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What Does the Bible Say About...Jesus Attending Synagogue?

I have a question for you that my pastor asked me for conformation. Why did Jesus go to the synagogue on Friday instead of Sunday? If you could answer this I would be grateful.

Answer

The simple answer is, "to teach." Several times (Matthew 4:23; Matthew 9:35; and others) the scriptures tell us that he went to the synagogue for just that reason.

Most of the time the passages don't specify a day on which he went. Since Jews gather in the synagogues every day of the week, one may presume that he went any day. One passage specifies that he was in the habit of going to the synagogue to teach on Saturday, the Sabbath. "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read." (Luke 4:16)

You might ask your preacher where he finds that Jesus went to synagogue on Friday. Only one passage may imply specifically that he was in the synagogue on what we would call Friday. Mark 1:21 says, "And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught." This seems to say that he went to the synagogue as soon as the Sabbath began. Since the Jewish people count their days starting at sundown, this would be, to a non-Jew, Friday night. But to the Jewish mind, this would be Saturday. So we still have no evidence that he went to the synagogue specifically on Friday.

Probably the question, though, was meant to ask why he didn't specifically go on Sunday. The answer is simple. Although he probably did go on some Sundays, the scriptures only specify that he went on the Sabbath, which was a day when many Jews who could not be in synagogue on other days because of work would attend the assembly in the synagogue, because it was their day of rest. Saturday has been set aside for the Jews as a special holiday, and many took, and still take, that opportunity to gather in the synagogue for prayer and study.