3. History The words of Ezk W^ (see Targ.
Meg. 29«), 'To Israel scattered among the nations I shall be a little sanctuary,' were actually veritied through the synagogue, as Bacher (see art. ' Syna- gogue ' in HDB) states. It is noteworthy that the synagogue at Shaf Yathib near Nahardea in Baby- lonia was in the 2nd cent, taken to be the work of King Jehoiachin, who was said to have had the stones and the earth brought from Jerusalem ; and it was claimed to be the seat of the Shekinah like the Temple of yore, the statue erected there (against the Jewish Law) being probably a Persian symbol of the Divine Presence (Meg. 29a ; E6sh ha.^k. 246; Kohler, MGWJ xxxviii. [1893] 442). The claim of being the seat of the Shekinah was also raised for another old synagogue at HuzCil (.Meg. 29«). Another one was ascribed to Daniel (Erub. 21a).
The earliest testimony for the existence of the synagogue in Palestine is found in Ps 74* : ' They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land' (so Symmachus and Aquila for ^x-'iyiD). Most commentators refer the psalm to the Mac- cahsean time, though it seems strange that the destruction of the synagogues should not have been mentioned in the Maccabeean books. H. L. Strack (PRE^ xix. 224) refers the psalm to the war of Artaxerxes Ochus (359-333 B.C.). Wellhausen {loc. cit.) thinks that the synagogue took the place of the ancient bdmuth ('high places') — a view which seems to be confirmed by Targ. on 1 Ch 16^^ and 1 Mac 3*" ; cf. Kimhi on Jg 20'. Possibly the rule to have the synagogue in the heights of the city {T6s. Meg. iv. 23 ; cf. Tank. Behukkothai, ed. S. Buber, Wilna, 1885, p. 4 ; Shabb. i\a ; Epiphan. Hmr. Ixxx. 1) has some connexion with this ancient practice. On the other hand, the site of the syna- gogue was, on account of the necessary ablutions, preferably chosen near some flowing water or at the seaside, as is shown by the Halicarnassus de- cree (Jos. Ant. XIV. X. 23 : ' They may make their proseuches at the seaside, following the customs of their fathers' ; cf. Ac 16'^). Hence also the inter- pretation of ' the well in the field ' (Gn 29-), that is the synagogue (Ber. E. Ixx. 8). Owing to this, the synagogue was frequently outside the city (Kid. 736, Shab. 246, Rashi ; Tank. Eaye Sarah, ed. Buber, p. 7; Tur. 6. H. 236; cL Mekilta B6, 1 ; Sh'mulh R. on Ex 9=' ; Pliilo, ed. Mangey, ii. 298). There being no special provision made for a synagogue within the Temple, the Hall of the Hewn Stones was used for the daily prayer (Tdmid iv.-v. ), but Rabbi Joshua of the 1st cent. {T6s Silk. iv. 5) speaks of a synagogue and a school- house on the Temple hill near by. The term 'mh^ ( = 481, being the numerical value of the letters) in Is P' causes the Haggadist to speak of 480 syna-
gogues which Jerusalem had besides the Temple (Jer. Meg. TAd, Kcth B. 35-j, 'EkahJi. Introd. 12; Babl. Keth. has erroneously 394). It is certain that the number was quite large, as may be seen from Ac 6" (cf. 2''"), according to which each settlement of foreign Jews had a synagogue of its own — Alexandrians (cf. Tds. Meg. iii. 6, iv. 13), Cyrenians, Cilicians, and Asiatics. Epiphanius {de Mensuris, 14} speaks of seven on Zion. Josephus ( Vita, 54) mentions the Great Synagogue at Tiiieri- as, where during the Roman war political meetings took place (see a.]so' Erub. x. 10). In the 5th cent. Tiberias had thirteen synagogues (Ber, 8a), one in the village of Tiberias {Pesik. R. 1966). The .syna- gogue at Coesarea, where the revolt against Rome was started (£>./ II. xiv. 4-5), continued its existence under the name of the synagogue of the revolution to the 4th cent. (Jer. Bik. iii. 65rf), and was prob- ably the one in which Rabbi Abbahu had his frequent disputes with the Church Fathers (H. Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, iv.^ [1893] 288). The Gospels mention the synagogues of Capernaum (Mk 1-' and ||s) and Nazareth (Lk 4"^ and II) wherein Jesus taught. The former was built for the Jews by the Roman centurion, a proselyte (Lk 7^' °). About the interesting ruins discovered in recent times of many synagogues in Galilee from the 1st and 2nd centuries, possibly even that of Capernaum, see Schurer, GJV ii." [1901] 517, note 59. At Sepphoris, the seat of the academy of Rabbi Judah, the prince, of the 2nd cent., one synagogue was called ' the great Synagogue ' (Pesik. 1366) ; another one, probably after an engraved symbol, ' the Synagogue of the Vine ' {Jer. Nclzir, vii. 56a). The wealth spent on the synagogue at Lydda gave the Rabbis cause for complaint (Jer. Shekcllim, v. 496). As Philo (ed. Mangey, ii. 168) says, each city inhabited by Jews had its synagogue ' for instruc- tion in virtue and piety' (cf. T6s. B.M. xi. 23 and Sanh. 176).
The oldest synagogue on record is that built in Alexandria under Ptolemy in. (247-221 B.C.) and dedicated to him and his sister Berenice according to the inscription discovered in 1902 (Schiirer, GJV ii.« 497, iii.'' [1909] 41). The large Jewish population had many synagogues in the different quarters of the city (Philo, ed. Mangey, ii. 568), the largest and most famous of which was tlie one built in the shape of a basilica and described in glowing colours (T6s. Suk. iv. 6, Jer. Stik. v. 55a, liabl. Suk. 5Ia) ; it was totally destroyed under Trajan (Graetz, Gesch. der Juden, iv.^ 117). The legendary narrative 3 Mac7"'^'' tells of the founding of a synagogue at Ptolemais in Southern Egypt under Ptolemy IV. In Syria the most famous was the Great Synagogue at Antioch, to which the brazen vessels carried otf from the Temple at Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes were presented by his successors (BJ vil. iii. 3). Damascus also had a number of synagogues ; in these Paul the Apostle preached (Ac 9^-^"). Throughout Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece and its islands, in cities such as Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, and Corinth, the synagogues, being the gathering- places for Jews and 'God-fearing' half-proselytes (Ac 13"'- '"• ^ 17"), offered a sphere of activity to St. Paul and his fellow-workers (Ac l.S^- " 14' 16'3 17'' "• " 18"- '). In Rome there were quite a number of synagogues at the time of Augustus (Philo, ed. Mangey, ii. 569), and the inscriptions discovered in recent times mention nine different ones named either after persons, such as Augustus, Agrippa, and Volumnus, or after places, such as Campus (Martins) and the Subura, or after the language of the members, Hebraic or the vernacular, one after the trade 'lime burners,' and another after an en- graved symbol 'the Synagogue of the Olive Tree.' A synagogue of Severus is mentioned in Ber. R. ix. 5