the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Encyclopedias
Proseucha
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Proseucha, a word signifying 'prayer,' and always so translated in the Authorized Version. It is, however, applied, per meton., to a place of prayer—a place where assemblies for prayer were held, whether a building or not. In this sense it seems also to be mentioned in , where the words rendered by our translators, 'in prayer to God,' might rather signify, 'in an oratory of God,' or a place that was devoted to his service, especially for prayer. In the same sense the phrase must, still more certainly, be understood in , where the Syriac has, 'because there was perceived to be a house of prayer;' and the Arabic, 'a certain place which was supposed to be a place of prayer.' That there really were such places of devotion among the Jews is unquestionable. They were mostly outside those towns in which there were no synagogues, because the laws or their administrators would not admit any. They appear to have been usually situated near a river, or the sea-shore, for the convenience of ablution (Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 10, 23). Sometimes the proseucha was a large building, as that at Tiberias (l. c. § 54), so that the name was sometimes applied even to synagogues. But, for the most part, the proseuchae appear to have been places in the open air, in a grove, or in shrubberies, or even under a tree, although always, as we may presume, near water, for the convenience of those ablutions which with the Jews always preceded prayer.
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Proseucha'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/p/proseucha.html.
