Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

FROM THE GOSPELS TO JESUS §9.7
Synagoge is a term which denotes in the first place the village gathering or town
assembly, with the archisynagögos more accurately described as 'leader of the
assembly', the 'head-man', rather than 'ruler of the synagogue'. 222 One of the
purposes of such gatherings would no doubt have been to hear Torah read and expounded,
223 usually by priest or elder but others could contribute, 224 on
Sabbaths 225 and feast days, and presumably also to say prayers. 226 But no doubt
assemblies would also be called to discuss the community's affairs, including the
hammering out of disputes and local administration of justice. 227
But where would such assemblies have met? Certainly we must accept the
likelihood that in some places the gatherings would have taken place in a large
ekklesia, had similar force, as is evident in 1 Cor. 11.18, 'when you come together in assembly'
(sunerchomenön human en ekklesia — not 'in the church'). In the LXX Synagoge and ekklesia
are both used to translate the Hebrew qahal, denoting the 'assembly or congregation' of Israel
(W. Schräge, ' synagöge', TDNT7.798-852 [here 802]). See further Schürer, History 2.429-31
(nn. 12-14).
222. Archisynagögos was a common name for the officer in charge of a Hellenistic association
(synagöge); see, e.g., R. E. Oster, 'Supposed Anachronism in Luke-Acts' Use of
synagöge: A Rejoinder to H. C. Kee', NTS 39 (1993) 178-208 (here 202-204); see also Horsley,
Galilee 223-33; also Archaeology 145-51; also 'Synagogues' 48-61.
223. This is explicitly stated by Philo, Som. 2.127 ('will you sit in your assemblies
[synagögiois] . . . and read in security your sacred books, expounding any obscure point and in
leisurely comfort discussing at length your ancestral philosophy?'); similarly Mos. 2.216;
Legat. 156-57 (Kee, 'Defining' 13-14). See also CIJ 2.1404 (the Theodotus inscription —
above n. 220); and further A. Runesson, The Origins of the Synagogue: A Socio-Historkal
Study (ConBNT 37; Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 2001) chs. 3-4.
224. Eusebius quotes Philo's otherwise lost Hypothetica 7.12-13: The Jews 'assemble in
the same place on these seventh days . . . (and) some priest or one of the elders reads the holy
laws to them and expounds them point by point' (Praep. evang. 8.7, 11-13). See also Sanders,
Jewish Law 78-81; Judaism 199-202.
225. Moses 'appointed the Law to be the most excellent and necessary form of instruction,
ordaining . . . that every week men should desert their other occupations and assemble to
listen to the Law and to obtain a thorough and accurate knowledge of it' (Josephus, Ap. 2.175).
226. The obvious conclusion to draw from the use of proseuche ('prayer') in the extended
sense of 'prayer house' by Philo and Josephus. Thus Philo speaks of 'many'proseuchas
'in each section of the city' of Alexandria {Legat. 132, 134, 137-38) and regarded such places
as 'all holy' (panieros) (Legat. 191); see further Flacc. 41-49. In Josephus see Am 14.258 and
references in n. 230 below. For epigraphical references to 'prayer houses' see Schürer, History
2.425-26 n. 5,439-40 n. 61; NDIEC 3.121-22. Gutmann is over-fussy in warning against the assumption
that proseuche is simply another word for 'synagogue' (Ancient Synagogues 3). See
further van der Horst, 'Synagogue' 23-37, in critique of H. McKay, Sabbath and Synagogue:
The Question of Sabbath Worship in Ancient Judaism (Leiden: Brill, 1994).
227. See also L. I. Levine, 'The Second Temple Synagogue: The Formative Years', in
L. I. Levine, ed., The Synagogue in Late Antiquity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987) 7-31; and further
The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years (New Haven: Yale University, 2000).
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