It is more logical to take Sychar to be another
• AV tr. b6U» ifhikmKin, 'a gatherer of sycomore fruit,' RV *» dreaaer of sycomore trees.' It Is possilile that the Ileb. ex- pression (cf. LXX K»i?«#i., Vulp. VflticanM) ref*.T8 to the above- mentioned method ol improving the fruiU See, further, Driver, ad loc
pl.ace in the vicinity of Shechem. The writer of tlie Fourth Gospel was well acquainted with the or, which sulhciently indicates the position of Sliechcm ; and it is inconceivable that he should have ilcscribcd a well-known town with such a history and with so many sacred associations as ' a city of Samaria near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.' It is also highly improbable that St. John, in this ))articular narra- tive, would have referred to Shechem by a nick- name. St. Stephen (Ac 7") uses the LXX form, Sychem (-i/x^/i), and this would jnobably have been employed by the evangelist if he had not intended to indicate another place. Sychar and Sychem are, in fact, distinguished in ancient docu- ments. Eusebius (Onom.) says that Sychar was ' before,' that is ' east' of Neapolis (Ndldus), which he distinguishes from Sychem — a jilace in its suburbs, near Joseph's tomb. Jerome (Onom.) translates this description without remark. The Bordeaux Pilgrim (A.D. 333) makes a distinction between Neapolis, Sichem, and Sichar, and places the last one Koman mile from Sichem. Sychar is also mentioned as a distinct place from Neapolis and Sliecliem by Abbot D.iniel (A.D. 1106), Fetellus (A.D. 1130), and John of Wurzburg (A.D. 1160). All these pilgrims apparently refer to el-Ashir, — a village on the lower slopes of Mt. Ebal, which has a fine spring, — 'Ain el-'Askar, and gives its name, Snhel 'As/car, to the northern portion of the plain of el-Miihhna. This village answers much better tlian such a well-known place as Shechem to the casual notice of St. John. Kobinson (Later Re- searches, p. 133) held that 'the fact that 'Askar begins with the letter 'Ain excludes all idea of afhnity with the name Sychar.' But there are cases, such as Ascalon ('AskxdAn), in which the Alepli of the Hebrew has changed to an 'Ain. In t!ie Samaritan Chronicle, which cannot be later than the 14th cent. A.D. , mention is made of a town, apparently near Shechem, that is called Ischar, — merely a vulgar pronunciation of Sychar, — and the Samaritans, in translating their Chron- icle into Arabic, call this place '^«A«r. Thus the transition is traceable from the Hebrew form, througli the Samaritan Lschar, to the Arabic 'Askar (Conder, Tent- Work, i. 75). 'The Mishna mentions a place called ' the plain of En-Sokher,' which is perhaps Sj'char (Neubauer, G^of/. da Talmud, p. 169). Schwarz (IIL p. 127) correctly identihes En-Sokher with '.J /n cl- Askar, and the plain with the Sahcl 'Askar. Tlicre is thus a strong case for the identification of Sychar with el-'Askar. This view is supported by Thomson (L. and B. ch. 31), Williams (Smith's D. of G. ii. 4126), Kaumer (Pal. p. 163), Ewald (Gesch. iv. 284, v. 348, 3rd ed.), Derenbourg (Gtog. du Talmud, p. 169), Caspari, Neubauer, Conder, Smith (UGIIL p. 367 11'.— a good summary of the question), Tristram, and others. C. W. Wilson.
SYCHEM (Sux^/x; 5icAc7»).— The Greek (LXX Gn 12" etc.) form of Shechem. It occurs only in the speech of St. Stephen (Ac 7"), according to which the twelve sons of Jacob were buried in Sychem, in the tomb that Abraham bought of Ilamor (Emnior) in Sychem. See SllKCllKM.
Although in the auove-namcd passage in Acts the strictly accurate reproduction of the original demands Sydiem (so AV), ItV, consistently with its practice of following the Hebrew in the case of OT names, gives Shcc!i*:m. C. W. WiLSON.
SYENE.— See Seveneh.
8YME0N See Simeon.
SYMMACHU3.— See Versions (GrkekV
S36
SYNAGOGUE
SYNAGOGUE
SYNAGOGUE.—
L Tlie name, ii. Oritj'iu and history.
iii. Situation of the building, style of architecture, etc. iv. SjTiagoj^e worship, officials, eta V. Tlie synagog^ie as an elementary schooL vL Other uses of the synagogue, vii Latest history of the synagogue. Literature.
i. The Name. — Synagogue is the name applied to the place of asseiiiuly used by .Jewish com- munities primarily for the purpose of public worship. Tlie Or. awwyuiyij stands for the assembly itself, and represents in the LXX in most instances the Hel;. nii;. So also in the Heb. Sirach {e.g. 4' 41^') .17^ answers to the avva.-fi;i>yfi of the Gr. text. The Aramaic versions of the Bible reproduce nij by kb^'J? (Syr. Nn!7i:D). The verb b-:d, from which this Aram, substantive is derived, has its representative in Hebrew in the rare verb C3D, which is used in Est 4'* of the assembling of the Jews of Susa for a religious fast. The common Heb. verb idk is translated in Aramaic by c:;, in Greek by amiyu (cf. e.g. Jl 2"). From DJ3 (of which the verbal noun is .in-jj in the special sense of assem- bling for worship, Megilla, i. 1, Gen. rah. eh. 49, on Gn IS") was formed, as the equivalent of the Aram. Nn::"j3, the subst. n;:?, which may indeed stand for any gathering, but which appears at a very early date to have acquired the special sense of an assemblage for worship. It was perhaps originally this special sense that was attached to the word when the gathering of which we read in Neh Q'-IO** was called nSnjn nD33 ' the great assembly' [iEr.x3 of Neh 9' is translated in Pesh. by iK'iDnK, in LXX by avvi]x9i\aa.v\ ; for this epoch- making assembly had the marks of a worshipping body (fasting, reading of the Torah, confession of sin, prayer). See art. SYNAGOGUE (The Great). The house, in which the meeting for worship was held, was called nDjsn n'a (Aram, .sjjy'j? '2), but the ■words nj33 and Kny":? standing alone may also be used for the place of meeting. It is noteworthy that in the Pal. Talmud the use of KnB":D predomi- nates, in the Bab. Talmud NnB"j3 '3. The plural of njj;! is nvcjj (from a supposed *n"C]| ; cf. nrjcD, plur. of nwD), hence nVcja '135 = 'synagogues.' To this plural goes back the sing, form n;P33, of which there is only an isolated occurrence (Aboth, iv. 11 ; the reading n?j?, cited by Taylor, is not suffi- ciently authenticated), which is not the equiva- lent in meaning of nnj?, but stands for an associa- tion or society in general. In this more general sense of .i;;3? we should also understand the plural found mAbotli, iii. 10, anAEcha rabbathi, Prooem., No. 10. — The shorter expression nojj or ni??'}? (with- out n'3 or '5) finds its representative in the Gr. amayuiyf), which in the NT and Josephus stands for the place of worship, the synagogue. Cf. Philo, Quod omnis probiis liber, § 12 (of the Essenes) : els lepodt i(piKvo6iieiioi r/rrovs ot KoKovvrai ffwayuryaL