ABSTRACT
The synagogue1 has been a focal point of contact between Jews and non-Jews since the Greco-Roman period.2 Authors writing in Greek, Latin and Syriac, polytheists and Christians, reflect on and describe their experiences with and within this central institution of Judaism.3 What has not been fully analyzed are sources in Jewish texts that deal with non-Jews in the synagogue context. In this essay I focus on relationships between Jews, polytheists and Christians in ancient synagogues as expressed mainly in rabbinic literature, with reference to archeological and non-Jewish literary sources. I suggest how relations between Jews and their neighbors developed in late-antique Palestine and compare them to relationships between Jews and non-Jews beyond the borders of the Land of Israel. The discussion divides into two broad sections. In the first evidence for polytheists and ‘Godfearers’ in the synagogues of the pre-Constantinian period is discussed, relying primarily upon classical rabbinic literature, principally the Mishnah, the Tosefta and the Jerusalem Talmud, with reference to archeological sources. The second part discusses evidence for Christians and Christianity in synagogues during the Byzantine period, relying primarily on rabbinic sources that were either composed or redacted during the Byzantine period, and with a focus on liturgical texts of that period. The nature of the extant sources dictates that while part one focuses on evidence for actual non-Jews within synagogues, the discussion in part two will focus on evidence for Jewish attitudes toward the Byzantine Christians and their religion.
