Because the "Eighteen Benedictions" is such an important part of the synagogue liturgy, and because this prayer is obligatory, it is often assumed today that synagogue attendance is obligatory. However, in the first century it was permissible to pray the "Eighteen Benedictions" privately. One was not required to recite this prayer together with others. In emergencies, one could fulfill the obligation to say this prayer daily by saying even a two or three-sentence abbreviation of it.12
The sages viewed prayer as an "obligation of the heart." One could pray anywhere at any time of the day. Even a short prayer of thanksgiving fulfilled the commandment to say the "Eighteen" every day.
In the first century there was no special women's section in the synagogue. Moreover, there was no divider, as there is today, that separated female from male members of the congregation.
It is true that second-story galleries are attested in fourth to sixth-century C.E. synagogues in the land of Israel. Architectural evidence for these galleries is the remains of stairs found in some synagogue ruins. However, the galleries were not necessarily for women. This is shown by the fact that the bottom of the stairway is often located inside the synagogue's assembly hall, for instance, in the fourth-century synagogue at Khirbet Shema and the fifth to sixth-century synagogue at Beth Alpha. Therefore, any woman who attempted to reach such a gallery would have had to mix with the male congregants, a contradiction to the assumption that in the synagogue men and women were separated.13
Outside the land of Israel, archaeologists discovered an amazingly well preserved synagogue of the era. This mid-third-century BC synagogue also provides evidence that there was no separation of men and women in the ancient synagogue. In the synagogues, the congregants sat on two rows of plastered, tiered benches that surrounded the rectangular assembly hall on all four sides. There were no dividers along the benches or anywhere within the hall (and there was no gallery). This lack of dividers indicates that women were not segregated within the synagogue. Tiered benches lacking dividers were also part of the architecture of the first-century synagogue at Masada. In addition, the Masada synagogue had only one entrance. A single entrance means that women mixed with men when entering and leaving the synagogue.
It should be emphasized that there was also no separation of men and women in the temple. Women were allowed in every area of the temple precincts in which men were allowed.14 The Women's Court, the outer court of the temple, was not reserved for women; in this court men and women mingled. Men had to pass through the Women's Court to reach the Israelites' Court (Men's Court). Located in the Women's Court were various chambers, such as the Nazirites' Chamber, to which both men and women had access. Public assemblies took place in the Women's Court: it was there on the Day of Atonement that the high priest read the Torah before the people,15 and in this court the Hakhel assembly was held.16
The outer court of the temple was called the Women's Court because normally women did not go beyond it into the more interior courts of the temple.17 Similarly, the Israelites' Court was so named because normally non-priestly men did not go beyond it into the Priests' Court. However, like men, women offered their sacrifices at the altar in the Priests' Court, passing through the Israelites' Court in order to do so.18 If, for instance, a woman offered a wave offering such as first fruits, she approached the altar, waved the offering, and placed it beside the altar.19
Women were segregated in the temple only during the Water Drawing Ceremony held on the Feast of Tabernacles, when dancing went on all night. At this celebration, men watched from the Women's Court and women watched from specially erected galleries surrounding the Women's Court as "men of piety and good deeds" danced before them while holding torches in their hands.20
As stated previously, in Yeshuas' time, women participated fully in the religious life of the community. This included participation in synagogue services and in the regular study sessions that were conducted in the synagogue's bet midrash (house of study). There was no separation of the sexes in synagogues and women could be counted as part of the required congregational quorum of ten adults. There was, however, one inequality. For social reasons, women were not allowed to read the Scriptures publicly.
In the Babylonian Talmud and the Tosefta, we find an early rabbinic (tannaic) ruling: "All are qualified to be among the seven [who read publicly from the Torah in the synagogue on the Sabbath], even a minor or a woman; however, the sages ruled that a woman should not read from the Torah out of respect for the congregation."21 This is apparently a reference to the same social custom or decorum that we find mentioned in Paul's letter to the Corinthians:
Women should keep silent in the churches. They are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Torah states. If they want to learn anything, they should ask their husbands at home, for it is a disgrace for a woman to speak in the congregation.22
Paul felt it necessary to issue his corrective because in early Christian congregations, following Jewish practice, it was permissible and customary to interrupt the preacher to ask questions. In first-century synagogues, a sermon followed the reading of Scripture. This exposition of Scripture was more a lesson than a sermon, and congregants were encouraged to ask questions. In fact, the asking of questions was so central to the rabbinic teaching method that often the preacher-teacher began his sermon by just seating himself and waiting until someone from the audience asked a question. There is a whole category of Jewish literature called yeˇlamˇDEˇnu (May [our teacher] instruct us). It is similar to what we now call "Questions and Answers." Today public speakers often employ a Question-and-Answer period, especially as a means of clarification at the end of a lecture. In first-century Jewish society this approach was usually the main method of instruction.
From Paul's injunction we learn that at public religious gatherings of early Christians, women sat with men in the same hall, perhaps even next to their husbands or fathers. Paul's command itself implies a mixed audience: there would have been nothing indecorous about a woman asking a question in a group composed entirely of women.
If there had been separation of men and women in first-century synagogues, it is likely that the early church would have continued the custom. However, the New Testament gives no indication that the early church had such a custom.
1. The modern custom of separating men and women in the synagogue is perhaps due to the influence of Islam, from approximately the seventh century C.E. onward.
2.
Ruth 4:2.
3.
Num. 6:24–26.
4. Literally, "standing and sitting." As the mourners returned from the burial, they stopped seven times to lament the deceased.
5. A vow to dedicate to the temple an amount equal to one's value (if sold into slavery), or equal to the value of someone else.
6. Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 47b.
7. Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot 9d.
8. Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zarah 38a–b.
9. Soferim 18:4.
10. Mishnah, Berachot 4:3.
11. Mishnah, Berachot 3:3.
12. David Bivin, "Prayers for Emergencies," Jerusalem Perspective 37 (Mar./Apr. 1992), 16–17.
13. Shmuel Safrai, The Land of Israel and Its Sages in the Mishnaic and Talmudic Period (Tel Aviv: United Kibbutz Publishing Co., 1983), pp. 100–101 (Hebrew); idem, "Was There a Women's Gallery in the Synagogue of Antiquity?" Tarbiz 33 (1963–1964), 329–338 (Hebrew); Bernadette J. Brooten, Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue [Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1982], pp. 103–138.
14. Shmuel Safrai, "The Role of Women in the Temple," Jerusalem Perspective 21 (Jul./Aug. 1989), 5–6.
15. Mishnah, Yoma 7:1; Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 69b.
16. The assembly of "men, women, children and aliens" for the public reading of Torah, held every seven years during the Feast of Tabernacles (
Deut. 31:10–13). Cf. Mishnah, Sotah 7:8; Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 41b.
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