15. THE SYNAGOGUE. The origin and development of the synagogue, the story of its simple beginnings from the Babylonian captivity to its appearance in Palestine, to spread from land to land with the dispersion of the Jewish people; the gradual rise of synagogue prayers and customs, which form so vital a factor in the survival of Judaism ;— these are subjects which are full of interest, and not from the standpoint of archeology alone. For the syna gogue is a living organism—it means more than edifice or meeting-place for prayer. It spans the entire history of Israel and is coex tensive with the Jewish consciousness from the earliest dawn of an organized worship and discipline, rite and doctrine, law and custom. The synagogue is thus school, assembly, home, law-court, as well as house of prayer; and some times in an era of persecution it was a fortress also, wherein the Jew resisted the enemy and perished amid the flames of the sanctuary. The history of the synagogue is, then, primarily the history of the Jewish people and their religion, although in the present sketch the subject will be limited to the story of the synagogue in its current meaning.
Origin.— It was when the Jews went to Babylon tinder Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th cen tury before the common era that the desire for public worship and instruction gave rise to the synagogue, contradistinguished from the Tem ple with its forms and sacrifices. Tradition traces a synagogue to King Jehoiachin. of Judah, who, borne captive to Babylonia with his people, founded such a place of assembly at Shafjatib, in the district of Nehardea. Whether the legend be historical or not, synagogues must have spread in the land of the captivity and been transplanted to Palentine on the return under Ezra. For the post-exilic Psalm lxxiv, 4-8 complains of the destruction of places of worship and Ezra (in Neh. viii) is represented as summoning the people to prayer and instruc tion, he himself reading the law as he and the heads of the community stand upon a wooden platform in the centre of the worshippers. To this rude beginning can be traced the modern synagogue.
Synagogue is but one of many ap pellations, and is merely the Greek translation of the Hebrew °Beth ha Keneseth" ("the house of meeting"). It is not found in the Old Testament, but is common in the New, and ap plied to all places of worship outside of the Temple which were so numerous throughout Palestine and the Eastern world. In the Apo crypha references are made to a "Proseuche" ("house of prayer") and the word is found in Josephus and Philo and in Juvenal, too, in an often cited passage, usually, however, with a more restricted meaning than synagogue. It is of interest to learn from the Talmudic tradition (Pesachim 88 a) that Abraham called his place of prayer a "mount," Isaac a °field," and Jacob a "house." The first Temple was called "Beth El," "house of God" (1 Kings vii, 12). In later Biblical books the term (Hoed," "place of as sembly," is used (Lam. i, 4; Ps. lxxiv, 4, 8).
The spread of the synagogue was rapid with the diffusion of the Jewish in the im mediate centuries before and after the fall of Judaea. There are distinct references in the
Talmud to the fact that in Jerusalem were 480 synagogues, so large was the host of foreign Jews who visited the Temple and necessitated the creation of many places of prayer. There were synagogues of the Alexandrians, Liber tines, Cyrenians, Elymwans and Asiatics. In the reign of Augustus Cmsar, Rome had many synagogues, which attracted Roman visitors, leading to the conversion of men and women of eminence, and arousing respect for Jewish Sab baths and festivals. A few centuries later when the Christians of Rome burned down a synagogue, and the usurper Maximus com manded the Roman Senate to rebuild it at the expense of the state, he was called a Jew by Arnbrosius of Milan. In Egypt, with nearly a million of Jews, according to Philo, the famous synagogue at Alexandria was one of the wonders of its century. In the New Testa ment many are the allusions to the synagogues of Damascus, Antioch, Athens, Corinth and elsewhere outside of Palestine and to Nazareth and Capernaum within its limits. To the Jew ish colonies which went from Rome to the south of France and to Spain is due the syna gogue's appearance in Europe. To the east and the west and the isles of the sea, the synagogue spread, and the spirit of persecution which aimed at its destruction only served to maintain and develop its strength. By the running stream or sea shore, so as to admit of ablutions, in those early days the house of prayer was erected, and if in the crowded city no private roof was to exceed it in height. And often be yond the beaten track of travel, in the wilder neis and deserted village, the little Jewish synagogue would be built, to become a refuge for the persecuted in after centuries. Several of the oldest existing synagogues in Europe, so runs the tradition, date back to such an origin. Often, too, the synagogue was erected close to the tombs of famous rabbis—a custom com mon in early times among Christian and Mo hammedan. Visiting Europe and the East to ward the end of the 12th century, Rabbi Petachia tells in his 'Travels' (Benisch's ed., London 1856) of seeing at Nisibis two syna gogues built by Ezra the Scribe, at Bagdad three besides that which tradition refers to Daniel. In Babylon he found 30, all the wor shipers being bare-footed. At Tiberias he vis ited the synagogue ascribed to Joshua, at Da mascus the one supposed to be erected by Elieser ben Asariah, who lived about the 1st Christian century. In Alexandria, Egypt, is the Elijah synagogue, so-called because legend claims that the prophet for some time dwelt on the spot, and into its neighboring small houses sick Jews and Mohammedans are taken, in the hope that Elijah will perform miracles in their behalf. Making every allowance for pious credulity, a reasonable antiquity for such syna gogues must be admitted. The Karaite syna gogue in Jerusalem dates from the 9th century. The synagogue on Rabbi Simon Jochai s grave near Safet and Rabbi Meir's synagogue in Tiberias are of venerable age.