Synagogue of Satan

For the book by Stanisław Przybyszewski, see The Synagogue of Satan.

In the letters to the early Christian churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9, Jesus makes reference to a synagogue of Satan (Greek: συναγωγή τοῦ Σατανᾶ, synagoge tou satana), in each case referring to a group persecuting the church "who say they are Jews and are not".

The verse has often been used to justify hatred against all Jews or particular subsets of modern Jews,^[1][2] which academic scholars generally view as ignorant of the biblical context based on the fact that the suspected author of Revelation was likely Jewish.^[3]: 89

Passages from Revelation

And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of the first and the last, who was dead and came to life: I know your affliction and your poverty, even though you are rich. I know the slander on the part of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

— Revelation 2:8–9

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write... "I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but are lying—I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you."

— Revelation 3:7–9

Other uses

Similar language is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, where a small persecuted Jewish sect considered the rest of Judaism apostate, and called its persecutors "the lot of Belial" (Satan).^[4]

The phrase is also used in a fragment of a lost work on Dioscorus I of Alexandria found at the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great in 1923 and identified by American theologian William Hatch.^[5] Hatch believes the term refers to the Council of Chalcedon, which Dioscorus attended in 451 and from which he was deposed and exiled for his Miaphysitism.

In 1653, Quakers Elizabeth Williams and Mary Fisher attacked members of Sidney Sussex College at Cambridge as "Antichrists" and called their college "a Cage of unclean Birds and a Synagogue of Satan."^[6] For this, they were publicly flogged.

Billy Graham used the phrase "synagogue of Satan" to refer to certain Jews in a private 1973 White House conversation with President Richard Nixon.^[7][8][9] When tapes of the conversation were released many years later, Graham apologized for what were deemed by many to be antisemitic remarks.^[10]

The encyclical Etsi multa, written by Pope Pius IX in 1873, refers to Freemasonry as "the synagogue of Satan".^[11]

See also

• Antisemitism and the New Testament#Book of Revelation

References

1. Kaplan, Jeffrey (1997). Radical Religion in America: Millenarian Movements from the Far Right to the Children of Noah. Syracuse University Press. p. 2. ISBN 0-8156-0396-7. Retrieved July 18, 2021.
2. Barkun, Michael (1997). Religion and the Racist Right: the Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 149–150, 191, 206. ISBN 0-8078-2328-7. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
3. Resseguie, James L. (2009). The Revelation of John: A Narrative Commentary. Baker Academic. ISBN 9781441210005. Retrieved July 18, 2021.
4. Keener, Craig S. , The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, InterVarsity Press, p.773.
5. Hatch, W. (1926). "A Fragment of a Lost Work on Dioscorus" (PDF). The Harvard Theological Review. 19 (4). Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Oct., 1926): 377–381. doi:10.1017/S0017816000007811. JSTOR 1507736. S2CID 163505088.
6. Hiscock, Andrew; Wilcox, Helen (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern English Literature and Religion. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191653421. Retrieved 31 Dec 2020. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
7. Nixon, Richard M. (President), Graham, William F. ("Billy") (February 21, 1973). White House Telephone - Audiotape 043-161 (Audio Recording). Washington, D.C.: Richard Nixon Presidential Library. Event occurs at 12:58. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
8. "How Should Jews Remember Rev. Billy Graham?". 21 February 2018. Retrieved 2022-09-12.
9. Young, Eric (June 25, 2009). "New Nixon Tapes Include Phone Call with Billy Graham". The Christian Post. Retrieved 2021-07-16.
10. "Billy Graham Apologizes to Jews For His Remarks on Nixon Tapes". The New York Times. Associated Press. 2002-03-03. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-07-16.
11. Gray, David Lawrence (2020). The Catholic Catechism on Freemasonry: A Theological and Historical Treatment on the Catholic Church's Prohibition Against Freemasonry and its Appendant Masonic Bodies. Belleville, IL: Saint Dominic's Media, Inc. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-578-64213-0. OCLC 1202626018. Retrieved May 16, 2021.