Diaspora

Origin of the Synagogue

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The history of the synagogue as an institution among the Jews is difficult to trace to its source. Its origins seem to lie outside Palestine and apart from that sector of Jewish life that governed the nation and shaped the Old Testament. By the time of the New Testament, the synagogue had become established as the central institution of local Jewish life.

Roots in the Exile

The word synagogue is derived from the term for any gathering of people for religious or secular purposes. It is derived from the common verb meaning “to gather,” “to gather together,” “to bring together” (Matt. 2:4 “assembling”; Mark 6:30; Luke 12:1; John 8:2). The nominal form is used for any type of area or location where things or people gather or are gathered.

The removal of the Levitical and other priestly officers from Jerusalem deprived the temple of its necessary complement of attendants. The prohibition of journeys to Jerusalem and the loss of revenue must have rendered the unified cult center inoperative. The collapse of the old religious state meant a great increase in personal, rather than official, religious functions—a trend seen in the great prophetic voices, Isaiah and Jeremiah, even before the final collapse and a theme renewed in Daniel. The necessity of preserving the Torah, the five books of Moses, not merely as the central religious document, but also as the only communication of Yahweh to his people, motivated corporate Torah study. All that can be surely stated is that the synagogue arose as a corporate Torah study, with all the legal and binding relationships such a community would form among alien and displaced Jews. The later literature always connects the origin of the synagogue with the period of Babylonian captivity and return under Ezra and Nehemiah. The terminology used for the great gathering and restatement of the Torah under Ezra is variant and uncertain, showing that new institutions were in formation.

The scholarly treatment of the problem has tended to fall under the influence of two opposing schools of thought. The traditional one that Moses founded the synagogue is as old as the Targums (Aramaic translations of the Torah) and cited by Josephus (Apion II xvii. 75). It has been popular at various times in recent centuries. The second thesis, that the synagogue was of societal origin and appeared during the Exile, was proposed by the Italian humanist Carlo Sigonio (1524–1584). His views wreaked havoc among the more conservative Jews and Christians of the time but were finally dominant in the treatment by the Dutch theologian Campegius Vitringa (1659–1722). Many other theories have been proposed, some locating the synagogue among the legal/political institutions of Israel rather than the religious. On the other hand, some very modern views would tend to see it as the focus of town life in what was really a nation of villages. This view is supported by the excavation of ancient synagogue sites.

Worship in the synagogue was very different from that in the temple, in that it had no priestly rituals and supported no sacrosanct priesthood. Instead a new order of religious leaders—rabbis—arose to serve the synagogue. It may be that the synagogue was only one type of worship arrangement known at the time and that it was the one that survived the Roman destruction of the great temple. It is even highly probable that one or more synagogues existed within the temple compound in Jerusalem, and it may have been there that Jesus was found sitting among the lawyers at the age of twelve (Luke 2:46). It is also clear from the later traditions that the basic unit of the synagogue was ten men who gathered for prayer. This is similar to Old Testament congregations.

The Intertestamental Period

The vast growth of the synagogue and its appearance throughout the Diaspora is noted in many documents from the time between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Both Philo and Josephus regularly mention the synagogue, as do the earliest rabbinical sources. The dominant language of its services became Aramaic as the Persian empire waxed and waned and the central autonomy of Israelite kingship faded into the past. In the new religious rituals, the chanting of the prayers and the reading of the biblical text became the central functions of the service. The officers of the new religious communities were given new titles, and soon after Alexander’s conquest, they were pronounced in Greek to the degree that centuries later they were transliterated into the consonantal script and introduced into the Hebrew of the Mishnah and Talmud. This was the formative period that saw the final supremacy of the synagogue. It was the customary center of the Jewish community and house of worship throughout the known world in Jesus’ time.

The New Testament Period

The term sunagōgē is used in the Gospels over thirty times, while an even greater frequency appears in Acts. It is assumed in both the Talmudic literature and in the New Testament that the synagogue leadership was the valid leadership and executive of Judaism, whether it was in Jerusalem or in Corinth. A few inscriptions have been located from synagogues of this era that are distinctive in that they are in Greek uncials (capital letters), written in the Hellenistic style. The most extensive is the Theodotus inscription, found on Mount Ophel not far from the ancient temple precinct. It specifically states that the purpose of the building on which it was a marker was for the “reading of the law” and that it was to serve as a hostel. The concept is Hebraic but the form is Greek, even to the titles of the officials mentioned. Other inscriptions from the Galilee area list Old Testament characters or indicate the donors but in epigraphic Greek. It is this cosmopolitanism and appeal to the common conscience which marks the synagogal success. The Gospel narratives mention a number of small towns in Galilee and the synagogues where Jesus taught (Matt. 4:23; 9:35; Luke 4:16, 33). An additional group of synagogues in this area has been excavated. They are small buildings with porches and columns, often with stone seats and an outer portico. They must have been used as law courts, schools, libraries, and marketplaces as well as for the Sabbath service. It is also clear that the Jewish males took part in the service. The most important legacy of the first-century synagogue was the form and organization of the apostolic church.

The Diaspora Synagogues

The growth of popular religious organizations in Palestine was paralleled by similar establishments among the Jews of the Dispersion. Large halls were built in Dura Europus and various parts of Egypt, and the worship of the Jews from the Diaspora, mentioned in Acts 2:9–11, was presumably in synagogues in all those widely scattered places. In all, some fifty synagogues have been located within Palestine, a few more in Syria, and perhaps another ten in the neighboring lands of the eastern Mediterranean. There must have been hundreds of others by the end of the first-century a.d. By that time the original Greek term had come to mean exclusively a Jewish house of worship. These communities of the Diaspora were displaced but in many cases had attained considerable wealth, and their synagogues are richly carved and well-appointed with the crafts of their time.

Worship during the Intertestamental Period

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Prior to the first Christian century, Judaism began to develop traditional interpretations of the Law that would eventually be written down to regulate Jewish life and worship. Judaism was influenced by Greek culture, resulting in the rise of a class of scribes and segments of the Jewish community which was more thoroughly Hellenized. The groupings formed during this period set the stage for the various sectarian movements within Judaism of the early Christian era.

History

During this period Palestine came under the rule of Alexander the Great. Following the Exile, Cyrus had opened the way for the reestablishment of the Jews in Judah. The Persian rule under Cyrus had been positive for the Jews. Under imperial order Ezra and Nehemiah had reestablished the people in Jerusalem and made the Law of Moses the civil law of the Jews. Although many Jews did not live in Judah, those in the Diaspora accepted the Law of Moses as their law. The land continued to be an important part of Jewish identity and worship.

Jerusalem became the center for Jewish ritual life, despite the fact that a large number of writings were composed outside Israel. Jerusalem was the authoritative center for the Jews. The legal tradition developed under Ezra and Nehemiah, and the court of the law, known as the Sanhedrin, with its priests, elders, and scribes, had their roots in Jerusalem centered on the temple.

As a result of renewed interest in and tremendous value placed on the law of Moses, the arts of translation, interpretation, and study developed. The Pentateuch was translated into Aramaic, the language of the Persian empire. During this period the seeds were planted for the emergence of the bet hammidrash, “house of interpretation.” These houses later became schools for studying Scripture and debating the traditions of the fathers. The synagogue was also taking structural shape during this period.

The Place of the Law in Worship

For the Israelite the giving of the Law was a cause for joyous celebration. The Torah was seen as a source of joy and life. The Law was Yahweh’s way of expressing his love for his people. The boundaries and limits provided by the Law were a gift from God to prevent destruction and harm from coming to the lives of the Israelites. The importance of Torah interpretation was highly valued throughout Israel’s history. The later midrashim, or commentaries and lengthy rabbinic debates over legal situations, illustrate the centrality of the Law. God’s commands were examined and applied to life in a dynamic process of discovery. The Torah fenced the life of a Jew, but it was not seen as a static, rigidly set boundary. Rather, the Jew viewed the Torah as a living Word, the pulse and heartbeat of life. The idea of “dancing with the Law” embodies the celebration and the joyous guidance that adherence to the Torah could bring. It was a gift from Yahweh, a gift of love. Jews rejoiced over the Law in a celebration they still practice each fall. The reading and exposition of the Torah became an increasingly important focus for worship. Nehemiah 9 illustrates the ceremony of covenant renewal that wed the remnant to Yahweh through his Word.

In time legalism developed. The rituals of worship tended to become empty forms that stifled the spirit of prophecy. Preoccupation with the letter of the law robbed the Torah of its beauty and grace (cf. 2 Cor. 3:6). The externalism of worship, which emphasized performance versus the examination of the inner spirit, was an abomination to Yahweh. The prophets saw this tendency and confronted the discrepancy between word and action, inner and outer commitment (1 Sam. 15:22; Amos 5:21). This critique is powerfully expressed in postexilic Judaism (for example, in Malachi).

The empty formalism, coupled with syncretism, was the major theme of these prophetic complaints. This hypocrisy was sin to the Israelites because it destroyed the covenantal relationship with Yahweh. The call was for joyful admission to the cult, not requirements of a ritual nature.

Hellenism

The Persians began to lose control of their empire during the latter part of the fourth century b.c. The great warrior from Macedonia, Alexander the Great, conquered the whole of the Persian empire. Alexander did not change the situation that the conquered peoples had experienced under Cyrus. He did, however, bring to the empire a new way of thinking. Alexander was a student of Aristotle and as such had been steeped in Greek thought. Alexander not only wanted to conquer the whole world, but he wanted to hellenize it and bring all the known world under a single ethos.

Hellenization influenced the Hebrew culture in many ways. Education, especially in science and anthropology, strongly influenced the formation of Jewish thought after Alexander. The Greek language became the lingua franca, replacing Aramaic as the language of trade and education in the empire. Koinē, or spoken Greek, emerged as a language used throughout the ancient world. Along with the language, Greek literature was introduced into the empire. Schools developed and were probably related to synagogues. Some suggest that many similarities existed between the method of teaching and even the pattern of argument within the synagogues and the institutions of Greek learning. The most important result of the Greek influence on Palestinian Judaism was the formation of a Jewish intelligentsia, different from the priesthood and not dependent on the sanctuary. The new class was known as “scribes.”

The movement toward a literate public was strong in the Greek polis, or city, and although the Jews had already been a literate people as early as the Babylonian exile, the Greek ways of education, logic, and organizing left their mark. The Greek forms were accepted and gave Judaism a new vehicle for expressing its ideas.

The process of hellenization placed Israel in a position of surviving within a culture or syncretistically adopting the culture, which threatened the worship of Yahweh. This struggle between faith and culture can be seen in the divisions that emerged within this period. The Hasidim (“loyal” or “pious ones”) emerged as a group determined to keep the Jewish faith pure and free of the negative impact of the Greek world.

Acculturation might have occurred gradually if not for Antiochus IV and his outlawing of Jewish worship in 167 b.c., which provoked the Maccabean revolt. After a period of years the Jews regained control of the land, securing the freedom to worship in their own ways. But hellenization had affected the Hasmonean dynasty, and Judaism was represented by a new order. The Sanhedrin became the governing body. Internal tensions developed during this period among the Sadducees, who sought tolerance and compromise; the Pharisees, who originated from the Hasidim and stood for legalism and separatism; and the Zealots, who were revolutionaries attempting to overthrow the politically oppressive structures. Into this arena a child was born in Bethlehem who would bring into being a new system of worship.

Jewish worship had been influenced by Persian customs, laws, purification rites, mythology, cosmology, angelology, and eschatology. The Greek influence, especially in education and thought forms, can be seen in the life of the synagogues. Although the cultures surrounding the Israelites had changed drastically, the central motif of the worship of Yahweh had allowed flexibility in a faith that sustained itself through crisis and domination by numerous foreign powers. Elements within the worship pattern grew to have more or less emphasis in differing situations, yet the praise and continuing echo of corporate and private worship express the soul of the people of Israel.

Early Christians and Jewish Worship

Christian worship originated in a Jewish setting. Although the early church developed its own worship forms, they reflect the worship of Judaism, especially that of the synagogue. Thus the lines between Jewish worship and Christian worship are not clearly distinguishable until late into the second century a.d.

The Gospels presuppose forms of worship that were native to Palestinian Judaism in the first century a.d. The temple was still important (cf. Zechariah in Luke 1:5; Joseph and Mary in Luke 2:21; and Jesus, who is said to have gone to the temple when he came of age at bar mitzvah time). Throughout the Gospels Jesus is shown as a Jew who participated in the feasts and lived within the framework of the life and practice of Israel (Luke 4:16–31). Jesus prophetically criticized aspects of the legalism and external show that prohibited true worship. But his goal was to fulfill the Law not to destroy it (Matt. 5:17; John 1:17). Yet his attitude toward the temple was ambivalent. He reverenced it but foretold its destruction (John 2:19).

In order to examine worship in the New Testament, one must see the intimate connection between Judaism and the early worship forms of the church. Acts 2:46 records that the earliest Christians attended the temple together and broke bread in their homes. The difference might have been expressed first in the communal meal. The sacrificial element of the temple was also eventually rejected by the Christians, for they viewed Jesus’ self-offering as a once-for-all sacrifice for sins.

The synagogue, the local center of worship in postexilic Judaism, gave Christianity much of its worship form in the inheritance of Scripture reading, preaching, singing, and prayer. The service of the synagogue consisted of a service of the Word that proclaimed the creedal Shƒma‘ (Deut. 6:4). This service included Scripture reading and exposition, prayer, and benedictions.