The main leader of a Jewish place of worship in New Testament times. Each synagogue usually had only one such leader.
The ruler's functions were to take care of the physical arrangements for the services of worship and maintain the building. The ruler also determined who would be called to read from the Law and the Prophets or to conduct the prayers. The office was sometimes held for a specified period, sometimes for life.
The New Testament refers to this official on four different occasions. Jairus was the ruler of a synagogue at Capernaum. When his daughter was ill, he went to Jesus for help, and Jesus raised her from the dead (Matthew 9:18–26; Mark 5:21–43; Luke 8:41–56).
Luke 13:14 records the story of another ruler of a synagogue who treated Jesus with great hostility. The ruler objected to Jesus when he healed someone on the Sabbath after teaching at the synagogue.
On his missionary journeys, Paul often began his ministry in each place he visited by going to the synagogue. At Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:15), the rulers of the synagogue welcomed and encouraged him to preach the gospel and to return again the following week. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue at Corinth, was converted (18:8). Crispus's successor Sosthenes was beaten by the mob after the Jews had made a charge against Paul before Gallio, the governor of Achaia.