Jesus in the Synagogue - The BAS Library

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Archaeologists have now uncovered 16 synagogues from the early Roman period. These assembly halls inform our understanding of Jewish communal and religious life in Galilee and Judea, including locales where Jesus lived and taught. Explore the biblical and archaeological evidence for the significant role that synagogues played in Jesus’s ministry.

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Footnotes

1. See Marcela Zapata-Meza and Rosaura Sanz-Rincón, “Excavating Mary Magdalene’s Hometown,” BAR, May/June 2017.

2. See Boaz Gross, “The Other Side of Beth Shemesh: Salvage Archaeology Exposes Deep History of Famed Biblical Site,” Bible History Daily (blog), May 28, 2021.

3. See Nathan Steinmeyer, “Archaeologists Discover New First Century Synagogue in Magdala, Israel,” Bible History Daily (blog), December 15, 2021.

Endnotes

1. For a full discussion and citations, see Jordan J. Ryan, The Role of the Synagogue in the Aims of Jesus (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2017).

2. As shown by James F. Strange, “Archaeology and Ancient Synagogues up to about 200 C.E.” in Birger Olsson and Magnus Zetterholm, eds., The Ancient Synagogue from Its Origins Until 200 C.E.: Papers Presented at an International Conference at Lund University, October 14–17, 2001, CBNTS 39 (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiskell, 2003), pp. 37–62.

3. Population estimates here and following come from Chad S. Spigel, Ancient Synagogue Seating Capacities: Methodology, Analysis and Limits (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012), pp. 82, 293–295.

4. Acts 9:1–20; 13:5; 24:12; Josephus, Contra Apion 2.10. In later rabbinic literature, see y. Ta‘anit 4, 8, 69a; b. Gittin 58a; b. Berakhot 8a; y. Kil’aim 9, 4, 32b.

5. Credit is due particularly to Anders Runesson for detailing and popularizing the distinction between “public” and “association” synagogues.

6. Josephus, Against Apion 2.175; Jewish Antiquities 16.43; Jewish War 2.292; Philo, On the Embassy to Gaius 156; Hypothetica 7.12; Every Good Man Is Free 81–82; Luke 4:16–20; Acts 13:15; 15:21; t. Megillah 2:18; t. Sukkah 4:6; m. Megillah 3:1–4:9.