|Fr. Oleh Kindiy. Transformation of education as the precondition of the establishment of episcopal see in Alexandria in second and third century|
The most natural environment for a religious experience, kerygma, and doctrine of primitive Christians was undoubtedly grounded in the Jewish synagogue, Beth Knesset, which has been a central communal institution of Judaism. In fact, it had been the native educational milieu for Jesus himself, who must have been enrolled in a synagogal school in his childhood and later used it for preaching in his adult life. Even though until 70 CE Jerusalem Temple was the center of the Jewish cult, the synagogue clearly had its own particular function, serving as a local meetinghouse for study and, also, prayer. In effect, its administrators were none other than teachers, rabbis. When the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed, the synagogue became its surrogate.