Places of Worship.

In our Lord’s day the Jewish people maintained two institutions of worship — the

temple and the synagogue. There was one temple located at Jerusalem in which the priests

officiated at sacrifices and offerings. But there was a synagogue in which the Scriptures were

read and interpreted in every town or village and even in many foreign cities.

The Temple. In the Old Testament, worship was largely by sacrificial offerings and

ceremonial rites. There was very little congregational worship — singing public prayer or

public reading of the Scriptures; and formal preaching was unheard of. The first central place

of worship was the movable tabernacle built in the wilderness under the supervision of Moses

about 1497 B.C.; it was followed by the temple of Solomon (1012-586 B.C.); and this in turn

by the temple of Zerubbabel which was erected in 516 B.C. and endured until Herod the

Great dismantled it in 23 B.C. so that he might erect a new one. In the new structure the

temple proper was completed in a year and a half (22 B.C.), and the courtyards eight years

later. The entire structure was not finished until A.D. 64, just six years before it was totally

destroyed by the Romans.

The exact plan on which it was built is not known for certain, though many reconstructions

of it have been drawn from information found in Josephus and in the Talmud. The

whole area enclosed by the outside porch was about twenty-six acres. It included a Court of

the Gentiles, a Court of the Women, a Court of the Israelites, a Court of the Priests, and the

temple building proper. That building was the heart of the whole institution containing the

holy place and the most holy place or Holy of Holies as did the tabernacle and the two

temples before it.

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As one “went up into the temple” from any direction he first entered the Court of the

Gentiles through a porch supported by marble colonnades which surrounded the entire

structure. The porch on the south end which was known as the Royal Porch had four rows of

massive columns; those on the other three sides had only two. The colonnade on the east side

which was backed by the east wall of the city was known as Solomon’s Porch (John 10:23;

Acts 3:11; 5:12). The area immediately enclosed by these porches was called the Court of the

Gentiles, because non-Jews might enter into it, but could proceed no farther into the temple.

Without doubt, it was in the Court of the Gentiles that a market for sacrificial animals had

been set up, along with tables for the money-changers, whose operations Jesus drove out on

two occasions. Four gates opened into this court from the outside on the west, one on the

north, one on the east, and according to most authorities, one on the south.

Within the Court of the Gentiles was the sacred enclosure, entered by nine gates —

one on the east and four each on the north and the south. The gate on the east, leading into the

Court of the Women, was the Beautiful Gate referred to in Acts 3:2-10. At each of these gates

was a stone with a carved inscription warning all Gentiles, on pain of death, not to enter. The

eastern part of the sacred enclosure was the Court of the Women, on a level nineteen steps

higher than that of the Court of the Gentiles. In this court, of which the area has been estimated

at from one to one and three fourths acres, were the treasury and chambers for storing

facilities for various temple operations. Into this court both Jewish men and women might

come, but it was as near to the altar or the House of God as the women could approach. On

the west of the Court of the Women, and on a higher level, was the Court of the Israelites.

Before the gate between the two courts within the Court of the Women were fifteen semicircular

steps. The Court of the Israelites (men’s court) was little more than a corridor surrounding

the Court of the Priests, from which it was separated by a low stone wall. In the Court of

the Priests, which contained the large Altar of Burnt Offerings and the laver, the ritual of

animal sacrifices was conducted.

Within the Court of the Priests, on the peak of Mount Moriah, twelve steps higher

than the surrounding court, was the House of God, the temple proper. It had three parts: the

porch and the chambers, which together surrounded the other two parts, the Holy Place,

entered from the porch, and the Holy of Holies, behind the Holy Place. The walls, including

those of the porch, were said to be 150 feet high. The Holy Place contained the table of

shewbread, the golden candlestick (or lampstand), and the golden altar of incense, just as the

Holy Place of the tabernacle of Moses had done. But there was no Ark of the Covenant in the

Holy of Holies; for that article, which had been the most sacred object in the tabernacle and

in the temple of Solomon, was probably consumed in the flames that destroyed Solomon’s

temple in 586 B.C. In the Holy of Holies of Herod’s temple (as of Zerubbabel’s temple) there

was only a flat stone, on which the high priest placed his censer and sprinkled the blood of

the sin offering on the annual Day of Atonement, which was the only occasion on which that

room was entered. It was separated from the Holy Place by a veil. It was this veil which was

torn in two from top to bottom at the time of the death of our Lord.

As a place of worship the temple was designed for sacrificial ceremonies. Only during

the feast seasons did people gather in the courts in considerable numbers, and no provision

was made in it for congregational worship. Individuals would come to the temple for private

prayer whenever they felt the need of it (Luke 18:10), and groups would gather in prearranged

places for prayer meetings (Acts 3:1). The teaching done in the temple usually took

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place when interested crowds would gather around a teacher to ask questions or to hear what

he had to say (Luke 20:1).

The Synagogue. Not all of the worship was centered in the temple. During the

intertestamental period the synagogue had arisen, a local institution to which the Jewish

people of each community came to worship — not with sacrifices, but with prayers and

eulogies and the reading and interpreting of the law and the prophets. No mention of the

synagogue is found in the Old Testament, but in the time of our Lord there was one in every

town in Palestine, and in foreign cities where there were as many as ten Jewish households.

The officials of the temple were the priests, but those of the synagogue were the synagogueruler,

the elders, and the attendant. The synagogue-ruler arranged for the services. He appointed

the leader for each service and selected the one who would read the law and the one

who would read the prophets and those who would recite the interpretations of these Scriptures.

The elders seem to have formed a sort of advisory board to assist the synagogue-ruler.

The attendant combined the work of sexton and teacher, and usually executed the decisions

of the other officers.

The order of the services seems to have been eulogies, benedictions, reading and

interpretation of the law, reading and interpretation of the prophets, sermon, and benediction.

The interpretations were stereotyped translations of the Hebrew Scriptures into the current

Aramaic; they were usually given by a scribe if one was present. Any man might be called on

to read the different portions of the Scriptures or for a sermon or exhortation, or a man might

ask for the privilege of preaching. The benediction was usually pronounced by a priest if one

was present; if not, by anyone. We learn from Luke 4:16 that the Lord Jesus was accustomed

to regular attendance at the Synagogue in Nazareth and could be depended upon to take a part

in the worship.