22; Acts 13:14.)

The synagogue was also sometimes used as a court of judicature, in which the rulers presided (Matt. 10:17; Mark 5:22; Luke 12:11; 21:12; Acts 13:15; 22:19); also as public schools.

The establishment of synagogues wherever the Jews were found in sufficient numbers helped greatly to keep alive Israel’s hope of the coming of the Messiah, and to prepare the way for the spread of the gospel in other lands. The worship of the Christian Church was afterwards modelled after that of the synagogue.

Christ and his disciples frequently taught in the synagogues (Matt. 13:54; Mark 6:2; John 18:20; Acts 13:5, 15, 44; 14:1; 17:2-4, 10, 17; 18:4, 26; 19:8).

To be “put out of the synagogue,” a phrase used by John (9:22; 12:42; 16:2), means to be excommunicated.

Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary

Synagogue

Hebrew eedah, “a congregation” or “appointed solemn meeting,” in the Pentateuch; qaahaal, “a meeting called”, represents ekklesia the “Church”. (See CHURCH.) In the New Testament synagogue (Greek) is used of the Christian assembly only by the most Judaic apostle (Jam 2:2). The Jews’ malice against Christianity caused Christians to leave the term “synagogue” to the Jews (Rev 2:9). The first hints of religions meetings appear in the phrases “before the Lord,” “the calling of assemblies” (Isa 1:13). The Sabbaths were observed from an early time by gatherings for prayer, whether at or apart from the tabernacle or temple (1Sa 20:5; 2Ki 4:23).

Jehoshaphat’s mission of priests and Levites (2Ch 17:7-9) implies there was no provision for regular instruction except the septennial reading of the law at the feast of tabernacles (Deu 31:10-13). In Psa 74:4; Psa 74:8 (compare Jer 52:13; Jer 52:17, which shows that the psalm refers to the Chaldaean destruction of the sanctuary) the “congregations” and “synagogues “refer to the tabernacle or temple meeting place between God and His people; “mo’eed mo’adee” in the psalm is the same word as expresses “the tabernacle of congregation,” or meeting between God and His people, in Exo 33:7, compare Exo 29:42-43. So in Lam 2:6, “He (the Lord) hath destroyed His places of assembly.” But the other places of devotional meetings of the people besides the temple are probably included. So Psa 107:32, “the congregation of the people … the assembly of the elders” (Ezr 3:1). The prophets’ assemblies for psalmody and worship led the way (1Sa 9:12; 1Sa 10:5; 1Sa 19:20-24).

Synagogues in the strict and later sense are not mentioned until after the desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes. The want of the temple in the Babylonian captivity familiarized the exiles with the idea of spiritual worship independent of locality. The elders often met and sat before the prophet, Ezekiel to hear Jehovah’s word (Eze 8:1; Eze 11:15-16; Eze 14:1; Eze 20:1); in Eze 33:31 the people also sit before him to hear. Periodic meetings for hearing the law and the prophets read were customary thenceforth on the return (Ezr 8:15; Neh 8:2; Neh 9:1; Zec 7:5; Act 15:21). When the Jews could not afford to build a synagogue they built “an oratory” (proseuchee) by a running stream or the seashore (Act 16:13). The synagogue was the means of rekindling the Jewish devotion and patriotism which shone so brightly in the Maccabean struggle with Antiochus.

The synagogue required no priest to minister; this and the reading of the Old Testament prepared the way for the gospel. Sometimes a wealthy Jew or a proselyte built the synagogue (Luk 7:5). The kibleh or “direction” was toward Jerusalem. The structure, though essentially different from the temple (for it had neither altar nor sacrifice), resembled in some degree that of the temple: the ark at the far end contained the law in both; the lid was called the kopereth or “mercy-seat”; a veil hung before it. Here were “the chief seats” sought by the Pharisees and the rich (Mat 23:6; Jam 2:2-3). In the middle was a raised platform on which several could be together, with a pulpit in the middle for the reader to stand in when reading and to sit when teaching. A low partition separated men on one side from women on the other. Besides the ark for “the law” (torah) there was a chest for the haphtaroth or “roll of the prophets”. In the synagogue a college of elders was presided over by the chief or ruler of the synagogue (Luk 7:3; Luk 8:41; Luk 8:49).

The elders were called parnasiym, “pastors,” “shepherds” (Eph 4:11; 1Pe 5:1), ruling over the flock (1Ti 5:17; Heb 13:7); they with the ruler managed the affairs of the synagogue and had the power of excommunication. The officiating minister was delegate (sheliach, answering to the term apostle, “sent”) of the congregation, the forerunner of “the angel (messenger sent) of the church” (Rev 1:20; Rev 2:1). The qualifications required were similar to those of a bishop or presbyter; he must be of full age, father of a family, apt to teach (1Ti 3:1-7; Tit 1:6-9). The chazzan or “minister” (Luk 4:16-20, where Christ by rising indicated that as a member of the synagogue at Nazareth. He desired to undertake the office of maptir or “reader of the lesson from the prophets”, and was at once permitted owing to His fame) answered to our deacon or subdeacon; besides getting the building ready for service he acted as schoolmaster during the week.

There were also the ten batlaniym or “men of leisure”, permanently making up a congregation (ten being the minimum (minyan “quoram”) to constitute a congregation), that no single worshipper might be disappointed; also acting as alms collectors. Three were archisunagogai, “chiefs of the synagogue”; then also the “angel” or “bishop” who prayed publicly and caused the law to be read and sometimes preached; and three deacons for alms; the interpreter of the old Hebrew Testament, who paraphrased it; also the theological schoolmaster and his interpreter (Lightfoot, Horae. 4:70). The government of the church evidently came from the synagogue not from the Aaronic priesthood. So also did the worship; with the addition of the new doctrines, the gifts of the Spirit, and the supper of the Lord; fixed liturgical forms, creeds, as the shema, “Hear O Israel,” etc. (Deu 6:4), and “prayers”, the kadish, shemoneh ‘esreh, berachoth; (compare brief creeds, 1Ti 3:16; 2Ti 1:13, the “Lord’s prayer” (Luke 11), the “order” (1Co 14:40);) the teaching out of the law, which was read in a cycle, once through in three years.

The prophets were similarly read as second lessons; the exposition (derash) or “word of exhortation” followed (Act 13:15; Act 15:21). The psalms were selected to suit “the special times”; “the times of prayer” (shacharit, minchah, ‘arabit) were the “third”, “sixth”, and “ninth” hours (Act 3:1; Act 10:3; Act 10:9); so in Old Testament, Psa 55:17; Dan 6:10. Clemens Alex. (Strom.) and Tertullian (Orat. 25) state the same in the church of the second century. Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday were the devotional days of the synagogue as of the church. The custom of ending the Saturday Sabbath with a feast formed the connecting link between the seventh day Jewish sabbath and the first day, Christian Lord’s day and Lord’s supper (1Co 11:20; Rev 1:10).

Preparatory ablutions (Heb 10:22; Joh 13:1-15; Tertullian, Orat. 11), standing in prayer, not kneeling (Luk 18:11; Tertullian 23), the arms stretched out (Tertullian 13), the face toward the E. (Clemens Alex., Strom.), the Amen in responses (1Co 14:16), the leaping as if they would rise toward heaven in the Alexandrian church (Clemens Alex., Strom. 7:40) as the Jews at the tersanctus of Isaiah 6 (Vitringa 1100, Buxtorf 10), are all reproductions of synagogue customs. However the Hebrew in prayer wears the talith (“prayer shawl”) drawn over his ears to the shoulders (a custom probably later than apostolic times), whereas the Christian man is bareheaded (1Co 11:4). The synagogue officers had judicial power to scourge, anathematize, and excommunicate (Mat 10:17; Mar 13:9; Luk 12:11; Luk 21:12; Joh 12:42; Joh 9:22): so the church (1Co 6:1-8; 1Co 16:22; Gal 1:8-9; 1Co 5:5; 1Ti 1:20; Mat 18:15-18); also to seize and send for trial before the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem (Act 9:2; Act 22:5).

The Great Synagogue (Mar 7:3 “the elders”; Mat 5:21-27; Mat 5:33, “they of old time”) is represented in the rabbinical book, Pirke Aboth (“The Sayings of the [Jewish] Fathers”), of the second century A.D., to have succeeded the prophets, and to have been succeeded by the scribes, Ezra presiding; among the members Joshua, the high priest Zerubbabel, Daniel, the three children Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Nehemiah, Mordecai; their aim being to restore the crown or glory of Israel, the name of God as great, mighty, and terrible (Dan 9:4; Jer 32:18; Deu 7:21); so they completed the Old Testament canon, revising the text, introducing the vowel points which the Masorete editors have handed down to us, instituting “the feast” Purim, organizing the synagogue ritual. Their motto, preserved by Simon high-priest, was “set a hedge about the law.” (See SCRIBES.)

The only Old Testament notice of anything like such a body is Neh 8:13, “chiefs of the fathers of all the people, the priests; and the Levites … Ezra the scribe” presiding. The likelihood is that some council was framed at the return from Babylon to arrange religious matters, the forerunner of the Sanhedrin. Vitringa’s work on the synagogue, published in 1696, is the chief authority. In the last times of Jerusalem 480 synagogues were said to be there (see Act 6:9). Lieut. Conder found by measurement (taking the cubit at 16 in.) that a synagogue was 30 cubits by 40, and its pillars 10 ft. high exactly.

There are in Palestine eleven specimens of synagogues existing; two at Kefr Bir’im, one at Meiron, Irbid, Tell Hum, Kerazeh, Nebratein, two at El Jish, one at Umm el ‘Amed, and Sufsaf. In plan and ornamentation they are much alike. They are not on high ground, nor so built that the worshipper on entering faced Jerusalem, except that at Irbid, The carved figures of animals occur in six out of the eleven. In all these respects they betray their later origin, as vitally differing from the known form of synagogue and tenets of the earlier Jews. Their erection began probably at the close of the second century, the Jews employing Roman workmen, at the dictation of Roman rulers in the time of Antoninus Pins and Alexander Severus, during the spiritual supremacy of the Jewish patriarch of Tiberias. (See TIBERIAS.) Their date is between A.D. 150 and 300. (See (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, July 1878, p. 123.)

Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary

SYNAGOGUE

During the time of the Jews captivity in Babylon, they were unable to carry out sacrificial rituals. Not only were they in a foreign land, but their place of sacrifice, the Jerusalem temple, had been destroyed in 587 BC. The Jewish religious leaders therefore placed greater emphasis on teaching the moral commandments of the law than on teaching temple rituals. When the Jews returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple (completed in 516 BC), they maintained this emphasis on teaching and explaining the law (Neh 8:1-4; Neh 8:7-8; Neh 9:1-3). This teaching activity was a contributing factor in the emergence of local meeting places known as synagogues (from a Greek word meaning to gather or bring together).

Community centre

A synagogue was a centre for prayer, worship, teaching and administration in any locality where there were enough Jews to make such a centre workable. It was a gathering point for the Jews in the locality, a place where they had fellowship and discussed community affairs. The gathering as well as the building could be called the synagogue (Luk 12:11). There was no altar in a synagogue and no sacrifices were offered there.

Wherever the Jews went they built synagogues, with the result that there were synagogues in many countries of the ancient world (Mar 1:21; Luk 4:16; Act 9:1; Act 13:5; Act 13:14; Act 17:1; Act 17:10; Act 18:1; Act 18:4; Act 19:8). These synagogues soon became more important in the development and operation of Judaism than the temple in Jerusalem. They helped give Judaism the particular features with which we are familiar in the New Testament.

The leaders of the synagogues were the recognized leaders in the Jewish community and were known as elders (Mar 15:1; Luk 7:3-5). They had power to punish wrongdoers, even to the extent of arresting them, whipping them, or expelling them from the synagogue community (Mat 10:17; Mat 23:34; Joh 9:22; Joh 16:2; Act 22:19).

Religious services

In design a synagogue was a simple building. It consisted of a main meeting room entered through a porch, with an open court outside. During religious services, women and men sat on opposite sides of the room, with the leaders sitting in the chief seats, facing the audience (Mat 23:6). The chief leader was known as the ruler of the synagogue (Mar 5:22; Act 18:8).

Synagogue services were conducted at least every Sabbath and were under the control of the leaders (Mar 1:21; Luk 13:14; Act 13:14-15). The service opened with prayers, followed by readings from the Old Testament scrolls. These were kept in a special box and were handed to the reader by an attendant (Luk 4:16-17; Luk 4:20; Act 15:21).

Since many Jews were not familiar with the Hebrew language, a paraphrase or interpretation of the Old Testament readings was usually given. (These paraphrases, known as targums, later became authorized interpretations and eventually were put into writing.) Then followed an address. This was usually based on the previously read portion of Scripture (Luk 4:20-21), and was given either by one of the leaders or by some other suitable person whom the leaders invited (Luk 4:16-17; Luk 6:6; Act 13:15; Act 17:10-11; Act 18:4). The service was closed with prayers.

By the time of Jesus, the people who most influenced the teaching given in the synagogues were the scribes, or teachers of the law. These people had risen to places of power during the centuries leading up to the New Testament era (see SCRIBES), but instead of teaching the law of Moses they taught Judaism, a system of religious regulations that they had developed (Mat 23:2-8; Mar 7:1-5; Mar 12:38-39; Luk 6:6-7).

Because of the scribes, the synagogues became more of a hindrance than a help to Gods people. Jesus often came into conflict with the synagogue authorities, and so did the early Christians (Mat 6:2; Mat 6:5; Mat 10:17; Mat 12:9-14; Luk 13:14-15; Joh 9:22; Joh 12:42; Act 14:1-2; Act 17:1-5; Act 18:4-7; Rev 2:9; Rev 3:9).

Fuente: Bridgeway Bible Dictionary

Synagogue

SYNAGOGUE

1. The name. is the Gr. equivalent for the Heb. derived from the rare verb of which the radical meaning is to gather. The term means primarily a gathering together of any objects or persons for any purpose, in Scripture an assembly of the members of a local community either for the purpose of worship or for joint action under professedly religious sanctions (Luk 12:11; Luk 21:12). Thence the word was applied to the building in which such a meeting was held, and in that sense is of frequent occurrence in the NT. For a time the term was current amongst Christians as the designation of their meetings or places of meeting; cf. Jam 2:2, Heb 10:25 (Gr.), and such Patristic notices as Epiphanius, Haer. xxx. 18, . This usage lingered amongst the Ebionites and longer still amongst the Marcionites, but in other quarters a distinction early appeared. Either because of the growing divergence between the two faiths, or because was regarded as a better expression of the genius of Christianity with its preference for other than ethnic or racial ideals, the terms church and synagogue ceased to be interchangeable. The two senses of each were retained, as an assembly and a place of assembly; but a strictly Christian or Jewish association was definitely attached to each.

2. Origin and history.In NT times the institution of the synagogue was popular and widespread, and was believed to date back from generations of old (Act 15:21); but few materials are available for assistance in the attempt to trace its actual history, and its origin can only be conjectured. Later traditions (e.g. Pal. [Note: Palestine, Palestinian.] Targ. [Note: Targum.] on Exo 18:20, a Midrash in Pesikta, ed. Buber, 129b) connect it with the primitive times after the settlement in Canaan. During the exile in Babylon, worship at the Temple necessarily ceased, and the conditions of the Captivity have consequently been regarded as a favourite soil for the germs of the institution (Wellhausen, IJG [Note: JG Israelitische und Jdische Geschichte.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] 193). But the purposes served by the synagogue make it indispensable that some such institution should have been in existence centuries earlier. The synagogue was a school and a court of local government before it became pre-eminently a place of worship. In ancient times the scattered peoples might go up to the Temple at the festivals, and in the intervals avail themselves of the local sanctuaries; but as business connexions multiplied (cf. 7), the father could no longer be relied upon for the regular instruction of his sons, whilst a centre would have to be found in every village or group of villages for the administration of justice, and for the transaction of the affairs of the community, in subordination to the recognized authority, whether regal or priestly. Hence the germs of the institution are to be sought far back in the exigencies that arose as civilization became more complex; and the Exile marks not the first stage in the origin of the synagogue, but an important modification of its functions, worship becoming thenceforward the principal though far from the sole occupation, and the administrative functions falling for a time into abeyance. After the Temple was rebuilt, popular usage may well be conceived as temporarily reverting to the previous practice; hence the silence of the later part of the OT, Psa 74:8 (though Briggs in loc. substitutes festivals for synagogues, whilst retaining the latter term in his lexicon, cf. Oxf. Heb. Lex. s.v. ) containing the only explicit reference. In the OT Apocr. [Note: Apocrypha, Apocryphal.] the silence is even more complete; and the post-Maccabaean revival of the strong accentuation upon the religious side of the functions of the synagogue was contemporaneous with the revival of interest in the study of the Law at the close of the bitter struggle for national independence.

3. A feature of normal Jewish life.In the 1st cent. a.d. synagogues abounded wherever a Jewish population was found. In Jerusalem itself the number is variously given as 394 (Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] Kethub. 105a) or 480 (Jer. Megilla, 73d). The figures are, of course, exaggerated, but are an indication of the degree to which the institution had extended. In addition, there was a synagogue within the Temple itself, with others for the communities of foreign Jews settled in the city (Act 6:9; cf. Act 9:29). Galilee was studded with synagogues, as the thickness of its population would lead one to expect. Mention is made in the Gospels of those at Nazareth (Mat 13:54, Mar 6:2, Luk 4:16) and at Capernanm (Mar 1:21, Luk 7:5, Joh 6:59). It is not improbable that the last-named should be identified with the ruins recently discovered at Tell Hmone of eleven groups of ruined synagogues found in Northern Galilee and dating in part from the 1st cent. (SWP [Note: WP Memoirs of the Survey of W. Palestine.] i. 231 f., 252, 397 ff., 401). Agrippa I. built a synagogue at Dora (Josephus Ant. xix. vi. 3), in imitation of his grandfathers practice elsewhere. The same state of things obtained outside Palestine. In Asia Minor and Greece, St. Paul found synagogues everywhere. Philo speaks of thousands of houses of instruction opened on the Sabbath day (Mangey, ii. 282). And in our Lords time the synagogue was as common a feature of Jewish life as places of worship are of conventional life in our own country to-day.

4. Site, architecture, equipment.Two rules as to the building of synagogues require that they should stand on an elevated site, and, like the Temple, be entered from the east. The Galilaean ruins show that these rules were not followed in the 1st cent. in Palestine; for the ruins do not occupy prominent positions, and in every instance except one the entrance is from the south. In different countries the local style of architecture was adopted, and there never was any style peculiar to synagogues. In Palestine, as the ruins indicate, Graeco-Roman influences can be traced, with an over-elaboration of ornament that was rather Oriental in its character. The building proper consisted of a quadrilateral, divided into three or five aisles by means of two or four rows of pillars. Admission was gained through three doors, in front of which was sometimes a highly decorated portico. Of the equipment the most important item was the press or ark containing the sacred writings. Above it was a canopy, and in front a curtain; and each of the rolls was wrapped in an embroidered cloth. In small synagogues, near the ark, which stood probably against the wall opposite the entrance, was a raised tribune, furnished with a lectern for the reader and a chair for the speaker (Luk 4:20). In larger buildings this platform was brought forward nearly to the centre. The chief seats (Mat 23:6, Mar 12:39, Luk 11:43; Luk 20:46) were in front of the platform and ark, or in larger synagogues at the further end of the building, opposite the doors, and in either case faced the congregation, who generally sat on chairs or mats arranged across the building, sometimes lengthways, with an open space between the first ranks on either side. Lamps were a regular part of the furniture, and were probably in use in our period, since two early traditions refer to the oil that was burnt and to the custom of keeping the lamps lighted through the Day of Atonement (Terumoth, xi. 10; Pesachim, iv. 4). The adoption of a screened gallery or even of separate seats for women was a late arrangement, and not the custom in our period. No such rule occurs in the Talmud or other ancient source, whilst the evidence points to the actual participation of women in the synagogal service (cf. JBL [Note: BL Journal of Biblical Literature.] , 1898, 111 ff.; and Abrahams, Jew. Life in Mid. Ages, 25 f.), and their qualification to serve in the Diaspora even as (REJ [Note: EJ Revue des Etudes Juives.] vii. 161 ff.), which should not be resolved into a mere title of honour.

5. Officials.In a large synagogue a numerous staff might be employed, the principal officials being duplicated, and a variety of teachers and interpreters added. But no synagogue would be without two officers. The duty of the ruler of the synagogue was not to conduct the service himself, but to choose and invite competent persons for the purpose (cf. Act 13:15), and to check any indecorum or disorder (Luk 13:14). In all probability he was responsible also for the maintenance of the synagogue in good repair, and for the safe keeping of its property. He might or might not be, but probably generally was, one of the elders, who occupied with him the chief seats, and formed together the governing body of the community. The other indispensable official was the attendant (hazzan or , Luk 4:20), whose duties were varied and, whenever possible, distributed. He had to prepare the building for the public services, and to announce with a thrice repeated trumpet-blast from the roof the advent of the Sabbaths and other festivals. In the course of the services he presented the sacred roll to the reader, and in due course replaced it ceremoniously in the ark. In small congregations he had to read the lesson himself (Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] Meg. 25b gives an instance at the beginning of the 2nd cent.), and to lead the prayers (Jer. Berakh. 12d). Besides all this, he had to teach the children, and to scourge such culprits as the synagogue, when acting as a court of law, condemned to that punishment. For the faithful discharge of these manifold duties he was treated with special respect (ib. 6a), and classed in rank with one of the grades of scribes. Other officials, where the synagogue was large enough to need them, comprised the administrators and collectors of alms, and the translators of the Scripture lessons from Hebrew into the vernacular of the congregation. In our Saviours time these offices, where they existed, were honorary, as was probably always the case with the controllers of the charities.

6. The synagogue as a place of worship.Before the destruction of the Temple the ordinary services were simpler than they afterwards became; but the order followed generally the rule prescribed at a later date in the Mishna (Meg. iv. 3). Of the four principal parts (a) the first was the Shema (so called from the opening word of Deu 6:4, which should read Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God, the Lord is one, as cited in Mar 12:29), with introductory and closing benedictions. It is true that this verse is cited in the NT without any mention of its liturgical use; but other evidences point to a contrary conclusion. The Shema comprised altogether Deu 6:4-9; Deu 11:13-21 and Num 15:37-41, in which the wearing of frontlets and fringes is prescribed as a symbolic reminder of legal obligations. That these injunctions were interpreted literally by the zealous legalists of our Saviours time is shown by His references to the wearing of phylacteries (Mat 23:5). This practice is difficult to explain except on the assumption that the passages quoted in justification were supposed to be invested with special sanctity. Both customs may be confidently referred to the period of the ascendency of the Hasidim, a century and more before the birth of Christ; and the recitation of the Shema with its accompanying ritual was a confession, both of faith in the unity of God and of the imperative obligation to keep His Law. (b) What prayers originally followed the recitation of the Shema, it is impossible at present to say. Those adopted at a later time would be inappropriate before the destruction of the Temple, the memory of which colours several of the phrases. From the example of the Baptist in teaching his disciples to pray, and from the request for similar instruction addressed to Jesus (Luk 11:1), it may be inferred that forms of prayer were not yet familiar to the Jews, and possibly that a disposition towards the adoption of such forms was now arising. Psalms or selections may have been used; but the time had apparently not yet come for anything more, (c) The reading of extracts from the Law and the Prophets was the central part of the synagogal worship on the Sabbath day. That this was customary in NT times appears from many passages (e.g. Luk 4:17, cf. Act 13:15; Act 15:21, 2Co 3:15). The sections of the Law were apportioned among several members of the congregation, any male who was acquainted with Hebrew being eligible. Next a passage was read from the Prophets by any one upon whom the choice of the ruler of the synagogue fell. Eventually an official lectionary was adopted, so arranged that the reading of the Pentateuch was completed in a year, the section from the Prophets being selected as far as possible with a view to enforce the lesson of that from the Law; but in the time of Christ the reader of the Prophetic section seems to have been at liberty to select whatever part he liked (Luk 4:17). (d) With the reading of the Scripture the service proper terminated. Gradually, as Hebrew ceased to be a spoken language, it was found necessary to translate the lessons into Aramaic or Greek or whatever might be the vernacular of the congregation. For this purpose an interpreter (methurgeman) was employed, or the schoolmaster or any competent man amongst the audience acted in his stead. The lesson from the Law was paraphrased verse by verse, that from the Prophets by three verses at a time (Meg. iv. 4). These paraphrases were not literal translations, but rather condensed interpretations, of a passage, and mark an important stage in the history of preaching. The next development was an extended exposition, which was the usage in NT times (Mat 4:23, Mar 1:21; Mar 6:2, Luk 6:6, Joh 18:20). The instruction was didactic rather than rhetorical, as may be inferred from the sitting posture (Luk 4:20, cf. Mat 5:1; Mat 26:55, Joh 8:2); and though naturally the Rabbis were looked to for such service, they had not yet become a class of professional preachers, but any distinguished stranger (cf. Act 13:15), or even any ordinary member of the community, might be invited to give an address.

7. The synagogue school.The OT ideal makes parents responsible for the education of their children, and draws an idyllic picture of the father and the son turning every opportunity to profit for instruction in religion and in duty (Deu 6:7). Such an arrangement was suitable only to primitive times (cf. 2); and as trade extended, and the fathers absence from home became necessary and frequent, the need of public elementary schools made itself felt. The main idea of the synagogue service was originally instruction rather than worship, for which in its associated forms the Temple was provided, and in its intimate forms privacy could be secured. Not only does the NT make teaching the chief function, but Philo in one place (Mangey, ii. 168) almost protests against synagogues being regarded as other than schools. The adults in their regular services educated themselves in the Law, and strengthened the social as well as the private sense of obligation. The children were gathered regularly for instruction of a similar kind in the synagogue itself or an adjoining room, under the care of the hazzan, or, in larger centres of population, of a professional teacher. For advanced studies and for technical Jewish training, provision was made in some of the towns or near the residence of some distinguished Rabbi; but everywhere the elementary school was an inseparable adjunct of the synagogue. See artt. Boyhood (Jewish), and Education.

8. The synagogue as a court.Under the strict conception of a theocracy there can be no distinction between things ecclesiastical and things civil. Hence, in places where the population was preponderantly Jewish, local administration was in the hands of a court, which took cognizance of all the Jewish interests of the neighbourhood, and of which the Roman over-rule was apt to avail itself for both executive and minor judicial business. Where the Jews were outclassed in numbers or influence, the synagogal authority was proportionately reduced, though without any loss of respect within the Jewish community. If there were several synagogues in a Jewish town, all were knit together into some kind of organization, under a controlling council which regulated also all the civil affairs of the community. The case of a town with but a single synagogue was simpler, but not radically distinct. Here the council, or local Sanhedrin (Mat 5:22; Mat 10:17, Mar 13:9), met in the synagogue, where their plans were matured, their decisions taken, and often their penalties exacted. The court proper consisted of twenty-three members where the population was considerable, elsewhere of seven; and this college of elders (Luk 7:3) or rulers (Mat 9:18; Mat 9:23, Luk 8:41) exercised a wide jurisdiction. For minor offences (Makkoth iii. 1) the penalty was scourging (Mat 10:17; Mat 23:34, cf. Act 22:19; not to be confused with the Roman penalty of scourging of Mat 20:19 and Joh 19:1), limited to forty stripes save one (cf. 2Co 11:24), and administered in the synagogue by the hazzan. Excommunication was the punishment of offences that were thought to imperil the stability of the Jewish community (Luk 6:22, Joh 9:22; Joh 12:42; Joh 16:2). See art. Excommunication in vol. i. p. 559a.

9. Other uses of the synagogue.There are indications in early Jewish literature, belonging some of them to the 1st cent., that the synagogue served also the purposes of a public hall or general meeting-place, and regulations for its reverent treatment were gradually adopted. Notices respecting the interests of the community at large, or even of private members, were given there (Baba mezia, 28b). It was the place for funeral orations over the death of men of distinction, and at a later period could be used for some of the ceremonies of private mourning (ib.). Josephus says (Vita, 54) that political meetings were held in the synagogues at the time of the war against Rome. They became increasingly a common meeting-ground for the Jews of the neighbourhood, where their affairs might be discussed informally or in a summoned assembly, and a variety of matters might be conveniently settled. Thus a secularizingor, from a Jewish point of view, a communaltendency developed, such as had already shown itself in the case of the courts of the Temple (Mat 21:12, Mar 11:15, Joh 2:14 ff.); and arrangements had eventually to be made in the interest of decorum. People were forbidden to discuss trifles on the premises of a synagogue, or to walk aimlessly about, to shelter there from the heat or rain, to come in with soiled shoes or garments, or to make a thoroughfare of the courts. Some of these regulations are of a later date than the Gospels, but their necessity arose from habits that were already becoming fixed. The synagogue was not only a place of authoritative instruction in the Law, but the centre of the Jewish life of a district, and, as such, its purposes were determined by both social and racial needs.

10. Financial administration.Most of the officials of the synagogue were honorary; but the schoolmaster and the attendant would require at least partial support, whilst the cost of erection, with that of repairs and maintenance, must have been considerable, to say nothing of the fees paid at a later period to ten unemployed men as the minimum of a congregation. It is a problem, for the settlement of which sufficient materials are not at present available, how these expenses were met. In some cases a wealthy man, Jew or Gentile, wishing to ingratiate himself with the people or out of pure kindness, may have provided a synagogue (cf. Luk 7:5; Jos. [Note: Law of Holiness.] Ant. xix. vi. 3). In other cases, though the authorities are not explicit, the synagogue must have been erected by means of a general levy upon the community, and the revenue for its maintenance provided in the same way. The Mishna invests the whole property, including buildings and equipment, in the civic community (Meg. iii. 1; Nedarim, v. 5), and classes it thus with the baths and roads of the neighbourhood. But as to the principle on which the necessary moneys were raised, and the means by which payment was enforced, very little is at present known. A set of synagogue accounts from the early part of the 1st cent, would be a discovery of much value.

Literature.Of the works cited in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible , Schrer is still the most important. The German edition is the best; the reference to the English translation is n. [Note: note.] ii. 5289. Add Dalmans art. Synagogaler Gottesdienst in PRE [Note: RE Real-Encyklopdie fur protest. Theologic und Kirche.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] vii. 719; Nowack, Heb-Arch. ii. 83 ff.; Dembitz, Jewish Services in Syn. and Home. Any of the technical Cyclopaedias may be consulted; but care should be taken, especially in the case of Hamburger, by checking the dates of the original authorities, to distinguish the periods for which they stand.

R. W. Moss.

Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels

Synagogue

SYNAGOGUE

1. Meaning and history.Like its original synagg (lit. a gathering, assemblyfor its use in LXX [Note: Septuagint.] see Congregation), synagogue is used in NT in a double signification: (1) in the sense of a community organized for religious purposes, as Act 6:9; Act 9:2 (cf. Rev 2:9; Rev 3:9 the synagogue of Satan); and (2) to denote the building in which the community met for worshipso some 50 times in the Gospels and Acts from Mat 4:23 onwards. The strict Heb. equivalent in the latter sense is the house of assembly. Of other names for the synagogue as a place of worship may be mentioned the older term proseuch (Act 16:13 RV [Note: Revised Version.] place of worship; Jos. [Note: Josephus.] Life, 54, of the synagogue of Tiberias)

The origin of the synagogue as a characteristic institution of Judaism is hidden in obscurity. Most probably it took its rise in the circumstances of the Hebrew exiles in Babylonia. Hitherto worship had practically meant sacrifice, but sacrifice was now impossible in a land unclean (cf. Hos 3:4; Hos 9:3 f.). There was still left to the exiles, however, the living word of the prophet, and the writings of Gods interpreters from a former age. In those gatherings in the house of Ezekiel of which we read (Eze 8:1; Eze 20:1-3) we may perhaps detect the germs of the future synagogue. We are on more solid ground when we reach the religious reform of Ezra and Nehemiah (b.c. 444443). With the introduction of the Law of Moses as the norm of faith and life, the need for systematic instruction in its complex requirements was evident to the leaders of the reform, as is clear from Neh 8:7 f. The closing century of the Persian rule, b.c. 430330, may therefore be regarded as the period of the rise and development of the synagogue. From this period, more precisely from the reign of Artaxerxes iii. Ocbus (358337), may be dated the only mention of the synagogue in OT, viz. Psa 74:8 they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land. The papyrus finds of recent years have contained not a few references to the synagogues of the Jewish communities in Egypt, from the time of the third Ptolemy, Euergetes, b.c. 247221, onwards (details in Schrer, GJV [Note: JV Geschichte des Jdischen Volkes.] 4 ii. 499 f.).

By the first century of our era the synagogue was regarded as an institution of almost immemorial antiquity. In referring it back to Moses himself, Josephus (c. Apion. ii. 17) is only echoing the contemporary belief, which is also reflected in the words of the Apostle James, for Moses from generations of old hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath (Act 15:21 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ). For the wide extent and historical importance of the synagogues of the Dispersion, see below, 5.

2. The synagogue building and its furniture.Remains, more or less extensive, of Jewish synagogues still survive from the second and third, more doubtfully from the first, centuries of our era, chiefly in Galilee. The examination of these remains, first undertaken by the Palestine Exploration Fund (see Survey of West Pal. i. 224 ff. with plans), has recently been carried out more fully by the German Orient Society, and the results published in the Societys Mittheilungen (Nos. 23, 27, 29 [1904, 1905]). In plan and details of ornamentation these Galilan synagogues display a general similarity. The buildings are rectangular in shape, and divided into three or five aisles by two or three rows of pillars. The entrance is almost always in the south front, and often consists of a large main, and two smaller side, entrances. The most elaborate was the synagogue of Capernaum, where, as elsewhere, traces were found of galleries running round three sides of the central aisle. These were probably assigned to the women (for a similar arrangement in Herods Temple, see Temple 11 (b)), although the question of the separation of the sexes in NT times is one on which the best authorities disagree.

As regards the furniture of the synagogue, the most important item was the chest or cupboard (tb, the ark), in which the sacred rolls of the Law and the Prophets were kept. The synagogues of NT times were also doubtless provided with a raised platform (bm), on which stood the reading-desk from which the Scriptures were read. The larger portion of the area was occupied by benches for the congregation, the worshippers facing southwards, in Galilee at least, towards the holy city. A few special seats in front of the bm, and facing the congregation, were occupied by the heads of the community. These are the chief seats in the synagogues coveted by the Pharisees (Mat 23:5 and ||). In front of the ark a lamp burned day and night.

3. The officials of the Synagogue.The general management of the synagogue of a Jewish town, where it served also as a court of justice andin the smaller towns and villages at leastas a school, was in the hands of the elders of the community. It had no special priest or minister, as will appear presently. It was usual however, to appoint an official called the ruler of the synagogue (Mar 5:22, Luk 8:41, and oft.), to whom the authorities of the community committed the care of the building as well as the more important duty of seeing that everything connected with the public services was done decently and in order. Hence the indignation of the ruler of Luk 13:14 at the supposed breach of the decorum of worship related in the preceding verses (vv. 1013). It lay with the ruler also to select the readers for the day, and to determine the order in which they were to be called up to the reading-desk. Occasionally, it would seem, a synagogue might have two or more rulers, as at Antioch of Pisidia (Act 13:15).

The only other permanent official was the chazzn, the attendant of Luk 4:20 RV [Note: Revised Version.] (A V minister in the same, but now obsolete, sense; cf. Act 13:5). The duties of the synagogue officer (as we say in Scotland) were somewhat varied. He was responsible for the cleaning and lighting of the building; and during service it was his special duty to convey the sacred rolls from the ark to the readers at the desk, and to restore them when the reading was over, as recorded in Luk 4:17-20. To him fell also the duty of scourging criminals condemned by the court (Mat 10:17; Mat 23:34 etc.), but not, as is usually represented, the teaching of the school children (art. Education in DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] i. 650a).

4. The synagogue service in NT times.For this part of our subject we are dependent mainly on the fuller information preserved in the Mishna, which reflects the later usage of the 2nd century. According to Megillah, iv. 3, the service consisted of four parts, and with this the scattered hints in the Gospels and Acts agree. These parts are: (a) the recitation of the Shema, (b) the lifting up of hands, i.e. the prayers, (c) the lessons from the Law and the Prophets, and (d) the priestly benediction. Two elements of the full service, however, are here omitted as not strictly belonging to the essentials of worship, viz. the translation of the lessons into the vernacular, and the sermon.

(a) The recitation of the Shema.The shema is the standing designation of three short sections of the Pentateuch, Deu 6:4-9 (which opens with the word Shema = Hear, whence the name) Deu 11:13-21, Num 15:37-41. Their recitation by the congregation was preceded and followed by one or two short benedictions, such as that beginning, Blessed be thou, Adonai, our God, King of the universe, who didst form the light and create darkness.

(b) The lifting up of hands.In contrast to the first item of the service, in which all took part, the prayers were said by a single individual chosen for the purpose, named the deputy of the congregation, the worshippers however, repeating the Amen at the close of each collect. This mode of prayer in the public services was taken over by the early Church, as is attested by 1Co 14:16 (where the word rendered the giving of thanks is the Gr. equivalent of that rendered benediction below). By the middle of the 2nd cent. a.d. a formal liturgy had been developedthe famous eighteen benedictions, which may be read in any Jewish prayer-book. It is impossible, however, to say with certainty how many of these were in use in our Lords day. Dalman is of opinion that at least twelve of the eighteen collects are older than a.d. 70. These he arranges in three groups, consisting of three opening benedictions, six petitions, and three closing benedictions (see his art. Gottesdienst [synagogaler] in Haucks PRE [Note: RE Real-Encykl. fr protest. Theol. und Kirche] 3 vii.).

(c) The OT lessons.The liturgy was followed by a lesson from the Law. The five books were divided into 154 (or more) Sabbath pericopes or sections, so that the whole Pentateuch was read through in three years (or 31/2 years, half of a Sabbatic period). The custom of calling up seven readers in successiona priest, a Levite, and five othersmay be as old as the 1st century. After the Law came, at the Sabbath morning service only a lesson from the Prophets, read by one person and left to his choice. It was the haphtar, as the prophetic lesson was termed, that our Lord read in the synagogue of Nazareth (Luk 4:16 ff.). The Hagiographa except Esther, were not at this period read at Divine service. Even the Psalms had no place in the usual service (Dalman).

In order that the common people might follow the lessons with Intelligence, these were translated into Aramaic, the vernacular of Palestine, by an interpreter (methurgemnour dragoman is from the same root). The unique position of the Law in the estimation of the time is shown by the fact that the Pentateuch lessons had to be translated a verse at a time, while the Prophets might he rendered three verses at a time. Reader and interpreter stood while at the reading-desk.

At this point in the service at the principal diets of worship, the sermon was introduced. The preacher sat while giving his exposition, which is so often described in NT as teaching (Mat 4:23, Mar 1:21; Mar 6:2 etc.). In the synagogue there was full liberty of prophesying. Any member of the community was free to exercise his gift. When a likely stranger was present, he was invited by the ruler of the synagogue to address the congregation (Act 13:15). (d) The service was closed by a priest pronouncing the priestly benediction, Num 6:24-26; if no priest was present, it is said that a layman gave the blessing in the form of a prayer.

On some occasions, at least, it was usual to ask the alms of the congregation (Mat 6:2) on behalf of the poor. The full service, as sketched above, was confined to the principal service of the week, which was held on the forenoon of the Sabbath. At the other services, such as those held daily in the larger towns, where ten men of leisure were available to form the minimum legal congregation, and the Monday and Thursday services, some of the items were omitted.

5. The influence of the Synagogue.This article would be incomplete without a reference, however brief, to the influence of the synagogue and its worship not only upon the Jews themselves, but upon the world of heathenism. As to the latter, the synagogue played a conspicuous part in the preparatio evangelica. From the outworn creeds of paganism many earnest souls turned to the synagogue and its teaching for the satisfaction of their highest needs. The synagogues of the Dispersion (Joh 7:35, Jam 1:1, 1Pe 1:1, all RV [Note: Revised Version.] ) became in consequence the seed-plots of Christianity, as every student of the Book of Acts is aware.

The work which the synagogue did for Judaism itself is best seen in the ease with which the breach with the past involved in the destruction of the Temple in a.d. 70, and the cessation of sacrificial worship, was healed. The highest religious life of Judaism had already transferred its channels from the grosser and more material forms of the Temple to the spiritual worship of the synagogue.

Nor must a reference be wanting to the fact that the synagogue, and not the Temple, supplied the mould and model for the worship of the Christian Church.

6. The Great Synagogue.In late Jewish tradition Ezra is alleged to have been the founder and first president of a college of learned scribes, which is supposed to have existed in Jerusalem until the early part of the Gr. period (c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 300). To the men of the Great Synagogue, or rather of the Great Assembly, were ascribed the composition of some of the later OT books, the close of the Canon, and a general care for the development of religion under the Law. Recent writers, however, have in the main accepted the results of Kuenens careful investigation in his Gesamm. Abhandlungen (Germ. tr. [Note: translate or translation.] 125160), and now regard the Great Synagogue as unhistorical, the tradition of its existence having arisen from a distorted view of the nature and purpose of the great popular assembly, of which we read in Neh 8:1-18; Neh 9:1-38; Neh 10:1-39.

A. R. S. Kennedy.

Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible

Synagogue

sina-gog:

1.Name

2.Origin

3.Spread of Synagogues

4.The Building

(1)The Site

(2)The Structure

(3)The Furniture

5.The Officials

(1)The Elders

(2)The Ruler

(3)The Servant (or Servants)

(4)Delegate of the Congregation

(5)The Interpreter

(6)The Almoners

6.The Service

(1)Recitation of the Shema’

(2)Prayers

(3)Reading of the Law and the Prophets

(4)The Sermon

(5)The Benediction

LITERATURE

1. Name:

Synagogue, Greek , sunagoge, gathering (Act 13:43), gathering-place (Luk 7:5), was the name applied to the Jewish place of worship in later Judaism in and outside of Palestine Proseuche, a place of prayer (Act 16:13), was probably more of the nature of an enclosure, marking off the sacred spot from the profane foot, than of a roofed building like a synagogue. Sabbateon in Ant., XV, i, 2, most probably also meant synagogue. In the Mishna we find for synagogue beth ha-keneseth, in the Targums and Talmud be-khenshta’, or simply kenshta’. The oldest Christian meetings and meeting-places were modeled on the pattern of the synagogues, and, in Christian-Palestinian Aramaic the word kenshta’ is used for the Christian church (compare Zahn, Tatian’s Diatessaron, 335).

2. Origin:

That the synagogue was, in the time of our Lord, one of the most important religious institutions of the Jews is clear from the fact that it was thought to have been instituted by Moses (Apion, ii, 17; Philo, De Vita Moses, iii. 27; compare Targum Jer to Exo 18:20). It must have come into being during the Babylonian exile. At that time the more devout Jews, far from their native land, having no sanctuary or altar, no doubt felt drawn from time to time, especially on Sabbath and feast days, to gather round those who were specially pious and God-fearing, in order to listen to the word of God and engage in some kind of worship. That such meetings were not uncommon is made probable by Eze 14:1; Eze 20:1. This would furnish a basis for the institution of the synagogue. After the exile the synagogue remained and even developed as a counterpoise to the absolute sacerdotalism of the temple, and must have been felt absolutely necessary for the Jews of the Dispersion. Though at first it was meant only for the exposition of the Law, it was natural that in the course of time prayers and preaching should be added to the service. Thus these meetings, which at first were only held on Sabbaths and feast days, came also to be held on other days, and at the same hours with the services in the temple. The essential aim, however, of the synagogue was not prayer, but instruction in the Law for all classes of the people. Philo calls the synagogues houses of instruction, where the philosophy of the fathers and all manner of virtues were taught (compare Mat 4:23; Mar 1:21; Mar 6:2; Luk 4:15, Luk 4:33; Luk 6:6; Luk 13:10; Joh 6:59; Joh 18:20; CAp, ii, 17).

3. Spread of Synagogues:

In Palestine the synagogues were scattered all over the country, all the larger towns having one or more (e.g. Nazareth, Mat 13:54; Capernaum, Mat 12:9). In Jerusalem, in spite of the fact that the Temple was there, there were many synagogues, and all parts of the Diaspora were represented by particular synagogues (Act 6:9). Also in heathen lands, wherever there was a certain number of Jews, they had their own synagogue: e.g. Damascus (Act 9:2), Salamis (Act 13:5), Antioch of Pisidia (Act 13:14), Thessalonica (Act 17:1), Corinth (Act 18:4), Alexandria (Philo, Leg Ad Cai, xx), Rome (ibid., xxiii). The papyrus finds of recent years contain many references to Jewish synagogues in Egypt, from the time of Euergetes (247-221 BC) onward. According to Philo (Quod omnis probus liber sit, xii, et al.) the Essenes had their own synagogues, and, from Abhoth 3 10, it seems that the people of the land, i.e. the masses, especially in the country, who were far removed from the influence of the scribes, and were even opposed to their narrow interpretation of the Law had their own synagogues.

4. The Building:

(1) The Site.

There is no evidence that in Palestine the synagogues were always required to be built upon high ground, or at least that they should overlook all other houses (compare PEFS, July, 1878, 126), though we read in the Talmud that this was one of the requirements (Tos Meghillah, edition Zunz, 4:227; Shabbath 11a). From Act 16:13 it does not follow that synagogues were intentionally built outside the city, and near water for the sake of ceremonial washing (compare Monatsschr. fur Gesch. und Wissensch. des Judenthums, 1889, 167-70; HJP II, 370).

(2) The Structure.

Of the style of the architecture we have no positive records. From the description in the Talmud of the synagogue at Alexandria (Tos Sukkah, edition Zunz, 198 20; Sukkah 51b one imagrees the synagogues to have been modeled on the pattern of the temple or of the temple court. From the excavations in Palestine we find that in the building the stone of the country was used. On the lintels of the doors were different forms of ornamentation, e.g. seven-branched candlesticks, an open flower between two paschal lambs, or vine leaves with bunches of grapes, or, as in Capernaum, a pot of manna between two representations of Aaron’s rod. The inside plan is generally that of two double colonnades, which seem to have formed the body of the synagogue, the aisles East and West being probably used as passages. The intercolumnar distance is very small, never greater than 9 1/2 ft. (Edersheim). Because of a certain adaptation of the corner columns at the northern end, Edersheim supposes that a woman’s gallery was once erected there. It does not appear, however, from the Old Testament or New Testament or the oldest Jewish tradition that there was any special gallery for women. It should be noted, as against this conclusion, that in De Vita Contemplativa, attributed by some to Philo, a certain passage (sec. iii) seems to imply the existence of such a gallery.

(3) The Furniture.

We only know that there was a movable ark in which the rolls of the Law and the Prophets were kept. It was called ‘aron ha-kodhesh, but chiefly tebhah (Meghillah 3 1; Nedharim 5 5; Taanth 2 1, 2), and it stood facing the entrance. According to Taanth 15a it was taken out and carried in a procession on fast days. In front of the ark, and facing the congregation, were the chief seats (see CHIEF SEATS) for the rulers of the synagogue and the learned men (Mat 23:6). From Neh 8:4 and Neh 9:4 it appears that the bemah (Jerusalem Meghillah 3 1), a platform from which the Law was read, although it is not mentioned in the New Testament, was of ancient date, and in use in the time of Christ.

5. The Officials:

(1) The Elders.

These officials (Luk 7:3) formed the local tribunal, and in purely Jewish localities acted as a Committee of Management of the affairs of the synagogue (compare Berakhoth 4 7; Nedharim 5 5; Meghillah 3 1). To them belonged, most probably, among other things, the power to excommunicate (compare Ezr 10:8; Luk 6:22; Joh 9:22; Joh 12:42; Joh 16:2; Edhuyoth 5 6; Taanth 3 8; Middoth 2 2).

(2) The Ruler.

Greek archisunagogos (Mar 5:35; Luk 8:41, Luk 8:49; Luk 13:14; Act 18:8, Act 18:17), Hebrew ro’sh ha-keneseth (Sotah 7 7, 8). In some synagogues there were several rulers (Mar 5:22; Act 13:15). They were most probably chosen from among the elders. It was the ruler’s business to control the synagogue services, as for instance to decide who was to be called upon to read from the Law and the Prophets (Yoma’ 7 1) and to preach (Act 13:15; compare Luk 13:14); he had to look after the discussions, and generally to keep order.

(3) The Servant (or Servants).

Greek huperetes; Talmud hazzan (Luk 4:20; Yoma 7 1; Sotah 7 7, 8). He had to see to the lighting of the synagogue and to keep the building clean. He it was who wielded the scourge when punishment had to be meted out to anyone in the synagogue (Mat 10:17; Mat 23:34; Mar 13:9; Act 22:19; compare Makkoth 16). From Shabbath 1 3 it seems that the hazzan was also an elementary teacher. See EDUCATION.

(4) Delegate of the Congregation.

Hebrew shelah cibbur (Ro’sh ha-shanah 4 9; Berakhoth 5 5). This office was not permanent, but one was chosen at each meeting by the ruler to fill it, and he conducted the prayers. According to Meghillah 4 5, he who was asked to read the Scriptures was also expected to read the prayers. He had to be a man of good character.

(5) The Interpreter.

Hebrew methorgeman. It was his duty to translate into Aramaic the passages of the Law and the Prophets which were read in Hebrew (Meghillah 3 3; compare 1Co 14:28). This also was probably not a permanent office, but was filled at each meeting by one chosen by the ruler.

(6) The Almoners.

(Dema’ 3 1; Kiddushn 4 5). Alms for the poor were collected in the synagogue (compare Mat 6:2). According to Pe’ah 8 7, the collecting was to be done by at least two persons, and the distributing by at least three.

6. The Service:

(1) Recitation of the Shema’.

At least ten persons bad to be present for regular worship (Meghillah 4 3; Sanhedhrn 1 6). There were special services on Saturdays and feast days. In order to keep the synagogue services uniform with those of the temple, both were held at the same hours. The order of service was as follows: the recitation of the shema, i.e. a confession of God’s unity, consisting of the passages Deu 6:4-9; Deu 11:13-21;. Num 15:37-41 (Berakhoth 2 2; Tamdh 5 1). Before and after the recitation of these passages blessings were said in connection with the passages (Berakhoth 1 4). This formed a very important part of the liturgy. It was believed to have been ordered by Moses (compare Ant., IV, viii, 13).

(2) Prayers.

The most important prayers were the Shemoneh esreh, Eighteen Eulogies, a cycle of eighteen prayers, also called The Prayer (Berakhoth 4 3; Taanth 2 2). Like the shema they are very old.

The following is the first of the eighteen: Blessed art Thou, the Lord our God, and the God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: the great, the mighty and the terrible God, the most high God Who showest mercy and kindness, Who createst all things, Who rememberest the pious deeds of the patriarchs, and wilt in love bring a redeemer to their children’s children for Thy Name’s sake; O King, Helper, Saviour and Shield! Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the Shield of Abraham.

The prayers of the delegate were met with a response of Amen from the congregation.

(3) Reading of the Law and the Prophets.

After prayers the parashah, i.e. the pericope from the Law for that Sabbath, was read, and the interpreter translated verse by verse into Aramaic (Meghillah 3 3). The whole Pentateuch was divided into 154 pericopes, so that in the course of 3 years it was read through in order. After the reading of the Law came the Haphtarah, the pericope from the Prophets for that Sabbath, which the interpreter did not necessarily translate verse by verse, but in paragraphs of 3 verses (Meghillah, loc. cit.).

(4) The Sermon.

After the reading from the Law and the Prophets followed the sermon, which was originally a caustical exposition of the Law, but which in process of time assumed a more devotional character. Anyone in the congregation might be asked by the ruler to preach, or might ask the ruler for permission to preach.

The following example of an old (lst century AD) rabbinic sermon, based on the words, He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation (Isa 61:10, a verse in the chapter from which Jesus took His text when addressing the synagogue of Nazareth), will serve as an illustration of contemporary Jewish preaching:

Seven garments the Holy One – blessed be He! – has put on, and will put on from the time the world was created until the hour when He will punish the wicked Edom (i.e. Roman empire). When He created the world, He clothed Himself in honor and majesty, as it is said (Psa 104:1): ‘Thou art clothed in honor and majesty.’ Whenever He forgave the sins of Israel, He clothed Himself in white, for we read (Dan 7:9): ‘His raiment was white as snow.’ When He punishes the peoples of the world, He puts on the garments of vengeance, as it is said (Isa 59:17): ‘He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.’ The sixth garment He will put on when the Messiah comes; then He will clothe Himself in a garment of righteousness, for it is said (same place) : ‘He put on righteousness as a breast-plate, and an helmet of salvation upon His head.’ The seventh garment He will put on when He punishes Edom; then He will clothe Himself in ‘adhom, i.e. ‘red,’ for it is said (Isa 63:2): ‘Wherefore art Thou red in Thine apparel?’ But the garment which He will put upon the Messiah, this will shine afar, from one end of the earth to the other, for it is said (Isa 61:10): ‘As a bridegroom decketh himself with a garland.’ And the Israelites will partake of His light, and will say:

‘Blessed is the hour when the Messiah shall come!

Blessed the womb out of which He shall come!

Blessed His contemporaries who are eye-witnesses!

Blessed the eye that is honored with a sight of Him!

For the opening of His lips is blessing and peace;

His speech is a moving of the spirits;

The thoughts of His heart are confidence and cheerful-ness;

The speech of His tongue is pardon and forgiveness;

His prayer is the sweet incense of offerings;

His petitions are holiness and purity.

O how blessed is Israel, for whom such has been prepared!

For it is said (Psa 31:19): How great is Thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee ‘

(Pesikta’, edition Buber).

(5) The Benediction.

After the sermon the benediction was pronounced (by a priest), and the congregation answered Amen (Berakhoth 5 4; Sotah 7 2, 3).

Literature.

L. Zunz, Die gottesdienstlichen Vortrage der Juden, 2nd edition; Herzfeld, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, III, 129-37, 183-226; Hausrath, Neutestamentliche Zeitgesch., 2d edition, 73-80; HJP, II, 357-86; GJV4, II; 497-544; Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, 5th edition, I, 431-50; Oesterly and Box, The Religion and Worship of the Synagogue, Church and Synagogue, IX, number 2, April, 1907, p. 46; W. Bacher, article Synagogue in HDB; Strack, article Synagogen, in RE, 3rd edition, XIX.

Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Synagogue

Synagogue, a Jewish place of worship. The Greek, from which the word is immediately derived, denotes ‘an assembly;’ but afterwards, by a natural deflection of meaning, came to designate the building in which such assembly met.

The precise age of the introduction of synagogues among the Israelites, it does not appear easy to determine. In all probability, however, they had their origin about the period of the exile; and there were then peculiar circumstances which called for their establishment. Deprived of the solemnities of their national worship, yet still retaining their religious convictions, and keenly feeling the loss they had endured, earnestly, too, longing and praying for a restoration of their forfeited privileges, the captive Israelites could not help meeting together for the purposes of mutual sympathy, counsel, and aid, or of prayer and other devout exercises. But prayer makes every spot holy ground. Some degree of secrecy, too, may have been needful in the midst of scoffing and scornful enemies. Thus houses of prayer would arise; and the peculiar form of the synagogue worshipnamely, devotion apart from external oblationswould come into being.

The authority of the Talmudists (such as it is) would go to show that a synagogue existed wherever there were ten families. What, however, is certain is, that in the times of Jesus Christ synagogues were found in all the chief cities and lesser towns of Palestine. From Act 6:9, it appears that every separate tribe and colony had a synagogue in Jerusalem. Synagogues were built sometimes on the outside of cities, but more frequently within, and preferably on elevated spots. At a later period they were fixed near burial-places. A peculiar sanctity was attached to these spots, even after the building had fallen to ruin. In the Synagogue pious Israelites assembled every Sabbath and festival day, the women sitting apart from the men; and at a later period, on every second and fifth day of each week, for the purposes of common prayer, and to hear portions of the sacred books read; which was performed sometimes by anyone of the company (Luk 2:16), or, according to Philo, by anyone of the priests or elders, who expounded each particular as he proceeded. The writings thus read aloud and expounded were the Law, the Prophets, and other Old Testament books (Act 13:15; Act 15:21).

The expositor was not always the same person as the reader. A memorable instance in which the reader and the expositor was the same person, and yet one distinct from the stated functionary, may be found in Luk 4:16, sq., in which our Lord read and applied to himself the beautiful passage found in the prophecy of Isaiah (Isa 61:4).

After the reading and exposition were concluded, a blessing was pronounced, commonly by a priest. The people gave a response by uttering the word Amen; when the assembly broke up (1Co 14:16).

At the head of the officers stood the ‘ruler of the synagogue.’ who had the chief direction of all the affairs connected with the purposes for which the synagogue existed (Luk 8:49; Luk 13:14; Mar 5:35, seq.; Act 18:8). Next in rank were the elders (Luk 7:3), called also ‘heads of the synagogue’ (Mar 5:22; Act 13:15), as well as ‘shepherds’ and ‘presidents,’ who formed a sort of college or governing body under the presidency of the chief ruler. There was in the third place ‘the angel of the church,’ who in the synagogue meetings acted commonly as the speaker, or as the Protestant minister, conducting the worship of the congregation, as well as performed on other occasions the duties of secretary and messenger. Then came, fourthly, ‘the minister’ (Luk 4:20), the attendant who handed the books to the reader, was responsible for the cleanliness of the room, and for its order and decency, and opened and closed the synagogue, of which he had the general care. In addition, there probably were almoners or deacons (Mat 6:2), who collected, held, and distributed the alms of the charitable.

In regard to the furniture of the synagogue, seats merely are mentioned in the New Testament (Mat 23:6; Jam 2:3). The ‘chief seats,’ or rather ‘front seats,’ were occupied by the Scribes and Pharisees. The outfit may have been more simple in the days of Christ; still there was probably then, as well as at a later period, a sort of pulpit, and a desk or shelf, for holding the sacred books. Some sort of summary judicature seems to have been held in the synagogues, and punishments of flogging and beating inflicted on the spot (Mat 10:17; Mat 23:34; Mar 13:9; Luk 12:11; Luk 21:12; Act 22:19; Act 26:11; 1Co 11:22). The causes of which cognizance was here taken were perhaps exclusively of a religious kind. It certainly appears from the New Testament that heresy and apostasy were punished before these tribunals by the application of stripes.

Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature

Synagogue

This word occurs but once in the A.V. of the Old Testament, Psa 74:8, but the same Hebrew word (moed ) is many times translated ‘congregation.’ Mr. Darby, and the R.V. margin translate in Psa 74:8 “places of assembly.” The word occurs very often in the LXX, but as a translation of some twenty different Hebrew words: ‘congregation’ or ‘gathering’ is the main thought. As far as is known there were no buildings called synagogues in Old Testament times. It has been judged that they arose after the captivity, and may perhaps have been occasioned by a desire to perpetuate the work begun by the people calling upon Ezra to read to them the book of the law, when those who heard were deeply affected. Neh. 8, Neh. 9.

In the exploration of Palestine remains of buildings have been discovered, which are judged to have been synagogues. They are uniform in plan, and differ from the ruins of churches, temples, and mosques. In two of them an inscription in Hebrew was over the main entrance, one in connection with a seven-branched candlestick, and the other with figures of the paschal lamb. A plain rectangular building answered the purpose. They were often erected by general contributions, though at times by a rich Jew, or in some instances by a Gentile, as the one built by the centurion at Capernaum. Luk 7:5.

An ark was placed at one end, in which were deposited the sacred books. Near this was the place of honour, or the ‘chief seats,’ which some sought after, Mat 23:6, and Jam 2:2-3 (where the word translated ‘assembly’ is ‘synagogue’). Nearer the centre of the building was a raised platform with a kind of desk or pulpit, where the reader stood. A screen separated the women from the men.

It is known that a portion of the law and of the prophets was read every Sabbath, and it is clear from Act 13:15 that if any one was present who had a “word of exhortation for the people,” the opportunity was given for its delivery. Prayers also were doubtless offered, but how far these resembled the modern Jewish ritual is not known. The Lord spoke of the hypocrites who loved to pray standing in the synagogues, where they also ostentatiously offered their alms. Mat 6:2; Mat 6:5.

It was the custom of the Lord to visit the synagogues, and in them He wrought some of His miracles and taught the people. Mat 4:23. In Luke 4 the Lord, in the synagogue at Nazareth, stood up to read, and there was handed to Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. After reading a portion which set forth His own attitude among them (stopping in the middle of a sentence), He sat down and spake “gracious words” to them. His exposition of the passage is not given except “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” It is recorded that the people were in the habit of freely expressing their opinions respecting what was taught, and here they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” In Act 13:45 the Jews “spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.”

Paul also was permitted to speak in the synagogue at Damascus, when he showed the Jews that Jesus was the Son of God, Act 9:20; and often afterwards he ‘reasoned’ or ‘disputed’ () with the Jews in their synagogues. Act 18:4; Act 18:19; Act 19:8.

It is important to see that everywhere in their own buildings a clear testimony was borne by the Lord Himself as to the significance of His appearance among them; and afterwards by Paul and others to the work He had accomplished by His death and resurrection for them – reference being constantly made to the scriptures which they professed to reverence and to follow. The reality of the testimony was happily proved by the salvation of many, and which left those who refused it without excuse.

To be “put out of the synagogue” was the Jewish excommunication. The Lord told His disciples that this would be enforced towards them. Joh 9:22; Joh 16:2. The only case recorded is that of the man born blind, when he bore testimony to Christ. It was a happy exchange for him, for the Lord thereupon revealed Himself to him as the Son of God. Joh 9:34-38. Of others we read that many of the chief rulers believed on the Lord, but feared to confess Him lest they should be cast out, “for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” Joh 12:42-43.

It is evident from what Pilate said to the Jews in reference to the Lord – “Take ye him, and judge him according to your law” – that they were allowed to judge certain matters and to inflict limited punishments. Joh 18:31. This appears to have been carried out wherever there was a synagogue, though it is not clear who were the judges, probably the ‘elders’ mentioned in Luk 7:3. The Lord told His disciples that they would be scourged in the synagogues, Mat 10:17; and Paul confessed that when persecuting the church he had imprisoned and beaten in every synagogue those that believed on the Lord. Act 22:19. Paul himself doubtless suffered the like punishment in the same buildings. 2Co 11:24. Thus a very undignified use was made of their places of worship.

The officials connected with the synagogues were

1. the zaqenim, , the elders. Luke 7. These were presided over by

2. an , ruler of the synagogue. Mar 5:22; Mar 5:35-36; Mar 5:38; Luk 8:49; Luk 13:14; Act 13:15; Act 18:8; Act 18:17. In the last two passages the A.V. has ‘chief ruler,’ but the Greek is the same.

3. the sheliach, a delegate of the congregation, who acted as chief reader: he is not mentioned in the New Testament.

4. the chazzan, , translated in the A.V. ‘servant, minister, officer,’ only once mentioned in connection with the synagogue as the ‘attendant’ to whom the Lord gave the book when He had done reading. Luk 4:20.

5. the batlanim, described as ‘leisure men,’ who attended meetings regularly. There were at least ten of these attached to each synagogue, so as to form a quorum, ten being the lowest number to form a congregation.

SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN. Some who professed, like Jews, to have a claim to be considered the people of God on the ground of hereditary right. These are declared to be liars, for they really form a congregation of Satan, doing his work in seducing the saints from their heavenly character. Rev 2:9; Rev 3:9. In both cases they may be Jews actually, though disowned of God.

Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary

Synagogue

1. Primarily an assembly:

– General references

Act 13:43; Jas 2:2

– Constitutes a court of justice

Luk 12:11; Act 9:2

– Had powers of criminal courts

Mat 10:17; Mat 23:34; Act 22:19; Act 26:11

– Of ecclesiastical courts

Joh 9:22; Joh 9:34; Joh 12:42; Joh 16:2

2. Place of assembly:

– Scriptures read and expounded in

Neh 8:1-8; Neh 9:3; Neh 9:5; Mat 4:23; Mat 9:35; Mat 13:54; Mar 1:39; Luk 4:15-33; Luk 13:10; Joh 18:20; Act 9:20; Act 13:5-44; Act 14:1; Act 15:21; Act 17:2; Act 17:10; Act 18:4; Act 18:19; Act 18:26

– In Jerusalem

Act 6:9

– In Damascus

Act 9:2; Act 9:20

– In other cities

Act 14:1; Act 17:1; Act 17:10; Act 18:4

– Built by Jairus

Luk 7:5

– Jesus performed healing in

Mat 12:9-13; Luk 13:11-14

– Alms given in

Mat 6:2

– Of Satan

Rev 2:9; Rev 3:9 Church (1)

Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible

Synagogue

Synagogue. A place of public worship for Jews. Greek term means a congregation. Synagogues were instituted after the exile by Ezra and Nehemiah. See Act 15:21 : “For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.” In the later periods of Jewish history synagogues were not only found in all the chief cities and lesser towns in Syria, but in the principal cities of the Roman empire. Mar 1:21; Act 6:9; Act 9:2-20; Luk 7:5. The establishment of these synagogues providentially prepared the way for the preaching of the gospel. As any one who happened to be present was at liberty to read and expound the sacred books, Act 13:14-15; Act 15:21, this privilege afforded our Lord and his disciples many opportunities for preaching the gospel of the kingdom in the various synagogues. Isa 61:4; Luk 4:16; Luk 4:28; Mat 13:54; Mar 6:2; Joh 18:20; Act 13:5-44; Act 14:1; Act 17:2; Act 17:17; Act 18:4; Act 18:26; Act 19:8. The “ruler of the synagogue” granted permission to read or speak. Luk 8:49; Luk 13:14; Mar 5:35; Act 18:8. The “minister,” answering nearly to the modern sexton of the synagogue, was the attendant who handed the books to the reader, and opened and closed the synagogue. Luk 4:20. The “elders” of the synagogue preserved order in the assembly, Luk 7:3; Mar 5:22; Act 13:15, and appear also to have constituted the lowest tribunal, which took cognizance mainly of religious matters, and sometimes inflicted the punishment. Mat 10:17; Mat 23:34; Mar 13:9; Luk 12:11; Luk 21:12; Joh 16:2; Act 22:19; Act 26:11. Ruins of synagogues, in several places in Palestine, have been found.

Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible

Synagogue

Synagogue. History. — The word synagogue (sunagoge), which means a “congregation”, is used, in the New Testament, to signify a recognized place of worship. A knowledge of the history and worship of the synagogues is of great importance, since, they are the characteristic institution of the later phase of Judaism. They appear to have arisen during the exile, in the abeyance of the Temple-worship, and to have received their full development, on the return of the Jews from captivity. The whole history of Ezra presupposes the habit of solemn, probably of periodic, meetings. Ezr 8:15; Neh 8:2; Neh 9:1; Zec 7:5.

After the Maccabaean struggle for independence, we find almost every town or village had its one or more synagogues. Where the Jews were not in sufficient numbers to be able to erect and fill a building, there was the proseucha (proseuche), or place of prayer, sometimes open, sometimes covered in, commonly by a running stream, or on the seashore, in which devout Jews and proselytes met to worship, and perhaps to read. Act 16:13 Juven. Sat. Iii. 296. It is hardly possible to overestimate the influence of the system thus developed. To it, we may ascribe the tenacity with which, after the Maccabaean struggle, the Jews adhered to the religion of their fathers, and never again relapsed into idolatry.

Structure. — The size of a synagogue varied with the population. Its position was, however, determinate. It stood, if possible, on the highest ground, in or near the city to which it belonged. And its direction too was fixed. Jerusalem was the Kibleh of Jewish devotion. The synagogue was so constructed that the worshippers, as they entered and as they prayed, looked toward it. The building was commonly erected at the cost of the district. Sometimes, it was built by a rich Jew, or even, as in Luk 7:5, by a friend or proselyte.

In the internal arrangement of the synagogue, we trace an obvious analogy to the type of the Tabernacle. At the upper or Jerusalem end stood the ark, the chest which, like the older and more sacred Ark, contained the Book of the Law. It gave to that end, the name and character of a sanctuary. This part of the synagogue was naturally the place of honor. Here were the “chief seats,” for which Pharisees and scribes strove so eagerly, Mat 23:6, and to which the wealthy and honored worshipper was invited. Jam 2:2-3.

Here too, in front of the ark, still reproducing the type of the Tabernacle, was the eight-branched lamp, lighted only on the greater festivals. Besides this, there was one lamp kept burning perpetually. More toward the middle of the building was a raised platform, on which several persons could stand at once, and in the middle of this, rose a pulpit, in which the reader stood to read the lesson, or sat down to teach.

The congregation were divided, men on one side, women on the other, with a low partition, five or six feet high, running between them. The arrangements of modern synagogues, for many centuries, have made the separation more complete by placing the women in low side galleries, screened off a lattice-work.

Officers. — In smaller towns, there was often, but one rabbi. Where a fuller organization was possible, there was a college of elders, Luk 7:3, presided over by one, who was “the chief of the synagogue.” Luk 8:41; Luk 8:49; Luk 13:14; Act 18:8; Act 18:17. The most prominent functionary, in a large synagogue, was known as the sheliach, (legatus).

The officiating minister, who acted as the delegate of the congregation, and was, therefore, the chief reader of prayers, etc., in their name. The chazzan, or “minister” of the synagogue, Luk 4:20, had duties of a lower kind, resembling those of the Christian deacon, or sub-deacon. He was to open the doors, and to prepare the building for service. Besides these, there were ten men attached to every synagogue, known as the ballanim, (otiosi). They were supposed to be men of leisure, not obliged to labor for their livelihood, able, therefore, to attend the week-day as well as the Sabbath services. The legatus of the synagogues appears in the angel, Rev 1:20; Rev 2:1, perhaps, also in the apostle of the Christian Church.

Worship. — It will be enough, in this place, to notice in what way, the ritual, no less than the organization, was connected with the facts of the New Testament history, and with the life and order of the Christian Church. From the synagogue, came the use of fixed forms of prayer. To that, the first disciples had been accustomed from their youth. They had asked their Master to give them a distinctive one, and he had complied with their request, Luk 11:1, as the Baptist had done before for his disciples, as every rabbi did for his.

“Moses” was “read in the synagogues every Sabbath day,” Act 15:21, the whole law being read consecutively, so as to be completed, according to one cycle, in three years. The writings of the prophets were read, as second lessons, in a corresponding order. They were followed by the derash, Act 13:15, the exposition, the sermon of the synagogue.

The conformity extends, also, to the times of prayer. In the hours of service, this was obviously the case. The third, sixth and ninth hours were in the times of the New Testament, Act 3:1; Act 10:3; Act 10:9 , and had been, probably, for some time before, Psa 55:17; Dan 6:10, the fixed times of devotion. The same hours, it is well known, were recognized in the Church, of the second century, probably, in that of the first also.

The solemn days of the synagogue were the second, the fifth and the seventh, the last, or Sabbath, being the conclusion of the whole. The transfer of the sanctity of the Sabbath to the Lord’s Day involved a corresponding change in the order of the week, and the first, the fourth, the sixth, became to the Christian society what the other days had been to the Jewish.

From the synagogue, lastly, come many less conspicuous practices, which meet us in the liturgical life of the first three centuries: Ablution, entire or partial, before entering the place of meeting, Joh 13:1-15; Heb 10:22; standing, and not kneeling, as the attitude of prayer, Luk 18:11; the arms stretched out; the face turned toward the Kibleh of the east; the responsive, amen, of the congregation to the prayers and benedictions of the elders. 1Co 14:16.

Judicial functions. — The language of the New Testament shows that the officers of the synagogue exercised, in certain cases, a judicial power. If is not quite so easy, however, to define the nature of the tribunal, and the precise limits of its jurisdiction. In two of the passages referred to — Mat 10:17; Mar 13:9 — they are carefully distinguished from the councils. It seems probable that the council was the larger tribunal of twenty-three, which sat in every city, and that, under the term, synagogue, we are to understand a smaller court, probably that of the ten judges, mentioned in the Talmud.

Here also, we trace the outline of a Christian institution. The Church, either by itself, or by appointed delegates, was to act as a court of arbitration, in all disputes its members. The elders of the church were not, however , to descend to the trivial disputes of daily life. For the elders, as for those of the synagogue, were reserved the graver offences, against religion and morals.

Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary

Synagogue

properly “a bringing together” (sun, “together,” ago, “to bring”), denoted (a) “a gathering of things, a collection,” then, of “persons, an assembling, of Jewish religious gatherings,” e.g., Act 9:2; an assembly of Christian Jews, Jam 2:2, RV, “synagogue” (AV, marg.; text, “assembly”); a company dominated by the power and activity of Satan, Rev 2:9; Rev 3:9; (b) by metonymy, “the building” in which the gathering is held, e.g. Mat 6:2; Mar 1:21. The origin of the Jewish “synagogue” is probably to be assigned to the time of the Babylonian exile. Having no temple, the Jews assembled on the Sabbath to hear the Law read, and the practice continued in various buildings after the return. Cp. Psa 74:8.

Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words

Synagogue

, an assembly, Rev 2:9; Rev 3:9. The word often occurs in the Gospels and in the Acts, because Jesus Christ and his Apostles generally went to preach in those places. Although the sacrifices could not be offered, except in the tabernacle or the temple, the other exercises of religion were restricted to no particular place. Accordingly we find that the praises of God were sung, at a very ancient period, in the schools of the prophets; and those who felt any particular interest in religion, were assembled by the seers on the Sabbath, and the new moons, for prayers and religious instruction, 1Sa 10:5-11; 1Sa 19:18-24; 2Ki 4:23. During the Babylonish captivity, the Jews, who were then deprived of their customary religious privileges, were wont to collect around some prophet or other pious man, who taught them and their children in religion, exhorted to good conduct, and read out of the sacred books, Eze 14:1; Eze 20:1; Dan 6:11; Neh 8:18. These assemblies, or meetings, became, in progress of time, fixed to certain places, and a regular order was observed in them. Such appears to have been the origin of synagogues. In speaking of synagogues, it is worthy to be noticed, that there is nothing said in respect to the existence of such buildings in Palestine, during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. They are, therefore, by some supposed to have been first erected under the Maccabean princes, but that, in foreign countries, they were much more ancient. Whether this statement be correct or not, it is nevertheless certain, that in the time of the Apostles, there were synagogues wherever there were Jews. They were built, in imitation of the temple of Jerusalem, with a court and porches, as is the case with the synagogues in the east at the present day. In the centre of the court is a chapel, supported by four columns, in which, on an elevation prepared for it, is placed the book of the law, rolled up. This, on the appointed days, is publicly read. In addition to the chapel, there is erected within the court a large covered hall or vestry, into which the people retire, when the weather happens to be cold and stormy, and each family has its particular seat. The uppermost seats in the synagogue, that is, those which were nearest the chapel where the sacred books were kept, were esteemed peculiarly honourable, Mat 23:6; Jam 2:3. The proseuchae, , are understood by some to be smaller synagogues, but by others are supposed to be particular places under the open sky, where the Jews assembled for religious exercise. But Josephus calls the proseucha of Tiberias a large house, which held very many persons. See Proseuchae. The Apostles preached the Gospel in synagogues and proseuchae, and with their adherents performed in them all the religious services. When excluded, they imitated the Jews in those places, where they were too poor to erect these buildings, and held their religious meetings in the houses of individuals. Hence we not only hear of synagogues in houses in the Talmud, but of churches in houses in the New Testament, Rom 16:5; 1Co 16:19; Col 4:15; Philippians 2; Acts 3:46; Act 5:42. The Apostles sometimes hired a house, in which they performed religious services, and taught daily, Act 19:9; Act 20:8. means literally a convention or assembly, but by metonymy, was eventually used for the place of assembling; in the same way that , which means literally a calling together, or convocation, signifies also at the present time the place of convocation. Synagogues were sometimes called by the Jews schools; but they were careful to make an accurate distinction between such, and the schools, properly so called, the , or sublimer schools, in which the Talmud was read, while the law merely was read in the synagogues, which they placed far behind the Talmud.

The mode of conducting religious instruction and worship in the primitive Christian churches, was derived for the most part from the practice which anciently prevailed in synagogues. But there were no regular teachers in the synagogues, who were officially qualified to pronounce discourses before the people; although there were interpreters who rendered into the vernacular tongue, namely, the Hebraeo-aramean, the sections, which had been publicly read in the Hebrew.

The synagogue preacher, , whose business it is, in consequence of his office, to address the people, is an official personage that has been introduced in later times; at least we find no mention of such a one in the New Testament. On the contrary, in the time of Christ, the person who read the section for the Sabbath, or any other person who was respectable for learning and had a readiness of speech, addressed the people, Luk 4:16-21; Act 13:5; Act 13:15; Act 15:21; Mat 4:23.

The other persons who were employed in the services and government of the synagogue, in addition to the one who read the Scriptures, and the person who rendered them into the vernacular tongue, were as follows:

1. The ruler of the synagogue, , , who presided over the assembly, and invited readers and speakers, unless some persons who were acceptable voluntarily offered themselves, Mar 5:22; Mar 5:35-38; Luk 8:41; Luk 13:14-15; Act 13:15.

2. The elders of the synagogue, , . They appear to have been the counsellors of the head or ruler of the synagogue, and were chosen from among the most powerful and learned of the people, and are hence called , Act 13:15. The council of elders not only took a part in the management of the internal concerns of the synagogue, but also punished transgressors of the public laws, either by turning them out of the synagogue, or decreeing the punishment of thirty- nine stripes, Joh 12:42; Joh 16:2; 2Co 11:24.

3. The collectors of alms, , , deacons. Although every thing which is said of them by the Jews was not true concerning them in the time of the Apostles, there can be no doubt that there were such officers in the synagogues at that time, Acts 6.

4. The servants of the synagogue, , , Luk 4:20; whose business it was to reach the book of the law to the person who was to read it, and to receive it back again, and to perform other services. The ceremonies which prevail in the synagogues at the present day in presenting the law were not observed in the time of our Saviour.

5. The messenger or legate of the synagogue, . This was a person who was sent from synagogues abroad, to carry alms to Jerusalem. The name, messenger of the synagogue, was applied likewise to any person, who was commissioned by a synagogue, and sent forth to propagate religious knowledge. A person likewise was denominated the messenger, or angel, , , &c, who was selected by the assembly to recite for them the prayers; the same that is called by the Jews of modern times the synagogue singer, or cantilator, Rev 2:1; Rev 2:8; Rev 2:12; Rev 2:18; Rev 3:1; Rev 3:7; Rev 3:14.

The Jews anciently called those persons who, from their superior erudition, were capable of teaching in the synagogue, , shepherds, or pastors. They applied the same term, at least in more recent times, to the elders of the synagogue, and also to the collectors of alms, or deacons. The ground of the application of this term in such a way, is as follows: the word is, without doubt, derived from the Greek word , bread, or a fragment of bread; and, as it is used in the Targums, it corresponds to the Hebrew verb , to feed. It is easy to see, therefore, how the word might be applied to persons who sustained offices in the synagogue, in the same way as is applied to kings, &c.

We do not find mention made of public worship in the synagogues, except on the Sabbath, Mat 12:9; Mar 1:21; Mar 3:1; Mar 6:2; Luk 4:16; Luk 4:32-33; Luk 6:6; Luk 13:10; Act 13:14; Act 15:21; Act 16:13-25; Act 17:2; Act 18:4. What is said of St. Paul’s hiring the school of one Tyrannus at Ephesus, and teaching in it daily, is a peculiar instance, Act 19:9-10. Yet there can be no doubt that those Jews who were unable to go to Jerusalem attended worship on their festival days, as well as on the Sabbath, in their own synagogues. Individuals sometimes offered their private prayers in the synagogue. When an assembly was collected together for worship, the services began, after the customary greeting, with a doxology. A section was then read from the Mosaic law. Then followed, after the singing of a second doxology, the reading of a portion from the prophets, Act 15:31; Luk 4:16. The person whose duty it was to perform the reading, placed upon his head, as is done at the present day, a covering called tallith, to which St. Paul alludes, 2Co 3:15. The sections which had been read in the Hebrew were rendered by an interpreter into the vernacular tongue, and the reader or some other man then addressed the people, Luk 4:16; Act 13:15. It was on such occasions as these, that Jesus, and afterward the Apostles, taught the Gospel. The meeting, as far as the religious exercises were concerned, was ended with a prayer, to which the people responded Amen, when a collection was taken for the poor.

The customs which prevail at the present day, and which Vitringa has treated of, were not all of them practised in ancient times. The readers, for instance, were not then, as they are at the present day, called upon to perform, but presented themselves voluntarily, Luk 4:16; the persons also who addressed the people were not rabbins expressly appointed for that purpose, but were either invited from those present, or offered themselves, Act 13:15; Luk 4:17. The parts to be publicly read, likewise, do not appear to have been previously pointed out, although the book was selected by the ruler of the synagogue, Luk 4:16. Furthermore, the forms of prayer that are used by the Jews at the present time do not appear to have been in existence in the time of Christ; unless this may perhaps have been the case in respect to the substance of some of them, especially the one called , concerning which the Talmudists, at a very early period, gave many precepts.

It was by ministering in synagogues that the Apostles gathered the churches. They retained also essentially the same mode of worship with that of the synagogues, excepting that the Lord’s Supper was made an additional institution, agreeably to the example of Christ, Act 2:42; Act 20:7-11; 1Co 11:16-34. They were at length excluded from the synagogue and assembled at evening in the house of some Christian, which was lighted for the purpose with lamps, Act 20:7-11. The Apostle, with the elders, when engaged in public worship, took a position where they would be most likely to be heard by all. The first service was merely a salutation or blessing, namely, The Lord be with you, or, Peace be with you. Then followed the doxologies and prelexions, the same as in the synagogues. The Apostle then addressed the people on the subject of religion, and urged upon them that purity of life which it required. Prayer succeeded, which was followed by the commemoration of the Saviour’s death in the breaking and distribution of bread. The meeting was ended by taking a collection for the poor, especially those at Jerusalem, 2Co 9:1-15.

Those who held some office in the church were the regularly qualified instructers in these religious meetings; and yet laymen had liberty to address their brethren on these occasions the same as in the synagogues; also to sing hymns, and to pray; which, in truth, many of them did, especially those who were supernaturally gifted, not excepting the women.

Those females who were not under a supernatural influence were forbidden by the Apostle Paul to make an address on such occasions, or to propose questions; and it was enjoined on those who did speak, not to lay aside their veils, 1Co 11:5; 1Co 14:34-40. The reader and the speaker stood; the others sat; all arose in the time of prayer. Whatever was stated in a foreign tongue was immediately rendered by an interpreter into the speech in common use. This was so necessary, that Paul enjoined silence on a person who was even endowed with supernatural gifts, provided an interpreter was not at hand, 1Co 14:1-33. It was the practice among the Greek Christians to uncover their heads when attending divine service, 1Co 11:11-16; but in the east, the ancient custom of worshipping with the head covered was retained. Indeed, it is the practice among the oriental Christians to the present day, not to uncover their heads in their religious meetings, except when they receive the eucharist.

It is affirmed that in the city of Jerusalem alone there were no less than four hundred and sixty or four hundred and eighty synagogues. Every trading company had one of its own, and even strangers built some for those of their own nation. Hence we find synagogues of the Cyrenians, Alexandrians, Cilicians, and Asiatics, appointed for such as came up to Jerusalem from those countries, Act 6:9.

Fuente: Biblical and Theological Dictionary