Proseuche

Προσευχή, Oratio. Juvenal. Sat. 3. v. 296. In quâ te quæro Proseuchâ.PROSEUCHE. The Word Proseuche is Greek, and signifies Prayer. It is taken for the Places of Prayer of the Jews, and was pretty near the same as their Synagogues. But the Synagogues were generally in the Cities, and were Cover’d Places; whereas, for the most part, the Proseuches were out of the Cities, and upon the Banks of Rivers, having no Covering, except, perhaps, the Shade of some Trees, or some cover’d Galleries. Acts xvi. 12.In the Acts, mention is made of the Proseuche of Philippi in Macedonia, which was out of the City. Maimonides says, That the Proseuches ought to be built in such Manner, that those that come into them, may turn their Faces towards the Temple of Jerusalem; Respect being had to the Situation of the Place and of the City where they were. The Author of the 3d Book of 3 Macc. cap. ult.Maccabees often says, That the Jews of Egypt, being deliver’d from the Danger to which they had been exposed under Ptolemy Philopator, built a Proseuche near the City of Alexandria. St. Epiphanius Epiphan, Hæres. 80.says, That at two Miles from Shechem there was a Proseuche of the Samaritans, situate in a Plain, built in Form of a Theatre, and without a Roof; in which, (says Epiphanius) as well as ,משליMishle. Παραβολαί, Parabolæ.in every thing else, they copy from the Jews. However, we must allow, that often Josephus and Philo confound the Proseuches with the Synagogues, and that they place them in the 1 Kings x. 1. Menander & Dius apud Joseph. Antiq. l. 8. c. 2.Cities. See SYNAGOGUE.

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