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The first corporate worship service recorded in any detail in the scriptures is the assembly of Israel at Mt Sinai in Exodus 19-24. Exodus 19-23 recounts the establishment of the covenant between God and his people, and Exodus 24 gives the worship service where Israel ratified the covenant. The basic pattern is very simple:
It would be useful to go into the details of the daily worship of the Old Testament but space does not allow for that here but let it be said that every biblical worship service described in scripture follows this basic pattern (no other pattern is ever substituted for it). The worship service that is presented in the greatest detail is the service at the dedication of the temple in 2 Chronicles 5-7. There is more detail in Solomon's service, but it follows the same pattern that Moses did:
So the Old Testament pattern of worship has a very clear theological shape:
After the first destruction of the Temple and the captivity of the Jews they were forced to adapt the "Pattern of Worship" that we see above and out of necessity comes the formation of the "Synagogue" to which we now look.
There has been considerable debate regarding the relative influence of the temple and the synagogue in New Testament worship. A comparison between the two is useful:
As you can see for yourself in the absence of the Temple the Synagogue follows again the basic "Pattern of Worship" minus the parts that would have applied to the Temple. In the absence of the Temple today our focus must be the worship of the synagogue that was established during and after the Exile to teach the Israelites the Word of God along with the worship that was later transferred to one's home by the Rabbis which functioned as an allegory of the Temple sacrifices and offerings. Since the Jews had been exiled from the Land because of their disobedience and idolatry, they began meeting weekly to learn how to avoid making the same mistakes again. Synagogue "worship," therefore, was not opposed to temple worship, but was designed to prepare people for temple worship.
The word "synagogue" means basically an ":assembly house." In the New Testament the synagogue functioned as a community meeting place for Jews and was not only used for worship, but also for schools and other gatherings. Although not mentioned in the Old Testament since the Temple stood, synagogues originated during the exile in Bablyon as meetings of the people to hear the writings and to pray. By the time of Jesus, each community of Jews, anywhere in the Roman world, had its synagogue. The building was rectangular, and its doorway faced Jerusalem. Along the walls on the inside were benches. A board of elders supervised each synagogue, and there were other officers, such as the ruler. The services in a synagogue consisted of readings, a talk (or sermon), and prayers. The great annual feasts were still celebrated at the temple in Jerusalem, the only place where sacrifices were made. Matt. 12:9; Mark 5:36; Luke 4:15; John 16:2; Acts 9:2; 18:4.
Technically the word "synagogue" is a Greek word meaning a ‘gathering of things’ or an ‘assembly of people.’ The Jewish synagogue is both a congregation of Jews who pray, read Scripture, and hear teaching and exhortation based on Scripture and the place where the congregation assembles. As the synagogue developed in rabbinic Judaism, it also became a place for study of the Bible, its commentaries, and Talmudic materials.The origin of the synagogue is obscure, but it certainly existed by the first century a.d. in both Palestine and the Diaspora. First-century a.d. synagogues in Palestine are attested by the Gospels. Jesus preached and discussed with Jewish leaders and congregations in synagogues (e.g., Matt. 4:23; 9:25; Mark 1:21; 3:1-6; Luke 4:16-28; 13:10). The synagogue was a place of prayer, reading of Scripture, preaching, and teaching. It is uncertain whether the many references to synagogues in the Gospels reflect the situation during Jesus’ lifetime or the period after the destruction of the Temple (a.d. 70) when the Gospels were finally written but it would appear that they existed prior to the destruction of the Temple in Israel and had existed since Babylon's captivity.
Josephus, the Jewish historian of the late first century, speaks of a few synagogues in the north of the Holy Land in the first century so this testifies to their existence before the destruction of the Temple outside of Israel. Synagogues, it seems then, were certainly common in the Diaspora. Philo, the first-century Egyptian Jewish writer, attests to the presence of numerous synagogues in Alexandria. Inscriptions found at various places in the Roman Empire show that Jewish congregations were found in many places. Acts portrays Paul as teaching in synagogues wherever he goes (e.g., Acts 18:4; 19:8).
The origin of the "first" synagogue remains unknown, but the question has produced a number of theories. Many have suggested that the synagogue arose in the Babylonian exile as a response to the loss of the Temple as the center of Jewish religious life. Though the suggestion is reasonable, no direct evidence exists for its presence and the biblical passages cited (Ezek. 11:16; 14:1) are far from convincing. In addition, no mention of the synagogue is made in Ezra and Nehemiah, nor is any destruction of synagogues mentioned during the Maccabean revolt. The public reading of Torah is described in Nehemiah 8 and mentioned in 1 Macc. 3:48, but these assemblies are extraordinary public gatherings; we do not know whether these practices were regularly done. Some scholars suggest that the Hellenistic crisis during the second century b.c., in which there was a conflict among Jews over acculturation and fidelity to tradition, produced the synagogue as a mode of resistance to Hellenism, i.e., Greek culture and custom. Since the synagogue existed in developed form in the first century a.d., it is likely that it came into being in the two centuries preceding, but no direct evidence for it then exists. In the Diaspora, some Egyptian inscriptions from the third and second centuries b.c. mention a ‘place of prayer’ (Gk. proseucheµ), but we do not know what went on in the houses of prayer and it is not certain that these refer to synagogues. A building has been found on the island of Delos in the Nile that has been identified as a Jewish synagogue, but the building has no clear Jewish symbols or characteristics to identify it unambiguously as a synagogue. It is likely that Jews often met in a large room in a house. A building set aside for special religious purposes had to await a certain level of material prosperity and community development. In only four recently dug sites in Palestine have rooms or buildings been identified as synagogues: Masada, Herodium, Magdala (Migdal, Tarichaeae), and Gamala. The results of these excavations are preliminary and the identifications are not certain in all cases, especially for Masada and Herodium. Existing structures were transformed into assembly halls, but that they were specifically synagogues is not certain. In all cases the buildings or rooms are relatively small and unadorned and vary greatly in plan.
Buildings that can be clearly identified as synagogues become plentiful both in Palestine and the Diaspora during the third century a.d. This is consistent with the development of rabbinic Judaism, which gradually asserted control over Judaism after the Temple was destroyed in a.d. 70 and which stressed synagogue-and school-centered prayer and study. Synagogue buildings were often decorated with mosaics and reliefs and were built in three styles, the basilica, the broadhouse, and the apsidal. The basilica was borrowed from Greco-Roman architecture and often had the entrance facing Jerusalem. The inside was rectangular and divided lengthwise by two rows of columns into nave and two side aisles. When the congregation faced Jerusalem to pray (part of their "Pattern of Worship") they had to face the entrance; consequently a permanent Torah shrine, where the scrolls of Scripture were kept, and a bema (Gk., ‘platform’; a raised platform where the leaders of the congregation stood or sat) were difficult to establish. Contemporaneously the broadhouse design developed, in which one of the long walls of the rectangle faced Jerusalem and so a permanent Torah shrine and bema were possible. Later the apsidal synagogue developed, in which the entrance was on the side away from Jerusalem and the side facing Jerusalem had an apse (a large semicircular niche) for the Torah shrine and bema. Synagogues in the Diaspora followed similar designs, though sometimes Jews took over buildings built earlier and adapted them to their purposes. In all cases, the floor plan, orientation, and architecture varied considerably. Some Diaspora synagogues are notable for their size or beauty, e.g., the ones in Sardis in Turkey, Dura in Syria, Stobi in Macedonia, and Ostia in Italy. Function: The function of the synagogue, how the congregation was organized, and what went on in the synagogue can only be surmised. In Palestine before the destruction of the Temple the synagogue would have been one of many indigenous organizations in Jewish villages and cities. People may have met to read Scripture and pray either in a house or outside, without any elaborate organization. In the Diaspora where Jews were a minority in the cities they inhabited, the synagogue probably functioned as the center of the community and its leaders may have been community leaders recognized by the civil authorities. Synagogues were used to teach the young, to house visitors, and for communal meals.
The versions of Jewish prayers that have been transmitted in the tradition show that the synagogue liturgy did not have a fixed text but varied both in content and wording over time and from place to place. But even with this variation over time we still detect a discernible "Pattern" to the worship of the synagogue. It is certain that the Hebrew Scripture was read, though probably not according to the later three-year "pattern" in Babylon and the one-year fixed cycles of readings as in Palestine. Primacy was given to the Pentateuch, but readings from the Prophets were also included. The existence of many Targums (translation of the Hebrew Bible into the vernacular, Aramaic) and versions of the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Bible) testifies to the importance of understanding the ancient text. Philo, Josephus, and the New Testament show that the Hebrew Scriptures were interpreted to the people in the synagogues. It is also likely that the two most important prayers in Judaism were in use, though not according to a fixed text.
The first is the Shema, consisting of three biblical passages (Deut. 6:4-9; 11:13-21; Num. 15:37-41) with attendant blessings. The second is "the ‘Prayer," also called the Amidah or Eighteen Benedictions. This series of blessings has varied in text and number over time, but it is treated as very old in rabbinic tradition.
Indeed, it is recorded for us that Jesus and the apostles regularly attended both the temple and the synagogue., Recall what Jesus said to the woman. a Samaritan, at the well in John 4 when she asked whether she should worship at Mt. Gerizim or Jerusalem: "the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
We need to look at this text in more detail:
John 4:5-7 5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. 7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (KJV)
Answer for yourself: Who were these "Samaritans"?
The only detailed reference to the Samaritans is to be found in the Second Book of Kings. In the twenty fourth verse of chapter seventeen, we find that when the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel and deported the Ten Tribes into exile in Halah and Habor by the River of Gozan in the cities of the Medes, that the King of Assyria replenished the depopulated territory of Israel with foreigners: 'And the King of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava and from Hamath and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria, instead of the children of Israel and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof'
Answer for yourself: What is described here? We see Non-Jews being imported into Israel and these would later inter-marry with those left behind and we end up with a half-breed Jewish people; a people who had already "lost their way" and who now only further drifts from the Eternal Truths of God. So for all practical purposes we should look at these people as Gentiles and draw the analogies to ourselves as Christians living in the Western Hemisphere today.
These people were heathen idolators with no fear of God; but, following attacks on their settlements by wild mountain lions (which they attributed to the anger of the God of the dispossessed Israelites), they petitioned the Assyrian monarch for help. His response was to send back one of the captive priests of Israel to teach them his laws and customs. Therefore we read: 'Then the King of Assyria commanded saying, Carry hither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence, and let them go and dwell there, and let them teach the manner of the God of the land. Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord' (II Kings 17:27, 28).
Answer for yourself: Are we missing something here in the above verse? Yes.
When we consider that the Israelites had themselves gone into captivity for their idolatry and Sabbath breaking, that they worshipped Baal and Ashtaroth, and that the official priesthood since the days of Jeroboam had fostered the cult of the Golden Bulls at the shrines of Dan and Bethel, it is hardly surprising that the priest who returned to teach the Samaritans, succeeded only in joining a corrupted form of Israelite belief and worship to the customs which these people already held. Thus while they now paid lip service to the God of Israel, they continued to serve their own gods as well, according to the Biblical account.
Consequently there evolved a mongrelized people of various national and racial backgrounds, practicing a hybrid religion which bore certain outward similarities to the worship of the now exiled Israelites but was deviant from the accepted "Pattern of Worship" practiced by Israel proper. It was truly a multicultural, multi-faith society that had been created. Although called Samarkans, these people did not necessarily dwell in the area of the former Israelite capital of Samaria but tended to be found mostly in the area of Shechem; so much so that both in the Apocrypha and in the writings of Josephus they are referred to as Shechemites. They had developed into a distinctive people by the Hellenistic period, when Shechem was rebuilt after years of desolation.
It was, however, during this period of Hellenization carried out by Alexander the Great and his successors, which only further diluted the "Pattern of Worship", that a group of religious purists emerged in the Samaritan community, who decided to make a fresh start, and who erected the Samaritan Temple at Mount Gerezim. They developed their own distinctive religious system, including: the worship of the God of Israel, obedience to the Law of Moses, expectation of a coming Day of Judgment, belief in Mount Gerezim as the appointed place of sacrifice and in the return of Moses as the Taheb or the Restorer/Returning One.
From this point onward, there is a rapid deterioration in relations with those of Judah, Benjamin and Levi, who had returned to Palestine from exile in Babylon. They regarded the Samaritans as racially inferior interlopers, and their religion as a spurious counterfeit. At the time of the Maccabean Revolt the Samaritans sided with the Seleucid oppressors, and to placate Antiochus Epiphanes, they even allowed their temple to be dedicated to Zeus Xenious!
As you can see for yourself the Samaritans fell away from the "Pattern of Worship" although in many ways it might have looked externally "similar" but the core of it was deviant to the "Pattern of Worship" commanded by God.
Subsequently, in 128 B.C., they were conquered by the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus (the conqueror and incorporator of Edom/ldumea), who destroyed their Temple on Mount Gerezim. At one particular Passover, between A.D. 6 and 9, the Samaritans defiled the Jerusalem Temple by scattering bones in it. Pilgrims travelling south from Galilee to Jerusalem for the religious festivals were afraid to go through Samaritan territory, a fear which was to be justified by the subsequent massacre of Galilean pilgrims by Samaritans at En-gannim in A.D. 52. The Samaritans rebelled against the Romans in A.D. 36. When a fanatic assembled them at Mount Gerezim, promising to reveal the sacred vessels which they had been taught were buried there by Moses, the rebels were ruthlessly massacred by order of Pontius Pilate. During the Jewish Revolt of A.D. 66-70, a group of Samaritans joined in the rebellion and were slaughtered by the Roman Commander Vettulenus Cerealis, once again at Mount Gerezim.
After almost two thousand years, only a tiny remnant of the descendants of the Samaritans remain. They have preserved their religion and culture, and are to be found to this day in Palestine, living in two small communities at Nablus and Holon, with their own scrolls and priesthood.
In spite of our Lord's instruction to His disciples: 'Into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not' (Matthew 10:5), and the incident when the disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy a Samaritan village which refused to receive them (Luke 9:52-54), Samaritans receive fairly favorable comment from the New Testament writers Luke and John. The one leper out of the ten who returned to Jesus to give thanks for his healing was a Samaritan (Luke 17:16). The Lord Jesus asked for water from, and subsequently ministered to, a woman of Samaria (John 4:4-30 & 39- 40); while we read of a great spiritual revival accompanied by signs, wonders and miracles in Samaria (Acts 8:5-25).
Answer for yourself: What should that teach us? That these half-breed Gentiles who knew not the "Pattern of Worship" were often blessed by the "true faith" of Israel and at times made repentance unto it as seen in Acts 8:5-25.
Just as every Jew residing in the Roman Province of Judea, and practicing the Jewish religion at the time of Christ, was not necessarily a true Judahite, a similar situation existed in Samaria, also a Roman territory. Isaiah the prophet had made it clear that, even though the vast bulk of Ten-tribed Israel had been taken into captivity in Assyria, a tiny pathetic handful would survive the mass deportations. This is what he says: 'Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it as the shaking of an olive tree two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost branches thereof saith the God of Israel' (Isaiah 17:6).
Some of them, like the leper, and the woman by the well of Sychar, while they were Samaritans by religion (worshipping at Mount Gerezim), and by provincial designation (living in the Roman province of Samaria), were clearly not descended from the mixed multitude who had been sent into the area some seven hundred years earlier, but rather from the little handful of true Israelites who had escaped deportation - the grapes and berries of Isaiah's prophecy.
In her discussion with the Lord Jesus, the woman of Samaria made her racial ancestry crystal clear, for she said to Jesus: 'Art thou greater than our father Jacob which gave us the well...' (John 4:12).
She actually claimed descent from Jacob-lsrael. Furthermore, her own life was symbolic of the experience of the woman Israel, for the Lord Jesus said to her: 'Thou hast had five husbands and he whom thou hast is not thy husband' (John 4: 18)
Answer for yourself: Who, as a Samaritan, were her husbands? Is there a hidden message possibly here for us to learn?
Israel had indeed had five husbands; her first whom she married at Sinai was:
All of these above influences by Gentile nations and Gentile worship only further diluted the true Worship of God as once held by their Jewish captives. Said of captive Israel by the Prophet Hosea:
Hosea 2:6 6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. (KJV)
Captive Israel would lose "the Pattern of Worship" over time due to the influences of these pagan nations and their idolatry. Truly Israel lost her "paths". As God, in punishment of the Northern Tribes for their idolatry and departing from the true Worship of God, had the Prophet Hosea pronounce judgment on the departing captives of the Northern Ten Tribes in saying that they would lose their way. History has born this out as these peoples would fall further from the truth and the "faith once given the saints" and in these pagan nations would they further depart from the Worship of God as God has previously instructed. Yet God would later have mercy on those He judged and offered a return to these "paths" whereby their children would one day "return to the Lord thy God" in repentance and true Worship of God. We see this today in the major return to the Jewish Roots of Christianity but the problem we have with this is that many, but not all who teach such a "return" to the Jewish Roots of Christianity are but another false hope as were the official priesthood that was sent by Jeroboam who only gave another pagan worship to the people that "looked" Jewish but the core of it was not the SAME "Pattern of Worship" as practiced by Judah! One the many of these current "returns to the Jewish Roots of Christianity" look Jewish but analysis of their doctrinal stances reveals little change from the compromised Sun Worship of their apostate "fathers". Looking Jewish, wearing a kippa or a tallith, and singing Jewish psalms and songs, and the use of banners is often a far cry from "True Worship of God done in Spirit and TRUTH".
Jesus told these people, and even this woman at the well who had a compromised religious beliefs system since being heavily influenced by Samaritan religious beliefs:
You worship what you do not know; we (the Jews) worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth" (John 4:21-23).
Answer for yourself: Did you notice that Jesus told her, representative of her half-breed people, that they had a erroneous worship of God? Jesus tells her that she has a false worship of God; one that looks right in some areas but the core of it is rotten and unacceptable with God. Not let us forget that God does not accept all sacrifices nor does he accept false worship.
Answer for yourself: Did you notice that Jesus make clear that she knows that it is the Jewish race and nation and religion who has the "true worship" of God? Does Jesus connect "salvation" with this "true worship of God? He sure does. That should give you great pause to think.
Answer for yourself: What does it mean to be "true" worshipper? Do you want to be one? Let us look at the word "true" used in the Greek of this passage:
Thayer's Greek Lexicon:
228 alethinos-
1) what has not only the name and resemblance, but the real nature corresponding to the name, in every respect corresponding to the idea signified by the name, real, true genuine
2) true, veracious, sincere
Jesus warns us here that just to "reassemble" the "true" is not enough. We have to "in EVERY RESPECT CORRESPOND" to the original. In this context Jesus was telling this Non-Jewish descendent, one who has lost her "paths" and her "ways" and her "Pattern of Worship" given to her forefathers before they departed from it, that NOW it is possible for her to return and repent and come home to the true worship of God; one not found in Samaria but down in Jerusalem.
Jesus tells us "counterfeit" religion is worshipping God amiss. He tells us that we can look "Jewish" in our worship and sing Jewish songs and do Jewish dances, we can carry banners and even wear kippas and even say the blessing and wear a tallith in prayer but if our doctrines contain idolatry, as did those of the Sarmaritans, and as many Christian religious beliefs also do, then such Worship of God is defective and imperfect and unacceptable to God. This is a strong waring against idolatry that goes unnoticed by most in Christianity today under the disguise of "Jesus is God" theology or various Trinitarian beliefs. Even praying in the name of Jesus is considered blasphemy by both the Laws of Noah and Moses. Improper use of the Tithe as most churches do is but another example of false worship of God. Singing song with idolatrous phrases is but another form of idolatry and unacceptable to God. Some songs in the church should NEVER be sung! Let us never forget that blasphemy of God and His Name is the "unforgivable sin" and most Christians carry this to their grave and never know it because their teachings which they inherited from Rome and Church tradition are so perverse and have strayed so far "from the original" true and "the faith once given to the Saints" due to the antisemitism of Rome which replaced many of them with those of their making. Most never heed these warnings and enter the hereafter full of hidden idolatry which they never knew they possessed because their study of their own faith, let alone "the Pattern of Worship" is absent or deficient in their lives.
Jesus did not say, "well, you could worship at any synagogue you like!" The analogy of this is startling as today this would be understood as: "you cannot worship at just any church you like"!
Jesus admitted that prior to his coming, there was only one place to worship truly--at Jerusalem which practiced "the Pattern of Worship" handed down by God since Sinai where a mixed multitude of Jews and Non-Jews both agreed as the bride of God to "do all they you say". They both entered into their covenant with God and both accepted "the Pattern of Worship" given to Moses. Israel, and only Israel of all the 70 nations of the world was given "the Pattern of Worship" and their task as God's Holy Nation and Royal Priesthood was to lead the world in the "true worship of God" through the teaching of this "Pattern of Worship" to all mankind and examples in the Old as well as the New Testament show us that they did exactly that!
Sadly we have departed so far from this today in contemporary Christianity.