Bible Dictionary: the Great Synagogue

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Smith's Bible Dictionary

the Great Synagogue

On the return of the Jews from Babylon, a great council was appointed according to rabbinic tradition, to reorganize the religious life of the people. It consisted of 120 members, and these were known as the men of the Great Synagogue, the successors of the prophets, themselves, in their turn, succeeded by scribes prominent, individually, as teachers. Ezra was recognized as president, Their aim was to restore again the crown , or glory , of Israel. To this end they collected all the sacred writings of the former ages and their own and so completed the canon of the Old Testament. They instituted the feast of Purim organized the ritual of the synagogue, and gave their sanction to the Shemoneh Esreh , the eighteen solemn benedictions in it. Much of this is evidently uncertain. The absence of any historical mention of such a body, not only in the Old Testament and the Apocrypha, but in Josephus, Philo, etc., has had some critics to reject the whole statement as a rabbinic invention. The narrative of (Nehemiah 8:13) clearly implies the existence of a body of men acting as councillors under the presidency of Ezra; and these may have been an assembly of delegates from all provincial synagogues-a synod of the national Church.

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The Great Crisis in Popular Feeling - the Last Discourses in the ...
... CHAPTER XXXII. THE GREAT CRISIS IN POPULAR FEELING - THE LAST DISCOURSES IN THE
SYNAGOGUE OF CAPERNAUM - CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE - WILL YE ALSO GO AWAY?'. ...
/.../the life and times of jesus the messiah/chapter xxxii the great crisis.htm

The Old Testament Canon from Its Beginning to Its Close.
... authority which it had not before. Talmudic accounts associate with him
the men of the great synagogue. It is true that they are ...
/.../davidson/the canon of the bible/chapter ii the old testament.htm

The Synagogue at Nazareth - Synagogue-Worship and Arrangements.
... Judges; [2151] the men of the Great Synagogue are, of course, credited with it,
and Shemayah and Abhtalyon are expressly designated as preachers.' [2152] How ...
/.../the life and times of jesus the messiah/chapter x the synagogue at.htm

The Synagogue.
... O Lord, who blessest thy people Israel with peace." These benedictions are traced
in the Mishna to the one hundred and twenty elders of the Great Synagogue. ...
/.../schaff/history of the christian church volume i/section 51 the synagogue.htm

And the Rulers of the Synagogue, and the Priests and the Levites.. ...
... And the rulers of the synagogue, and the priests and the Levites, said to themselves ...
A great inquiry having taken place in the Sanhedrin, we have been sent to ...
/.../unknown/the gospel of nicodemus /chapter 16 and the rulers.htm

The Greek Kings of Egypt.
... He was the last of the hundred and twenty great prophets, or wise men, whom the
Jews called the great Synagogue; and it was he who sealed up the Old Testament ...
//christianbookshelf.org/yonge/the chosen people/lesson xvi the greek kings.htm

After This, Pilate Going into the Temple of the Jews...
... After we had crucified Jesus, not knowing Him to be the Son of God, thinking that
He did miracles by means of some charm, we made a great synagogue in this ...
/.../unknown/the gospel of nicodemus /chapter 12 28 after this.htm

Christ Appears in the Synagogue at Nazareth. --His Life is ...
... to Nazareth, but the fame of his great deeds at the former place had gone before
him. All eyes were turned upon him when he appeared in the synagogue on the ...
/.../section 128 christ appears in.htm

The Worship of the Synagogue
... hall of hew stones" was also the meeting-place for the great Sanhedrim, and ... occupation,
we might be tempted to conjecture that the term "synagogue" had been ...
/.../edersheim/sketches of jewish social life/chapter 17 the worship of.htm

Jesus at Capernaum.
... admit such an hypothesis! The great synagogue of Kefr-Bereim seems to
me the most ancient of all. Its style is moderately pure. ...
/.../renan/the life of jesus/chapter viii jesus at capernaum.htm