Into the Temple Courts: The Place
of the Synagogues in the Second Temple Period

Donald D. Binder
Southern Methodist University, 1997

    This study examines the literary, epigraphic and architectural evidence contemporaneous with synagogues from the Second Temple period both to ascertain the many facets of the synagogal institution during this era, and to better understand the relationship between the synagogues and the Jerusalem Temple.

    The study proposes that synagogues in both Palestine and the diaspora be viewed not in opposition to the Temple cultus, but as extensions of it, sharing with the Temple common terminology, functions, functionaries, and in some cases even common architecture. In this interpretation, the synagogue served as a unifying institution that allowed worshipers from around the world to share in all the activities of the Temple courts in Jerusalem, except for sacrifice, which was reserved to the central sanctuary. As for this latter function, sources surveyed indicate that envoys represented the local synagogue congregations, presenting sacrifices on their behalf in the Temple.

    Evidence uncovered revealed that both the synagogues and the Temple courts functioned as places for the reading and exposition of scripture, communal prayer, and the observance of holy days; as treasuries, museums for dedicatory and honorific inscriptions, archives, places of refuge and meeting places for deliberative bodies. Common terms used of the synagogue and the Temple were found to include hieron and hieros peribolos. Linguistic analysis also suggested that two other words for the synagogue, synagôgę and proseuchę, were derived from the central cult. Epigraphic and literary evidence implied that priests and Levites provided more of the leadership in the synagogues than has often been assumed.

    Also noted was the recent proposal that the Court of Israel served as the architectural model for the Galilean-type synagogues. Anthropological studies further suggested that the synagogues served as subsidiary precincts which extended the sacrality of the central cultic site beyond a single geographic location.

    The study concludes with brief examinations of the synagogues' transformation during the Rabbinic period, and their relationship to the Christian ekklęsiai.

To Cite this page:

Donald D. Binder, "Abstract of Into the Temple Courts: The Place of the Synagogues in the Second Temple Period."
<http://www.pohick.org/sts/abstract.html>