Synagogue

The synagogue (Greek sunagoge, "assembly") was the central institution of Jewish communal worship, Torah study, and legal assembly from the Second Temple period onward. The origins of the synagogue are uncertain but are commonly traced to the Babylonian exile (sixth century BC), when Jews living away from the destroyed temple required a place for prayer and scripture reading. By the first century AD, synagogues were found throughout the Jewish diaspora and in every significant town in Palestine — Jesus regularly taught in them (Luke 4:16–21), and Paul consistently entered local synagogues as his first point of contact in new cities (Acts 13:5, 14; 17:1–2). The word appears in the Old Testament only once (Psalm 74:8, where KJV translates the Hebrew mo'adey-el), though the institution is reflected in Ezekiel's gatherings of elders. The synagogue service centered on the reading and exposition of the Torah, prayer, and the Shema; it was led by a ruler of the synagogue (archisynagogos) and an attendant (chazzan). The early church modeled many of its assembly practices on the synagogue pattern.