Synagoga's Heritage

Why First-century Synagogues Are Important to Christians First-century synagogues are significant to today's church because they were an important part of the world that Jesus knew and of his ministry. Understanding them brings us a little closer to his life and times. Secondly, the apostles and all members of the earliest church were Jewish and at least the males almost certainly attended a synagogue. Some of the synagogues discussed in the previous chapter may have been, or would have been, known to Jesus. The earliest church was Judaeo-Christian, especially in Jerusalem and the Galilee, thus it is logical to conclude that the development of early Christianity was informed by the Judaism that they had practised (or continued to practise). Jesus was Jewish and his sayings, parables and teachings are full of Jewish wisdom and ways of thinking. As noted, much more recently than the 1960s, synagogue buildings that functioned in Jesus' lifespan have been discovered in the following places: Modi'in and Kiryat Sefer in the Latrun-Ben-Guerion-Airport area and, in the North, Gamla, Capernaum, Magdala and Khirbet Cana (not to be confused with Kfar Cana, which is much-visited but unlikely to be the original `Cana of Galilee'). The search is ongoing and, as recently as 2016, two small synagogues were discovered in Galilee, which served farm-workers, Shuafat/Kirbet-a-Ras and Tel Rechesh, which have been discussed in Chapter 13. Scholarly analysis of these continues and more remains may be found at any moment as excavations continue in Israel, unabated.