appointed meeting of people either for civil or religious pujposes, thus being synonymous with tKKXijffia. This is evident from the fact that the Sept. uses avi'aywyi] 130 times for the Hebrew il'TS, and twenty-five times for ^r\p, which in seventy instances is rendered in the same version by tKKXijffia. The synonymous usage in the Sept. of these two expressions is also seen in Prov. V, 14, where tic/cXj/ffia and avvayioyi] stand in juxta- position for the Hebrew "b'H'p and ms'. In the books of the Apocrypha, the word, as in those of the Old Test., retains its general meaning, and is not used specifically for any recognised place of worship. For this the re- ceived phrase seems to be tottoq TrpoffmxrJQ (1 Mace, iii, 46 ; 3 Mace, vii, 20). In the New Test., however, we find ffvvnyioyri, like tKK\t]ffia, used metonymically, more especially for an ajypointed and recognised Jeivish place oftcorship (Matt, iv, 23; vi, 2, 5; ix, 35, etc.). Some- times the word is applied to the tribunal which was connected with or sat in the synagogue in the narrower sense (Matt, x, 17; xxiii, 34; Mark xiii, 9; Luke xxi, 12; xii, 11). Within the limits of the Jewish Church it perhaps kept its ground as denoting the place of meeting of the Christian brethren (James ii, 2). It seems to have been claimed by some of the pseudo-Judaizing, half- Gnostic sects of the Asiatic churches for their meetings (Rev. ii, 9). It was not altogether obsolete, as applied to Christian meetings, in the time of Ig- natius {Ep. ad Trail, c. v; ad Polyc. c. iii). Even in Clement of Alexandria the two words appear united as they had done in the Sept. {tw\ ti)v nvvayioytp' tKKXf}- aiac, Strom, vi, 633). Afterwards, when the chasm be- tween Judaism and Christianitj' became wider. Chris- tian writers were fond of dwelling on the meanings of the two words which practically represented them, and showing how far the synagogue was excelled by the ecclesia (August. Enarr. in I'sa. Lrxx ; Trench, Syno- nyms of N. T. § 1). The cognate word, however, ffvv- a^iQ, was formed or adopted in its place, and applied to the highest act of worship and communion for which Christians met (Suicer, Thesai/r. s. v.).
More definite than the Greek term synagogue is the ancient Hebrew name, beth tephilldh ( i^iSri H'^a, ro;roi," 7rpo(Tevxi)c, or simply irpoffivxi}) ^= house of prayer (Acts xvi, 13, for which the Syriac rightly has XmsiJ rr^j; Josephns, Lj/p, 54), which is now obso- lete, or beth hak-heneseth (npSStl T^'Z') '= house of assembly, which has superseded it. This definite local signification of the term synagogue among the Jews has necessitated the use of another expression for the members constituting the assembly, which is Nn'i'32 or "ilD^, to express our secondary' sense of the word tKKXi}ffia.
II. History of the Origin and Development of the Synagogue. — 1. According to tradition, tlie jiatriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob instituted the prayers three times a day (Berakoth, 26 b), and had places of worship (conip. the Chaldee paraphrases of Onkelos, Jonathan ben-Uzziel, and the Jerusalem Targum on Gen. xxiv, 62, 63 ; XXV, 27). We are informed that there were synagogues in the time of the pious king Hezekiah (^Sanhedrin, 94 b) ; that the great house (snS ri^2) was a stupendous synagogue ; that the manj- houses of Jerusalem (D"^?irTi^ ^HU) which Nebuchadnezzar burned (2 Kings xxv, 9) were the celebrated 480 syna- gogues that existed in Jerusalem (Jerusalem Megillah, iii, 1), and that in Babj-lon the synagogue was to be seen in which Daniel used to pray (Erubin, 21 a). We have the testimony of Benjamin of Tudela, the cele- brated traveller of the Middle Ages, that he himself saw the synagogues built by Moses, David, Obadiah, Nahum, and Ezra (Itinerary, i, 90, 91, 92, 106, 153, ed. Ascher [London, 1840]). It is in harmony with this tradition that James declares " Moses of old time hath
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in every city them that preach him. being read in the synagogues every Sabballi liay" (Acts xv, 21; comp. Philo, ii, 11)7, (!30; Jo.ieplius, Apioii, ii, 18; Baba Kama, 82 a; Jerusalem Migillah, iv, 1). Hut these are simply traditions, which love to invest everything with the halo of tlie remotest antiquity.
2. In the Old Test, itself we find no trace of meet- ings for worship in synagogues. On tlie one hand, it is probable that if new moons and Sabbaths were observed at all, thev must liave been attended b}' some celebra- tion apart from, as well as at, the tabernacle or the Temi)le (,1 Sam. xx, i)\ 2 Kings iv, 23). On the other, so far as we find traces of such local worship, it seems to have ftillen too readily into a fetich religion, sacri- lices to ephods and teraphim (Judg. viii, 27; xvii, 5) in groves and on liigh-places, ot!ering nothing but a contrast to tlie " reasonable service," the prayers, psalms, instruc- tion in the law, of the later synagogue. The special mission of the priests and Levites under Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xvii, 7-9) shows that there was no regular provision for reading the " book of tlie law of the Lord" to the people, and makes it probable that even the rule which prescribed that it should be read once every seven years at the Feast of Tabernacles had fjdlen into disuse "(Deut. xxxi, 10). With the rise of the prophetic order we trace a more distinct though still a partial ap- proximation. AVherever there was a company of such prophets, there must have been a life analogous in many of its features to that of the later Essenes and Thera- peutiB, to that of the ccenohia and monasteries of Chris- tendom. In the abnormal state of the polity of Israel under Samuel, they appear to have aimed at purifying the worship of the high-places from idolatrous associa- tions, and met on fixed days for sacrifice and psalmody (1 Sam. ix, 12 ; x, 5). The scene in 1 Sam. xix, 20-2-1 indicates that the meetings were open to any worship- pers who might choose to come, as well as to " the sons of the prophet," the brothers of the order themselves. The only pre-exilian instance which seems to indicate that the devout in Israel were in the habit of resorting to pious leaders for blessings and instruction on stated occasions is to be found in 2 Kings iv, 23, where the Shunammite's husband asks, " Wherefore wilt thou go to him (Elisha) to-day? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath." Yet 2 Kings xxii, 8, etc. ; 2 Chron. xxxiv, 14, etc., testify undoubtedly against the exist- ence of places of worship under the monarchy. The date of Psa. Ixxiv is too uncertain for us to draw, any inference as to the nature of the " s}'nagogues of God" (bx ■'"1"T2, meeting-places of God), which the invaders are represented as destroying (ver. 8). It may have belonged to the time of the Assyrian or Chaldiean in- vasion (Vitringa, De Si/nng. p. 390-405). It has been referred to that of the ]\Iaccabees (De Wette, Psalmen, ad loc), or to an intermediate period when Jerusalem was taken and the land laid waste by the army of Bagoses, under Artaxerxes II (Ewald, Poet. Biich. ii, 358). The "assembly of the elders," in Psa. cvii, 32, leaves us in like uncertainty.