First Century Judean Synagogue Architecture: How Understandings of Identity, Space, and the Sacred Influenced This Development

The synagogues of Judea in the first century CE, though they could provide an important insight into one of the most turbulent periods of Jewish history, have been researched far less than those in the diaspora. This study attempts to examine the architecture of these synagogues and how understandings of identity, space, and the sacred influenced. To do so, this study uses information from both archaeological sites and numerous literary sources. In doing so this study shows that, the synagogue in Judea was a structure whose architectural features were influenced by the Jewish ideas of identity, space, and the sacred.