Into the Temple Courts

Binder explores both the Jewish congregations and the buildings they met in throughout the Middle East from the late sixth century BCE and the earliest known synagogue (at the time of his writing) to 70 CE which marks the cessation of the Temple cult the abrupt termination of the high priestly hegemony that had mostly administered affairs in Palestine since the end of the Babylonian exile and a major change in Jewish worship and community life throughout the Roman Empire. A companion website provides new information such as Ehud Netzer''s March 1998 discovery of what may the oldest synagogue yet. The dissertation was for Southern Methodist University in 1997. It is not indexed. Annotation c. Book News Inc. Portland OR (booknews)