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RULER OF THE SYNAGOGUE*
Senior official in a synagogue of NT times. It is generally understood that there was only one such official in any one synagogue.
His functions were to take care of the physical arrangements for the services of worship, to manage the maintenance of the building, and to determine who would be called to read from the Law and the Prophets or to conduct the prayers. The office was sometimes held for a specified period, sometimes for life.
The NT refers to this official on four different occasions. Jairus apparently was the ruler of a synagogue at Capernaum. When his daughter was ill, he went to Jesus for help, and Jesus raised her from the dead (Mt 9:18-26; Mk 5:21-43; Lk 8:41-56). Luke 13:14 records the hostility of another ruler of a synagogue who objected to Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath after teaching in that synagogue.
On his missionary journeys Paul generally began his ministry in each place he visited by going to the synagogue. At Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:15), the rulers of the synagogue welcomed and encouraged him to preach the gospel and to return again the following week. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue at Corinth, was converted (18:8), and later Sosthenes (Crispus’s successor) was beaten by the mob after the Jews had made a charge against Paul before Gallio, the governor of Achaia.
See also Synagogue.