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  • From: Craig de Vos <csdevos AT trinity.unimelb.edu.au>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Synagogues in Thessalonika
  • Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 17:07:11 +1000

At 2:18 AM -0400 on 22/9/99, Jim wrote:
A preliminary question. Does Acts 17:1 require a synagogue building in
Thessalonika (or Berea, etc.)? The synagogue is the gathering itself which,
to my knowledge, could meet in a private house or business place. Would such
gatherings leave much of an archaeological trace, especially if they change
location every few years, possibly with changes in leadership or patronage?
Jim Miller

That Acts 17:1 refers to a some sort of building seems to be presumed by the EISHLQEN of 17:2. Although it is possible that they met in a private home or a workshop, my impression is that specific synagogue buildings were probably fairly common in Asia Minor, cf., Josephus, Ant 14.256-61; 16.162-5; CIJ 766. Without wanting to extrapolate too much from that particular social and geographical context to the one in Macedonia, there is no need to assume that Luke has a gathering in a home or workshop in mind. After all, Luke's description of the Corinthian synagogue seems to suggest that it did not meet in a home or workshop (Acts 18:7)

That aside, regardless of whether there was a synagogue (or even a Jewish presence) in the city of Thessalonica, there is the apparent discrepancy between Luke's reconstruction of the origin and composition of the Thessalonian church in this text and Paul's presumption about its origin and composition in 1 Thess (especially 1:1, 9; 2:14 -- if this is not an interpolation; and, in my opinion, also 4:11-12).

Craig



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Dr. Craig S. de Vos
Bromby Lecturer in New Testament
Trinity College Theological School
Royal Parade
Parkville VIC 3052
Australia
(O) +61 3 9349-0129 (F) +61 3 9349-0460
csdevos AT trinity.unimelb.edu.au
http://www.trinity.unimelb.edu.au/~csdevos/CdVhome.html

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