OF SACRED PLACES.
strictly so called, which was divided into three parts, the
portico, the outer sanctuary, and the holy place.

1. In the PORTICO were suspended the splendid votive
offerings made by the piety of various individuals. Among
its other treasures, there was a golden table given by Pom-
pey, together with several golden vines of exquisite work-
manship as well as of immense size: for Josephus relates
that there were clusters as tall as a man. And he adds, that

all around were fixed up and displayed the spoils and trophies taken by Herod from the Barbarians and Arabians. These votive offerings, it should seem, were visible at a distance; for when Jesus Christ was sitting on the Mount of Olives, and his disciples called his attention to the temple, they pointed out to him the gifts with which it was adorned. (Luke xxi. 5.) This porch had a very large portal or gate, which, instead of folding doors, was furnished with a costly Babylonian veil, of many colours, that mystically denoted the universe.

(2.) The SANCTUARY or Holy Place was separated from the holy of holies by a double veil, which is supposed to have been the veil that was rent in twain at our Saviour's crucifixion: thus emblematically pointing out that the separation between Jews and Gentiles was abolished, and that the privilege of the high-priest was communicated to all mankind, who might henceforth have access to the throne of grace through the one great mediator, Jesus Christ. (Heb. x. 19-22.) This corresponded with the Holy Place in the Tabernacle. In it were placed the Golden Candlestick, the Altar of Incense, and the Table of Shew-Bread, which consisted of twelve loaves, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. Various fanciful delineations have been given of these articles: in the subjoined engraving is represented the form of the GOLDEN CANDLESTICK as it was actually carried in the triumphal procession of the Roman General Titus;

[PART III. CHAP. I

person was ever admitted into it but the high-priest, who (3.) The HOLY OF HOLIES was twenty cubits square. No entered it once a year on the great day of atonement. (Exod. xxx. 10. Lev. xvi. 2. 15. 34. Heb. ix. 2-7.)2 infinitely surpassed in splendour by the Inner Temple or Sanctuary. Magnificent as the rest of the sacred edifice was, it was every thing that could strike the mind or astonish the sight: for it was covered on every side with plates of gold, so that "Its appearance," according to Josephus," had when the sun rose upon it, it reflected so strong and dazzling an effulgence, that the eye of the spectator was obliged to turn away, being no more able to sustain its radiance than the splendour of the sun. it appeared at a distance like a mountain covered with snow, To strangers who were approaching, for where it was not decorated with plates of gold, it was extremely white and glistering. On the top it had sharppointed spikes of gold, to prevent any bird from resting upon it and polluting it. There were," continues the Jewish historian," in that building several stones which were forty-five cubits in length, five in height, and six in breadth. When all these things are considered, how natural is the exclamation of the disciples when viewing this immense building at a distance: Master, see what MANNER of STONES (T27, what very large stones), and what BUILDINGS are here! (Mark xiii. 1.); and how wonderful is the declaration of our Lord upon this, how unlikely to be accomplished before the race of men who were then living should cease to exist. Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." (Mark xiii. 2.)4 Improbable as this prediction must have appeared to the disciples at that time, in the short space of about forty years after, it was exactly accomplished; and this most magnificent temple, which the Jews had literally turned into a den of thieves, through the righteous judgments of God upon that wicked and abandoned nation, was utterly destroyed by the Romans A. M. 4073 (A. D. 73), on the same month, and on the same day of the month, when Solomon's temple had been rased to the ground by the Babylonians!

66

Both the first and second temples were contemplated by the Jews with the highest reverence: of their affectionate regard for the first temple, and for Jerusalem, within whose walls it was built, we have several instances in those psalms which were composed during the Babylonish captivity; and of their profound veneration for the second temple we have repeated examples in the New Testament. not bear any disrespectful or dishonourable thing to be said They could of it. The least injurious slight of it, real or apprehended, instructions, happening to say, Destroy this temple, and in instantly awakened all the choler of a Jew, and was an affront three days I will raise it up again (John i. 19.), it was construed never to be forgiven. Our Saviour, ih the course of his public into a contemptuous disrespect, designedly thrown out against the temple; his words instantly descended into the heart of

and the following engraving exhibits the TABLE OF SHEWBREAD, with a cup upon it, and with two of the sacred trumpets, which were used to proclaim the year of Jubilee, as they were also carried in the same triumph. They are copied from the plates in Reland's Treatise on the Spoils of the Temple of Jerusalem, the drawings for which were made at Rome, upwards of a century since, when the trium-tics, book ii. ch. 1.; Schulzii Archæologia Hebraica, pp. 204-220.; Beauphal arch of Titus was in a much better state of preservation than it now is.

a Godwin's Moses and Aaron, book ii. ch. 1.; Jennings's Jewish Antiquisobre's and L'Enfant's Introduction. (Bp. Watson's Theol. Tracts, vol. iii. pp. 145-150.) Pareau, Antiquitas Hebraica, pp. 196 -203.; Brunings, Antiq. Hebr. pp. 165-172. 3 Josephus, Antiq. Jud. lib. xv. c. 11. §3. De Bell, Jud. lib. v. c. 5. $$ • Dr. Harwood's Introd. to the New Test. vol. ii. pp. 159. 161.

Hadr. Relandus de Spoliis Templi in Arcu Titiano Romæ conspicuis, 1-6. Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1775. 8vo.

II. From the preceding facts and remarks, however, we are not to conclude, that the prohibition relating to high places and groves, which extended chiefly to the more solemn acts of sacrificing there, did on any account extend to the prohibiting of other acts of devotion, particularly prayer, in any other place besides the temple, the high places and groves of the heathen (which were ordered to be razed) only excepted. For we learn from the Sacred Writings, that prayers are always acceptable to God in every place, when performed with that true and sincere devotion of heart, which alone gives life and vigour to our religious addresses. And therefore it was that in many places of Judæa, both before and after the Babylonian captivity, we find mention made in the Jewish and other histories of places built purposely for prayer, and resorted to only for that end, called PROSEUCHE or ORATORIES.

In the early ages of the world, the devotion of mankind | these high places. No sooner had Rehoboam the son of seems to have delighted greatly in groves, woods, and moun- Solomon, after the revolt of the ten tribes from him, strengthtains, not only because these retired places were naturally ened himself in his kingdom, but we read that Judah did evi fitted for contemplation, but probably also because they kin- in the sight of the Lord, and built them high places, and images, dled a certain sacred dread in the mind of the worshipper. and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. It is certain that nothing was more ancient in the East, than (1 Kings xiv. 22, 23.) altars surrounded by groves and trees, which made the place Of the exemplary sovereigns, Asa and Jehoshaphat, invery shady and delightful in those hot countries. The idol- deed, it is recorded that they took away the high places and aters in the first ages of the world, who generally worshipped groves (2 Chron. xiv. 3. xv. 16. xvii. 6.); but Jehoshaphat's the sun, appear to have thought it improper to straiten and son and successor, Jehoram, is said to have made high places confine the supposed infinity of this imaginary deity within in the mountains of Judah. (2 Chron. xxi. 11.) And though walls, and therefore they generally made choice of hills and Joash, one of his sons, set out well, yet in the latter part of mountains, as the most convenient places for their idolatry; his life he was perverted by his idolatrous courtiers, who and when in later times they had brought in the use of tem- served groves and idols, to whom it appears that he gave a ples, yet for a long time they kept them open-roofed. Nay, permission for that purpose; for, after making their obeisance, the patriarchs themselves, who worshipped the true God, we are told, that he hearkened to them, and then they left the generally built their altars near to some adjacent grove of house of God. (2 Chron. xxiv. 17, 18.) Nor was the reign trees, which, if nature denied, were usually planted by the of Amaziah the son of Joash any better, for still the people religious in those days. When Abraham dwelt at Beershe-sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places (2 Kings xiv. 4.); ba, in the plains of Mamre, it is said, He planted a grove and though Uzziah his son is said to have done that which there, and called upon the name of the Lord the everlasting God was right in the sight of God, yet this exception appears (Gen. xxi. 33.), and doubtless that was the place to which against him, that the high places were not removed, but the the patriarch and his family resorted for public worship,' people still sacrificed there (2 Kings xv. 3, 4.); the same obserBut at length these hills and groves of the heathen idola- vation is made of Jotham and Ahaz. (2 Chron. xxviii. 4.) ters, as they were more retired and shady, became so much But Hezekiah, who succeeded him, was a prince of extrathe fitter for the exercise of their unholy rites, and for the ordinary piety: he removed the high places, and brake the commission of the obscene and horrid practices that were images, and cut down the groves (2 Kings xviii. 4.), which his usually perpetrated there. (See 1 Kings xv. 12. 2 Kings son Manasseh again built up. (2 Kings xxi. 2.) At length xxiii. 7. In many passages of Scripture it is recorded of good king Josiah, a prince very zealous for the true religion, the Israelites (who in this respect imitated the heathens) utterly cleared the land from the high places and groves, and that they secretly did the things which were not right, that purged it from idolatry: but as the four succeeding reigns they set up images and groves in every high hill, and under before the Babylonian captivity were very wicked, we may every green tree, and there burnt incense in all the high places, presume that the high places were again revived, though and wrought wickedness to provoke the Lord, as did the heathen. there is no mention of them after the reign of Josiah.2 (2 Kings xvii. 9-13.) On this account, therefore, God expressly commanded the Israelites utterly to destroy all the places wherein the nations of Canaan, whose land they should possess, served their gods upon the high mountains and upon the hills and to pay their devotions and bring their oblations to that place only which God should choose. (Deut. xii. 2-15.) Nay, to prevent every approach to the idolatrous customs of the heathens, they were forbidden to plant any trees near the altar of the Lord. (Deut. xvi. 21.) Hence it is clear, that after God should fix upon a place for his public worship, it was entirely unlawful to offer sacrifices upon high places, or any where else but in the place God did choose: so that after the building of the temple, the prohibition of places and groves (so far at least as concerned the sacrificing in them) unquestionably took place. And it was for their disobedience to this command, by their sacrificing upon high places and in groves, even after the temple was erected (2 Kings xv. 35.), and for not destroying the high places of the heathens, where their idol gods were worshipped, which by that command and in many other places of Scripture (Num. xxxiii. 52.), they were expressly appointed to do;-that the prophets with so much holy zeal reproached the Israelites. We have, indeed, several instances in Scripture besides that of Abraham, where the prophets and other good men are said to have made use of these high places for sacrificing, as well as other less solemn acts of devotion, and which are not condemned. Thus, Samuel, upon the uncertain abode of the ark, fitted up a place of devotion for himself and his family in a high place, and built an altar there, and sacrificed upon it. (1 Sam. ix. 12. 19. 25.) Gideon also built an altar and offered a sacrifice to God upon the top of a rock (Judg. vi. 25, 26.); and the tabernacle itself was removed to the high place that was at Gibeon. (1 Chron. xvi. 39. and xxi. 29.) But all this was before the temple was erected, which was the first fixed place that God appointed for his public worship; after which other places for sacrificing became unlawful. That the Israelites, both kings and people, offered sacrifices upon these high places even after the temple was built, will evidently appear by noticing a few passages in their history; for (not to mention Jeroboam and his successors in the king-liticks, pp. 90-99. dom of Israel, whose professed purpose was to innovate every thing in matters of religion, and who had peculiar priests whom they termed prophets of the groves, 1 Kings xviii. 19.) it is clear that most of the kings of Judah,-even such of them who were otherwise zealous for the observance of the law, are expressly recorded as blameable on this head, and but few have the commendation given them of destroying 1 Many ancient nations used to erect altars and offer sacrifices to their gods upon high places and mountains. See the examples adduced in Burder's Oriental Literature, vol. i. p. 233.

These places of worship were very common in Judæa (and it should seem in retired mountainous or elevated places) in the time of Christ; they were also numerous at Alexandria, which was at that time a large and flourishing commercial city, inhabited by vast numbers of Jews: and it appears that in heathen countries they were erected in sequestered retreats, commonly on the banks of rivers, or on the sea shore. The proseucha or oratory at Philippi, where the Lord opened the heart of Lydia, that she attended unto the things which were spoken by Paul, was by a river side. (Acts xvi. 13, 14, 15.)3

It is a question with some learned men, whether these proseuche were the same as the synagogues (of which an account will be found in the following section), or distinct edifices from the latter. Both Josephus and Philo, to whom we may add Juvenal, appear to have considered them as synonymous; and with them agree Grotius, Ernesti, Drs. Whitby, Doddridge, and Lardner; but Calmet, Drs. Prideaux and Hammond, and others, have distinguished between these two sorts of buildings, and have shown that though they were nearly the same, and were sometimes confounded by Philo and Josephus, yet that there was a real difference between them; the synagogues being in cities, while the proseuche were without the walls, in sequestered spots, and

Home's Hist. of the Jews, vol. ii. pp. 161-166. Croxall's Scripture Po

3 Josephus has preserved the decree of the city of Halicarnassus, permiting the Jews to erect oratories, part of which is in the following terms: serve the Sabbaths and perform sacred rites according to the Jewish law, and build proseucha by the sea side, according to the custom of their country; and if any man, whether magistrate or private person, give them any xiv. c. 10. § 23. hinderance or disturbance, he shall pay a fine to the city." Ant. Jud. lib.

"We ordain, that the Jews who are willing, both men and women, do ob

Philo de Legatione ad Caium, p. 1011. Josephus de Vita sua, $54. Juvenal, Sat. iii. 14. Grotius, Whitby, and Doddridge on Luke vi. 12. Ernesti Institutio Interpretis Novi Testamenti, pp. 363, 364. edit. 4to. 1792. ner's Credibility, book i. c. 3. $3. Dr. Harwood's Introduction to the New LardTestament, vol. ii. pp. 171-180.

(particularly in heathen countries) were usually erected on | quent, that they were to be found in almost every place in the banks of rivers, or on the sea-shore (Acts xvi. 13.), Judæa: but the Jews were not permitted to build one in a without any covering but galleries or the shade of trees. town, unless there were ten persons of leisure in it. Not Dr. Prideaux thinks the proseuchæ were of greater antiquity fewer than four hundred and eighty synagogues are said to than the synagogues, and were formed by the Jews in open have been erected in Jerusalem, previously to its capture and courts, in order that those persons who dwelt at a distance destruction by the Romans. In the evangelical history we from Jerusalem might offer up their private prayers in them, find, that wherever the Jews resided, they had one or more as they were accustomed to do in the courts of the temple or synagogues, constructed after those at Jerusalem: hence we of the tabernacle. In the synagogues, he further observes, find, in Acts vi. 9. synagogues belonging to the Alexanthe prayers were offered up in public forms, while the pro- drians, the Asiatics, the Cilicians, the Libertines, and the seuche were appropriated to private devotions: and from the Cyrenians, which were erected for such Jewish inhabitants of oratory, where our Saviour spent a whole night in prayer, those countries or cities, as should happen to be at Jerusalem. being erected on a mountain (Luke vi. 12.), it is highly pro- With regard to the synagogue of the LIBERTINES, a consibable that these proseuche were the same as the high places, derable difference of opinion exists among the learned, so often mentioned in the Old Testament,' whether these Libertines were the children of freed men (Italian Jews or proselytes), or African Jews from the city or country called Libertus, or Libertina, near Carthage. The former opinion is supported by Grotius and Vitringa; the latter (which was first hinted by Oecumenius, a commentator in the close of the tenth century), by Professor Gerdes, Wetstein, Bishop Pearce, and Schleusner.

SECTION IV.

I. THE SYNAGOGUES were buildings in which the Jews assembled for prayer, reading and hearing the Sacred Scrip tures, and other instructions. Though frequently mentioned in the historical books of the New Testament, their origin is not very well known; and many learned men are of opinion that they are of recent institution.

It is well known that the ancient Romans made a distinction between the Liberti and the Libertini. The Libertus was one who had been a slave, and obtained his freedom;" the Libertinus was the son of a Libertus." But this distinction in after-ages was not strictly observed; and Libertinus also came to be used for one not born but made free, in opposition to Ingenuus or one born free. Whether the Libertini, mentioned in this passage of the Acts, were Gentiles, who had become proselytes to Judaism, or native Jews, who having been made slaves to the Romans were afterwards set at liberty, and in remembrance of their captivity called themselves Libertini, and formed a synagogue by themselves, is differently conjectured by the learned. It is probable, that the Jews of Cyrene, Alexandria, &c. erected synagogues at Jerusalem at their own charge, for the use of their Brethren who came from those countries, as the Danes, Swedes, &c. built churches for the use of their own countrymen in London; and that the Italian Jews did the same; and because the greatest number of them were Libertini, their synagogue was therefore called the synagogue of the Libertines.

In support of the second opinion above noticed, viz. that I. Nature and origin of synagogues.-The synagogue of the the Libertines derived their name from Libertus or Libertina, libertines explained.-II. Form of the synagogues.-III. The a city in Africa, it is urged that Suidas in his Lexicon, on officers or ministers.-IV. The service performed in the syna- the word ATCs, says, that it was croue veus, a national apgogues.-V. Ecclesiastical power of the synagogues.-VI. pellative; and that the Glossa interlinearis, of which Nicholas The Shemoneh Esreh, or Nineteen Prayers used in the syna-de Lyra made great use in his notes, has, over the word Libertini, e regione, denoting that they were so styled from a gogue service. country. Further, in the acts of the celebrated conference with the Donatists at Carthage, anno 411, there is mentioned one Victor, bishop of the church of Libertina; and in the acts of the Lateran council, which was held in 649, there is mention of Januarius gratia Dei episcopus sanctæ ecclesiæ Libertinensis, Januarius, by the grace of God, bishop of the holy church of Libertina; and therefore Fabricius in his GeographiAlthough sacrifices could only be offered at the holy taber-cal Index of Christian Bishoprics, has placed Libertina in what nacle or temple, yet it does not appear that the Jews were was called Africa propria, or the proconsular province of restricted to any particular place for the performance of other Africa. Now, as all the other people of the several synagogues, exercises of devotion. Hence formerly, the praises of Jeho-mentioned in this passage of the Acts, are called from the vah were sung in the schools of the prophets, which the more devout Israelites seem to have frequented on Sabbathdays and new moons for the purpose of instruction and prayer. (1 Sam. x. 5-11. xix. 18-24. 2 Kings iv. 23.) During the Babylonish captivity, the Jews, being deprived of the solemn ordinances of divine worship, resorted to the house of some prophet, or other holy man, who was in the practice of giving religious instruction to his own family, and of reading the Scriptures. (Compare Ezek. xiv. 1. and xx. 1. with Neh. viii. 18.) At length these domestic congregations became fixed in certain places, and a regular order of conducting divine worship was introduced. Philo thinks these edifices were originally instituted by Moses: but as no mention is made of them during the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, their origin in Jerusalem is referred to the reigns of the Asmonæan princes, under whom they were first erected, and were soon greatly multiplied; though in Alexandria and other foreign places, where the Jews were dispersed, they were certainly of much greater antiquity. There appears to be an allusion to them in Psal. lxxiv. 4. 8.

In the time of the Maccabees, synagogues became so fre-
Dr. Hammond on Lukev i. 12. and Acts xvi. 13-16. Calmet's Dict. voce
Proseucha. Prideaux's Connection, part i. book vi. sub anno 444, vol i.
pp. 387-390. edit. 1720.

Philo, De Vita Mosis, lib. iii. p. 685.
Josephus, De Bell. Jud. lib. vii. c. 3. $3.

places whence they came, it is probable that the Libertines were denominated in like manner; and as the Cyrenians and Alexandrians, who came from Africa, are placed next to the Libertines in that catalogue, the supporters of this opinion think it probable, that they also belonged to the same country. But we have no evidence to show that there were any natives of this place at Jerusalem, at the period referred to in the Acts of the Apostles. On the contrary, as it is well jure impediente manumissi sunt. Ulpian. tit. i. $6.

4 Cives Romani sunt Liberti, qui vindictâ, censu, aut testamento nullo

This appears from the following passage of Suetonius concerning Claudius, who, he says, was, ignarus temporibus Appii, et deinceps aliquamdiu procreatos. In vita Claudii, cap. 24. §4. p. 78. Pitisci Libertinos dictos, non ipsos, qui manumitterentur, sed ingenuos ex his

Quintilian. de Institutione Oratoria, lib. 5. cap. 10. p. 246. edit. Gibson, 1693. Qui servus est, si manumittatur, fit Libertinus Justinian. Institut. lib. i. tit. v. Libertini sunt, qui ex justa servitute manumissi sunt. Tit. iv. Ingenuus est is, qui statim ut natus est, liber est; sive ex duobus ingenuis matrimonio aditus est, sive ex libertinis duobus, sive ex altero libertino, et

altero ingenuo.

Of these there were great numbers at Rome. Tacitus informs us (Anal. lib. ii. cap. 85.) that four thousand Libertini, of the Jewish supersti tion, as he styles it, were banished at one time, by order of Tiberius, into Sardinia; and the rest commanded to quit Italy, if they did not adjure, by a certain day. See also Suetonius in vita Tiberii, cap. 36. Josephus (Antiq. lib. xviii. cap. 3. § 5. edit. Haverc.) mentions the same fact. And Philo (Le gat. ad Caium. p. 785. C. edit. Colon. 1613.) speaks of a good part of the city, beyond the Tiber, as inhabited by Jews, who were mostly Libertini, having been brought to Rome as captives and slaves, but, being made free by their masters, were permitted to live according to their own rites and customs.

OF SACRED PLACES.

known that, only about fifteen years before, great numbers of Jews, emancipated slaves, or their sons, were banished from Rome, it is most likely that the Libertines mentioned by Luke were of the latter description, especially as his account is corroborated by two Roman historians.

II. It does not appear from the New Testament that the synagogues had any peculiar FORM. The building of them was regarded as a mark of piety (Luke vii. 5.); and they were erected within or without the city, generally in an elevated place, and were distinguished from the proseuchæ by being roofed. Each of them had an altar, or rather table, on which the book of the law was spread; and on the east side there was an ark or chest, in which the volume of the law was deposited. The seats were so disposed that the people always sat with their faces towards the elders, and the place where the law was kept; and the elders sat in the opposite direction, that is to say, with their backs to the ark and their faces to the people. The seats of the latter, as being placed nearer the ark, were accounted the more holy, and hence they are in the New Testament termed the chief seats in the synagogue; which the Pharisees affected; and for which our Lord inveighed against them. (Matt. xxiii. 6.) A similar precedency seems to have crept into the places of worship even of the very first Christians, and hence we may account for the indignation of the apostle James (ii. 3.) against the undue preference that was given to the rich. The women were separated from the men, and sat in a gallery enclosed with lattices, so that they could distinctly see and hear all that passed in the synagogue, without themselves being exposed to view.

III. For the maintenance of good order, there were in every synagogue certain OFFICERS, whose business it was to see that all the duties of religion were decently performed therein. These were,

1. The Axiourageyes, or Ruler of the synagogue. (Luke xiii. 14. Mark v. 22.) It appears from Acts xiii. 15., collated with Mark v. 22. and John vi. 59., that there were several of these rulers in a synagogue. They regulated all its concerns, and gave permission to persons to preach. They were always men advanced in age, and respectable for their learning and probity. The Jews termed them Hacamim, that is, sages or wise men, and they possessed considerable influence and authority. They were judges of thefts, and similar petty offences and to them Saint Paul is supposed to allude in 1 Cor. vi. 5., where he reproaches the Corinthian Christians with carrying their differences before the tribunals of the Gentiles, as if they had no persons among them who were capable of determining them. Is it so, says he, that there is not a WISE MAN among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? These rulers, likewise, had the power of inflicting punishment on those whom they judged to be rebellious against the law; in allusion to which circumstance Christ forewarned his disciples that they should be scourged in the synagogues. (Matt. x. 17.)

2. Next to the Apps, or ruler of the synagogue, was an officer, whose province it was to offer up public prayers to God for the whole congregation: he was called Sheliach Zibbor, or the angel of the church, because, as their messenger, he spoke to God for them. Hence also, in Rev. ii. iii. the presiding ministers of the Asiatic churches are termed angels.

3. The Chazan appears to have been a different officer from the Sheliach Zibbor, and inferior to him in dignity. He seems to have been the person, who in Luke iv. 20. is termed imperns, the minister, and who had the charge of the

sacred books.

IV. The service performed in the synagogue, on the Sabbath and on other holy days, consisted of three parts, viz. prayer, reading the Scriptures, and preaching, or exposition of the Scriptures.

some better evidence than that of the talmudical rabbies is [PART III. CHAP. I. requisite, in order to prove their liturgies to be of so high an antiquity; especially since some of their prayers, as Dr. Prideaux acknowledges, seem to have been composed after the evident they were composed when there was neither temple destruction of Jerusalem, and to have reference to it. It is nor sacrifice; since the seventeenth collect prays, that God would restore his worship to the inner part of his house, and make haste, with fervour and love, to accept the burnt sacrifices of Israel,' &c. They could not, therefore, be the composition of Ezra, who did not receive his commission from Artaxerxes to go to Judæa, till more than fifty years after the second temple was built, and its worship restored. The probability is, that the forms of prayer for the synagogue worship were at first very few, and that some were in use in the time of Jesus Christ, the number of which was subsequently increased. To the eighteen prayers above mentioned, another was added, a short time before the destruction of the second temple, by Rabbi Gamaliel, or, according to some writers, by Rabbi Samuel, one of his scholars. It is directed against apostates and heretics, appellations which the Jews liberally employed to designate all Christians, whether of Jewish or of Gentile descent. This additional prayer is now inserted as the twelfth, and the number is nineteen. They are required to be said by all Jews without exception, who are of age, three times every day, either in public, at the synagogue, or at their own houses, or wherever they may happen to be. As some readers may be curious to see them, they are subjoined, at the end of this section.

ing of the Scriptures, which is of three sorts, the Kirioth2. The second part of this synagogue service is the read Shema, the reading of the whole law of Moses, and portions out of the prophets, and the Hagiographa or holy writings.

ture, viz. Deut. vi. 6-9. xi. 13-21. Num. xv. 37-41. (1.) The Kirioth-Shema consists of three portions of ScripAs the first of these portions commences with the word shema, that is, hear, they are collectively termed the Shema, and the reading of them is called kirioth-shema, or the reading of the Shema. This reading or recital is preceded and followed by several prayers and benedictions; and, next to the saying of the nineteen prayers above noticed, is the most solemn part of the religious service of the Jews; who, believing the commands in Deut. vi. 7. and xi. 19. to be of perpetual obligation, repeat the Shema daily, every morning and evening.

the Masorets, or, according to others, fifty-four Paraschioth (2.) The Law was divided into fifty-three, according to or sections: for the Jewish year consisted of twelve lunar months, alternately of twenty-nine or thirty days, that is, of fifty weeks and four days. The Jews, therefore, in their division of the law into Paraschioth or sections, had a respect to their intercalary year, which was every second or third, and consisted of thirteen months; so that the whole law was every Sabbath; and in cominon years they reduced the fiftyread over this year, allotting one Paraschioth or section to three or fifty-four sections to the number of the fifty Sabbaths, by reading two shorter ones together, as often as there was occasion. They began the course of reading the first Sab bath after the feast of tabernacles; or rather, indeed, on the Sabbath-day before that, when they finished the last course that so, as the rabbies say, the devil might not accuse them of reading, they also made a beginning of the new course; to God of being weary of reading his law.

are termed Haphtoroth. When Antiochus Epiphanes con (3.) The portions selected out of the prophetical writings he prohibited the public reading of the law in the synagogues, quered the Jews about the year 163 before the Christian æra, on pain of death. The Jews, in order that they might not be wholly deprived of the word of God, selected from other termed HAPHTORAS, П (HaPHTOROTH), from (PaTaR), parts of the Sacred Writings fifty-four portions, which were he dismissed, let loose, opened-for though the Law was dismissed from their synagogues, and was closed to them by the edict of this persecuting king, yet the prophetic writings, not being under the interdict, were left open, and therefore they

1. The first part of the synagogue service is Prayer; for the performance of which, according to Dr. Prideaux, they had liturgies, in which are all the prescribed forms of the synagogue worship. The most solemn part of these prayers are the (SHEMONCH ESREH), or the eighteen prayers, which, according to the rabbies, were composed and instituted by Ezra, in order that the Jews, whose language after sion and reference as the seventeenth. See the original prayers in Maithe captivity was corrupted with many barbarous terms bor- monides de Ordine Precum, or in Vitringat (de Synag. vetere, lib. iii. part 1 The fifth, tenth, eleventh, and fourteenth collects have the same allurowed from other languages, might be able to perform their ii. cap. 14. pp. 1033-1038.) who observes that the Talmudists will have the devotions in the pure language of their own country. Such (reduc ministerium Leviticum in Adytum Domus tuæ, as he translates it), is the account which Maimonides gives, out of the Gemara, to have been usually recited by the king in the temple at the feast of taberseventeenth collect, which prays for the restoration of the temple worship, of the origin of the Jewish liturgies; and the eighteen col-nacles; which is such an absurdity that it confutes itself, and shows how lects, in particular, are mentioned in the Mishna. However, are to be depended upon. little the Jewish traditions concerning the antiquity and use of their liturgies See pp. 106, 107. infra.