The synagogue at Masada is perhaps the best-known synagogue in Palestine dating before 70 C. E. The synagogue was installed in a casemate room of the Herodian fortification wall on the northwest side of the mountain (see Chapter 10). Originally this room had a small front porch or antechamber and a main room with five columns supporting the roof. It apparently was a reception hall during Herod's time, and may have been used as a stable by the Roman
14.3 The Gamla synagogue. Photo by Jim Haberman.
Garrison that occupied the mountain after Herod's death. The Jewish rebels who occupied Masada during the First Jewish Revolt converted this room into a synagogue by removing the wall of the antechamber to make one large room (and reconfiguring the columns supporting the roof), and installing rows of benches along the walls. They also added a small chamber at the back of the room.
The synagogue at Masada lacks the distinctive features that we associate with later synagogue buildings, such as a Torah shrine (for storing Torah scrolls), and Jewish symbols and iconography. Furthermore, although this side of the mountain is closest to Jerusalem, the room is not oriented toward Jerusalem but lies at an angle. Later synagogues typically are oriented toward Jerusalem, because Jews pray facing the Temple Mount. The lack of these features in the synagogue at Masada reflects its early date, before the development of a standardized prayer service and liturgy. In other words, the room at Masada is a synagogue in the most basic sense of the word: a hall that accommodated gatherings of Jews for the reading of the Torah. The benches indicate that this room was used for assemblies, and the fact that only Jews occupied the mountain at the time of the revolt indicates that it was a Jewish hall of assembly. Had this room been found in a non-Jewish context, we could not call it a synagogue, and had it been found at a site with a mixed Jewish and non-Jewish population, we could not identify it with certainty as a synagogue.
In a pit dug into the dirt floor of the back room (which had been added by the rebels), Yigael Yadin found fragments of biblical scrolls belonging to the books of Ezekiel and Deuteronomy. In Judaism, it became customary to bury or deposit in a synagogue sacred writings that are damaged or no longer used, because they cannot be destroyed (although not all synagogues have such deposits). The pit found by Yadin might represent an early example of this type of deposit, which is called a geniza.
A handful of other synagogue buildings dating before 70 C. E. have been found at other sites in Palestine. The Jewish rebels who occupied Herodium during the First Revolt converted Herod's triclinium (dining room and reception hall) into a synagogue by adding benches around the walls. A slightly earlier example of a synagogue is found at Gamla, the Jewish town overlooking the Sea of Galilee that was destroyed by the Romans in 67 C. E. (see Chapter 9). It consists of a rectangular assembly hall lined by benches and with columns to support the roof, abutting the fortification wall on the eastern side of the town. The synagogue is constructed of finely cut blocks of basalt and has columns with Doric capitals. The lintel over the main doorway was decorated with an incised rosette flanked by date palms. A miqveh was installed in a room adjacent to the hall. The Gamla synagogue antedates those at Masada and Gamla, as it was built before the outbreak of the First Revolt, and differs in having been purpose-built (constructed as a synagogue from the start). However, all these early (pre-70) synagogues are relatively modest structures with benches lining the interior and columns to support the roof (allowing for an expanded hall to accommodate assemblies). Some have additional features such as a geniza or miqveh, but they lack Torah shrines and are not oriented toward Jerusalem.
In 2009, Israeli archaeologists announced the discovery of a pre-70 synagogue building at Mary Magdalene's home town of Migdal (Magdala/Tarichaea), on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. The Migdal synagogue is a relatively modest rectangular hall lined with benches. However, the floor of the hall is paved with a mosaic, whereas other early synagogues have packed dirt or plastered floors. In the middle of the hall the excavators discovered a unique object: a large rectangular block of stone decorated on all sides (except the bottom) with carved reliefs, including a rosette (on the top) and a menorah flanked by amphoras (on one side). Not only is this a rare depiction of a menorah antedating 70 C. E., but it is the first (earliest) example of this symbol decorating an ancient synagogue. This discovery suggests that even before 70 some Jews related the activities in synagogues to the Jerusalem temple — a phenomenon that became much more pronounced in the centuries after 70. The function of the stone block is not known (perhaps an offering table or a table on which the Torah scroll was laid?), and the synagogue is not yet published, although preliminary reports in the media can be found online.
Synagogue Buildings after 70 C. E.: The Traditional
Typology
World History
