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Defining The First-Century CE Synagogue: Problems And Progress

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Howard Clark Kee
Affiliation:
220 West Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA

Extract

The basic assumptions of many New Testament scholars about the nature of the synagoge in the first century prior to the First Jewish Revolt continue to match those enunciated by Lee Levine in his introduction to Ancient Synagogues Revealed. The features which he includes in his description are (1) regular prayers; (2) study; (3) sacred meals; (4) repository for communal funds; (5) law courts; (6) general assembly hall; (7) hostel; (8) residence for synagogue officials. Although he refers to Josephus, Acts and Ezra as sources for this historical reconstruction, the primary basis for his assumptions is the familiar Theodotus inscription, found by the French archaeologist Raimond Weill in the course of excavations in the socalled City of David section of the southeastern hill of Jerusalem from November 1913 to March 1914

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

1 Levine, Lee J., Ancient Synagogues Revealed (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1981).Google Scholar His analysis of the synagogue was developed and expanded in his introduction, especially in relation to diaspora synagogues, in a series of essays by various scholars in The Synagogue in Late Antiquity (Philadelphia: American Schools of Oriental Research, 1987). Recently Levine's understanding of the synagogue in the early Roman period has been significantly altered, and now more nearly resembles the historical view set forth in this essay.

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