Juadaism

The Synagogue

More important for the New Testament study than the pagan religious and philosophical milieu is the Judaism out of which Christianity arose. Judaism as it was in the first century originated toward the close of the Old Testament period during the Assyro-Babylonian exile. The prophets had predicted exile as punishment for the idolatry practiced by the people of Israel. Fulfillment of the prediction permanently cured them idolatry. Temporary loss of the temple during the Exile gave rise to increased study and observance of the Old Testament law (the Torah) and at least ultimately to establishment of the synagogue as an institution. It is debatable whether synagogues originated during the Exile, during the restoration, or during the intertestamenta period. But a reasonable conjecture is that since the Babylonian conqueror Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the first temple (Solomon's) and deported most of the Jews from Judea, they established local centers of worship called synagogues ("assemblies") wherever ten adult Jewish men could be found. Once established as an institution, synagogues remained and multiplied even after the rebuilding of the temple under Zerubbabel's leadership.

At first not every elaborate, the typical synagogue consisted of a rectangular room perhaps having a raised speaker's platform behind which rested a portable chest or shrine containing Old Testament scrolls. The congregation st on stone benches running along two or three walls and on mats and possibly wooden chairs in the center of the room. In front, facing the congregation, sat the ruler and elders of the synagogue. Singing was unaccompanied. To read from an Old Testament scroll, the speaker stood. To preach, he sat down. For prayer, everyone stood. The typical synagogue service consisted of the following:

• Antiphona recitations of the Shema (Deut. 6:4ff., the "golden text" of Judaism) and of the Shemone Esreh (a series of praises to God)
• Prayer
• Singing of psalms
• Readings from the Hebrew Old Testament law and prophets interspersed with a Targum, that is, a loose oral translation into Aramaic (or Greek), which many Jews understood better than Hebrew
• A sermon (if someone competent at preaching was present)
• A blessing or benediction

There was freedom in the wording of the liturgy. The whole congregation joined in an "Amen" at the close of prayers. The elected head, or ruler, of the synagogue presided over meetings, introduced strangers, selected different members of the congretation to lead recitations, read Scripture, and preach. Qualified visitors were likewise invited to speak, a practice which opened many opportunities for Jesus and Paul to preach the gospel in synagogues. The synagogue attendant (hazzan) took care of the scrolls and furniture, lighted the lamps, blew a trumpet announcing the Sabbath day, stood beside readers to ensure correct pronunciation and accurate reading of the sacred texts, and sometimes taught in the synagogue school. A board of elders exercised spiritual oversight of the congreation. Erring members faced punishments by whipping and excommunication. Alms taken into the synagogue were distributed to the poor. Early Christians, mainly Jews, naturally adopted sunagogal organization as a basic pattern for their churches.

The synagogue was more than a center for religious worship every Saturday. During the week it became a center for adminstration of justice, political meetings, funeral services, education of Jewish lads, and study of the Old Testament. This study tended to obscure the importance of offering sacrifices in the temple. As a result, the rabbi, or teacher of the law, began to upstage the priest.

The Mosiac law prescribed that the sacrifices could be offered only at a central sanctuary. The second temple continued to be important, therefore, until its destruction in A.D. 70. The urging of the prophets Haggain and Zechariah had spurred its building during the Old Testament period of restoration from the Exile. Plundered and descrated by Antiochus Epiphanes in 168 B.C., it had been repaired, cleansed, and rededicated by Judas Maccabeus three years later. Then, at much expense, Herod the Great beautified it even beyond the glory of the first temple, which had been built in grand style more than nine hundred years earlier by King Solomon, son of King David.

The Temple

The temple proper stood in the middle of courts and cloisters covering about twenty-six acres. Gentiles could enter the outer court; but inscriptions in Latin and Greek warned them on pain of death not to enter the inner courts, reserved for Jews alone. Just outside the temple proper stood and altar for burnt offerings and a lavar or tub full of water which the priests used for washing. Inside the first room or holy place, curtained from the outside with a heavy veil, stood a seven-branched golden lampstand that burned olive oil mixed with other substances, a table stocked with bread representing God's providnetial presence, and a small altar for the burning incense. Another heavy veil curtained off the innermost room, the Holy of Holies. into which the high priest entered but once a year, alone, on the Day of Atonement.  The ark of the covenant, the only peice of furniture placed in the Holy of Holies during Old Testament times, had long ago disappeared in the upheavals of invasion and captivity. Besides private sacrifices, daily burnt offerings for the whole nation were sacrificed at midmorning and midafternoon in conjunction with the burning of incense and with prayersm priestly benedicitons, pouring out of wine as alibation (liquid offering), blowing of trumpets, and chanting  and singing by choirs of Levits accompanied with harpes, lyres, and wind instruments. Sabbaths, festivals, and other holy days featured additional ceremonies.