heads of the Israelite Families (Dva ; iv.
Representatives of Cities or the Ela'ers (WV1; ptirepoL); and v. The Doctors of the Lazy (WitlID ; -ma/J.1=mo), from all grades. This ber, however, was inost probably restricted to the time of Nehemiah, as there can be no doubt that the assemblies which were afterwards held consisted of a smaller number, since, at the time when the Great Synagogue passed over into the Great Sanhedrirn, the representatives consisted of seventy, which became the fixed rule for the San hedrim [SANHEDRIM].
3. The zvork of the G'reat Synagogue.—At its first organisation under Nehemiah, the representatives bound themselves by a most solemn oath (r15N2 ilV11V21) to carry out the following six decisions, which were deemed most essential for the stability of the newly-reconstructed state :—i. Not to inter marry with heathen ; ii. To keep the Sabbath holy ; To observe the Sabbatical year ; iv. Eveiy one to pay annually a third of a shekel to the temple ; v. To supply wood for the altar ; and v4 Regularly to pay the priestly dues (Neh. x. 28-39). The foundation for the reorganisation and reconstruction of the state and the temple-ser vice being thus laid at the first meeting of this synod, the obtaining of the necessary materials for the successful rearing up of the superstructure and the completion of the edifice demanded that the synod should occasionally reassemble to devise and adopt such measures as should secure the accom plishment of the plan and the permanent mainten ance of the sanctuary. To this end the members of the Great Synagogue, vii.Collected the canon ical Scriptures. This was called forth by the effects of the first decision, which involved the ex pulsion of Manasseh, son of the high-priest Joiada, by Nehemiah and the synod for refusing compliance with that decision—i. e. to be separated from his heathen wife, the daughter of Sanballat (Neh. xiii. 23-29). In consequence of this, his father-in-law, Sanballat, obtained permission to build an opposi tion temple on Mount Gerizim, in which Manasseh became high-priest, and whither he was followed by many of the Jews who sympathised with him. This proceeding, however, compelled them to deny the prophets, because their repeated declarations about the sanctity of Jerusalem did not favour the erection of a temple out of the ancient metropolis. To erect
a wall of partition between the Jews and these apostates, and to show to the people which of the ancient prophetical books were sacred, the Sopherint and the men of the Great Synagogue compiled the canon of the prophets. As the early prophets and the great prophets-4 e. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel—like the Pentateuch, were already regarded as sacred, it only remained for the Great Syna gogue to complete the prothetica/ canon by insert ing into it the twelve minor prophets, which this synod accordingly did, as may be seen from Baba Bathm, 15 ; Aboth a'i Rabbi Nathan, cap. i; 2 Maccab. xii. 13. And though some of these autho rities are no longer clear about the books inserted into the canon, yet they all testify to the fact that Nehemiah and the members of the Great Syna gogue were engaged in collecting the canonical books of the prophets. The Hagiographa were not as yet made up, as is evident from the fact that the younger Sirach did not even know the expression =Inn, but used the general term Tit. eiXXa to denote them (Preface to Ecclus.), and that in Alexandria additions were made to the book of Esther, and other books were inserted in what we now call the Hagiographa, as well as from the circumstance that the canonicity of some of the Hagiographa continued to be a point of dif ference between the schools of Shammai and Hillel, which could not have been the case if the canon of the Hagiographa had been definitely made up. viii. They wrote or compiled the book of Esther, as Krochmal has most conclusively shown (Kerem Chemed, v. 74, fE , Prague 1841). ix. They compiled the ritual for private and public worship [SvNAGoGuEJ ; and x. They introduced schools for the study of the divine law OP n+z), and defined the precepts of Holy Writ. The whole of this is indicated in the epitome of the three grand maxims transmitted to us in the laconic style of the Mishna, The prophets transmitted the divine law to the men of the Great Synagogue, who propounded the three maxims, be cautious in judging, get many disciples, and make a hedge about the law' (Aboth, 1). The other work of the men of the Greek synagogne which has come down to us in the name of the Sopherim is given in the article SCRIBES.