SECTION IV. On the Synagogues of the Jews.

The SYNAGOGUES were buildings in which the Jews assembled for prayer, reading, and hearing the sacred Scriptures, and other instructions. Though frequently mentioned in the historical books of the New Testament their origin is not very well known; and many learned men are of opinion that they are of recent institution. In the time of the Maccabees, synagogues became so frequent that they were to be found in almost every place in Judæa. Maimonides says, that wherever any Jews were, they erected a synagogue. Not fewer than four hundred and eighty are said to have been erected in Jerusalem, previously to its capture and destruction by the Romans. In the evangelical history we find, that wherever the Jews resided, they had one or more synagogues, constructed after those at Jerusalem. It does not appear that the synagogues had any peculiar form of structure; there were, however, various officers whose business it was to see that the duties of religion were decently performed therein. These were, 1. The RULERS OF THE SYNAGOGUE (Luke xiii. 14. Mark v. 22.), of whom there appear to have been several: they regulated all its concerns, and gave permission to persons to preach. 2. Next to the Ruler of the Synagogue was an officer, whose province it was to offer up public prayers to God for the whole congregation: hence he was called Sheliach Zibbor or, the ANGEL OF THE CHURCH, because, as their messenger, he spoke to God for them. ii. iii. the ministers of the Asiatic angels. 3. The Chazan appears to have been a different officer from the Sheliach Zibbor, and inferior to him in dignity. He seems to have been the person, who in Luke iv. 20. is termed the MINISTER, and had the charge of the sacred books; and whose office it was to hand the book of the law to the person who was to read it, and return it to its place.

Hence also, in Rev. churches are termed

The service performed in the synagogue consisted of three parts, viz. prayer, reading the Scriptures, and preaching, or exposition of the Scriptures.

1. The first part of the Synagogue-service is PRAYER; for which some learned men have thought that the Jews had liturgies, in which are all the prescribed forms of synagogue-worship. Though the eighteen prayers used by the modern Jews are of great antiquity, yet they cannot be referred to the time of Jesus Christ.

2. For the more commodious READING OF THE SCRIPTURES, the Law was divided into Paraschioth or Sections, and the Prophets into Haphtoroth or Portions of which a brief notice has already been given in page 120, 121.

3. The third and last part of the synagogue-service is EXPOSITION OF THE SCRIPTURES and PREACHING to the people. The first was performed at the time of reading them, and the other after the reading of the law and the prophets. In Luke iv. 15-22. we have an account of the service of the synagogue in the time of Christ; who appears to have taught the Jews in both these ways. From this passage we learn that when Jesus Christ came to Nazareth, his own city, he was called out, as a member of that synagogue, to read the haphtorah, that is, the section or lesson out of the prophets for that day; which appears to have been the fifty-first haphtorah, and to have commenced with the first verse of Isa. lxi. Further, he stood up (as it was customary, at least, for the officiating minister to do out of reverence for the word of God), to read the Scriptures; and unrolled the manuscript (or opened the volume, as it is rendered in Luke iv. 17.), until he came to the lesson appointed for that day; which having read, he rolled it up again (or closed the book, verse 20.) and gave it to the proper officer; and then he sat down and expounded it agreeably to the usage of the Jews. The antient books being written on parchment or vellum, and similar flexible materials, were rolled round a stick, and, if they were very long, round

two, from the extremities.* This is the case in the vignette, inserted in page 110. which will convey some idea of the manner in which the Synagogue Rolls are unrolled. It is taken from the original and very valuable manuscript in the British Museum, which is described in p. 110. suprà.

Those who had been guilty of any notorious crime, or were otherwise thought unworthy, were cast out of these synagogues, that is, excommunicated, and excluded from partaking with the rest in the public prayers and religious offices there performed; so that they were looked upon as mere Heathens, and shut out from all benefit of the Jewish religion, which exclusion was esteemed scandalous.

CHAPTER II.

SACRED PERSONS.

SECTION I.. Of the Jewish Church and its Members.

FROM their covenant-relation to Almighty God, the whole Jewish nation are in the Scriptures frequently termed holy; and the Apostles, being Jews by birth (though they wrote in Greek), have often applied to Christians the phraseology of the Old Testament, in order to convey to them accurate ideas of the magnitude of God's love to them in Christ.

:

The first members of the Jewish Church were the immediate and lineal descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who professed the Jewish religion and used the national language wherever they might reside, and whom St. Paul (Phil. iii. 5.) terms Hebrews of the Hebrews, as opposed to the Hellenists or those Jews who lived among

* Hence is derived the term volume, or thing rolled up, from the Latin word, volvo, to roll.

the Greeks and spoke their language, and many of whom (as Timothy, Acts xvi. 1.) were descended from parents, one of whom only was a Jew. They did not, however, exclude such persons as were willing to qualify themselves for participating in their sacred rites. Hence they admitted Gentile converts to Judaism, who are often termed strangers and sojourners or proselytes. The Libertines mentioned in Acts vi. 9. were the descendants of the Liberti, or those Jews, who, having been taken captive at different times and carried into Italy, had subsequently acquired their liberty. The Devout men who feared God, of whom we frequently read in the New Testament, were Gentiles; who, though they did not qualify themselves for full communion with the Jewish church, had nevertheless acquired a better knowledge of the Most High, than the Pagan Theology furnished, and who in some respects conformed to the Jewish religion. Of this description was Cornelius the Centurion. (Acts x.)

All these persons, with the exception of the las class, were members of the Jewish church, participated in its worship, and regulated themselves by the law of Moses (or at least professed to do so), and by the other inspired Hebrew books, whence their sacred rites and religious instruction were derived. No person, however, was allowed to partake of the sacred ordinances until he had undergone the rite of circumcision: which sacrament was enjoined to be observed on the eighth day after the birth of a male child, who then received a name. (Gen. xvii. 12. Luke i. 59. ii. 22.)

In the initiation of proselytes to the Jewish religion, according to the rabbinical writers, the three following observances were appointed,' namely, circumcision, baptism, and the offering of sacrifice.

All these rites, except circumcision, were performed by the women, as well as the men, who became proselytes; and it was a common notion among the Jews, that

every person, who had duly performed them all, was to be considered as a new-born infant.

SECTION II. On the Ministers of the Temple, and other
Ecclesiastical or Sacred Persons.

On the establishment of the Jewish Commonwealth, the tribe of Levi was specially devoted to the service of God, instead of the first-born of the tribes of Israel, and was disengaged from all secular labours. The honour of the priesthood, however, was reserved to the family of Aaron alone, the rest of the tribe being employed in the inferior offices of the temple: so that all the priests were Levites, but all the Levites were not priests.

Originally, the LEVITES or tribe of Levi were divided into the three families and orders of Gershomites, Kohathites, and Merarites (1 Chron. vi. 16. &c.), but afterwards they were divided by David (1 Chron. xxiii.) into four classes.

Their principal office was to wait upon the priests, and be assisting to them in the service of the tabernacle, with its utensils, (which, during the migrations of the Israelites in the wilderness, they alone were permitted to carry and to set up when the camp rested,) and afterwards in the service of the temple; so that they were properly the ministers and servants of the priests, and obliged to obey their orders. (Numb. iii. 9. 1 Chron. xxiii. 28.) It was their duty to open, close, and guard the temple, to cleanse the sacred vessels, to have the charge of the sacred loaves, &c. &c. Some of them also sang psalms, while others played on instruments, but all were divided into companies, over whom a president was placed. The Levites had under them persons called Nethinim, who performed various laborious services in the temple.

In order to enable the Levites to devote themselves to