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I've been thinking about your presentation at Kirksville where you mentioned the scribes sitting on Moses Seat in the synagogue to read the law. I'm a little confused and was hoping you could clear things up for me. I've been told that in Hebrew worship today there is an “ark” usually at the front of the auditorium containing the writings of the Torah. When there is a reading of the Torah, everyone stands as the ark is opened, then the scroll wanted is removed and the passage read. The reader and all assembled remain standing during this time. The scroll is returned to the ark, the ark is closed, and then everyone sits, including the rabbi, and the reading is discussed. When I have read in Luke 4 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” I think they had a similar tradition of standing while reading the scriptures and sitting to discuss them, and even though it seems to be only the reader standing, he stood while reading then sat and commented on the reading. There is also the interesting phrase in Nehemiah 9:3 And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day... which would seem to imply there was at that time a tradition of standing while reading the law. But the scribes sat in Moses Seat while reading the Torah. Am I seeing a semblance of modern tradition in these passages that really wasn't there? Or am I confused about the modern tradition? Or ???
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