An archipheracite was a minister of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

s, who were charged with reading and interpreting the '' perakim'' (chapters), where the titles and chapters of the law and the prophets are found. The archipheracite was not the same as the archisynagogus, as

Grotius Hugo Grotius ( ; 10 April 1583 – 28 August 1645), also known as Hugo de Groot () or Huig de Groot (), was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, statesman, poet and playwright. A teenage prodigy, he was born in Delft an ...

and other have mistakenly believed, but rather the chief or principal of these appointed to read, explain, and profess the law in their schools. The title is formed from the Greek prefix ' "chief", and the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

, "pherak", division or chapter.

References

Archipheracite
. ''Encyclopédie Ou Dictionnaire Raisonné Des Sciences, Des Arts Et Des Métiers''. 1751. 1st ed.

Jewish religious occupations Greek words and phrases in Jewish law {{Jewish-hist-stub