and so strict were they on this point, that even when one of the rulers, or the minister himself, intended to read, they waited till they were asked by the congregation, or some leading person in it. Before the readers began, the first in order put up a short prayer, "blessing God that he had chosen them to be his people, and given them his law;" which done, they proceeded in their order, standing while they read," with the minister at their side to see that they read and pronounced right; from which, as was formerly said, he was called Episcopus, or overseer: and, if they missed any, he made them repeat it. Every one must see what advantage the appointment of so many readers was to encourage a taste for learning among the body of the people. It was exhibiting those who could read well in a very favourable point of view, and was stimulating others to follow their example.

If every one in the congregation had understood Hebrew, there would have been no occasion for any interpreter: but as the Syriac, after the captivity, became the mother tongue, that office became absolutely necessary-Hence its existence in every synagogue. The interpreter stood in the desk beside the minister and reader, and translated the section, sentence by sentence, into Syriac; for, in the lesson from the law, the reader might not read above one verse at a time, before the interpreter explained it; but, in the lesson from the prophets, he might read three verses together. At Travancore a similar practice is still observed, where the Syriac is the learned language, and the language of the church; whilst the Malayalim or Malabar is the vernacular language of the country. The Scriptures are read by the priests from manuscript copies in the

a Luke iv. 16.

b Buxtorff, Synag. Judaic. cap. 14.

former, and are expounded in the latter to the people.* Mr. Pinkerton mentions the same thing as the custom near Sympherpole, in Tartary, among the Caraite Jews, where the Tartar translation was read with the Hebrew text: and every one will recollect that Ezra had thirteen persons when he read the law, to explain it to the people. Thus far concerning the readers of the law. The reader of the portion from the prophets was called Meptir (D,) and was commonly one of those who read the law, and had been selected by the minister for that purpose. Accordingly, he too went up to the desk; had the section from the prophets given to him; began with a short prayer similar to that used by the reader of the law; and had the minister to overlook him, and the interpreter to explain to the people what was read. Dr. Lightfoot tells us that every reader in the prophets (I should rather think it was the law, if we might judge from the foregoing table,) ought to read 21 verses, unless when he expounded and exhorted, at which times he might only read 3, 5, or 7 verses: a circumstance which incidentally serves to explain why Christ, when in the synagogue, only read the two first verses of the 61st chapter of Isaiah before he closed the book and lectured upon them.

This leads us to the last particular of the synagogue service, viz. the expounding of the Scriptures, and preaching from them to the people. Now, that was done not standing, as when reading the law, but in a sitting posture, either by the minister, interpreter, reader, or some distinguished person who happened to

a Owen's Hist. of the Brit, and For. B.ble Society, vol. ii. p. 364. Brit. and For. Bible Society, 13th Report, App. p. 74.

• Neh. viii. 2—8. See also Prideaux Connect. A.A.C. 444. p. 371. Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations on Luke iv. 16.

• Luke iv. 20.

be in the synagogue. We have already seen Jesus lecturing in the synagogue of his native city: but we do not find him lecturing in any other; for, when called upon in these, he always preached to the people, or exhorted them on subjects that concerned their salvation : and it was thus, also, that his apostles acted: for we are told in Acts xiii. 5, that Paul and Barnabas preached the word in the synagogues of the Jews at Salamis; that, when they went to the synagogue of Antioch, the rulers of that synagogue, after the reading of the law and the prophets, sent a messenger to them, as they sat in their place, saying, "Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on :" and that the same thing happened to themselves and others in various places. It is scarcely necessary to add that the whole service of the synagogue was concluded with a short prayer or benediction.

SECT. IV.

Times of Meeting.

Days on which the Synagogue was open. The lesson for the week, how often read: advantage of this to the people; times of the day when they met; rules for preserving decorum. The antiquity of Synagogues.

THE days of the week on which they met (besides their holidays, whether fasts or feasts) were commonly three, viz. Monday, Thursday, and Saturday, or the 2d, 5th, and 7th days. The first two were commonly called "the days of assembling" (D* 'D' Imi cenisè ;) and were also accounted fast days by the stricter part of the Jews: hence the allusion of the Pharisee in Luke xviii. 12, "I fast twice in the week." It is probable,

a Acts xiii. 15.

b Acts xiii, 44. xiv. 1. xvii. 2-4. 10-12. 17. xviii. 4. 26. xix. 8.

also, that these synagogue days are referred to in Acts xiii. 42, where it is said that, after Paul had preached in the synagogue at Antioch, "the Gentiles besought him that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath:" for the original words are as to μɛlažv oaßßalov, in the middle sabbath, meaning perhaps the first synagogue day. As Saturday was the Jewish sabbath, that day was set apart among them for religious exercises by divine appointment; but the other two were only by the appointment of the elders; that three days might not pass without the public reading of the law. The reason of which, as Prideaux informs us," was taken from their mystical interpretation of the law. For, whereas, we find it said in Exodus xv. 22, that the Israelites were in great distress, on their travelling three days in the wilderness without water: they explained the water mystically of the law, and therefore said, that for this reason they ought not to be three days together without hearing it read publicly in their synagogues. And their manner of doing it was as follows: The whole law being divided into sections, as we have already seen, they began on Monday, or the first synagogue day, to read the lesson proper for the week, and read it half through at the morning service. On Thursday, the second synagogue day, they read the other half, at the morning service. And on Saturday, which was their sabbath, they read the whole over again twice; namely, once in the morning and once in the evening, for the sake of labourers and artificers who could not leave their work to attend the synagogue on the week days; so that all might hear the lesson for the week read twice over on their sabbath, and a third time, if they chose it, on the two synagogue days.-When the reading of the

a Connection, A. A. C. 444.

prophets was added to the law, the same order was observed as to them. Thus were the people regularly instructed in a large portion of the word of God. It is farther to be observed concerning their times of meeting, that, as they met three days in the week for synagogue service, so they met three times on each of these three days, viz. once for reading and prayer, and twice for prayer; for it was a constant rule among them (as it indeed was among the faithful,*) that all were to pray to God three times a day; namely, at the third hour, or nine o'clock, at the time of the morning sacrifice; at the ninth hour, or three in the afternoon, when the evening sacrifice was offering up; and at noon, or the sixth hour; to which some added a fourth time, viz. at night, because the evening sacrifice was still burning. The reason for appointing these hours for the synagogue, was to make them correspond with the temple service, and thus give uniformity and solemnity to the public worship.

With respect to those who were in other places, or, being at Jerusalem, had not leisure to go up to the temple, they performed their devotions in those places. If it was a synagogue day, they went into one and prayed with the congregation, and if it was not, they then prayed privately by themselves in some retired place, or in some synagogue, if it happened to be within their reach. But none might insult decorum, or the feelings of others, by passing the door of one of these houses at the hour of prayer, unless he had the appearance of necessity, by passing on to another synagogue, by carrying a burden, or visibly wearing his phylacteries, to show that he was mindful of the law.