Judaism I. Группа авторов

him and saw the temple in ruins. ›Woe to us,‹ cried Rabbi Joshua, ›that this, the place where the sins of Israel are atoned for, lies waste.‹—›My son,‹ replied Rabban Yoḥanan, ›do not be concerned. We have another atonement which is as effective as this one: That is deeds of mercy, as it says: ›I desire mercy, not sacrifice‹ (Hos 6:6).¹⁰³

      The teacher solves the central problem: how can life go on after the destruction of the Temple? Without the daily sacrifices in the Temple, the world ought to perish because of the sins of the people. We note that in his answer to the student the teacher quotes the Scripture, which now becomes an all-determining entity in a still greater and more comprehensive way. It, and especially the Torah within it, were the only thing that remained after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. And so, eighteen centuries later, Heinrich Heine could call the Torah the »portable fatherland« of the Jews.¹⁰⁴

      6.4 The followers of Jesus of Nazareth

      When the Jerusalem temple was still in existence, the Jesus movement came into being, worshiping Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah, who after his death, resurrection, and ascension, would return. Jesus’ death on the cross is interpreted as atonement for sin, in line with Isa 53:5, so that no more animal sacrifices are needed. The Jewish followers of Jesus may initially have withdrawn from the sacrificial cult, not temporarily as with the community of the Yahad or the Essenes until a Torah-compliant temple service is possible, but in principle because all sacrifices have become obsolete following the death of Jesus. According to the book of Revelation, there will be no temple in the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:22).

      7 The synagogue—History and Significance

      7.1 The emergence of the synagogue

      The beginnings of the synagogue are unclear. Some theorize that in the Babylonian Exile, far from the (destroyed) temple of Jerusalem, a sacrifice-less service developed which was held at certain localities or buildings, which were later called synagogues. The returnees from the Babylonian Exile would have returned to the old order after the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem and the associated sacrificial service. The »synagogue« would have been a sort of stand-in for the temple and would therefore have had religious significance. However, there is no literary or archaeological evidence for such assumptions.

      Rather, first-century witnesses lead us to believe that synagogues served community purposes in the broadest sense, including religious ones. These are functions of the ancient city gate. According to Neh 8:1–4, Ezra reads the Torah, which is then explained (Neh 8.7f.), in the square in front of the Water Gate. Even if various functions of the city gate were transferred to the synagogue, the religious aspect certainly gained more importance as time went on. It was unique in its religious form of expression.

      Neither sacrifices nor cultic images or ritual processions took place there, but rather the reading and study of Scripture. The synagogue may have been first and foremost a communal institution, but its religious component was uniquely Jewish.¹⁰⁵

      7.2 The functions of the synagogue

      The emergence of the Jewish synagogues has nothing to do with the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, but the latter strengthened their religious function. There are literary references to upwards of a dozen synagogues in Judea and Galilee before the destruction of the Temple: in the New Testament, in Josephus, in the Damascus Document, and in early rabbinic literature. There is archaeological evidence for Gamla, Masada, Herodion, Jerusalem, and probably Capernaum.¹⁰⁶ A political and social component may be deduced from the archaeological findings as well. An impressive testimony is the Theodotos inscription in Jerusalem, a founder inscription which also lists the functions of the building complex:¹⁰⁷

      (1) Theodotos, son of Vettenos, priest and

      (2) synagogue ruler, son of a synagogue

      (3) ruler, grandson of a synagogue ruler,

      (4) built the synagogue for the read-

      (5) ing of the law and for the teaching of the commandments and

      (6) the hostel and the side rooms and the

      (7) water installations for lodgings for those

      (8) from afar, who have need (of these facilities). It (the synagogue) was built

      (9) by his fathers and the elders and Simonides.¹⁰⁸

      The buildings-complex comprised the actual synagogue building for the reading of Torah and teaching the commandments, residential facilities for pilgrims, and the water installations for cultic purification. For officers in the synagogue (congregations) only the »ruler of the synagogue« is mentioned, an office known from the New Testament (Galilee: Mark 5:22, 35, 36, 38; Luke 8:49; 13:14; Asia Minor: Acts 13:15).

      In summary, »Before 70, the synagogue in Judea certainly did not replace the Temple as the central institution; but with its new tasks the synagogue became a key pillar of local Jewish life. The basis for continuity in the time of the destruction of the Temple had thus already been laid in the generations before.«¹⁰⁹

      7.3 Synagogues in the Diaspora

      Two outstanding examples may be mentioned: Egypt and Rome

      Egypt

      The synagogue became a key factor in the preservation of Jewish identity in the Diaspora. The Egyptian diaspora became especially important in the third century BCE, but goes back much further. Already in the time of Jeremiah (ca. 645–580 BCE), we learn of a Jewish diaspora in Egypt (Jer 43:1–7). In the fifth century BCE, a Jewish military colony protected the southern border of Egypt on the island of Elephantine in the Nile, and a variety of Aramaic documents (marriage contracts, property transfers, loan agreements, freeing of slaves) provide an insight into their lives.¹¹⁰ The Jewish military colony had built a temple for their God Yahu. There were economic reasons for Jews to have emigrated to Egypt. In addition, there were deportations due to armed conflict. When Ptolemy I Soter took Jerusalem in 302 BCE, by subterfuge on the Sabbath—a day when the Jews offered no defense for religious reasons—he deported a large part of the population to Egypt. The second Ptolemy, Philadelphus, is supposed to have ordered a generous release of Jewish slaves abducted by his father, in which context the Letter of Aristeas mentions the exaggerated number of 100,000 (Pseudo-Aristeas 12). The so-called Zenon archive (mid-3rd cent. BCE) gives insight into everyday Jewish life and mentions, in addition to Jewish domestic slaves, free Jewish laborers of the lowest social level: vintners, shepherds, dog wardens, and brickmakers.¹¹¹ Jewish identity is testified to in a brick invoice, which gives an exact account of delivery on individual days of the week, but indicates sabbata on the seventh day.¹¹²

      There is evidence of synagogue buildings in Egypt from the latter third century BCE.¹¹³ We may take as an example the inscription of Shedia, from 246–221 BCE: »On behalf of king Ptolemy and queen Berenice his sister and wife and their children, the Jews (dedicated) the proseuche.«¹¹⁴ It is notable that synagogues in Egypt (and elsewhere in the Greek-speaking diaspora of the East)¹¹⁵ are generally called proseuche. Proseuche, »prayer,« here means the building or the place, or what takes place there: prayer. The term »synagogue,« on the other hand, became widely established in the land of Israel and in the western Diaspora. Martin Hengel¹¹⁶ explains the difference on the basis of the deliberate distinction in Judea between the Temple and the synagogue (»assembly [house]«).¹¹⁷ It might also be the case that the synagogue in the land of Israel developed from the assembly at the city gate and gained this name in line with the secular character of those assemblies.

      Rome

      After 41 CE, following the anti-Jewish pogrom of 38 BCE in Alexandria, Philo of Alexandria wrote in his Legatio ad Gaium (Caligula) about the counter-image of imperial magnanimity and care for the Jews, Augustus:

      He