A Sabbath Service Reconstruction

This is a possible reconstruction of a 1st century Sabbath service. A lot of information is unknown to researchers.

Several hundred families, dressed in their best tunics and their prettiest, most vibrant coverings, are sitting on the stone benches lining both sides of the synagogue. All of the women have their hair covered in bright cloths; some wear the cloth straight down behind the back, some swept under their neck and over their shoulder. Every fold has been carefully fussed with, but several babies have wrought there mothers designs into severe disarray. The men have tassels hanging from the corners of ?shin-length? mantles that cover their tunics, knotted down their entire length.

The foundations of the first century Capernaum building, likely the synagogue Jesus taught in.

The Pharisees/town elders sit with perfect posture, lining the front of the synagogue, in chairs facing the congregation. Families are sitting together on stone benches, or on homemade mats on the floor, woven into pretty patterns. Where the bleachers are behind the columns, there are distinct empty spaces. The women are very quiet as they sit, for proper women should always be quiet in public. Children are on their best behavior.

A Pharisee walks to the podium, and reads a passage from the Genesis scroll, on Abraham serving food to the angels. Another Pharisee reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah - condemnation will come to those that are not righteous. A third one delivers the sermon, expounding on the importance of serving Adonai. Minutes pass as eighteen prayers and blessings are recited from memory. The service closes with acapello hymns from the scroll of the Psalms.

One of the Pharisees puts the scrolls back into the cabinet, and families make their way out to the garden near the synagogue. The women talk quietly amongst themselves, and keep their children in order. Before long everyone departs for home, to eat the Sabbath meal that has been waiting for them since yesterday.

Note: Little is known of the actual order of things. Music was a key part of the Temple service in Jerusalem, and it seems logical there would have been singing here as well, but I don't know that. For more information, see Lee I. Levine's 800-page book, The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years, published by Yale University Press in 2005.


My information for this blog came from Lee I. Levine's 800-page book, The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years, published by Yale University Press in 2005.