Chapter 4. The Ruler of the Synagogue.
BEFORE speaking of the Ruler of the Synagogue, let us consider the synagogue itself a little.
It makes this more interesting when we remember how many times our Lord taught in the very synagogues I am going to tell you of. Again and again in the story of His life, we read of His teaching, and in some cases doing miracles in the synagogue. Every town possessed its synagogue, a square or round building placed if possible on a hill, or in some central place.
The inside of the building was arranged in a somewhat similar manner to the tabernacle, that is to say, it had three parts, answering to the court, the holy place, and the most holy. In the first division sat the people, the men and women divided from one another by a wooden partition. In the second part was a raised platform, and a pulpit of wood upon it, and the third part was taken up by a chest or ark as it was called, containing the rolls on which was written the law; a veil hung in front of this, and the lid of the chest was called the “mercy seat.” In this building the people of the town would assemble on the Sabbath days, and there was also service on market days, so that the country people might have the opportunity to attend.
They began the service with two short prayers, one of which I will give you a copy of, that you may have some idea what the Lord heard, and probably repeated when as a boy He went to the synagogue of Nazareth. This is the prayer. “With great love hast Thou loved us, O Lord our God, and with much overflowing pity hast Thou pitied us, our Father and our King. For the sake of our fathers who trusted in Thee, and Thou taughtest them the statutes of life, have mercy upon us, and teach us. Enlighten our eyes in Thy law; cause our hearts to cleave to Thy commandments; unite our hearts to love and fear Thy name, and we shall not be put to shame, world without end. For Thou art a God Who preparest salvation, and us hast Thou chosen, from among all nations and tongues, and hast in truth brought us near to Thy great name, that we may lovingly praise Thee and Thy Oneness. Blessed be the Lord Who in love chose His people Israel.”
And all the time they were speaking of God’s salvation, the very One who was offering them salvation was in their midst, and they would not have Him. Does not this speak to us too, who are perhaps asking God to have pity upon us and save us, when all the time the wonderful work of redemption has been accomplished, and God is offering eternal life, and forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ to all who will receive it.
But we must return to the synagogue and its service; after these short prayers had been offered, the “Shema” was repeated. This consisted of three short portions taken from the books of Num. and Deut. (Deut. 6:4-9, Deut. 11:13-21, Num. 15:37-41.) The prayers and “Shema” were repeated aloud by one man, chosen by the Ruler of the synagogue, and he also called upon someone in the congregation, to read a portion from the law; and another portion from the prophets. They stood up to read, but sat down when about to preach. We see this in Luke 4, where our Lord read to the people a passage from the prophet Isa. and then sitting down, he preached such a wonderful sermon, that all “wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.”
We hear a number of times of the Rulers of the synagogue, in the Gospels. They were men well thought of, and learned in the law, and were appointed to their post by the laying on of the hands of at least three, who had themselves received “ordination.” If we look at Acts, 13:15, we shall see that Paul and his companion, Barnabas, when in the Gentile city of Antioch, went into the synagogue, and there after the reading of the law and the prophets, the Ruler of the synagogue asked them to preach to the people, which they did with such power, that the following Sabbath “Almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.” We may learn several things from this passage if we look at it carefully. First, that synagogues were not only to be found in the land of the Jews but were established all over the known world, wherever Jews could be found. If there were too few Jews in a city or town to build a synagogue, they chose a place by a river or stream, where they could get together for prayer, as we see in the city of Philippi. (Acts 16:13.) Secondly, we see that the office of the Ruler of the synagogue was to arrange who should speak, or preach, or in any manner lead the service. Thirdly, we may notice that the service was held upon the Sabbath day.
Before we leave off talking about the Rulers of the synagogue, we must look for a moment at the power which these men had. They could turn persons out of the synagogue, as was done to the man in John 9 who being healed of his blindness, confessed that Jesus was the Christ. They also had power to scourge and imprison, as we learn from the words of the Lord Jesus in Matt. 10:17 and Luke 21:12; and in Acts 9 we find Paul getting letters from the High Priest to the synagogues, that through their power he might cruelly persecute the Church of God. Now we must leave the subject of the synagogue and its Rulers, just reminding you first that Jairus, whose only little daughter Jesus raised from the dead, is spoken of as a “Ruler of the synagogue.” (Luke 8:41.)
ML 07/28/1912