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128 Separation and Polemic few brief remarks seem called for regarding the late antique synagogue in view of the (often stated) centrality of the institution in late antique Judaism in general and in the Hellenistic Diaspora in particular. That centrality, however, has in some serious sense been overstated, particu­ larly in regard to the synagogue's function as a substitute for the cult. By wayof concluding the reviewof the data for (non­rabbinic)Judaism in the late Roman world, I shall briefly attempt to relocate synagogues within this structure. The existence of synagogues in Palestine and the Diaspora is already well attested by the first and second centuries of our era.46 Yet for all the claims about the importance of the institution across the "Jewish world" (and putting aside for the moment rabbinic sources),we know surprisingly little about the synagogue's function in mediating the sacred. That prayers were offered within the synagogue we may confidently surmise, although direct evidence to that effect is more sparse than one might expect.47 Acts of course knows of reading the Law and the Prophets in the synagogue (cf. Acts 15:20) and also informs us of homiletic activities (mostly by Christian preachers). The synagogue, though a locus for prayer, and hence in some sense a link between the divine realm and the world, had no resident holy man who guaranteed this mediation. Synagogues had their offi­ cials, a council of elders (gerousia), an archon, or both.48 Still these persons were "aristocratic" lay leaders, administrators more than holy functionaries. Indeed tannaitic literature could not even imagine the rabbi as a resident holy man of the synagogue, although Mishna and Tosefta seem quite able to contemplate other equally fictional loci of rabbinic power in the community. The late antique synagogue, then, seems akin to the early Chris­ tian communities (no doubt the former will to a large extent have constituted the model for the latter). The Didache (15:1­2) sees the presbyterate and its sub­officesas lay administrative posts. The status of holy man by contrast appears reserved for charismatics of various sorts, in many cases clearly understood to be mendicant (Did. 11:1­12). The presbyterate guaranteed not a mediating link between heaven and earth, but only an institutional context which safeguarded the exis­ tence and continuityof the communityof believers for those moments 46 See Philo, Leg. 20, 132, and Place.; references in Acts in n. 15; inscriptions from synagogues in Egypt in V. Tcherikover and A. Rucks, Corpus Papyrorumjudaicarum, vol. 3 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957­64), and for elsewhere in the Graeco­Roman world in J.B. Frey, Corpus of Jewish Inscriptions (New York: KTAV, 1975), reprinted from the 1936 edition published in Rome bythe Pontifical Institute; John Chrysostom, Homily I Against theJews (Patrologia Graeca 48: 846ff.). 47 See Ep. Diogn. 3:1­46. This passage vilifying Jewish worship knows, oddly enough, nothing of synagogue liturgy, but polemicizes against the (already defunct) sacrifi­ cial cult. 48 See n. 41. The Judaic Context of Early Christianity Revised 129 when that link could be had. In the hierarchy of mediating moments between heaven and earth, the eucharist was the most frequent and, for that same reason, probably felt to be among the least effective. The visit of an itinerant charismatic of some repute seems to offer media­ tion of the most efficacious kind—as proven by concomitant healings, exorcisms, and the like. In view of what we know of the organization of the late antique synagogue, I am tempted to paint for that institution a picture similar to the state of affairs in the early church. The lay leaders maintained a stable community to whichmoments of mediation were made available, first, but least effectively through prayer, at other times, and more intensively, through visitingholy men whom we have discussed above. This view of matters makes eminent sense of the overwhelmingly bureaucratic character of the evidence which survivesfor the life of the synagogue and the role of itsfunctionaries. Christians, Rabbis, and Other Jews Late antique Judaism, at least in the data from Hellenistic Jewry here reviewed, seems to have had as its basic model of "world" a two­tiered structure. The lower realm upon which mortal men walked and lived was a somewhat precarious place, it would seem. Supernatural (or primeval) malevolent forces constantly attempted to impinge upon what little life­sustaining order existed here below. Only constant re­ course to creative, sacred "stuff" from the abode of the deity...

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