TY  - BOOK
AU  - MacKay, Heather A.
PY  - 1994
DA  - 1994//
TI  - Sabbath and synagogue: the question of sabbath worship in ancient Judaism
T3  - Religions in the Graeco-Roman world 122
PB  - Brill
CY  - Leiden
KW  - Sabbat
KW  - Synagoge
KW  - Frühjudentum
KW  - JudaismHistoryPost-exilicSources
KW  - SabbathBiblical teaching
KW  - Sabbath in rabbinical literature
KW  - JudaismHistoryPost-exilic period, 586 B.C.-210 A.DSources
AB  - Sabbath worship as a communal event does not feature in the Hebrew Bible. In the context of the first century CE, according to Philo and Josephus, the sabbath gatherings took place only for the purpose of studying the law, and not for the liturgical recital of psalms or prayer. Classical authors depict Jews spending the sabbath at home. Jewish inscriptions provide no evidence of sabbath-worship in prayer-houses (proseuchai), while the Mishnah prescribes no special communal sabbath activities. The usual picture of Jews going on the sabbath to the synagogue to worship thus appears to be without foundation. It is even doubtful that there were synagogue buildings, for `synagogue' normally meant `community'. The conclusion of this study, that there is no evidence that the sabbath was a day of communal Jewish worship before 200 CE, has far-reaching consequences for our understanding of early Jewish-Christian relationships.
SN  - 9004100601
LA  - English
N1  - by Heather A. McKay
ID  - 276822102
ER  -