es of Philo. The audience had the
right of making objections and putting questions to the reader; so
that the meeting soon degenerated into a kind of free assembly. It had
a president,[6] "elders,"[7] a _hazzan_, _i.e._, a recognized reader,
or apparitor,[8] deputies,[9] who were secretaries or messengers, and
conducted the correspondence between one synagogue and another, a
_shammash_, or sacristan.[10] The synagogues were thus really little
independent republics, having an extensive jurisdiction. Like all
municipal corporations, up to an advanced period of the Roman empire,
they issued honorary decrees,[11] voted resolutions, which had the
force of law for the community, and ordained corporal punishments, of
which the _hazzan_ was the ordinary executor.[12]

[Footnote 1: Matt. iv. 13; Luke iv. 31.]

[Footnote 2: At Tell-Houm, Irbid (Arbela), Meiron (Mero), Jisch
(Giscala), Kasyoun, Nabartein, and two at Kefr-Bereim.]

[Footnote 3: I dare not decide upon the age of those buildings, nor
consequently affirm that Jesus taught in any of them. How great would
be the interest attaching to the synagogue of Tell-Houm were we to
admit such an hypothesis! The great synagogue of Kefr-Bereim seems to
me the most ancient of all. Its style is moderately pure. That of
Kasyoun bears a Greek inscription of the time of Septimus Severus. The
great importance which Judaism acquired in Upper Galilee after the
Roman war, leads us to believe that several of these edifices only
date back to the third century--a time in which Tiberias became a sort
of capital of Judaism.]

[Footnote 4: 2 _Esdras_ viii. 4; Matt. xxiii. 6; Epist. James ii. 3;
Mishnah, _Megilla_, iii. 1; _Rosh Hasshana_, iv. 7, etc. See
especially the curious description of the synagogue of Alexandria in
the Talmud of Babylon, _Sukka_, 51 _b_.]

[Footnote 5: Philo, quoted in Eusebius, _Praep. Evang._, viii. 7, and
_Quod Omnis Probus Liber_, Sec. 12; Luke iv. 16; _Acts_ xiii. 15, xv. 21;
Mishnah, _Megilla_, iii. 4, and following.]

[Footnote 6: [Greek: Archisunagogos].]

[Footnote 7: [Greek: Presbyteroi].]

[Footnote 8: [Greek: Huperetes].]

[Footnote 9: [Greek: Apostoloi], or [Greek: angeloi].]

[Footnote 10: [Greek: Diakonos]. Mark v. 22, 35, and following; Luke
iv. 20, vii. 3, viii. 41, 49, xiii. 14; _Acts_ xiii. 15, xviii. 8, 17;
_Rev._ ii. 1; Mishnah, _Joma_, vii. 1; _Rosh Hasshana_, iv. 9; Talm.
of Jerus., _Sanhedrim_, i. 7; Epiph., _Adv. Haer._, xxx. 4, 11.]