The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Vol 1 - Predestination

in Palestine, and, lastly, tiiat the Rabbinic
directions mark rather an ideal than the actual state
of things. Thus—to mention an instance of some
importance, because the error has been so often
repeated as to be generally believed, and to have
misled recent explorers in Palestine—there is no
evidence that in Palestine Synagogues always
required to be built in the highest situation in a
town, or, at least, so as to overtop the other
houses. To judge from a doubtful ^ passage in the
Talmud,^ this seems to have 'siwbb. ua been the
case in Persia, while a later notice • appeals in
support of it J^^^ . -to Prov. viii. 2. But even
where the Jews were most powerful and *▼•«
influential, the rule could not have been
universally enforced, although later Rabbis lay it
down as a principle.' Hence, the inference, that ^y
g-the Gtalilean Synagogues lately excavated cannot
date from an early TepbuuzLi period, because they
are not in prominent positions, is erroneous.*
But there were two rules observed, which seem to
have been enforced from early times. One of these