wv, nrt: nnz, rump, vim, which could only be offered up in the presence of the legal number, were assig,ned to him (Berachoth, 21 b, and Rashi, loco), and he was not only the mouthpiece of those who were present in the con gregation on the most solemn feasts, as on the Great Day of Atonement and New Year, but he was the surrogate of those who, by illness or other wise, were prevented from attending the place of worship (Rosh lia-Shana, 35 ; Maimonides, lad Ila-Chezaka Hilchoth Tephila, viii. lo).
iv. The Interpreter or Afethurgeman (parnn, pninn).—After the Babylonish captivity, when the Hebrew language was rapidly disappearing from among the common people, it became the custom to have an interpreter at the reading desk (rin,z) by the side of those who were alternately called up to read the several sections of the lessons from the Law and the Prophets [HAPHTARA]. This Illethurgentan had to interpret into Chaldee or into any other vernacular of the country a verse at a time when the lesson from the law was read, as the reader was obliged to pause as soon as Ile finished the reading of a verse in Hebrew, and was not allowed to begin the next verse till the Me thzergeman had tmnslated it ; whilst in the lesson from the prophets three verses were read and in terpreted at a time (11trirhna Megilla, iv. 4). The reader and the interpreter had to read in the same tone of voice, and the one was not allowed to be louder than the other (Berachoth, 45 a). The interpreter was not allowed to look at the law whilst interpreting, lest it should be thought that the paraphrase was written down. Like that of conducting public worship, the office of interpreter was not permanently vested in any single indivi dual. Any one of the congregation who was capable to interpret was asked to so. Even a minor—i. e. one under thirteen years of age—or one whose garments were in such a, ragged condition that he was disqualified for reading the lesson from the law, or a blind man, could be asked to go up to the reading-desk and explain the lesson (Mishna Megilla, iv. 5 ; Maimonides, lad Ha-Chezaka Hilchoth Tephila, xii. Jo-14).
v. The Chazan, or attena'ant on the Synagogue (Min 1111-= inrnper7js) was the lowest servant, ancl was more like the sexton or the beadle in our churches. He had the care of the furniture, to
open the doors, to clean the synagogue, to light the lamps, to get the building ready for service, to summon the people to woiship, to call out (-11n3/4) the names of such persons as were selected by the ruler of the synagogue to come up to the platform to read a section from the law and the prophets [HAPHTARA], to hand the law to ordinary readers, or to the ruler of the synagogue, when it had to be given to the high-priest, in which case the cipxt o-upequryos took the law from the Chazan, gave it to the chief priest, who handed it to the high-priest yorna, viii. ; Sota, vii. 7) ; he had to take it back after reading- (Luke iv. 17-20), etc. Nothing, therefore, can be more clear than the posi tion which this menial servant occupied in the synagogue in the time of Christ and a few centuries after. The Talm,ud distinctly declares that the Chazan is the beadle ar the sexton of the congre gation, and not the legate or the angel of the church cilzv umv ; comp. Tosiphta yoma, 68 b ; and Mishna Bera choth, vii. r, for the meaning of Vnt>'). The no tion that his office resembled that of theChristian (deacon,' as well us the assertion that, like the /evens and the elders, he was appointed by the im position of hands' (Plumptre, in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, s.v. Synagoome'), have evidently arisen from a confusion of trie Chazan in the days of Christ with the Chazan five centuries after Christ. Besides, not only was this menial servant not appointed by the imposition of hands, but the legatus himself, as we have seen, had no laying on of hands. It was about A.D. 520, when the know ledge of the Hebrew language disappeared from among the people at large, that alterations had to be introduced into the synagogical service, which involved a change in the office of the Chazan. As the ancient practice of asking any member to step before the ark and conduct the divine service could not be continued, it was determined that the Chazan, who was generally also the schoolmaster of the infant school, should be the regular reader of the liturgy, which he had to recite with intona tion Wasecheth Sopherim, x. xi. 4 ; xiv. 9, 14; Graetz, Geschichte der Yuclen, v. 26).