Synagogue
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Matt. 12:9)—an assembly and, by extension, the building in which Jews gathered for worship and religious instruction. There is no certain evidence for established synagogues before the Babylonian exile, but afterward such assemblies became common. At first Jews probably met in private houses or in the open air. Tradition claimed that Jerusalem possessed at least 480 synagogues before its conquest by Rome; the source itself calls the number exaggerated, while regarding a large total as plausible.
Building a synagogue was considered an act of piety and beneficence (Luke 7:5), and one could be established wherever a sufficient number of Jewish worshipers lived.