citations in Hebrew. Biblical themes in other synagogues in-
clude David (Gaza), Daniel in the Lion’s Den (Na’aran and
Khirbet Susiya), and Gerasa (Noah’s Ark, labeled in Greek).
Sepphoris contains the Angelic Visitation to Abraham (Gene-
sis 18), the Binding of Isaac, Aaron before the Tabernacle,
and other cultic imagery. Jews continued to use images of
the zodiac long after Christians abandoned this imagery,
owing to the significance of the heavens and constructions
of time in Jewish thought and liturgy.
Archaeological remains of late-antique synagogues show
important parallels to contemporaneous liturgical and rab-
binic texts. This is particularly evident in inscriptions, where
formulae show clear relationships with literary sources. A
very significant example is the Rehov inscription, discovered
in the narthex of a sixth-century synagogue. This twenty-
nine-line inscription, which deals with local agricultural law,
is the earliest extant physical evidence of a rabbinic text. In-
creased decoration of the physical environment of Palestin-
ian synagogues paralleled the development of increasingly
complex liturgical texts. Professional poets composed prayers
for each Sabbath and festival according to the local reading
cycles. These texts (piyyutim) were often quite complex.
Named poets appear from the fourth century onward, begin-
ning with Yosse ben Yosse, Yannai, Eleazar son of Rabbi Qal-
lir, Yehuda, and Yohanan the Priest. These homiletic texts
strongly parallel public homilies (midrashim) and traditions
in Targumic literature. There is no theme in synagogue art
that does not find important parallels in these literatures.
The tradition of virtuoso poets preparing liturgical composi-
tions for synagogue performance continued through the
Middle Ages, particularly (though hardly exclusively) in areas
of Italy and Northern Europe that continued elements of the
Palestinian liturgical tradition.
Known Diaspora synagogues during this period con-
form to local architectural norms. What unifies them are the
presence of a large Torah shrine and often images of meno-
rahs. Other than Dura, the most impressive extant Diaspora
synagogues were uncovered in Ostia Antica, the ancient port
of Rome, and in Sardis in Asia Minor. The Ostia synagogue
building was first constructed toward the end of the first cen-
tury of the Common Era, though it is not known whether
it served as a synagogue at this point. The use of the building
as a synagogue went through two stages. It was enlarged dur-
ing the second and third centuries, then enlarged further and
partly rebuilt at the beginning of the fourth. The entrances
in the façade of the basilica from the second through third
centuries are aligned toward the east-southeast, perhaps in
the direction of Jerusalem. A stepped podium stood on the
wall opposite the main entrance. A Latin and Greek inscrip-
tion from this phase makes mention of a shrine for the
Torah:
For the well-being of the emperor! Mindus Faustus es-
tablished and built (it) and set up the ark (keiboton) of
the Holy Torah (nomo hagio).During the fourth century the southernmost entrance portal
on the eastern wall of the synagogue was sealed and replaced
with a large freestanding Torah shrine. This Torah shrine is
structurally contiguous with images of shrines in wall paint-
ings and gold glasses discovered in the Jewish catacombs of
Rome and with images on oil lamps discovered in Ostia.The Sardis synagogue is the largest and the grandest syn-
agogue yet uncovered, its main hall measuring fifty-four by
eighteen meters. It has been estimated that the synagogue
could accommodate one thousand people. This impressive
building, the largest synagogue known before the modern
period, was part of the municipal center of Sardis and taken
over by the Jewish community and remodeled as a synagogue
during the fourth century. It formed the southern side of the
civic center of Sardis. The remodeling included the installa-
tion of two aediculae on stepped podia on the eastern wall
of the synagogue and the construction of a podium in the
center of the hall. The significance of these aediculae is made
clear both by their prominence and by an inscription found
near them that reads “Find, open, read, observe.” Another
Greek inscription refers to the Torah shrine as the nomo-
phylakion, “the place that protects the Torah.” A molding
from the synagogue contains both an inscribed menorah and
the image of a Torah shrine with its doors open to show
scrolls stacked horizontally within it.
We know little of the liturgies of Jews in the western Di-
aspora. John Chrysostom describes synagogue customs in
fourth-century Antioch as part of his polemic Against the
Jews, aimed against Judaizers within his community. These
include blowing the ram’s horn on Rosh Hashannah, walk-
ing barefooted and fasting on Yom Kippur (known from rab-
binic literature), and incubation in synagogues. He also
knows that Jews and non-Jews considered synagogues to be
holy places, the sanctity of the place being construed as deriv-
ing from the presence of biblical scrolls. Chrysostom suggests
that reading of Psalms was important to synagogue liturgy.
Inscriptions, most notably a Greek rendition of Psalm
135:25 discovered in ancient Nicaea (today Iznik in Turkey)
supports this. These characteristics (other than incubation)
were also prevalent in synagogues in Palestine and in Sassani-
an Iraq that are described in the Babylonian Talmud. The
great significance of Torah shrines and images of shrines full
of scrolls suggests the centrality of Scripture within Diaspora
communities, as it was for communities in the Land of Israel.
MEDIEVAL AND MODERN SYNAGOGUES. Liturgies during
medieval and modern times were largely based upon models
developed already in classical rabbinic literature. While sig-
nificant differences exist between Ashkenazic (Central and
Eastern European) rites, Sephardic (Spanish and Portuguese)
rites, Italian, and the rites of Jews in the lands of Islam, the
differences are far outweighed by the continuities. Modern
liturgies maintain continuity to the extent that each move-
ment sees itself as bound by Talmudic tradition. The interior
furnishings of synagogues also follow ancient models as pre-
served in rabbinic sources. These include a large permanent
Torah shrine (called aron ha-qodesh, “Holy Ark” by Ash-
kenazim; hekhal, “shrine,” by Sephardim), generally on the8924 SYNAGOGUE