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The Synagogue of the Alexandrians: network of houses in the Diaspora?
Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2021 10:30 am
by billd89
In the period before 100 AD.
Clinton E. Arnold's
Acts: Volume 2B [2016] p.125,
Link:
The synagogue of the Alexandrians is mentioned a number of times in rabbinic literature. A passage in a Jewish Tosephta speaks of a rabbi purchasing the 'synagogue of the Alexandrians.'
References??
This
other Thread is five years old. What is the evidence the
Hypsistarians existed long before c.300 AD?? Re: B. W. Bacon's "The Gospel Paul 'Received'"
The American Journal of Theology, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Jan., 1917), p.28:
Were all this evidence disregarded, we still have epigraphic proofs in abundance of liberal Jewish brotherhoods, from Egypt to Bithynia. These brotherhoods, under the name of Hypsistarii, or worshipers of the Most High God (cf. Acts 16:17), bring Jews and Gentiles together in what appear to be churches in everything save the Christian element. Paul, however, has a better method of reconciling universalism with the law than the allegorizing exegesis of Alexandria.
Re: The Synagogue of the Alexandrians: network of houses in the Diaspora?
Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 9:33 am
by StephenGoranson
Secondary sources (needs confirmation from a copy, not to hand):
Tosefta Megillah 2.17 (ed. Lieberman, p. 352) mentions a synagogue of Alexandrians in Jerusalem. In different ed. numbering, maybe, 3,6.
Re: The Synagogue of the Alexandrians: network of houses in the Diaspora?
Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 2:43 am
by StephenGoranson
אמ' ר' יהודה מעשה בר' לעזר בי ר' צדוק שלקח בית הכנסת של אכסנדריים שהיתה בירושלם, והיה עושה בה כל חפצו, לא אסרו אלא שלא יהא שם הראשון קרוי עליו. Lieberman ed. 2.17 via www. Sefaria.org
Re: Citation
Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 7:30 am
by billd89
Thank you Stephen!
Re: The Synagogue of the Alexandrians: network of houses in the Diaspora?
Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 7:31 am
by andrewcriddle
Neusner translation Megillah 2:17
Said R Judah M'SH B: R Eleazar b R Sadoq purchased the synagogue of the Alexandrians which was located in Jerusalem and he did exactly as he wanted with it.
They prohibited only if the original name still applies to it.
Andrew Criddle
Re: The Deposition of the Alexandrians' Synagogue in Jerusalem, c.85 AD?
Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 11:09 am
by billd89
Where R. Gamaliel the Elder died c. 52 AD, then R. Eleazar bar Zadok was a generation younger (c.30-90 AD?). If the acquisition was before the destruction of the Temple (and much of Jerusalem),then it's altogether unclear why wealthy Alexandrians would 'lose' their synagogue so early, after 33 AD (Acts 6:9) but BEFORE 70 AD. Alexandrian Jewry was not imperiled until c.117 AD; on the contrary, they were wealthy and powerful. A forced sale at an early date doesnt make as much sense.
If AFTER 70 AD (more likely, even given the scant context), the question still arises: why should R. Eleazar bar Zadok's acquisition - of a neutral synagogue, spared Roman looting and destruction - around the c.73-85 AD period be considered
controversial ? This implies a definite (and well-known but unspeakable) Jewish heresy of some kind had occurred in the mid-to late 1st C. attached to an Alexandrian Fellowship/cult and its property.
Certainly, this transaction must have occurred during the period of the Great Apostasy, c.40-120 AD. Most Alexandrians - or the dominant faction, anyway - had opposed the Sicarii
c.75 AD, according to Josephus,
Bellum Judaicum 7.10. This rulng has the whiff of Alexandrian heresy, smthg outraging Palestinian Jewish sensibilities c.60-80 AD? The sale of the abhorrent 'Jewish Gnostics' (or unspeakable Logos/Melchizedek) synagogue was controversial! Very interesting.
Dating:
Where a Saying attributed R. Eleazar bar Zadok re: ossilegium is consistent with
archaelogical evidence from the late 1st C AD, the acquisition of the fmr Alexandrians' synagogue c.60-80 AD seems most likely.
A contrary opinion against Segal [2003],
doubting Two Powers Controversy in the 1st C. AD, is mistaken I think.