ABSTRACT
The study of Judaism and Jewish society in late antiquity poses a number of methodological challenges. Often there is a dearth of relevant material; at times what exists is so fragmentary that it is well-nigh impossible to reconstruct any historical picture with a modicum of certainty. On the other hand, the sources that do, in fact, exist, often reveal contradictions and conflicting accounts which ipso facto prevent the historian from drawing unequivocal conclusions. The case of the Patriarchate and its relationship to the ancient synagogue is no exception; it, too, offers a baffling picture. Although we possess a number of sources that seem to indicate the very significant influence of this office on the synagogue, these sources nevertheless are few in number and range far and wide both chronologically and geographically, from the second-century Roman Galilee to the fourth-and fifth-century Byzantine empire. In addition, a number of less definitive sources likewise seem to indicate some sort of involvement, but each of these has its limitations-posing difficulties either of interpretation, or of whether the information it furnishes is applicable locally or can be understood as representative of Jewish life elsewhere in the empire as well.
