Abstract
Many if not all diaspora Jews in the Hellenistic and Roman periods shared the reverence felt by their Palestinian co-religionists for the Temple in Jerusalem. The main function of synagogues in antiquity was as a meeting place where Jews could be taught the Torah: as Philo put it, Jews have houses of prayer for training themselves on the sabbath in their ancestral philosophy. Josephus believed that regular weekly reading of the Law was so integral a part of Judaism that it must have been instituted by Moses. Sacred space was a concept of great power and importance in the religious life of most inhabitants of the Roman world. It is inherently unlikely that diaspora Jews developed social or religious institu tions entirely regardless of comments made by their gentile compatriots.Keywords: diaspora jews; Jerusalem; Josephus; Judaism; Roman periods; sacred space; Torah
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