RULER OF THE SYNAGOGUE (Heb. רֹאשׁ הַכְּנֶסֶת; Gr. ἀρχισυνάγωγος, G801, ruler of a synagogue). The ruler of the synagogue was the man chosen to care for the physical arrangements of the synagogue services. The president of the synagogue would be the equivalent designation today.

Several men serving in this capacity are named or mentioned in the NT. They include Jairus, the father of a twelve-year-old girl whom Jesus raised from death (Mark 5:22-43; cf. Matt 9:18-26; Luke 8:40-56); an unnamed man who became indignant because Jesus healed a crippled woman on the Sabbath (Luke 13:10-17); those who permitted Paul and Barnabas to speak in the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia (Acts 13:15); Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue at Corinth, who believed in Christ as a result of Paul’s preaching there (Acts 18:8); and Sosthenes, also a ruler of the synagogue at Corinth, who was seized and beaten when Gallio refused to hear charges brought against Paul (Acts 18:7). If he is the same Sosthenes mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1:1, he also became a Christian believer.