PROSEUCHA a word signifying prayer,' and always so translated in the A. V. It is, however, applied, per melon., to a place of prayer,—a place where assemblies for prayer were held, whether a building or not. In this sense it seems also to be mentioned in Luke vi. 12, where it is said that our Saviour went up into a moun tain to pray, and continued all night iv q rpo roll 0E00, which can hardly bear the sense our translators have put upon it, in prayer to God.' This is admitted by Whitby and others, who infer, from the use of parallel phrases, such as the mount of God,' the bread of God,' the altar of God,' the lamp of God,' etc., which were all things consecrated or appropriated to the service of God, that the phrase rpoo-euxil 0E00 might here signify an oratory of God,' or a place that was devoted to his service, espe cially for prayer. In the same sense the phrase must, still more certainly, be understood in Acts xvi. 13, where we arc informed that Paul and his companions, on the sabbath day, went out of the city, by the river side, oi5 etym., which the A. V. renders where prayer was wont to be made.' But the Syriac here has, be cause there was perceived to be a house of prayer; and the Arabic, a certain place which was sup posed to be a place of prayer.' In both these ver sions due stress is laid upon di 4voniero : where there was taken or supposed to be, or where according to received custom there was, or where there was allowed by law, a proseucha or ora tory ; and where, therefore, they expected to meet an assembly of people. Bos contends (Exercit. Phila., in loc.), however, that the word ivol.ci S'ETO is redundant, and that the passage ought simply to be, where there was a proseucha ;' but in this he is ably opposed by Elsner (Observ. Sacr., in loc.) That there really were such places of devotion among the Jews is unquestionable. They were mostly outside those towns in which there were no synagogues, because the laws or their adminis trators would not admit any. This was, perhaps,
particularly the case in Roman cities and colonies (and Philippi, where this circumstance occurred, was a colony) ; for Juvenal (Sat. iii. 296) speaks of proseuchse, not synagogues, at Rome : `Ede, ubi consistas ; in qua to quxro pros eucha ?' They appear to have been usually situated near a river, or the sea-shore, for the convenience of ablution (Joseph. Antiq. xiv. io. 23). Josephus repeatedly mentions proseuchm in his Life, and speaks of the people being gathered Eis rpocr eurjv (Vita, sec. 44, 46). Sometimes the proseucha was a large building, as that at Tiberias (I. c. sec. 54), so that the name was sometimes applied even to synagogues (Vitringa, Synag. Vet., p. 119). Pros euchm are frequently mentioned as buildings by Philo, particularly in his oration against Flaccus, where he complains that the vpoofuxal of the Jews were pulled down, and that no place was left them in which to worship God and pray for Cwsar (Philo, in Flacc. Opera, p. 752). But, for the most part, the proseuchm appear to have been places in the open air, in a grove, or in shrubberies, or even under a tree, although always, as we may presume, near water, for the convenience of those ablutions which with the Jews always preceded prayer, as, indeed, they did among the pagans, and as they do among the Moslems at the present day. The usages of the latter exhibit something answering to the Jewish proseuchm, in the shape of small oratories, with a niche indicating the di rection of Mecca, which is often seen in Moslem countries by the side of a spring, a reservoir, or a large water-jar, which is daily replenished for the use of travellers (Whitby, De Dieu, Wetstein, Kuinoel, on Acts xvi. 13 ; Jennings's Yewish Anti quities, pp. 379-382 ; Prideaux's Connection, ii. K.