Sabbath worship as a communal event does not feature in the Hebrew Bible. In the context of the first century CE, according to Philo and Josephus, the sabbath gatherings took place only for the purpose of studying the law, and not for the liturgical recital of psalms or prayer. Classical authors depict Jews spending the sabbath at home. Jewish inscriptions provide no evidence of sabbath-worship in prayer-houses ("proseuchai), while the Mishnah prescribes no special communal sabbath activities.
The usual picture of Jews going on the sabbath to the synagogue to worship thus appears to be without foundation. It is even doubtful that there were synagogue buildings, for 'synagogue' normally meant 'community'.
The conclusion of this study, that there is no evidence that the sabbath was a day of communal Jewish worship before 200 CE, has far-reaching consequences for our understanding of early Jewish-Christian relationships.
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Old Testament prophecy and wisdom are two of the main themes with which Norman Whybray, formerly of the University of Hull, has concerned himself in his highly productive and innovative scholarly career. In honour of his seventieth birthday, a distinguished international group of scholars have expressed their personal and professional admiration for him with essays that Are particularly rich And significant. The roll-call of contributors reads: Brenner, Brueggemann, Cazelles, Clements, Clines, Coggins, Crenshaw, Eaton, Gelston, Gordon, Goulder, Grabbe, Jeppersen, Knibb, Mayes, Mettinger, Soggin and Williamson.>

Sabbath worship as a communal event does not feature in the Hebrew Bible. In the context of the first century CE, according to Philo and Josephus, the sabbath gatherings took place only for the purpose of studying the law, and not for the liturgical recital of psalms or prayer. Classical authors depict Jews spending the sabbath at home. Jewish inscriptions provide no evidence of sabbath-worship in prayer-houses (proseuchai), while the Mishnah prescribes no special communal sabbath activities. The usual picture of Jews going on the sabbath to the synagogue to worship thus appears to be without foundation. It is even doubtful that there were synagogue buildings, for "synagogue" normally meant "community". The conclusion of this study, that there is no evidence that the sabbath was a day of communal Jewish worship before 200 CE, has far-reaching consequences for our understanding of early Jewish-Christian relationships.