NEW TESTAMENT TIMES
goods be brought into the public treasury of the Romans."
These synagogue libraries were public libraries owned by the community. The "Things which belong to a town are e.g. the roads, the bathing institution, the synagogue, the sacred chest or ark, the sacred books," ("Nedarim v. 5"), and it is said that if the inhabitants of a town sell the open place of the town they may with its proceeds purchase at least the Scriptures and the Book of the Law for the Synagogue (Megilla 3, 1 Schürer 2, 2, p. 57). In Jerome's time, as in the time of 2nd Maccabees, the books of these libraries were loaned out.
To get the significance of Jewish education and learning it must be remembered that the synagogue was above all things a "house of instruction" as Philo (Apion 2, 7) says. It often appears with this name as the plain synonym. Both the elementary school, Bethsepher, or
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