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The Priests Teach the Truth of God

The canonization of the Old Testament, and the establishment of the Law of Moses as the con-
stitutional law brought about the necessity of teaching the law to the people on a grand scale.

Ezra had brought back with him from Babylon a good number of priests to add to the 4,000
who had come back from the Babylonian captivity at an earlier time (Ezra 8:17-20). These priests were
brought back to Palestine in order to assume their position as religious teachers of the people, for the
Bible had ordained that priests were to teach the people the laws of God (Lev. 10:11; Deut. 24:8;
27:14, etc.). The book of Malachi, written immediately after the return of Ezra and Nehemiah, records
what these priests were ordained to do. "For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should
seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts" (Mal. 2:7).

Because the Law of Moses had become the law of the land, it became the priests' job to teach
the law. These commands required meetings every Sabbath in all the villages and towns around Judea.
It was these Sabbath services that finally merged into regular synagogue services.

In time, all the areas within Judea began to build their own synagogues. In some of the larger
areas, a body of priests would take up residence and have charge of the synagogue. Before the Baby-
lonian captivity, synagogues had existed throughout Israel and Judah (Psa. 74:8), but because all these
previous synagogues had been completely destroyed by the invading armies of the Assyrians and Baby-
lonians, the Jews had to start afresh after their return from Babylon to build completely new synagogues.
This fact has led some commentators to erroneously assume that synagogues had their first development
ONLY AFTER the Babylonian captivity, and that they were not in existence before. This, however, is
not true! These new synagogues which were built in Palestine, were certainly built from scratch. But
there had been synagogues before.

Buildings for religious assemblies are essential in every age and dispensation. It was impossible
for all the Jews throughout Judea to journey each Sabbath to Jerusalem and to the Temple in order to
learn of the law and to worship God in holy convocation. The people had to have instruction by the
priests every Sabbath in their own communities. The proper instruction of the Law of Moses could only
be accomplished by the establishment of synagogues throughout the land. And, under the benevolent
rule of the Persians, with peace and safety everywhere, there is no reason to doubt that synagogues
dotted the land from one end to the other (Herford, Talmud and Apocrypha, p. 58).

Not only did the synagogues offer opportunity for worship of God on the Sabbaths, but we are
informed in a Talmudical reference that Ezra ordained the priests to hold periods of religious instruction
on the regular market days of the week -- the second day and the fifth day (B. Kamma, 82a, b). From
this evolved the custom of having instruction in the Law on those two days of the week. This custom
was even carried down until the time of Christ.

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