Synagogue
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Synagogue. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a congregation or assembly of Jews for the purpose of worship or the performance of religious rites. Also, a building set apart for Jewish as a church or chapel is for Christian worship. Under the Mosaic law worship of the highest type could take place only at one chosen spot (Deut. xii: 5, 21; xvi: 6), that divinely chosen early in the monarchy being Jerusalem (II Chron. vi: 5, 6), though gatherings took place in various other localities (II Kings, iv: 23). Meetings at stated times for worship do not seem to have arisen till the time of the Exile, when the services of the Temple were perforce in abeyance. They constituted the germ of the subsequent synagogues, which are believed to have begun among the Jews resident out of Palestine. In Psalm lxxiv: 8, the persecutors are represented as burning up all the synagogues of God in the land. Jesus taught or preached and wrought miracles in the synagogues of Capernaum (Matt. xii: 9, Mark i: 21, Luke vii: 5, John vi; 59), in that of Nazareth (Matt xiii: 54, Mark vi: 2, Luke iv: 16), and elsewhere (Luke iv: 15). Many Jewish synagogues are said to have existed in Jerusalem, besides one or more for foreigners (Acts vi:9). Out of Palestine the Apostles found synagogues in Damascus, Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus and doubtless also in other places. Synagogues were usually built on elevated sites, suggested by Prov. i: 21, and Ezra ix: 9, often outside cities and towns, by the side of a river or small stream (Acts xvi: 13). The edifice was haped like a theater, with the door on the W. side, entering which one was conventionally supposed to look E. to Jerusalem. The wooden chest or ark containing the scrolls of the law and vestments was on the E. side, with a canopy above, or in a recess or sanctuary. In front of it were the desk of the reader or preacher and a platform, with arm-chairs for the elders, who faced the ordinary worshipers. The men sat on one side of the synagogue and the women on the other; they were moreover separated by a partition about 6 feet high. A light was kept perpetually burning. The governing body was the elders (Acts xxv: 15), presided over by a ruler of the synagogue (Mark v: 22, Luke xiii: 14), with two judicial colleagues, three almoners or deacons, a leader of the worship (Luke iv: 20), a servant like a caretaker, and the 10 men of leisure pledged to attend and constitute a congregation if no others came. The Law and the Prophets were read, with liturgical prayers, chanting of the psalms, and recitals of the 10 commandments, the whole concluding with a benediction. The synagogues were used not only as places of worship, but as law courts, taking cognizance of petty offenses, the decisions of which were carried out within the sacred edifice.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
sin'a-gog. See Jew
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 the synagogue described was largely the one reconstructed from the Gospels and Acts: men and women divided by a partition "about 6 feet high," elders in armchairs, buildings often outside town beside a stream. Archaeology has since supplied the real thing — the painted synagogue at Dura-Europos on the Euphrates, uncovered in the 1930s, and first-century halls at Masada, Gamla and Magdala, the last excavated in 2009 and in use during Jesus's lifetime. The map of synagogue life was then violently redrawn: hundreds of German synagogues were burned in the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938, and the Holocaust destroyed the European congregations that had been the tradition's heartland, leaving Israel and the United States as its main centres. Inside the building, Reform and Conservative congregations dropped the partition for mixed seating and now ordain women, beginning with Sally Priesand in 1972, while Orthodox synagogues keep the separation Collier's took for granted.
Written for this edition, 2026.