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The following decree was passed by the council and people on the motion of the magistrates. Whereas the Jewish citizens living in our city have continually received many great privileges from the people and have now come before the council and the people and have pleaded that as their laws and freedom have been restored to them by the Roman Senate and people, they may, in accordance with their accepted customs, come together and have a communal life and adjudicate suits among themselves, and that a place be given them in which they may gather together with their wives and children and offer their ancestral prayers and sacrifices to God; It has therefore been decreed by the council and people that permission shall be given them to come together on stated days to do those things which are in accordance with their laws, and also that a place shall be set apart by the magistrates for them to build and inhabit, such as they may consider suitable for this purpose, and that the market-officials of the city shall be charged with the duty of having suitable food for them brought in (Decree of Sardis ap. Josephus, Ant. 14.259–261).

The people known as Jews, who inhabit the most strongly fortified of cities, called by the natives Jerusalem, have a custom of abstaining from work every seventh day; on those occasions they neither bear arms nor take any agricultural operations in hand, nor engage in any other form of public service, but pray with outstretched hands in the temples until the evening. Consequently, because the inhabitants, instead of protecting their city, persevered in their folly, Ptolemy, son of Lagus, was allowed to enter with his army; the country was thus given over to a cruel master, and the defect of a practice enjoined by law was exposed. That experience has taught the whole world, except that nation, the lesson not to resort to dreams and traditional fancies about the law, until its difficulties are such as to baffle human reason (Agatharchides ap. Josephus, Ap. 1.209–211).

Agatharcides finds such conduct ridiculous; dispassionate critics will consider it a grand and highly meritorious fact that there are men who consistently care more for the observance of their laws and for their religion than for their own lives and their country's fate (Josephus, Ap. 1.212).

Take care to sanctify the sabbath day. Work for six days, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord. You shall not do any work on it, you and all your help, except to praise the LORD in the assembly of the elders and to glorify the Mighty One in the council of the older men (Bib. Ant. 11.8).

One of their number, however, a depraved and mischievous man named Ananias, proposed to the assembly that a public fast should be announced, in God's name, for the following day, recommending that they should reassemble at the same place and hour, without arms, in order to attest before God their conviction that without his aid no armour could avail them. This he said, not from motives of piety, but in order to catch me and my friends in this defenseless condition. I [Josephus] felt bound to acquiesce, for fear of being thought contemptuous of a pious suggestion. As soon, therefore, as we had retired to our homes, Jonathan's party wrote instructions to John to come to them next morning with as large a force as he could muster, as he might have me at once at his mercy and do what he chose with me. On receipt of this letter John prepared to act accordingly. For my part, on the following day I ordered two of my bodyguard, of the most approved valour and staunch loyalty, to accompany me, with daggers concealed under their dress, for self-defense in the event of an assault on the part of our foes. I wore a breastplate myself and, with a sword so girt on so as to be as little conspicuous as possible, entered the synagogue. Orders having been given by Jesus, the chief magistrate, who kept a watch on the door himself, to exclude all my companions, he allowed only me and my [two] friends to enter. We were proceeding with the ordinary service and engaged in prayer, when Jesus rose and began to question me about the furniture and uncoined silver which had been confiscated after the conflagration of the royal palace, asking who had the keeping of them. He raised this point merely in order to occupy the time until John’s arrival (Josephus, Vita 290–295).

At dawn pouring out through the gates, they made their way to the parts of the beach near at hand, since their synagogues had been taken from them, and standing in the most open space cried aloud with one accord, "Most Mighty King of mortals and immortals, we have come here to call on earth and sea, and air and heaven, into which the universe is partitioned, and on the whole world, to give Thee thanks They are our only habitation, expelled as we are from all that men have wrought, robbed of our city and the buildings within its walls, public and private, alone of all men under the sun bereft of home and country through the malignancy of a governor. Thou givest also a glimpse of cheering hopes that Thou wilt amend what remains for amendment, in that Thou hast already begun to assent to our prayers. For the common enemy of the nation, under whose leadership and by whose instruction these misfortunes have befallen it, who in his pride thought that they would promote him to honour, Thou hast suddenly brought low; and that not when he was afar off, so that they whom he ill-treated would hear it by report and have less keen pleasure, but just here close at hand almost before the eyes of the wronged to give them a clearer picture of the swift and unhoped-for visitation" (Philo, Flacc. 122–124).

"And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward" (Matt 6:5).

This segment from Matthew's Gospel expresses disapproval of individuals who prayed immodestly within the synagogues.