v. Assembly, Temple
Psa 74:8 have burned all the s of God in the
Matt 4:23; Mat 13:54 teaching in their s
Mat 10:17 they will hand you over .. in their s they will flog you
Mat 12:9 passing from there, came to their s
Matt 23:6; Tue 12:39; Luke 11:43; 20:46
Synagogue (Heb. môêd, “meeting place” ; Gr. sunagí‡gue, “assembly place, “congregation”). Jewish place of worship presided over by a local commission of elders. It is believed that the synagogue arose during the Babylonian exile, when the temple in Jerusalem was in ruins. Tradition attributes its foundation to the prophet Ezekiel. Some time after the return from captivity they settled in the cities of Judea, in Alexandria. Syrian Antioch, Rome, and practically every major city in the Roman Empire (Acts 15:21). To found a synagogue, 16 male Jews were needed in order to constitute its commission of elders or “leaders”. In Palestine there was for both the native Jews and those of the diaspora, who had returned to the land of their ancestors. For this reason, in NT times there was a synagogue in Jerusalem called “of the freedmen” (6: 9), probably made up of Jews or their descendants who, at some point, were taken captive by the Romans and who had later been put in prison. freedom. Paul found Jewish synagogues not only in Corinth, Ephesus and Thessalonica, but in more distant places such as Salamis on the island of Cyprus, at Antioch in Pisidia, at Iconium and Berea in Greece (figs 111, 134, 470). The temple and its services were under the control of the priests; instead, the synagogue was run by Jewish laymen. No sacrifices were ever offered on it. In the beginning, the synagogue was mainly a place for the reading and exposition of the law, but over time a more complicated religious service developed, and later it also served as a school and court for the administration of justice in accordance with the law of Moses (Mar 13:9). In NT times there were many more Jews living outside of Palestine than in it, and the synagogue in each Jewish community served to preserve the religion, culture, and racial consciousness of the people. The affairs of the synagogue and the community it served were under the control of a commission of elders (Luk 7:3-5), whose head the RVR gives the title of “principal” (Mar 5:22; Luke 8:49; 13:14). His duties consisted of providing everything necessary for the religious services of the synagogue, appointing able men from among the congregation to pray, and to read and exhort. There was another lower-ranking official, who was given the name of jazzan, a kind of deacon, who was entrusted with more humble duties, such as moving the scrolls of the law and the prophets from their ark, putting them back in that place, and also to inflict corporal punishment on those sentenced to that penalty. 1102 Ruins of synagogues, some built in the first centuries of the Christian era, exist at various sites in Palestine, especially at Tell Hfm, generally identified with Capernaum (fig 111) and Chorazin (fig 134). The oldest synagogue inscription is that of Theodotus (fig 317), of which a translation appears in an article in this Dictionary under the heading “Freedmen.” An extremely interesting synagogue was discovered during the excavations at Dura Europos; it is from the 3rd century AD and is well preserved. Its interior walls were covered with color paintings of OT scenes (figs 2, 153, 203, 360). The remains of the building were moved, and it was rebuilt in the Damascus Museum. Some synagogues boasted intricate ornamentation with Israel’s national symbols: vine scrolls, bunches of grapes, the 7-branched candelabrum, a Passover lamb, the pot of manna, and many other objects and scenes from the OT Scriptures. In later times certain elements of pagan origin also found a place in its ornamentation. Its main room contained a reading table, a chair for the one in charge of exhortation, and a box or chest containing the scrolls of the law and the prophets. Generally, there were benches for the wealthier members of the congregation (Jam 2:2, 3); those closest to the reader were the “first seats” (Mat 23:6). The women sat elsewhere, probably on the verandah. Member attendance was required both on Saturdays and on holidays. Map XIII, C-5. 470. Inscription -“goga of the Hebrews”- found in Corinth. According to our concepts, the service was long. A typical meeting consisted of 5 parts, in the following order: 1. Recitation in unison of the shema, a confession of faith that was based primarily on passages such as Deu 6:4-9, 11:13-21 and Num 15:37 -41 Before and after the shema, a member of the congregation stood by the ark of the law to offer, on behalf of all, a sevenfold prayer, each part of which the congregation confirmed with an “Amen.” Between the 6th and 7th sections of the prayer, the priests who were present ascended to the platform of the ark, raised their hands and pronounced the Aaronic blessing in unison (Lev 9: 22; Num 6: 23-27). 2. The pârâshâh, or reading of the determined portion of the law for that Sabbath. Reverence required that the scroll containing the Law (the 5 books of Moses) be unrolled behind a veil, out of sight of members of the congregation to the text to be read. In NT times and later there was a regular cycle of 3 years, in which the Law was read in its entirety, so that there was a definite and predetermined part for each Sabbath, divided into 7 sections of at least 3 verses each. A different member of the congregation was asked to read each of these subsections, and it was considered a merit and a privilege to participate in the service. If someone made the slightest mistake he was immediately replaced by someone else. Another member translated each reading into Aramaic, the language of the common people, verse by verse, to avoid the possibility of the translation being confused with the true text of the Scriptures. 3. The haftârâh, or reading of the prophets. While the scroll of the Law was attached to 2 wooden cylinders, the scroll of the prophets, which was considered less sacred, consisted of a single cylinder and could be unrolled in full view of the congregation. There is no evidence that a heaven was established for the reading of the prophets at the time of Christ, although perhaps it was. It is possible that the synagogue ruler handed the scroll to the person chosen for the reading, who may have selected the passage that he would read (Luk 4:17). Later, a definite portion of the prophets was chosen to accompany each assigned part of the Law. with accompanying remarks and exhortations, it formed the final part of the main section of the service. 4. The derâshâh, or “investigation”, “study”, a sermon preached by the reader of the portion of the prophets, or some other member of the congregation. While those who read the Law and the prophets stood up, those who preached the sermon sat in a special seat, near the reading table, which was known as “the chair of Moses” (Matt 23:2). His observations were usually based on reading the prophets, but also on the Law. Visitors were usually honored by being invited to give the sermon. Paul often took advantage of this 1103 privilege to preach the gospel (see Acts 13:14-16; 14:1; 17:1, 2, 10, 11; 18:4; 19:8). 5. The blessing, pronounced by a priest, if one was present; otherwise, someone raised a final prayer. In some synagogues the singing of psalms was introduced into the service. Bib.: EL Sukenik, Ancient Synagogues in Palestine and Greece (London, 1934); Carl H. Kraeling et al., The Synagogue in “The Excavations of Dura-Europos”. Final Report VIII, Part I (New Haven, 1956).
Source: Evangelical Bible Dictionary
Greek synagoge, assembly; Hebrew bet-hakenesset, house of assembly. With this term is named, among the Jews, both the meeting building and the community gathered there, just as the term church is used among Christians. The synagogues are the houses for communal prayer, the reading and study of the Scriptures, the teaching of the Law and the meeting point of the community. Central and Eastern European Jews called synagogues, in Yiddish, shules, that is, schools; some Reform Jews call them temples.
There is no agreement about the place of origin and the time in which the synagogues emerged and there are different explanations. The religious life of the Jews revolved around the Temple, but the diaspora, the dispersion, surely gave rise to them, for example, in Alexandria there was a large Jewish colony, where the s. They could have originated after the deportation and during the captivity for long years in Babylon, where the Jews lacked the Temple, and gathered to worship God, pray, maintain their traditions, although they could not offer sacrifices; already for the Persian time, the scribes are mentioned, such as Esdras, who were able to develop the study of the sacred texts. In Palestine itself they have been able to be born, as a tradition of ancient sacred sites, which also served as a meeting place to discuss civil affairs. Synagogues may have existed parallel to the Temple, as secondary places for reading and studying the Scriptures, for prayer, as well as for the education of children and young people, without carrying out the rite of sacrifice; that is, they were not exclusive to the places where the Jews did not have access to the Temple, since there were several in Jerusalem itself, at the time of Jesus.
After the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in the year 70 of our era, the s. became more important, as well as by the increasing dispersion after this event.
As for the historical documents on the s. the oldest mention, so far, an Egyptian inscription from the 3rd century BC. C. In Palestine, a Greek inscription from the 1st century BC. C., in which you can read: “for the reading of the Law the teaching of the commandments”. On the other hand, the oldest synagogues found in Palestine, up to the present, are those of Masada and Herodion, from the first century of our era, before the destruction of the Temple.
Regarding the construction of the building, although there was no defined pattern, the synagogues have some common elements, such as the ark in which the five books of the Law, the Torah, are located on the wall facing Jerusalem. It is said in…