The synagogue which means "a gathering" or "an assembly" - had been part of Jewish life for a long time. It became particularly significant after the first temple was destroyed and the Jews were taken into Babylonian captivity.

"The origin of the synagogue as a characteristic institution of Judaism is hidden in obscurity," states Dictionary of the Bible. "Most probably it took its rise in the conditions that followed the dispersal of the Jewish people after the destruction of the first temple in 586 B.C."Hitherto worship had practically meant sacrifice, but sacrifice was impossible outside the temple and particularly in foreign lands. There was still left, however, the living word of the prophet. From olden times it was customary to visit the man of God on Sabbaths and new moons and in times of stress for intercession and for counsel. (2 Kings 4:23.)

"Such visits to the priest-prophet Ezekiel by the elders [while inT captivity in Babylonia came to play a special role. (Ezek. 8:1; 20:103.)

"Archaeological discoveries have brought to light a record of the foundation of a synagogue at Alexandria in 308 B.C. and numerous inscriptions of the same sort from the following century. In every Jewish settlement of the expanding Diaspora synagogues sprang up as rallying points of the Jewish people."

Synagogues had a three-fold function in Jewish life:

They were houses of assembly, serving as meeting places for communal purposes.

They were houses of prayer.

They were houses of study, serving as the fountain or spring of religious knowledge.

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