Place of worship, its status, and functions in the Bible (the Old Testament and the New Testament) Sadeghiyan Raziyeh Department of Quran and Hadith Sciences, College of humanities, Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran Online published on 14 October, 2016. Abstract Worshiping is the pinnacle of human perfection, the secret of creation, and the most essential human psychological need. Worshiping God is the most sacred word in the lexicon of universe, and all the Abrahamic prophets have introduced it as the only way to salvation and happiness of humankind. In various religions such as Judaism and Christianity, worshiping must be done in churches, synagogues, monasteries, and convents. Some contents about this have been narrated in the Bible. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role, status, and real mission of religious bases and different functions of places of worship in the Bible, and their educational, cultural, economic, social, political etc. functions. The scope of this research is the Bible, which is the collection of scriptures of the past prophets in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Their worshiping and liturgical functions have been of importance from the distant past, although sometimes these places turned into places for worshiping pagan gods and goddesses, but the appearance of the synagogues is more likely to be in the time of Moses, although the common prayer at the time was in the form of sacrifice. But with the passage of time and the appearance of the synagogues at the time of Judaism, and the emergence of churches at the time of Jesus Christ (PBUH), and economic and social prosperity of people in this era, places of worship, synagogues, and churches gained more prominent liturgical, economic, social, and political functions, to the extent that today, the actions and attempts of the Catholic Church in international affairs have high importance and value. Top Keywords Worship, monastery, synagogue, church, convent, the Bible. Top |