Matthew 4:23

their synagogues The synagogue, built on a hill or on the highest place in the city, distinguished sometimes by a tall pole corresponding to a modern steeple, was as familiar and conspicuous in a Jewish town as the Church is in an English village. Sometimes, however, the synagogue was placed on the bank of a river. Sometimes it was constructed without a roof and open to the sky.

1. Divine service was held in the synagogue on the Sabbath and also on the second and fifth day of each week.

2. The service consisted in reading the Law and the Prophets by those who were called upon by the "Angel of the Church," and in prayers offered up by the minister for the people; the people responding "Amen" as with us.

3. But the Synagogues were not churches alone. Like Turkish mosques they were also Courts of Law in which the sentence was not only pronounced but executed, "they shall scourge you in their synagogues." Further, the Synagogues were Public Schools, "the boys that were scholars were wont to be instructed before their masters in the synagogue" (Talmud). Lastly, the Synagogues were the Divinity Schools or Theological Colleges among the Jews.

4. The affairs of the Synagogue were administered by ten men, of whom three, called "Rulers of the Synagogue," acted as judges, admitted proselytes and performed other important functions. A fourth was termed the "Angel of the Church" or bishop of the congregation; three others were deacons or almoners. An eighth acted as "interpreter," rendering the Hebrew into the Vernacular; the ninth was the master of the Divinity School, the tenth his interpreter; see ch. Matthew 10:27.

It is interesting to trace in the arrangements of the Synagogue part of the organization of the Christian Church. This note is chiefly due to Lightfoot ad loc.

preaching the gospel of the kingdom i. e. "heralding the good tidings," for the thought see ch. Matthew 4:3 note, and cp. Isaiah 40.

The word translated gospel does not occur in St Luke or St John, it is a favourite word with St Paul, but is elsewhere used twice only in the N. T., viz. 1 Peter 4:17 and Revelation 14:6.

It is desirable to observe the original and spiritual form of the expression, "to preach the gospel," for the words are sometimes used in a narrow and polemical sense.