Question #99

What is the origin of the synagogue?

What is the origin of the synagogue? Are synagogues mentioned in the Old Testament?

The Answer:

The term synagogue refers to an assembly or congregation of Jews for the purpose of worship and study (Acts 13:43 – “congregation” (KJV) is from the Greek word for synagogue), or the building in which such an assembly me (Luke 7:5). James uses the same word to refer to a Christian assembly (James 2:2, KJV).In America, the term is generally not used for Reform congregations which prefer the term “temple.”

Although the tabernacle and the temple were built according to God’s instructions and were the place of His presence, the synagogue is generally considered the most central and the most enduring Jewish institution. Yet its origin is shrouded in mystery. The synagogue is not mentioned in the Pentateuch. First-century literary sources, including the New Testament, indicate that synagogues flourished beginning with the dispersion of the Jews in Babylon and in Galilee. Rabbinic sources connect the origin of the synagogue and many of its practices with Moses and Ezra. Rabbinic tradition also attributes special innovations to Ezra and the “Men of the Great Synagogue.”

Three different eras have been suggested by modern scholars for the origin of the synagogue: preexilic, exilic, and post exilic. Preexilic is assumed by the rabies, while at the same time recognizing that some important contributions were made as the result of Ezra’s work in the postexilic period. Some connect the emergence of the synagogue with the Deuteronomic reforms (great religious reformation instituted in the reign of King Josiah of Judah (c. 640–609 BC, so called because the book of the Law found in the Temple of Jerusalem (c. 622 BC), which was the basis of the reform, is considered by scholars to be the same as the law code in the book of Deuteronomy (chapters 12–26), which demolished sanctuaries across the land and created a new need for worship patterns away from Jerusalem. Some Biblical references, “meeting places of God” (Psalm 74:8; AV “synagogues of God” and “the house of the people” Jeremiah 39:8, are considered cryptic references to the incipient institution.

Most scholars support the theory that the synagogue originated in exile and in Babylonia. They surmise that it began as spontaneous gatherings of Jews for Sabbaths and festivals, for communal worship and for mutual support. The synagogue owes its formation to these gatherings of the exiles. There are several references in Ezekiel that are taken to refer to synagogue meetings, but they have other explanations as well that are in fact more likely. In Babylonia there was a tradition that the synagogue Shab we-Yatib in Nehardea had been established by the exiles who accompanied Jehoiakin.

More recently growing attention has been given to a postexilic date for the synagogue as a Pharisaic parallel to temple worship. When the Jews returned from Babylon they proceeded to rebuild the temple. They may have needed encouragement to complete the task (cf. Hag. 2:1-9), but there is no suggestion that the synagogue had replaced the temple. In fact, there is no mention of a synagogue in Ezra, Nehemiah, or the postexilic Prophets. But when references to the synagogue did appear (certainly by the 1st century A.D.), it was already well established. Therefore, its roots must have gone back either to the Exile or to the beginning of the Second Temple period.

Sacrifices could not be offered on foreign soil, which was considered unclean, hence prayer became a substitute. The postexilic prophets and profane sources all testify to the development of prayer in the early Second Temple period. In fact, the rabbis came to believe that prayer was greater than all the sacrifices. According to the Talmud, the Amidah, Kiddush, and Havdalah were composed by Ezra and the Men of the Great Synagogue. It is reasonable to assume that a “house of prayer” was serving as a substitute for or in addition to the temple. There is abundant literary evidence of the synagogue from the first century on. The Talmud gives the number of synagogues in Jerusalem at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple at 480. It has been estimated that approximately four million Jews of the Dispersion had more than a thousand synagogues by the time the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.

Synagogue buildings, like synagogue worship, took time to evolve into the standardized form that became normative. The process itself is not clearly recorded. The earliest surviving synagogues in Palestine are the first-century structures in Masada, Herodion, Magdala, and Gamla. In both Masada and Herodion, structures originally built for other purposes were converted into synagogues by later occupants of the sites. Only the Theodotus inscription remains from an earlier period. The Greek stone inscription, found near Jerusalem and dated 1st century B.C. to the 1st century A.D., states, “Theodotus . . . son of the head of the synagogue grandson of the head of the synagogue built the synagogue for the reading of the law and teaching of the commandments . . . . Most ancient synagogue buildings in the Holy Land, of which archeology has identified more than a hundred, belong to the 3rd century and later. Some of the important ones are at Gush Halav, Hammath-Tiberias, and Capernaum.