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The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years (2000) is a book by Lee I. Levine.

Abstract

"The synagogue was one of the most central and revolutionary institutions of ancient Judaism leaving an indelible mark on Christianity and Islam as well. This commanding book provides an in-depth and comprehensive history of the synagogue from the Hellenistic period to the end of late antiquity. Drawing exhaustively on archeological evidence and on such literary sources as rabbinic material, the New Testament, Jewish writings of the Second Temple period, and Christian and pagan works, Lee Levine traces the development of the synagogue from what was essentially a communal institution to one which came to embody a distinctively religious profile. Exploring its history in the Greco-Roman and Byzantine periods in both Palestine and the Diaspora, he describes the synagogue's basic features: its physical remains; its role in the community; its leadership; the roles of rabbis, Patriarchs, women, and priests in its operation; its liturgy; and its art. What emerges is a fascinating mosaic of a dynamic institution that succeeded in integrating patterns of social and religious behavior from the contemporary non-Jewish society while maintaining a distinctively Jewish character."--Publisher description.

Editions

Published in New Haven, CT [England]: Yale University Press, 2000.

Contents

Introduction -- Part I: The historical development of the synagogue (the second temple period) -- Origins -- Pre-70 Judaea -- The pre-70 diaspora -- The second temple synagogue - its role and functions -- (Later antiquity), Late Roman Palestine (70-Fourth century C.E.) -- Byzantine Palestine -- Diaspora synagogues -- Part II: The synagogue as an institution -- The building -- The communal dimension -- Leadership -- The patriarch (Nasi) and the synagogue -- The sages and the synagogue -- Women in the synagogue -- Priests -- Liturgy -- Iconography : the limits of interpretation -- Diachr

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