Synagogue of Satan
{{Short description|Term used by Jesus in the Book of Revelation to refer to persecutors of Christians}}
{{for|the book by Stanisław Przybyszewski|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 ({{langx|el|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 antisemitism.{{cite book
|last=Kaplan
|first=Jeffrey
|author-link=Jeffrey Kaplan (academic)
|title=Radical Religion in America: Millenarian Movements from the Far Right to the Children of Noah
|publisher=Syracuse University Press
|date=1997
|isbn=0-8156-0396-7
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qIilYBbxSbcC
|access-date=July 18, 2021
|page=2}}{{cite book
|last=Barkun
|first=Michael
|author-link=Michael Barkun
|title=Religion and the Racist Right: the Origins of the Christian Identity Movement
|publisher=University of North Carolina Press
|year=1997
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bdGSbDaCQVsC
|isbn=0-8078-2328-7
|access-date=February 16, 2021
|pages=149–150, 191, 206
}} Evangelical scholars broadly disagree with these interpretations, based on the fact that the suspected author of Revelation was likely Jewish.{{cite book
|first=James L.
|last=Resseguie
|author-link=James L. Resseguie
|title=The Revelation of John: A Narrative Commentary
|publisher=Baker Academic
|year=2009
|isbn=9781441210005
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6LO1iPKHZuEC
|access-date=July 18, 2021 }}{{rp|89}}
Passages from Revelation
{{blockquote|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.|{{bibleverse|Revelation|2:8-9}} }}
{{blockquote|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."|{{bibleverse|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).Keener, Craig S., The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, InterVarsity Press, p.773.
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.{{cite journal|author=Hatch, W.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1507736.pdf|title=A Fragment of a Lost Work on Dioscorus|journal=The Harvard Theological Review |year=1926 |volume=19 |issue=4 |publisher=Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Oct., 1926)|pages=377–381|doi=10.1017/S0017816000007811 |jstor=1507736 |s2cid=163505088 }} 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."{{Cite book|date=2017|title=The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern English Literature and Religion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HCwpDwAAQBAJ&q=quakers+oxford+synagogues+of+satan&pg=PA99|access-date=31 Dec 2020|website=Google Books p. 99|isbn=9780191653421|first1=Andrew|last1=Hiscock|last2=Wilcox|first2=Helen|publisher=Oxford University Press }} For this, they were publicly flogged.
Billy Graham used the phrase "synagogue of Satan" to refer to "one of two types of Jews" in a private 1973 White House conversation with President Richard Nixon.{{cite AV media| people=Nixon, Richard M. (President), Graham, William F. ("Billy") | date=February 21, 1973 | title=White House Telephone - Audiotape 043-161 | medium=Audio Recording| location=Washington, D.C.| publisher=Richard Nixon Presidential Library |time=12:58 |url=https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/043 |access-date=July 15, 2021}}{{cite web|accessdate=2022-09-12|title=How Should Jews Remember Rev. Billy Graham?|url=https://www.jta.org/2018/02/21/ny/how-should-jews-remember-rev-billy-graham|date=21 February 2018}}{{Cite web|last=Young|first=Eric|date=June 25, 2009|title=New Nixon Tapes Include Phone Call with Billy Graham|url=https://www.christianpost.com/news/new-nixon-tapes-include-phone-call-with-billy-graham.html|access-date=2021-07-16|publisher=The Christian Post}} When tapes of the conversation were released many years later, Graham apologized for what were deemed by many to be antisemitic remarks.{{Cite news|agency=Associated Press|date=2002-03-03|title=Billy Graham Apologizes to Jews For His Remarks on Nixon Tapes|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/03/us/billy-graham-apologizes-to-jews-for-his-remarks-on-nixon-tapes.html|access-date=2021-07-16|issn=0362-4331}}
The encyclical Etsi multa, written by Pope Pius IX in 1873, refers to Freemasonry as "the synagogue of Satan".{{cite book|last1=Gray|first1=David Lawrence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C5_QDwAAQBAJ|title=The Catholic Catechism on Freemasonry: A Theological and Historical Treatment on the Catholic Church's Prohibition Against Freemasonry and its Appendant Masonic Bodies|publisher=Saint Dominic's Media, Inc.|year=2020|isbn=978-0-578-64213-0|location=Belleville, IL|pages=111|oclc=1202626018|access-date=May 16, 2021}}