In popular parlance, the Jewish prayer hall where religious and judicial activities and teachings are held. The origin of the synagogue is shrouded in mystery; it seems likely though that the term originally referred to the gathered congregation rather than the building itself.
By the Second Temple period, the institution had become so important that the Talmud reports the existence of 480 synagogues in Jerusalem alone. A 1st Cent inscription recovered in Jerusalem in 1914 describes the purpose of the synagogue at that time:
Theodotus, son of Vettenos, the priest and archsynagogos, son of a archsynagogos and grandson of a archsynagogos, who built the synagogue for the purpose of reciting the Law and studying the commandments, and as a hotel with chambers and water installations to provide for the needs of itinerants from abroad, which his fathers, the elders and Simonides founded. (Levine)
Remains of the synagogue in Capernaum
The synagogue appears often in the New Testament narratives. Jesus often preached and taught in them (Matt 4:23; 9:35; Mk 1:21, 39; 6:2; Lk 4:15; 6:6; Jn 6:59; 18:20), as did the apostles (Acts 9:20; 13:5; 17:17). The synagogues were, however, not simply buildings but represented an institution with immense power and social influence. Offenders could be flogged in the synagogue (Matt 10:17). To be "put out of the synagogue" was a principal form of ostracism (Jn 9:22; 12:42). Ultimately, the synagogue represents everything that Judaism stood for in the same sense that the church represents everything that the Christian faith does. The opposition of the Jews to Jesus' teachings as represented by the synagogue meant that a break between the two became inevitable. One of the results of this break was the return of the synagogue to the use of the Hebrew Scriptures as their sacred text when before it was the Septuagint that was their preferred text.
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