Exile

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 Exile and Restoration

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The return of Israel after the Exile brought renewed interest in worship; the temple was rebuilt and sacrifices were reinstated. The synagogue, originated during the Exile, now became the focal point of a non-sacrificial worship.

The nature of worship in the exilic period is much debated. One theory postulates that the absence of the temple and the deportation to a new land forced the faithful to restructure worship to accommodate the new situation. The Psalms speak to the discouragement of those in exile and their longing for the land of Zion (Ps. 137:1–6). Historically it seems that not all Jews desired to return as earnestly as the author of Psalm 137, for not all Jews did return to Jerusalem when they were eventually allowed to do so by an edict of Cyrus (538 b.c.). It also appears that not all Jews were deported from the land in the Exile. Tension developed between the returning Babylonian Jews and the Jews who had remained behind and intermarried with other peoples.

The Persian armies under Cyrus swept across the eastern frontier of the Babylonian empire in 539 b.c. and reached as far as the Egyptian frontier. Cyrus was one of the most enlightened rulers of ancient times. His aim, as far as it was possible, was to allow subject nations to enjoy cultural autonomy within the framework of his empire. His successors tended to follow in his steps. By means of a complex civil and military bureaucracy, a firm control was established over the empire, but within this framework local customs were respected, established cults were fostered and protected, and responsibility was entrusted to native rulers. In the first year of his reign Cyrus issued a proclamation permitting the Israelites to return to their homeland, ordering the rebuilding of the temple, and inviting Jews remaining in Babylon to assist with contributions. Although this edict would seem to have been received with overwhelming gratitude, and a mass exodus back to Israel would have been expected, this did not happen.

Many of the Jews had become well established in Babylon and had no wish to leave, particularly on a long journey with uncertain goals. The initial wave of returnees was not large, and though it was reinforced by later immigrations, Jerusalem was still thinly populated and in a state of ruin seventy-five years after the edict. The inhabitants of the land, Judeans who had been left behind in the Exile, as well as Edomites who had moved to fill the vacant land, were not happy to have these returnees move back. The Samaritans to the north were antagonistic, claiming that they held fast to true worship while their exiled kin had become polluted with Babylonian influences. The Samaritans and Judeans who had remained in the land had absorbed pagan customs into their worship and began to affect some of the returnees. The leadership feared for the integrity of the community and sought to end all contact with the native population.

With the return of the exiles came a renewed interest in temple worship. The building of the second temple commenced around 520 b.c. and was completed in 515 b.c., overseen by the high commissioner Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua. Nehemiah and Ezra the priest played important roles in the gradual return of the exiles and the rebuilding of the community of faith. Although the temple was rebuilt and worship, priestly sacrifices, and pilgrimages were reestablished at the cultic center, the enthusiasm was never to be of the same intensity. The frailty of a faith focused on a central location had been demonstrated in the fall and destruction of the temple one-half century earlier. The noncultic aspect of this faith, particularly as expressed through emerging synagogue worship, developed greater importance during the Exile, and Ezekiel and the prophet of Isaiah 40–55 had known God’s presence in a strange land without the use of the temple.

Synagogue worship had a distinctive pattern. Wisdom and the study of the Torah became the goal and focus of the synagogue. A crisis existed in the faith of the Jews, who had been without a temple for the greater part of a century. A new form was needed to adapt to the new circumstances. The synagogue became the ekklēsia, that is, the assembly or congregation. The worship in the synagogue stressed reading and exposition of the Torah, prayer, recitation of the Shƒma‘ (based on Deut. 6:4), and recitation of psalms.

Ezra’s reorganization brought a fundamental change to Israel. No longer was Israel’s identity centered on a national cult. Rather its identity from this point forward would be seen as that of a religious remnant who rallied around the Torah. Judaism did not change the basic elements of worship during the Exile and return; the focus and stress, however, were simply heightened to accent one feature of the tradition. The Law, or Torah, became the organizing principle.

Israelite Worship from Solomon to the Exile

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Although Solomon completed and dedicated the temple, the foreign influences and faulty civil policy that set in during his reign eventually led to the demise of the Israelite commonwealth.

David’s son and successor to the throne was Solomon. During his reign Solomon continued to focus on the cultic worship of the temple, adding to the edifice ornamentation of such glory and splendor that all who visited Israel marveled at its beauty. Solomon emphasized beautifying the temple not only because he was dedicated to the worship of Yahweh and desired to show his gratitude, but because he had also begun to be influenced by surrounding foreign powers. The temple and its ornamentation were a sign to foreigners of the wealth and cultural strength of Solomon’s court. Scripture attests to these foreign influences during the reign of Solomon. This accentuated the syncretistic tendency that the Israelites had been dealing with since they first covenanted to be the people of Yahweh. Solomon often allowed civil policy to dictate ecclesiastical practices. He married foreign wives in order to establish alliances. These wives brought their alien gods into his courts (1 Kings 11:1–8).

The foreign influences from within the country cumulatively resulted in disaster. The northern kingdom’s destruction (722 b.c.) and the demise of the southern kingdom, including Jerusalem and the temple (587 b.c.), were viewed by the postexilic writers in light of the corrupt worship practice that had infiltrated the practices ordained by Yahweh. The religion of Israel before the Exile is depicted as a headlong, spiraling decline leading to disaster. Ahab had allowed Jezebel’s Sidonian influences to foster idolatry and despotism (1 Kings 16:32). Intermarriages between Jezebel’s family and the southern kingdom continued to spread the destructive influences. The situation was so severe and irreversible that it necessitated the destruction of both kingdoms, the temple, and the city of Jerusalem to reestablish the pure remnant of Yahweh’s chosen. The essentials of worship had been lost.

The Word of God, prayer, praise, confession, and forgiveness had become empty rituals that had lost the inner meaning and therefore impeded access to Yahweh.