Encyclopedia of Religion

(Darren Dugan) #1

An approach that is more clearly supported by the avail-
able evidence suggests that the synagogue as a place for reli-
gious ritual was a development of the later Second Temple
period. This approach begins with the fact that institutions
known as “synagogues” are clearly evidenced in literary and
archaeological sources from the first century CE, and it cau-
tiously assumes a development that occurred before syna-
gogues were mentioned in literary texts without asserting a
specific moment when the first synagogue appeared. A long
prehistory is assumed by Acts of the Apostles 15:21, by Jose-
phus Flavius (Against Apion 2.175), and by the ancient rabbis
(e.g., t. Megillah 2:12), all of whom assert the existence of
synagogues in hoary biblical antiquity. The factors occasion-
ing the earliest development of the synagogue were shared
by other communities in the Greco-Roman world. The gen-
eral trend toward smaller religious communities that existed
side by side with the major cults of each city was adopted
by Jews in Palestine and in Diaspora settings. This phenome-
non may be evidenced in Egypt as early as the third century,
if the “prayer places” (proseuch ̄e) known from epigraphy were
in any way similar to “prayer places” known from the writ-
ings of the first-century Egyptian scholar Philo of Alexandria.
A Jewish “prayer place” from the second century BCE was dis-
covered on the Greek island of Delos. We have no idea what
kinds of “prayer” took place in these early “prayer places.”
By the first century (and undoubtedly much earlier) the in-
creasing significance of Scripture and its interpretation in
Second Temple–period Judaism set the liturgical frame for
these synagogues. This focus on Scripture and scriptural in-
terpretation is expressed early on in the public ceremony of
reading and interpreting the Pentateuch described in Nehe-
miah 8, a Persian-period text that exercised a profound influ-
ence upon later synagogue practice.


The best evidence for synagogues during the first centu-
ry is a monumental inscription found just south of the Tem-
ple Mount in Jerusalem by R. Weill in 1913–1914. This
Greek inscription translates:


Theodotos, son of Vettenos the priest and synagogue
leader (archisynagogos), son of a synagogue leader and
grandson of a synagogue leader, built the synagogue for
the reading of the Torah and studying of the command-
ments, and as a hostel with chambers and water installa-
tions to provide for the needs of itinerants from abroad,
which his fathers, the elders and Simonides founded.

The terminus ad quem for the inscription is the destruction
of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE. It provides evidence
of three generations of priestly synagogue leaders. The litur-
gical focal point for this, and for every other Second Tem-
ple–period text that has been recovered, is scriptural study.
This is clearly the element that distinguished synagogue lit-
urgy, both for Jews and non-Jews. Philo describes the Sab-
bath liturgy of an Essene “synagogue” in Palestine:


For that day has been set apart to be kept holy and on
it they abstain from all other work and proceed to sa-
cred places (hierous.. .topous) that they call synagogues

(sunagogai). There, arranged in rows according to their
ages, the younger below the elder, they sit decorously
as befits the occasion with attentive ears. Then one
takes the books (biblous) and reads aloud and another
of especial proficiency comes forward and expounds
what is not understood....
Luke 4:16–30 and the Acts of the Apostles 13:15–16 provide
additional early illustrations of public Scripture reading and
explication in synagogues. It is unknown whether other litur-
gical acts were performed in synagogues at this time, though
ample numbers of later Second Temple–period Jewish prayer
texts are extant.
It is likely that the earliest synagogue buildings (like
many after them) were simply rooms within domestic struc-
tures with no special renovations, and hence are unidentifi-
able archaeologically. Five purpose-built or purpose-
renovated buildings that might be identified as later Second
Temple–period synagogues have been excavated in Israel.
These were uncovered at Masada, Gamla, Herodian, Kiryat
Sefer, and Modi’in. Other supposed synagogues, at Magdala,
Capernaum, and Jericho, are far less likely. Gamla is the ear-
liest synagogue. This large public building was built on the
eastern side of Gamla, next to the city wall. Built of local ba-
salt, this structure is rectangular (13.4 by 17 meters). The
main entrance was on the west, with an exedra and an open
court in front of it. The center of the hall was unpaved and
surrounded (except for the main entrance) by stepped bench-
es. The synagogue at Masada is a ten-meter-square room that
was converted by the Jewish rebels who inhabited this desert
fortress from 66 to 74 CE. The rebels added banks of benches
on each wall, and a small room on the northwestern wall
within which were found fragments of the books of Deuter-
onomy and Ezekiel. The literary definition of the first-century
synagogue as a house of assembly where Scripture was stud-
ied is uniquely paralleled in this structure. At Herodian a
room was converted by Jewish rebels with the addition of
benches that were similar to those at Masada. The syna-
gogues at Kiryat Sefer and Modi’in are small freestanding
structures with benches lining the walls. It seems likely that
these communal buildings served as synagogues as well,
though there is no epigraphic evidence to support this identi-
fication.
LATE ANTIQUITY: THE LATE ROMAN AND BYZANTINE PERI-
ODS. Evidence for synagogues during the second through the
fourth centuries is mostly literary. Rabbinic literature from
Palestine and from Sassanid Babylonia (modern Iraq) present
synagogues as regular features of the Jewish communal land-
scape. Early rabbinic (Tannaitic) literature mentions a broad
range of activities that took place within synagogues. These
included the recitation of Aramaic translations of the Torah
reading (m. Megillah 4:6,10), Torah blessings (t. Kippurim
3:18), sounding of the ram’s horn (shofar) on the new year
(m. Rosh Hashanah 3:7), use of the palm frond (lulav), myr-
tle, willow, and citron (ethrog) on the feast of Tabernacles (m.
Sukkah 3:13; t. Sukkah 2:10), recitation of the Book of Esther
reading on the Feast of Esther (Purim), possibly even by

SYNAGOGUE 8921
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