In ancient Judaism, an archisynagogue (Greek ; Hebrew ; "synagogue chief") was the officer who supervised matters pertaining to the religious services of the
synagogue.
Usage
Use of the term can be traced from the time of Jesus to about the year 300. It occurs several times in the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
.
The name is borrowed from the Greek, and was therefore used by Jews throughout the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Medite ...
, but not by Jews in Babylonia. Hence, the
Babylonian Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
– when mentioning the archisynagogue – finds it necessary to translate the word by ''
parnas''.
Role
The distinctive function of the archisynagogue was to select suitable men for the reading of the Law, the reciting of prayers, and for preaching; since in ancient times the synagogue did not have regularly appointed officers for the performance of these duties.
From the
Jerusalem Talmud
The Jerusalem Talmud ( he, תַּלְמוּד יְרוּשַׁלְמִי, translit=Talmud Yerushalmi, often for short), also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century ...
, it further appears that in cases of necessity the archisynagogue of a community had to act as its reader.
In consonance with the nature of his office, the archisynagogue was chosen for his piety and good moral character, while in the case of an archon the essential requirements were social position and influence. The Pharisees therefore regarded the archisynagogues as inferior only to the scholars ().
Like most of the offices of the
Pharisaic
The Pharisees (; he, פְּרוּשִׁים, Pərūšīm) were a Jewish social movement and a school of thought in the Levant during the time of Second Temple Judaism. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Pharisaic beliefs bec ...
Jews, that of the archisynagogue was not limited in time, but was usually held for life, and not infrequently was hereditary; the Pharisees holding
[See ]Torat Kohanim
Sifra (Aramaic: סִפְרָא) is the Halakhic midrash to the Book of Leviticus. It is frequently quoted in the Talmud, and the study of it followed that of the Mishnah. Like Leviticus itself, the midrash is occasionally called "Torat Kohanim", a ...
Aharei Mot 8, ed. Weiss, p. 83a that the son had a claim upon his father's office unless he had shown himself unworthy. This explains why the title "archisynagogue" was sometimes attached to the names of the wife and the children, as found on some Greek inscriptions. It was used, no doubt, to indicate that they were members of an archisynagogal family.
See also
*
Archipheracite An archipheracite was a minister of Jewish synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably ...
, another past title in synagogues
References
{{JewishEncyclopedia, title=ARCHISYNAGOGUE, url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1736-archisynagogue Its bibliography:
* Schürer, Gesch. ii. 364-367, 519;
* Gemeindeverfassung, pp. 25–28;
* Weinberg, M. G. W. 1897, p. 657.
Jewish religious occupations
Ancient Jewish history