synagogue, sinagogue, synagog, synagoge

[Fr. synagogue, from Lat. synagog a; Gr. synagoge a bringing together: syn=together, and agoge =a bringing; ago to lead.] 1. Literally and Judaism : (1) A congregation or a embly of Jews for the purpose of worship or the performance of religious rites. (2) A building set apart for Jewish as a church or chapel is for Christian worship. Under the Mosaic law worship of the highest type could take place only at one chosen spot (Deut. xii. 5, 21; xvi. 6), that divinely chosen early in the monarchy being Jerusalem (2 Chron. vi. 5, 6), though gatherings took place in various other localities (2 Kings, iv. 23). Meetings at stated times for worship do not seem to have arisen till the time of the Exile, when the services of the Temple were perforce in abey ance. They constituted the germ of the subsequent synagogues, which are believed to have begun among the Jews resident out of Palestine. In Psalın lxxiv. 8, the persecutors are represented as burning up all the synagogues of God in the land. Jesus taught or preached and wrought miracles in the synagogues of Capernaum (Matt. xii. 9, Marki. 21, Luke vii. 5, John vi. 59), in that of Nazareth (Matt. xiii. 54, Mark vi. 2, Luke iv. 16), and elsewhere (Luke iv. 15). Many Jewish synagogues are said to have existed in Jerusalem, besides one or more for foreigners (Acts vi. 9). Out of Palestine the Apostles found synagogues in Damascus (Acts ix. 2, 20), Antioch in Pisidia (xiii. 14), Iconium (xiv. 1), The alonica (xvii. 1), Berea (10), Athens (17), Corinth (xviii. 1, 4, 8), Ephesus (xviii. 19, xix. 8), and doubtle also in other places. Synagogues were usually built on elevated sites, suggested by Prov. i. 21 and Ezra ix. 9, often outside cities and towns, by the side of a river or small stream (cf. Acts. xvi. 13). The edifice was shaped like a theater, with the door on the west side, entering which one was conventionally supposed to look eastward to Jerusalem, even though that city might be to the west of the place. This was suggested by 1 Kings viii. 29, Dan. vi. 10, . The wooden chest or ark containing the scrolls of the law and vestments was on the eastern side, with a canopy above, or in a rece or sanctuary. In front of it were the desk of the reader er preacher and a platform, with armchairs for the elders, who faced the ordinary worshipers. The men sat on one side of the syn a gogue and the women on the other; they were moreover separated by a partition about six feet high. A light was kept perpetually burning. The governing body was the elders (Acts xiii. 15), presided over by a ruler of the synagogue (Mark v. 22, Luke xiii. 14), with two judicial colleagues, three almoners or deacons, a leader of the worship (Luke iv. 20), a servant like a caretaker, and ten men of leisure pledged to attend and constitute a congregation if no others came. The Law and the Proph ets were read, with liturgical prayers, chanting of the psalms, and recitals of the ten commandments, the whole concluding with a benediction. The synagogues were used not only as places of worship, but as law courts, taking cognizance of petty offenses, the decisions of which were carried out within the sacred edifice (Matt. x. 17, Mark xiii. 9, Luke xii. 11, xxi. 12, Acts xxii. 19). E entially the same arrangements obtain in the modern synagogue. *2. Figuratively : (1) A Christian church (James ii. 2). When the Christian and Jewish churches became quite separated, the use of the word in this sense ceased. *(2) Any a embly or meeting of men. fate, fat, färe, amidst, what, fåll, 3974 The Great Synagogue: A" synagogue," or ruling religious a embly constituted probably by Nehemiah (not, as some have thought, by Ezra) about 410 B. C., continuing about 116 years, and developing about 300 B. C., into the Sanhedrim (q. v.). It sought to keep the people from intermarriage with the heathen, to compel them to observe the Sabbath and the Sabbatical year, and to make proper contribution for divine worship, besides seeing that the text of Scripture was kept pure. It is generally stated that there were 120 members. The Great Synagogue is never mentioned in the Old Testament, in the Apocrypha, or in Joseph us or Philo, which has led Michael is and other writers to doubt if it ever existed. *sỹn-a-gog-uish, a . [Eng.synagog(ue); -ish.] Pertaining or belonging to synagogues; fanatical. syn-a-gris, s . [Gr. synagris=a kind of sea-fish mentioned by Aristotle.J Ichthy.: A genus of Percide, with about twenty species from the Indo-Pacific. Marine fishes of small size; body sub-elongate, covered with ciliary scales of moderate size; mouth-cleft horizontal; one continuous dorsal with feeble spines, caudal deeply forked; teeth villiform, with canines, at least, in upper jaw; branch ios teg als six.