Development of Synagogues – Origins, Function, and Women

Development of Synagogues – Origins, Function, and Women

Various Views about the Meaning of the Word “Synagogue” and the Debate about the Existence of Synagogues Around the Turn of the Era. 

According to Israel & Judaism Studies (1), creating a public place for worship and ritual can be dated back to the beginning of human existence due to the remains of ancient temples and alters worldwide. The synagogue is among the oldest places of worship established in the BC era. One of the meanings of the synagogue was provided by Israel & Judaism Studies. According to Israel & Judaism Studies (2), a synagogue means a house of assembly, prayer, and study. He adds that a synagogue is also defined as the Jewish community’s spiritual, intellectual, and social centre. Sauter (1) defines a synagogue as a place devoted to Jewish instruction and worship. Modern synagogues combine ceremonies and prayers and the physical structure. Rachel Hachlili states that there is a debate about whether synagogues existed before the Roman destruction. Documented evidence, such as the New Testament, identifies specific buildings where the Torah was read and taught, such as synagogues. Rachel Hachlili cites a verse in the New Testament, Mark 1.21, which states, “Jesus and his disciples travelled to Capernaum, and “when the Sabbath came, he [Jesus] entered the synagogue and taught.” This statement indicates that synagogues can be dated back to the ancient era when religion was developing because people needed a place to listen to religious teachings. According to Eyland (1), the origin of a synagogue as a gathering of people and buildings is undocumented and obscure. Sigonio introduced the idea that synagogues were a social establishment in the sixth century BCE. Talmud later justified the origin of the synagogue in Babylon by focusing on Ezekiel 11:16, which states, “Thus saith the Lord God; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.” However, Sigonio’s argument has been questioned because it does not convince the audience since Ezekiel does not consider a synagogue as a social institution but considers God as the source of refuge. Eyland concludes that synagogues were established in Egypt as places of education and prayer by the third century BCE and the idea of synagogues as social institutions spread from Egypt to other countries. He also argues that there were synagogues in Samaria and Galilea by the early first century CE. However, in Judea, synagogues emerged in the first century CE as a central communal institution for the Diaspora and Palestinian Jews. Synagogues also emerged between 260 and 290 CE when a city in Sardis was converted into a synagogue due to the economic crisis until it was destroyed in an earthquake in the early 17^th century (3). Since then, synagogues, especially in Muslim and Jewish-dominated regions worldwide, have been built and repaired to preserve them as important places of worship.

The Discovery and Significance of the Theodotus Inscription for this Debate and What it Tells Us about the Function of Synagogues.

The Theodotus inscription was discovered by Raimund Weill when he was excavating at the southern end of Ophel’s eastern ridge (Verbin 243). The inscription is significant because it created the foundation for discussing leadership, nomenclature, and function of ancient synagogues. It lists the projected functions of the synagogue as a dwelling of teaching commandments, reading the law, and a hostel for people visiting Jerusalem. The inscription indicates that Theodotos, who was the son of Vettenus, a head of the synagogue and priest, a son of the head of the synagogue and a grandson of the head of the synagogue, built the synagogue for the teaching of commandments and reading the law and accommodating guests because the water fittings and chambers serve as an inn for the people in need from various countries. The inscription shows that the ancient synagogues were a center for learning and teaching Jewish law. The inscription also references the line of succession in Theodotus’s lineage because it suggests that synagogue leadership could be passed from generation to generation. Rachel Hachlili’s theory on the change in the purpose of the synagogue in the first century suggests that the second period of building temples was used to read Torah and a study center. The aim of the temples was didactic and acted as a meeting place for the people in the community. In late antiquity, the synagogues emphasized ceremonies and prayer because their functions were ritualistic and liturgical. According to Rachel Hachlili, the focal point of the synagogues built in early BC was to create a hall where people could meet. In late antiquity, the synagogues were the Torah Shrine built in Jerusalem (Sauter 3). The benches in the synagogues built in the early BC were built along the synagogue’s four walls facing the center of the hall. The benches in the synagogues built in late antiquity faced the Torah Shrine, and there was simple architectural decoration. The synagogues constructed in late antiquity also had a lot of ornaments inside and outside, including wall paintings and mosaic floors.

The Evidence for Women Serving as Archisynagogos of Synagogues

According to Duncan (39), the evidence for women serving archisynagogos of synagogues includes having a synagogue title and making financial contributions to the synagogues within the community from their financial resources. Serving as archisynagogos of synagogues enabled women to act in their own right in financial contributions and holding office. Biological relationships are emphasized instead of marital ones in the dedicatory inscriptions implying community and household interests’ prioritization. Riet van Bremen and Mahmood provide the two positions in the debate over what it meant for a woman to be archisynagogos. Mahmood conducted a study about the participation of women in the women’s devotion movement in Egypt, which was part of the Muslim Revival movement. Mahmood focused on the contradictory fact that many Muslim women actively and willingly strengthen and support cultural systems that reinforce their status as subordinates. Egyptian women started organizing community religious lessons in the 1970s by focusing on the Qur’an and other religious applications of religious tenets and literature in their daily life resulting in the increase in the invention of religious media and veiling and rejecting perceived Western culture and secularism to support principles of virtuous behaviour and Islamic piety (Duncan 44). According to Mahmood, the paradox of Egyptian women supporting subordinate structures can be addressed if we ignore our conventions about the worldwide assessment of positive freedom. She suggests that instead of locating agency in moral and political autonomy, the denotation of the agency should be reviewed within the grammar of the related concepts.

The evidence for women serving archisynagogos of synagogues is also evident in Riet van Bremen’s study. Van Bremen confronted the two facets of the other scholars’ methodological attitudes to Greco-Roman civic inscriptions. One of the facets suggests that quantity influences quality. The second facet suggests that in its own right, the action includes a standard by which authority or status could be assessed in the prehistoric world. Van Bremen stated that giving women titles is often used as evidence for importance, and by demonstrating quantity, people can make an affirmative qualitative point, which is why women were prominent when serving in synagogues. He also suggests that the inscriptions of women’s civic titles are a small fraction of the general corpus, which does not impact their significance but makes an argument by focusing on quantity. Van Bremen also observed that although independence is a current strategy for assessing authority and status, it is anachronistic when applied to antiquity hence the need to comprehend the roles, status, and community activities that women engaged in within family contexts. Therefore, van Bremen’s approach considered evaluating independence and applying quantitative reasoning to analyze women’s familial and social contexts with specific titles and drawing conclusions from analyses. According to Duncan (43), considering the influence and interests of community and family on the choice of the title of a person serving in the synagogue creates room for the revaluation of female donors and titled women as functioning within specific social and familial contexts and within specific Jewish reactions to the pressure from the patronage framework introduced in the Greco-Roman era. Therefore, Jewish women were responsible for making monetary contributions to the synagogue communities from their financial resources and without mentioning a legal guardian or husband.van Bremen argues that emphasizing biological instead of marital relationships in the dedicatory inscriptions suggests prioritizing community and familial interests. The author adds that the relative paucity of the inscriptions related to Jewish religious life compared to the Greco-Roman corpus makes the large-scale background analysis suggested by van Bremen difficult for the inscriptions of synagogue titles.

The View I think is more likely and why

I think van Bremen’s view is more likely because it offers rational explanations about the relationship between family and the responsibilities given to women who served as archisynagogos of synagogues. His explanation of the role of Plancia Magna as a high priestess shows that it would be difficult for the women serving as archisynagogos of synagogues to separate their family and social responsibilities from their responsibilities as religious leaders. Plancia held liturgies and offices in the synagogues and was responsible for providing financial resources for the construction of the city’s gate complex. She was married to a prominent senator, but her husband’s name is omitted in the dedicatory synagogue inscriptions, thus demonstrating that Plancia was functioning in her own right. Van Bremen suggested that Plancia was acting as her family’s community representative because her brother and father held leadership positions as senators in Rome, thus obliging her to a reciprocity system that requires an individual to make civic contributions that reflect family strength. Therefore, it is evident that there is a complex relationship between community and familial interests, thus influencing the titles given to women because the titles had to benefit the community and the family rather than only the person holding the title. Such a scenario is likely to occur because when women were given a title in their synagogue, their actions, such as financial contributions to support the activities in the synagogue, benefited the community, and a good reputation benefited the family and created room for the lineage of leaders through leadership succession.

References

Duncan, Carrie. “Inscribing Authority: Female Title Bearers in Jewish Inscriptions.” Religions, vol. 3, no. 1, 2012, pp. 37–49, https://doi.org/10.3390/rel3010037.

Eyland, Peter. “Judaism in the Graeco-Roman Diaspora : The Origin and Importance of the Synagogue.” Origin and Importance of the Synagogue, 2004, www.insula.com.au/ahrel/synagogue.html.

Israel & Judaism Studies. “Synagogue Services.” Israel & Judaism Studies (IJS), 5 Dec. 2018, www.ijs.org.au/synagogue-services/.

Sauter, Megan. “Ancient Synagogues in Israel and the Diaspora – Biblical Archaeology Society.” Biblical Archaeology Society –, 4 Jan. 2023, www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/daily-life-and-practice/ancient-synagogues-in-israel-and-the-diaspora/.

Verbin, John S. “Dating Theodotos (CIJ II 1404).” Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 51, no. 2, 2000, pp. 243–280, https://doi.org/10.18647/2276/jjs-2000.

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Development of Synagogues – Origins, Function, and Women

The origins of the Jewish synagogue are shrouded in mystery. Outline the various views about the meaning of the word “synagogue” and what is the debate about the existence of synagogues around the turn of the era. Next, we will discuss the discovery and significance of the Theodotus inscription for this debate and what it tells us about the function of synagogues. In this regard, consider Rachel Hachlili’s theory about the change in the function of synagogues in the first century. Finally, outline the evidence for women serving as archisynagogos of synagogues and explain the two positions in the debate over what precisely it meant for a woman to be archisynagogos. Which view do you think is more likely and why?