Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

QUARTERLY REVIEW, WINTER 1984
was the replacement of the temple as the central religious institution
in Jewish life with a new organizing center called the synagogue.
Among the contributions of the Pharisees were the
development of the synagogue and the growth of the role of
the rabbi.
Frequently temple and synagogue are employed as synonyms. This
regrettably has the effect of blurring the profound differences in their
basic conception. The temple was seen primarily as the house of God,
the synagogue as the house of the people of God. The distinction was
crucial. The temple served chiefly as a locale for cult and sacrifice. The
synagogue, as developed by Pharisaism, was intended to go far
beyond this goal. It was designed to address the total needs of the
community—prayer, study, justice.
The second innovative feature of the Pharisee revolution was the
growth of the role of the rabbi who gradually replaced the temple
priest as the central religious figure in Judaism. The rabbi's task was to
interpret and, more importantly, to specify the religious obligations
incumbent upon a believing Jew. He was neither prophet nor priest.
Any layman could become a rabbi regardless of his birth. The rabbinic
role was an acquired not an inherited one in Second Temple Judaism.
It was based on the strength of a person's service to the community.
The crucial dimension of the rabbinate that needs careful scrutiny is
the fact that the rabbi was not a cultic figure. His role was one of
instruction and interpretation. What is especially significant about the
rabbinate is its noncultic status. A person whose primary mission
consisted in offering specific interpretations with respect to the
religious and social problems of the day gradually replaced the temple
priest as the principal human symbol and representative of Jewish
religious commitment.
A new appreciation of the synagogue and the rabbinate as
developed by the Pharisees will provide a sound basis for discussions
about lay ministry and about such movements as the "basic
communities" springing up in Latin America and elsewhere. It will
also aid Christian self-understanding in other central areas such as
eucharistic theology, the theological meaning of tradition, afterlife,
and social ethics.
In view of this positive link between Christianity and Pharisaism we
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