Most scholars agree that Paul composed his letter to the Romans to a group of house churches that consisted mostly of Gentile Christ–confessors and a minority of Jewish ones (although some dispute this reconstruction). It is probable that many of the former group were God–fearers—Gentiles who frequented Jewish synagogues and were attracted to certain tenets of Judaism—and proselytes to Judaism before they confessed Jesus as Messiah. The method most scholars use to arrive at this reconstruction is a combination of a critical reading of Romans,[1] Greco–Roman literature,[2] and inscriptions.[3]
It is the use of this last dataset with which I take issue and suggest that scholarly use of inscriptions must be more critical. Many scholars point to Jewish inscriptions from Rome that mention between eleven and thirteen synagogues (the number is debated):
- The synagogue of the Agrippesians (JIWE 2.170, 562, 130 [?], 549);
- The synagogue of the Augustesians (JIWE 2.547, 169 [?], 194, 189, 542, 96, 547);
- The synagogue of the Calcaresians (JIWE 2.69, 558, 98, 584, 165);
- The synagogue of the Campesians (JIWE 2.560, 288, 577, 1);
- The synagogue of Elaea (JIWE 2.576, 406);
- The synagogue of the Hebrews (JIWE 2.33, 578, 2, 579);
- The synagogue of the Secenians (JIWE 2.436);
- The synagogue of the Siburesians (JIWE 2.338, 452, 527, 557, 428, 451 [?]);
- The synagogue of the Tripolitians (JIWE 2.166);
- The synagogue of the Vernaclesians (JIWE 2.106, 117, 540 [?], 114);
- The synagogue of the Volumnesians (JIWE 2.100, 167, 163, 577);
- The synagogue of Acra (synagogue is reconstructed in this inscription and this reading is now rejected, JIWE 2.568); and
- The synagogue of the Rhodians/Herodians (JIWE 2.292).[4]
All of the inscriptions that mention the above synagogues are epitaphs or funerary inscriptions from Jewish catacombs in Rome. Therefore, they are not from the actual synagogal structures themselves. None of these epigraphs date to the first century CE; the time when Paul composed Romans (probably between 56 and 58 CE). Rather, these inscriptions are dated paleographically (that is, by the form of their letters) between the third and fourth century CE with one even dating to the fifth century CE.
Despite their late dating, some prominent scholars such as Joseph A. Fitzmyer and Richard Longenecker conclude that the above synagogues existed in the mid–first century CE and they use the offices mentioned therein to reconstruct the organization of Roman synagogues at that time.[5] For example, Fitzmyer contends:
“[F]rom thousands of funerary inscriptions . . . we learn about the Jewish population there and its groupings into thirteen synagogues . . . From such sources we also learn that the Jewish community in Rome was organized; a synagōgē was governed by a gerousia, ‘council of elders,’ presided over by a gerousiarchēs. These were the archontes of the community; there was also a phrontistēs, ‘administrator’ of the community’s material goods and supervisor of the dole [of grain]. Among them were also hiereis, ‘priests,’ but that was probably a title of honor for members of priestly families, since there was no temple.”[6]
Peter Richardson exercises more caution. He argues that only five of these known synagogues likely existed in the mid–first century CE: those named after patrons—Augustus (Augustesians), Agrippa (Agrippesians), Volumnius (Volumnesians) (maybe?), and Herod (Herodians)—and the synagogue of the Hebrews. Richardson suggests that Augustus (63 BCE–14 CE; reigned 31 BCE–14 CE), patronized the synagogue of the Augustesians, Augustus’s son–in–law, Marcus Agrippa (63–12 BCE), the synagogue of the Agrippesians, Volumnius, the procurator of Syria from 9 to 7 BCE, maybe the synagogue of the Volumnesians, and Herod the Great (73–4 BCE; reigned 37–4 BCE) patronized the synagogue of the Herodians. Finally, he posits that the synagogue of the Hebrews is the earliest in Rome and was formed when Jews in Rome still spoke Aramaic/Hebrew.[7]
The epigraphic evidence does not support the conclusions of Fitzmyer and Longenecker. There is no reason to presume that because a synagogue existed in the third and fourth century CE that it existed in the first century as well. What is more, it is anachronistic to assume that the third and fourth century CE organizational structure of the Roman synagogues applies to the mid–first century CE (for which there is little evidence).[8]
Richardson’s reconstruction is more careful, but still problematic. The main reason is that in the end it is conjecture, albeit with varying degrees of likelihood and probability. It is likely and even probable that Augustus and Agrippa patronized the synagogues of the Augustesians and Agrippesians respectively and that these two existed in the first century CE.[9] However, his conclusion that Volumnius the procurator of Syria may have patronized the synagogue of the Volumnesians does not convince for two reasons. First, the only connection that this Volumnius had with Second Temple Jews is that he served as procurator of Syria (something that Richardson acknowledges), which is not enough evidence to conclude that he patronized a synagogue in Rome.[10] Second, there were numerous Volumnii in the capital of the empire (another observation that Richardson acknowledges).[11] Therefore, one of them may have patronized the synagogue in question.
Richardson’s proposal that Herod the Great patronized a synagogue is also unconvincing. The name Herodians is reconstructed in an epigraphic lacuna because of the fragmentary nature of the surviving inscription:
[- -]ΓΩΓΗΣ
[- -]ΡΟΔΙΩΝ
[- -]ΕΥΛΟΓΙΑΠΑϹΙ.
Richardson reconstructs the text as follows:
Χ Χ Χ Name Χ Χ Χ
[αρχωντησσυνα]ΓΩΓΗϹ
[ τωνη] ΡΟΔΙΩΝ
[ ετη??] ΕΥΛΟΓΙΑΠΑϹΙ.[12]
David Noy reconstructs the epigraph as such:
[ – – συνα]γωγῆς
[ – -]Ἡροδίων
[- – ]εὐλογία πᾶσι (JIWE 2.292).
However, some epigraphers reconstruct Rhodians (ΙΡΟΔΙΩΝ), not Herodians (ΗΡΟΔΙΩΝ).[13]
Leon proposes that there is no evidence that this fragmentary inscription refers to a synagogue at all because:
“in all other inscriptions [from Rome] on which the name of the synagogue appears this name immediately follows the word συναγωγῆς or is separated from it only by the article τῶν, whereas here there is a large gap before the alleged name of the synagogue.”[14]
In the end, any reconstruction of what may have been in the inscription in question is what epigraphers call “history from square brackets,” which is unreliable.
Finally, the reasoning of Richardson that the synagogue of the Hebrews is the earliest one in Rome—and thus that it dates to the first century CE—is not without difficulty. His main supporting evidence is the supposed first century CE date of the synagogue of the Hebrews in Corinth. However, that inscription does not date to the first century CE, but, as the official publication of the epigraph states, it dates “considerably later than the time of St. Paul.”[15] Hence, it is unclear if the synagogue of the Hebrews in Corinth and thus Rome can be dated to the first century CE.
In short, despite claims to the contrary, there is not concrete inscriptional evidence of numerous first century CE Roman synagogues. There is only likely epigraphic data for two first–century CE synagogues: those of Augustesians and Agrippesians. With this conclusion, I am not claiming that more synagogues did not exist. The first century BCE–CE Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria clearly notes that more than one synagogue existed in Rome during Augustus’s reign when he testifies that Augustus knew of Jewish synagogues (plural), which Philo calls proseuchai (προσευχὰς; Acts 16:13, 16), and that Jews studied Torah in them on Sabbaths (Embassy 156).
What I am claiming is that there is no certain epigraphic evidence for eleven to thirteen first–century CE synagogues in the city (as Fitzmyer and Longenecker claim) or likely five first–century CE synagogues (as Richardson suggests). This negative conclusion notwithstanding, these later Jewish inscriptions that mention synagogues do provide some important evidence for Jewish life in first century CE Rome. They were found in Jewish catacombs near the right bank of the Tiber River in a region of the ancient city known as Transtiberine (modern–day Trastevere).
The find–spots of these inscriptions support Philo’s testimony that a large Jewish population lived there in first–century BCE–CE (Embassy 155).[16] However, the number of synagogues that these Jews established remains unknown.
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[1] Paul clearly addresses Gentile Christ–confessors in Romans (1:5, 13; 11:13; 15:15–16) as well as Jewish ones (1:16; 2:9–11, 17–29; 3:29; 10:12; 16:7, 11).
[2] These sources have been gathered by Menahem Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism, 2 vols. (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1974, 1980).
[3] The following inscriptions are taken from David Noy, ed., Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe Volume 2: The City of Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), abbreviated JIWE 2 hereafter.
[4] For the most balanced treatment of these inscriptions see Harry Joshua Leon, The Jews of Ancient Rome (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1960), 135–66.
[5] Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Romans: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 33 (New York: Doubleday, 1993), 28; Richard N. Longenecker, Introducing Romans: Critical Issues in Paul’s Most Famous Letter (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011), 64–65; Robert Jewett (Romans: A Commentary, Hermeneia [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007], 57–58) proposes that only eleven synagogues existed in Rome, which seems to imply that he believes that they existed in first century CE Rome. James D. G. Dunn (Romans 1–8, WBC 38a [Waco, TX: Word Books, 1988], xlvi) is somewhat more cautious when, identifying ten to thirteen synagogues, says that they “may” date to the first century CE.
[6] Fitzmyer, Romans, 28. Longenecker’s (Introducing Romans, 66) reconstruction is similar: each synagogue had a council of elders, a chief elder, rulers (who were elected every one to three years), a head of a synagogue in charge of worship, an administrator who supervised the congregation’s goods, and a secretary (there were priests but that was an honorary title)
[7] Peter Richardson, “Augustan-Era Synagogues in Rome,” in Judaism and Christianity in First-Century Rome, eds. Karl P. Donfried and Peter Richardson (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 17-29. See also Wolfgang Wiefel, “The Jewish Community in Ancient Rome and the Origins of Roman Christianity,” The Romans Debate, rev., ed. Karl P. Donfried (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1991), 85–101.
[8] For what little is known of Second Temple Jewish synagogue liturgy see Lee Levine, The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years, 2nd ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005), 530–61.
[9] Leon, Jews, 141–42.
[10] Richardson (“Augustan-Era Synagogues,” 22) concludes, “An argument in favor of the association is that no other of the several known Volumnii had even this degree of contact with Jews, so far as can be ascertained.”
[11] Richardson, “Augustan-Era Synagogues,” 22.
[12] Richardson (“Augustan-Era Synagogues,” 27) translates as follows: “X X X name X X X [ruler of the syna]gogue [of the He]rodians [age??] A blessing to all.”
[13] Leon, Jews, 159–60.
[14] Leon, Jews, 161.
[15] Benjamin D. Meritt, ed, Corinth VIII,1. The Greek Inscriptions 1896-1927 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1931), 78–79, no 111. Richardson (“Augustan-Era Synagogues,” 20) dates this inscription to the second century CE and contends that the synagogue mentioned in it existed in the late first century CE.
[16] Leon (Jews, 136) concludes, “It may be regarded as reasonably certain that the earliest substantial Jewish settlement was in the Transtiberium . . . on the right bank of the Tiber and that the bulk of the Jewish population was concentrated in that area throughout the ancient period and even into the Middle Ages.”