GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
MARK 1:21
Assembling Together
Some time ago, there was a program practiced by some churches of awarding pins to anyone who would go for a whole year without missing one Sunday school meeting. One man had 21 bars attached to his pin; he had gone 21 years without missing one Sunday school. He described how he planned trips around Sunday school attendance. If he would be away from his church, he made sure the church he attended would qualify for his attendance award. It was a remarkable record.
It is not surprising, then, to read St. Mark’s statement that, “They went into Capernaum, and then on the Sabbath, after entering into the Synagogue, he was teaching.” (1:21) During Jesus’ years in Nazareth, the synagogue would have been the center of his life. He would have been taught the Law and the Scriptures, as was every Jew.
 The synagogue was the most significant place in Jewish life. The Temple, which many Jews tried to attend for the Passover once a year, was in Jerusalem, about 80 miles south of Capernaum. During the captivity, with no Temple, the Jews began assembling for Sabbath teaching in order to keep their hope alive. The institution became known as the Synagogue (from synagoge meaning with +led or assemble), and they carried the practice back to Palestine with them during the Restoration. By tradition, any place where there were ten Jewish families, there was a synagogue. A city the size of Capernaum, with 1,000 to 1,500 people, might have several synagogues.
 There was no established clergy in the synagogue, so the Chazzan, or synagogue leader, would invite a well-known, competent person to give the address and the exposition based on the Law. It is likely, then, that by the time of this incident, Jesus was known in Capernaum, for he was invited to give the teaching. This had to be sometime after the calling of the first four disciples, for they would certainly not have been fishing on the Sabbath.
I haven’t seen a Sunday school pin lately, but the practice of assembling for teaching and worship was carried over as a core Christian practice, though on Resurrection Day, which happened on “Dies Solis” (day of the Sun, or Sunday), the Latin name for the day of Christ’s resurrection. True then, true now.
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