Symphoiosa, the Christian widow of a martyred tribune. Hadrian had built a temple at Tibur (Tivoli), and was about to dedicate it with religious ceremonies when he learned that Symphorosa was a zealous Chris- tian. He caused her, with her seven sons, to be sum- moned, and sought by persuasion to induce her to offer sacrifices. On her refusal, the emperor threatened her, and had her carried to the Temple of Ilercides at Tivoli, where she was beaten with lists, hung up by the hair, and afterwards taken down and drowned. Her broth- er Eugene, a councillor of Tivoli, recovered the body and buried it in the suburbs. On the following day her sons were brought before the same temple and im- paled in various modes, after which their bodies were thrown into a deep pit, which subsequently became known as the pit ad septem biothanatos. The persecu- tion then rested for a year and a half, during which pe- riod the remains of the martyrs were interred on the Via Tibuvtina and honored as they deserved. The na- talities of Symphorosa and her sons are observed on Jidy 18- (see Ruinart, Acta Pi-imorum Marty7-um, p. 18). The legend exists in manuscript form among the writings falsely ascribed to Jidius Africanus, and may have originated in the third century, though the con- tents do not harmonize well with the known ordinary conduct of Hadrian. Ruinart supposes the probable pe- riod of tlie occurrence to have been A.D. 120. See also the A da SS. sub July 18. — Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s. v.
Symposia {avitTtoaia, banquets) is, a word occa- sionally used by ecclesiastical writers to describe the ancient agap;e (q. v.). These symposia were held at the
SYMPSON
11
SYNAGOGUE
fijraves of the martyrs; and the festival was designed to be, not only a memorial of the deceased, but, according to Origen, "an odor of a sweet smell in the sight of God;" for the poor and needy, the widows and orphans, met together, and were refreshed by the charity of the rich.
Sympson, Cuthbekt, a layman and a deacon of the Congregational Church at IsHngton, of wliicli Kuft (or liough) was pastor. He was arrested Dec. 13, 1557, and tortured, being racked three times to make him divulge the members of the Protestant Church of which he was deacon. He was eventually burned at Smith- field, IMarch 28, 1558. See Punchard, Hijst. of Congre- gationalism, ii, 326, 347.
Synagogue {<Tvvaymj!} ; other equivalent terms are Trpoaevxi] or TrpoasiiKTi'jpiov, i. e. chapel; Heb. l3;Ta bx, or assembly of God; Aramaic SriTSD ^n, Xra3=), the Jewish place of worship in post-Biblical and mod- ern times. (We here freely avail ourselves of Gins- burg's article in Kitto's Cyclopa'dia, with large addi- tions, especially from Smith's Diet, of the Bible.) See Judaism.
It may be well to note at the outset the points of contact between the history and ritual of the syna- gogues of the Jews, and tlie facts to which the inquiries of the Biblical student are principally directed. 1. They meet us as the great characteristic institution of the later phase of Judaism. More even than the Tem- ple and its services, in the time of which the New Test, treats, they at once represented and determined the re- ligious life of the people. 2. We cannot separate them frt>m the most intimate connection with our Lord's life and ministry. In them he worshipped in his youth and in his manhood. Whatever we can learn of the ritual which then prevailed tells us of a worship which he recognised and sanctioned; which for that reason, if for no other, though, like the statelier services of the Temple, it was destined to pass away, is worthy of our respect and honor. They were the scenes, too, of no small portion of his work. In them were wrought some of his mightiest works of healing (Matt, xii, 9; Mark i, 23; Luke xiii, 11). In them were spoken some of the most glorious of his recorded words (iv, 16 ; John vi, 59) ; many more, beyond all reckoning, which are not recorded (Matt, iv, 23 ; xiii, 54 ; John xviii, 20, etc.). 3. There are the questions, leading us back to a remoter past, In what did the worship of the syna- gogue originate? What type was it intended to repro- duce? What customs, alike in nature, if not in name, served as the starting-point for it? 4. The syna- gogue, with all that belonged to it, was connected with the future as well as with the past. It was the order with which the first Christian believers were most fa- miliar, from which they were most likely to take the outlines, or even the details, of tlie worship, organiza- tion, and government of their own society. Widely divergent as the two words and the things they rep- resented afterwards became, the ecclesia had its start- ing-point in the synagogue.
I. Name and its Signification. — The ■word (jwayMylj, which literally signifies a gathering, is not unknown in classical Greek (Thueyd. ii, 18; Plato, /('^/)»W. 526 D), but became prominent in that of the Hellenists. It appears in the Sept. as tlie translation of not less than twenty-one Hebrew words in which the idea of a gath- ering is implied (Tromm, Concordant, s. v.). But, al- though the word is there used to denote any kind of gathering, heap, mass, or assemblage, such as a gather- ing of fruits (for the Heb. qOX, r|"'DS, Exod. xxiii, 16 ; xxxiv, 22), of water (Cip"S, PIip^, Gen. i, 9; Lev. xi, 36), a heap of stones {^j, Job viii, 17), a band of singers (3"in'2, Jer. xxxi. 4, 13), a mass or mtiltitude of people or soldiers (PISDX, ?^n, Isa. xxiv, 22; Ezek. xxxvii, 10), a tribe or family (r'^3, 1 Kings xii, 21), etc., yet its predominant usage in this version is to denote an