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PTEN

Goodman

Date

100BCE

c. 100 BCE to c. 70 CEapproximate date

Martin Goodman argues that Temple-period synagogues were essentially communal spaces; building sanctity was more typical of the diaspora, and prayer was not yet seen as a substitute for sacrifice.

Religious historyBible and Second Temple31.7772°N 35.2350°E
50 BCE
50 CE
100 CE
Between Caesar and God: each bar is an event of the period; this one is in coral.

Sourced narrative

Each block is a verifiable statement. The number opens the cited page; amber or coral blocks flag tradition or contested interpretation.

6 statements

01Space and sanctity

For Goodman, Temple-period buildings identified as synagogues (Masada, Herodium, Gamala, etc.) were essentially communal rather than alternative temples: in Tiberias the 'prayer house' also hosted political meetings (Josephus, 67 CE). Goodman notes that treating the synagogue building as sacred while the Temple still stood appears more often outside the land of Israel than within it (e.g. Philo; 'holy places which are called synagogues').

02Prayer and sacrifice

According to Goodman, for most Jews nothing in a synagogue rivaled Temple sacrificial worship; communal prayer was valued, especially far from Jerusalem, yet no one yet thought such prayer might substitute for sacrifice, since Moses' law had not clearly decreed it.

03Diaspora under Rome

Goodman warns that reading Josephus through a post-70 lens misleads: Jews lived peacefully for long stretches in the Roman world, and diaspora communities (Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Rome) could keep customs such as the Sabbath on grounds of their antiquity.

Context

Goodman urges that for the rabbinic movement before 70 one should privilege the Mishnah and other third-century tannaitic sources: those texts indicate study groups of sages already well established at least a century before the Temple's destruction. For Goodman, the rabbinic oral tradition matters chiefly as perception: sages believed in it and saw Moses-derived authority through it, even when Bible and Josephus preserve no such chains.

§ 01Geography

Where it happened

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§ 04Network

Connections

    § 05Bibliography

    Further reading

    • Martin Goodman, A History of Judaism (London: Allen Lane / Penguin Books, 2018).

      Survey history of Judaism (synagogue, Second Temple variety, rabbinate) · recommended in Goodman, p. 69

    § 06Apparatus

    Sources on this page

    1. 01Goodman, p. 69inspect
    2. 02Goodman, p. 70inspect
    3. 03Goodman, p. 69inspect
    4. 04Goodman, p. 108; Goodman, p. 108inspect
    5. 05Goodman, p. 161inspect
    6. 06Goodman, p. 161inspect
    • Documented evidenceAttested by contemporary evidence: texts, inscriptions, coins, papyri or archaeology.
    • Scholarly reconstructionHistorians' inference from indirect evidence.
    • Tradition or narrativeA literary, traditional or religious account; significant in itself, but not independently verified.
    • Contested interpretationScholars explicitly disagree; see the positions in the debate.
    • Illustrative reconstructionA hypothesis or visual scheme to guide reading; not a historical claim.