Synagogue ruler

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Founder inscription of a Jerusalem synagogue from the 1st century AD: Theodotos was the 3rd generation ruler ( Israel Museum )
Founder inscription of the synagogue chief, Synagogue of Naro , today Hammam Lif. ( CIL VIII 12457b; Bardo National Museum , Tunis)
Donor inscription of the synagogue head of Apamea, ( Royal Museums for Art and History , Brussels)

Synagogue chief is an office mentioned in nine places in the New Testament .

Archisynágogos

The Greek term ἀρχισυνάγωγος archisynágōgos can also be translated as "meeting leader" and occurs in this meaning as a title in pagan cults. But in the New Testament the office of archisynágōgos is only mentioned in connection with Judaism. “No other title can be found in the context of the synagogue more often in ancient literature and is therefore also familiar to outsiders.” A decree of the Codex Theodosianus, for example, freed the Jewish priests, the “fathers of the synagogue” and the synagogue rulers, as well as everyone in a synagogue had a task from the munera corporalia . The term does not appear in the writings of Flavius ​​Josephus and Philo of Alexandria , but occasionally in patristic literature .

Rosh ha-Knesset

The Hebrew term corresponding to the archisynágōgos , which is used in the Mishnah , is ראש הכנסת rosch ha-knesset, "head of the assembly". However, the Greek documents are much older, so that rosch ha-knesset can be a loan translation from the Greek usage of the diaspora .

The synagogue servant brought the Torah scroll and gave it to the synagogue ruler, and the synagogue ruler gave it to the priest ruler, and the priest ruler gave it to the high priest, and the high priest received it standing (and read from it while standing) . "

- Mishnah Joma VII 1

Job description

From literary and inscription sources it is known that the position of the archisynágōgos was respected beyond the synagogue community. Synagogue rulers ensured that order was observed in the synagogue ( Lk 13.14  LUT ), distributed the tasks in the divine service ( Acts 13.15  LUT ) and were responsible for the maintenance of the synagogue building, if necessary from their own resources. Therefore, this office was filled with a wealthy personality.

Donor and other inscriptions

The epigraphic evidence for the office of archisynágōgos is spread over the entire Roman Empire from the 1st to the 7th century AD ; it is a "Greco-Roman phenomenon." The title is attested several times in the following places: Acmonia in Phrygia , Apamea , Venosa , Jerusalem and Rome. The inscriptions usually have the character of an obituary for deceased synagogue rulers. They are praised as benefactors, as builders or founders of a synagogue, or as donors for the renovation. Specifically, they donated a stone barrier around the Bima (in Myndos ), a mosaic floor (in Hammam Lif / Naro), the entrance area (the synagogue of Apamea ) or a triclinium (in Caesarea).

Being synagogue director did not prevent other offices from being held in addition:

  • in the Jewish community as leader, elder, rabbi or priest ;
  • outside of the same as the holder of a military or civil office ( principales , in Moesia ) or a customs office (in Intercisa ).

Several people could be synagogue heads of a community at the same time; often the office was hereditary. Women and children are also referred to in the inscriptions as rulers of the synagogue:

  • Rufina, head of the synagogue in Smyrna ;
  • Theopempta, head of the synagogue, and her son Eusebios (in Myndos);
  • Kallistos, a boy who died at the age of three (in Venosa).

While for the older research it was evident that both women and children would only have carried the title archisynágōgos on account of honor, with no practical consequences, today one sees no reason to exclude women from this leadership position.

literature

  • Bernadette Brooten : Women Leaders in The Ancient Synagogue: Inscriptional Evidence and Background Issues , Scholars Press, 1982, ISBN 978-0-89130-587-3 .
  • Carsten Claussen: Assembly, congregation, synagogue: the Hellenistic-Jewish environment of the early Christian congregations (studies on the environment of the New Testament 27). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002. ISBN 3-525-53381-0 .
  • Lee I. Levine: The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years . Yale University Press 2005. ISBN 0-300-07475-1 .
  • Rainer Metzner: The celebrities in the New Testament: a prosopographical commentary . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011. ISBN 978-3-525-53967-5 .
  • Tessa Rajak, David Noy: Archisynagogoi: Office, Title and Social Status in the Greco-Jewish Synagogue . In: The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 83 (1993), pp. 75-93.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Walter Bauer: Greek-German dictionary on the writings of the New Testament and early Christian literature . Ed .: Kurt Aland, Barbara Aland. 6th edition. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1988, ISBN 3-11-010647-7 , Sp. 226 .
  2. ^ Carsten Claussen: Assembly, community, synagogue . S. 256 .
  3. ^ Carsten Claussen: Assembly, community, synagogue . S. 284 .
  4. ^ Carsten Claussen: Assembly, community, synagogue . S. 263 .
  5. ^ Rainer Metzner: The celebrities in the New Testament . S. 24-25 .
  6. ↑ Lee I. Levine: The Ancient Synagogue . S. 427 .
  7. ↑ Lee I. Levine: The Ancient Synagogue . S. 417 .
  8. ^ A b Lee I. Levine: The Ancient Synagogue . S. 424 .
  9. ^ Samuel Krauss: Synagogal antiquities . Benjamin Harz, Berlin / Vienna 1922, p. 118 .
  10. ^ Carsten Claussen: Assembly, community, synagogue . S. 260 .