Synagogal Judaism or Synagogal and Sacerdotal Judaism, named by some common Judaism or para-rabbinic Judaism, was a branch of Judaism that emerged around the 2nd century BCE in the wider context of Hellenistic Judaism with the construction of the first synagogues in the Jewish diaspora and ancient Judea. Parallel to Rabbinic Judaism and Jewish Christianity, it developed after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE.
Also known as "common Judaism" or "para-rabbinic Judaism", the synagogal movement encompassed the rites and traditions predominantly followed by the Judeans in the early centuries of the common era. Within this movement, the religious practices and culture common to the ancient Jewish diaspora were formed. Influenced by the Hellenistic culture and the subsequent Greco-Roman world, and also by Persian culture, it gave rise to a distinct art form in the 3rd century. According to researchers, Jewish priests mostly stayed inside that movement after the destruction of the Second Temple.
Distinct from Rabbinic Judaism and Jewish Christianity, synagogal Judaism carried a mysticism associated with the hekhalot literature ("literature of the Palaces") and the Targum. It is considered the ultimate source of the Kabbalah according to Moshe Idel.
Synagogal Judaism was called a "triplet brother" of Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity.
Concept
Erwin Ramsdell Goodenough proposed a hypothesis that there existed in antiquity a form of Judaism that had fallen into oblivion, influenced particularly by Greek culture. He referred to it as "Hellenistic Judaism", which was distinct from both Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. He cites the discovery of the ruins of the Dura-Europos synagogue in the 1930s, art historians and historians of religion were confronted with archaeological remains that challenged the commonly accepted historiography of Jewish art. The Dura-Europos synagogue, dating to the mid-3rd century CE, revealed a significant collection of figurative paintings depicting scenes from the narratives of the Tanakh. The excavation of ruins from other ancient synagogues in the following decades yielded comparable iconography that contradicted the prohibitions imposed by contemporary rabbinic academies regarding the creation of images.
The research conducted by Gershom Scholem on the ancient sources of Kabbalah led him to propose a similar hypothesis based on the data provided by texts of ancient Jewish mysticism, particularly associated with the Judeo-Platonic school of Philo of Alexandria in the 1st century.Gershom Scholem. Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism and Talmudic Tradition, 2nd edn. NY: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1965.
Goodenough was convinced that his work complemented Scholem's. One, through archaeology, and the other, through texts, attested to the existence of an ancient mystical tradition unknown in the history of Judaism until the emergence of Kabbalah in the 12th century.
Scholem did not make as radical a distinction as Goodenough between mystical Judaism and Rabbinic Judaism. However, they agreed that Greek, Platonic, Gnostic, and Orphic influences played a decisive role in the creation of Jewish mysticism. This viewpoint is contested by Moshe Idel and Charles Mopsik, who believe that "Scholem underestimated the specifically Jewish element in the formation of Kabbalah and exaggerated the influence of Gnosticism."
The historiographical research conducted by scholars such as Daniel Boyarin, Lee I. Levine, and others, introduced two components in ancient Jewish mysticism: a Greek-language component and an Aramaic-language component (the native language of Syria, widely spoken in the ancient Near East). This bilingualism, was characteristic of Judean culture in the early centuries of the common era and is reflected in the Targum literature (Aramaic commentaries on the biblical text), which played an equally important role as the Judeo-Greek literature.
"This Judaism", noted José Costa, "is communal, as it is founded on a common source for all its components: the broad biblical tradition. It is complex in that it gave rise to monumental synagogues in all their diversity [...]. It incorporates both the ethnic and religious components of Jewish identity. Lastly, it allows us to understand how pagan material culture underwent a process of appropriation within a Jewish context." Simon Claude Mimouni prefers to call it "synagogal Judaism", a notion that refers to the same historiographical foundations.
History
The first synagogues (from the Greek "sunagōgē", meaning "assembly") or proseuches (from the Greek "proseuchē," meaning "[place of] prayers") appeared around the 2nd century BCE in the Hellenistic kingdoms of the Eastern Diaspora, such as Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, and others. According to Lee I. Levine, they were modeled after the Hellenistic concept of associations.Lee I. Levine, Judaism and Hellenism in Antiquity. Conflict or Confluence, Peabody (Massachusetts), 1998 Synagogue associations were not fundamentally different from pagan associations in Greco-Roman cities. Consisting of various communities, their mission was to establish a sanctuary and conduct worship, as well as to organize solidarity among their members through charitable practices in particular.
The synagogue movement, which first emerged in the Diaspora, soon spread to the Kingdom of Judah, serving as a link between the Jews within, who focused on the institution of the Temple, and the Jews outside, who centered their religious life around the synagogue. According to Solomon W. Baron, the Jewish population at that time, shortly before the First Jewish Revolt against Rome in 70 CE, reached approximately eight million people (two million in Palestine and six million in the Diaspora, including one million in Persia).S.W. Baron, Histoire d’Israël, Paris, 1956 This was a significant mass, accounting for nearly one-tenth of the overall population of the Roman Empire. The synagogue movement was crucial in fostering unity among the Jewish people.
The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, during the First Jewish Revolt, led to the demise of the priestly Judaism and its replacement by synagogal Judaism. Both the Jews in Palestine and those in the Diaspora "slowly turned towards the rabbinic movement and its alternative of a Judaism without a sanctuary or priesthood, in other words, without cultic worship", as observed by Mimouni. At that time, rabbinic Judaism and Jewish Christianity represented only a minority among the religious Jewish population.
The Bar Kokhba revolt originated within the synagogal movement. After the failure of the revolt, the synagogue movement underwent pagan influences, particularly in Palestine.
Seth Schwartz distinguishes two periods: the first, between 135 and 350 CE, marked by a rise of paganism among the Jews, and the second, between 350 and 640 CE, characterized by a desire to re-Judaize.Seth. S. Schwartz, Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E., Princeton (New Jersey)-Oxford, 2001 However, the responsibility for this re-Judaization did not lie with the rabbis, but rather with the decline of paganism in the Roman Empire, associated with the conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity.Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E.
The synagogue, drawing from its own culture, pushed the Jews to establish connections either with the rabbis or with the Christians, depending on the context. Rabbinic Judaism, which generally held a hostile stance toward the rites practiced in the synagogues, changed its position by incorporating synagogal culture within itself in order to adapt to the convergence of these two streams around the 4th and 5th centuries, according to Schwartz.
However, historians like Mimouni, Boyarin, and Levine find this view too simplistic. Levine, in particular, observes that the rabbis began showing increasing interest in the synagogue from the 2nd century onwards, but they did not hold a dominant position within it until the 5th century.
Society
According to Seth Schwartz, Synagogal Jews were not significantly different from pagans (a view that has been substantially critiqued but is still current in some scholarly circles). They dressed similarly and engaged in similar activities. Many of them participated in civic cults dedicated to the city's gods. They did not hesitate to include images of these gods in their synagogues, as seen in Dura-Europos, where effigies of Cybele, Persephone, Helios, and others adorned the ceiling of the prayer hall. However, they circumcised their children and abstained from eating pork, which were major signs of their adherence to Judaism. In this context, Judaism is better understood as a culture rather than a strictly defined religion.Schwartz, Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E.
The scarcity of the term "Rabbi" in archaeological inscriptions found in the Diaspora and Palestine suggests that the rabbinic movement had limited presence and influence in synagogues (excluding Babylonia, where changes occurred earlier). They followed the prescriptions of Jewish law as they interpreted them and thus refrained from making images, avoided entering pagan places of worship and generally did not share meals with pagans. However, they generally coexisted with the majority population. Fergus Millar was drawn to a similar conclusion when studying the inscriptions in Palestine; asking himself about the possibility of a clear distinction between Rabbinic and Synagogal Judaism.
The Jewish-Christian minority also coexisted with Jews from the other groups in the same neighborhoods, as seen in Dura-Europos. They were perceived as a dissident Jewish movement rather than a new religion, at least until the mid-2nd century, notes Costa. Jewish Christians were relatively well received by non-Pharisaic Jews, and even by moderate Pharisees who did not adhere to the formalism of the more radical Pharisees, according to Costa.
Priests and rabbis The synagogue assumed the role of a temple in Greco-Roman or Persian society. Jewish Priests (Kohanim) held a central place within it. They conducted the services, read targums (commentaries on the Bible), delivered teachings, and were part of the ruling elite. They represented their community to the imperial authorities.
"Priests were the only social group with a fixed role in synagogue liturgy, while the rabbis presented themselves, at least in the tannaitic texts, as having no interest in the synagogue", notes Paul Flesher.Paul Flesher, ‘Pentateuchal Targums as Midrash’, in Encyclopaedia of Midrash, vol. 2, ed. Jacob Neusner (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 630–45. Jewish priests were seen as figures from the past, associated with liturgical practices that were more or less influenced by paganism, according to the attacks of the rabbis.Stephen Fine, This Holy Place: On the Sanctity of the Synagogue during the Greco-Roman Period, Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997; see also Stephen Fine, "Did the Synagogue Replace the Temple?, Bible Review 12 1999. According to Rachel Elior, Simon-Claude Mimouni and other researchers, Jewish priests mostly stayed inside Synagogal Judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple, before progressively joining Rabbinic Judaism or Christianity.
Synagogal mysticism
Biblical influences Charles Mopsik and Moshe Idel suggested that mystical currents within Judaism find their source in writings attributed to the prophet Elijah, "the oldest and most prominent figure" of biblical mysticism, the celestial messenger who initiates the reader into the secrets of the Torah.Charles Mopsik. Cabale et cabalistes. Paris: Bayard, 1997.