Water Facilities at the Synagogue

Josephus

Jewish Antiquities 14.258

93–94

“[ . . . ] We have further decreed that those who are willing among the Jews, both men and women, may observe their sabbaths and perform their sacred rites in keeping with Jewish law; and they may perform their prayers by the sea in accordance with ancestral custom. And should anyone, whether a magistrate or private individual, prevent them from doing so, let him be liable for the established fine and owe payment to the city.”

Translated by William Whiston, adapted by Aaron Samuels.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

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Around the turn of the era, the communal ritual bath (mikveh) became a common feature of Jewish communities. Many ancient community mikvaot were found in private dwellings, burial sites, or other public areas (in addition to those surrounding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem; see “Mikvaot in the Temple Complex”), though some synagogues had an adjacent mikveh. There was also a traditional preference for building the synagogue near a body of water, perhaps connected to a customary notion that prayers were better heard near water, as attested in Josephus’ account of a decree by the people of Halicarnassus, a city in Anatolia. This preference was also likely due to the use of some natural bodies of water as alternatives to constructed mikvaot.

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Creator Bio

Josephus

37–100

Flavius Josephus was born into a prominent Jewish priestly family and served as a general stationed in the Galilee during the First Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE). He was captured by the Romans and eventually integrated into the Flavian imperial aristocracy, who commissioned him to compose chronicles of the Jewish–Roman war and the history of the Jews. Josephus’ works, all written in Greek, include The Jewish War, Jewish Antiquities, Against Apion, and his autobiography, Life of Josephus. These writings provide important insights into the Judaisms of the Second Temple period and include one of the few surviving accounts of the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.

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