Ancient Synagogues: More Than Just Prayer Houses! - NehemiasWall.com

[00:00:03]That's very surprising cuz the story that we were always told is when the temple was destroyed it was replaced by synagogues. They became a mikdash ma'at, a small sanctuary, and the prayers came in place of sacrifices. Yet here was a synagogue that existed while the temple stood meters away from the temple.

[00:00:20]And it was there for generations. It mentions that he's the son of a founder of a synagogue and the head of a synagogue was the son of another head of a synagogue.

[00:00:28]>> [snorts] >> And so what was the synagogue doing there? When we read the inscription, we hear the different functions of the synagogue.

[00:00:34]It was for pilgrims who were coming to have a place to sleep. It was for study of the Torah.

[00:00:41]It doesn't mention prayer, which is quite interesting. It It tells you all the functions of the synagogue and prayer isn't one of them. It says Theodotus, son of Vettenos, priest, uh was also the son of the head of the synagogue, built the synagogue for the reading of the Torah and for the study of the precepts, the commandments, as well as a hospice and the chambers and the bathing establishment, so there was a mikvah there, for lodging for those who need them from abroad. So you come from another place from far away to pilgrimage the temple and you need a place to sleep, you can stay there.

[00:01:12]It was founded by his ancestors and the elders and the Simonides, which some family from Simon. And this is number one, it's in Greek and it's right next to the temple.

[00:01:21]And it's someone who's the at least the grandson of someone who founded a temple a synagogue, that is. Uh and if you think about it, what does synagogue mean? It means a gathering place.

[00:01:30]The word synagogue mentions nothing both in in Greek it's synagogue.

[00:01:34]Uh in Hebrew it's bet knesset, house of gathering. Doesn't say anything about prayer.

[00:01:39]Prayer apparently as a function a formal function of synagogue came about later.

[00:01:43]You look at the Tanakh and you see uh Hannah, she comes to the the tabernacle and she's standing there praying silently and Eli the priest says, "Are you drunk?" Cuz he doesn't know what she's doing.

[00:01:55]Right? This idea that you would go somewhere formally for prayer, that wasn't an idea that they had. They would pray from their hearts.

[00:02:01]And later on this idea of the synagogue as the place of prayer, that that was developed later. But in the time of the Second Temple, that didn't exist.

[00:02:11]Here we have one of the most bizarre inscriptions that we will see today.

[00:02:16]And why is it bizarre? So, it's written in what sort of looks like Paleo-Hebrew, but a mix of Paleo-Hebrew and what we call Samaritan script. Well, not exactly Samaritan script. And it's written in Aramaic. It was found in Giv'at Hamivtar, which is in northern Jerusalem, not far from Mount Scopus.

[00:02:34]And it tells us bizarre story.

[00:02:37]It says, "I Abba, son of the priest Eleazar, son of Aaron the elder. I Abba the afflicted, the persecuted, who was born in Jerusalem and exiled to Babylon and brought Mattathias, son of Yehuda, to land of Israel. And I buried him in a cave which I bought by deed."

[00:02:52]What on earth is this story?

[00:02:54]He was exiled to Babylon, and then he brought somebody back to Israel, and what It's written in this weird script that we can't find anywhere else.

[00:03:02]Not from this period. And and it's not written in Hebrew. It's very strange.

[00:03:09]And um so, what is the explanation?

[00:03:12]And I guess we really don't know for sure. But there's one theory that this was maybe the last Hasmonean. The Hasmoneans were descendants of of the Maccabees. They were the Maccabees. We [clears throat] don't call them Maccabees in Hebrew. We call them Hasmoneans. They were a family of priests that who took over and started to rule Israel.

[00:03:30]And it could be that one of them was exiled when Herod took over and fled, and then his body was brought back to Israel, or somebody brought his body back to Israel.

[00:03:40]So, here we have another ossuary, and it mentions a man named Caiaphas. That's a name known from the New Testament. Is it the same Caiaphas? You know, probably not. Who knows? Could be.

[00:03:51]Um here we have an ossuary that mentions Yehuda bar Yehoshua Yesh uh or bar Yeshua, Judah the son of Yeshua.

[00:03:59]Um there was a theory about 20 years ago that this was the son of Jesus of Nazareth, but these are such common names.

[00:04:08]It's like, you know, every every fourth person I think was named Yeshua.

[00:04:12]So, there was one who had a son named Judah, nothing to do with I would think of Jesus of Nazareth.

[00:04:17]Um here's another one that's really important. This one mentions Yeshua bar It's from the same tomb in Talpiot. It says Yeshua bar Yehosef, Yeshua the son of Joseph. And again, these are very common names.

[00:04:31]And then next to it, his name is given in Aramaic.

[00:04:34]And what's the Aramaic form of Yeshua?

[00:04:36]It's Yeshu.

[00:04:38]Now, why is that important? Because in the Middle Ages, the rabbis developed this story that the name Yeshu means may his name and memory be blotted out. It was an acronym, Yimakh shemo vezikhro.

[00:04:48]That's a myth they made up later.

[00:04:50]Yeshu is just the Aramaic form of Yeshua.

[00:04:53]And Yeshua was a abbreviated form of Yehoshua.

[00:04:57]Right? And so, this is what we would actually they call linguistics a backronym. You take a word that's not an acronym, and you turn it into a backronym.

[00:05:03]Right? So, Yeshu has nothing to do with may his name and blood may memory be blotted out. That was just the name of this person whose father was named Joseph.

[00:05:12]And again, it's nothing to do with Jesus of Nazareth, right?