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Here is what it said
“His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.”
Is there any clue the Jews will put the people who believe in Jesus out of the synagogue in Jesus' time? I don't see this type of discipline in the other 3 gospels. It could be normal for time after Jesus, but I am not sure whether this was normal for the time when Jesus was.
The ministry of Jesus was characterized, among other things, by a rising antipathy ending in outright hatred of the Jews toward Jesus.
The hatred of the Jews toward Jesus extended to His followers. The Jews threatened to discipline people if they supported the blasphemous claims of Jesus. The Greek word for this was, ἀποσυνάγωγος (aposunagógos) which simply means "away from the synagogue, expelled from the synagogue, excommunicated." It occurs in three places:
The last reference is also of a future time (after Jesus) where Jesus predicted that His followers would be persecuted. See also Matt 5:10, 10:22, Mark 13:9, Luke 6:22, etc.
Ellicott observes for John 9:22 -
The Jews at a later date distinguished three kinds of excommunication. (1) The lightest continued for thirty days, and prescribed four cubits as a distance within which the person may not approach any one, not even wife or children; with this limitation, it did not make exclusion from the synagogue necessary. (2) The severer included absolute banishment from all religious meetings, and absolute giving up of intercourse with all persons, and was formally pronounced with curses. (3) The severest was a perpetual banishment from all meetings, and a practical exclusion from the fellowship of God’s people. It has been sometimes supposed that the words of Luke 6:22, (a) “separate you,” (b) “reproach you,” (c) “cast out your name,” refer to these gradations, but probably the only practice known in the time of our Lord was that which was later regarded as the intermediate form, falling short of perpetual banishment, but being, while the ban lasted, exclusion from all the cherished privileges of an Israelite.
John 16:2 They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.
Mark 13:9 You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues.
Matthew 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 10:22 You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Luke 6:22 Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.
Luke 21:17 And you will be hated by everyone because of My name.
Background
Being cast out or excommunicated would be a "profound religious dislocation:"1
The synagogue meetings, the public liturgy, the festivals, and observances were all now denied them, and the authoritative interpretation of the sacred scripture itself was in the hands of their opponents. What was threatened was thus the enitre universe of shared perceptions, assumptions, beliefs, ideals, and hopes that had given meaning to their world within Judaism.
2
The personal consequences would be significant since those who came to believe Jesus was the Christ, still considered themselves as "Jews" as Paul would say:
The three Synoptic Gospels do record Jesus predicting the disciples would experience conflict from the synagogues:
Rather than be "put out," the disciples would be beaten, flogged, and delivered up. This last may reference being put to death. Acts states both types of punishment were used:
Even Paul received discipline, presumably from the synagogue:
The New Testament is clear "Christians" who came from Judaism who expressed their faith in Jesus as the Christ should expect some type of discipline from the synagogues.
Excommunication vs Death
Typically two types of synagogue discipline are recognized, niddui which is milder and herem which is the more severe and likely means excommunication:
The sources that refer to Niddui are earlier and suggest that Niddui was a means of communal discipline used to support and defend halakic decisions against recalcitrant members, especially (or only?) sages of the community. Herem, in contrast, seems to have come into use in the sense of “excommunication,” that is, permanent exclusion from the community, only after 200 CE.
3
Katz, like many scholars sees no evidence of excommunication from the synagogue before the third century. This would make the statement in John false or at best, anachronistic. However, William Horbury points out excommunication was used as a substitute for karet (which could mean the death penalty) and offers several examples to support this claim:4
In this case, excommunication would serve as a less severe, and more enforceable substitute for putting one to death. Moreover, any right to enforce the death penalty (as Paul states occurred) would likely not be able to be enforced outside Judea (hence the need to bring them to Jerusalem) or continue after 70AD when the Temple and formal judicial system were destroyed. Also the explicit reference of Paul authorized by the high priest to go to the synagogues of Damascus and "bind" all followers of the way to be brought to Jerusalem (to face the death penalty) implies the synagogues were willing to participate in this type of removal.
Finally, expulsion of the Hellenistic Christians from the synagogues in Jerusalem is certainly implied in the initial persecution of the church. Stephen disputed with those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia (Acts 6:9). If this took place in the synagogue, as is likely, then the implication is the Hellenistic Jews who became Christians continued in their synagogues until the persecution caused them to leave.
Conclusion
(His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) (John 9:22)
The historical accuracy of John's statement is possible. The strongest evidence may be Paul's letter to the Corinthians which suggests a practice from Judaism brought over to the church. However, as is clear, this was not the only or even the most common discipline, at least in the earliest years of the Church.
If Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written before the destruction of the Temple and the Fourth Gospel written after, then the loss of the Temple, which elevated the importance of the synagogue, goes a long way to explain why the Fourth Gospel is so different. Prior to 70AD, Jerusalem and the Temple were the focal point of both Judaism and Christianity. Formal discipline from Judaism would be Temple centered; after 70AD the synagogues assume a more important almost exclusive role.
In addition, the loss of the Temple led to the demise of the Sanhedrin (notably absent in the Fourth Gospel) and a significant change in Judaism:
The destruction of the Temple and the sudden cessation of its time-honored worship was a stunning blow. All at once the Jewish people found themselves without their hallowed sanctuary and its divine service. A spiritual hollowness encompassed them and threatened their survival as a religious community. It would have proved fatal had it no been for the collateral religious institution, the synagogue, which already existed in every Jewish settlement. The synagogue stood ready to meet the religious needs of the people, and it was ideally suited to the new situation of the Jewish national and spiritual homelessness.
5
The loss of the Temple, which forced all liturgy to the synagogues had the collateral effect of placing a higher priority in a "unified Judaism." In other words, where the presence of Jewish-Christians was once seen as an internal matter to be addressed by correction (including putting one to death) primarily as directed from leadership in Jerusalem; it was now a matter to be resolved locally which was best handled by removal and permanent separation.
Thus Matthew, Mark, and Luke should be understood as describing the initial response to Christians, when expulsion was uncommon as the other types were employed. On the other hand, John describes the type of discipline which endured beyond 70AD when other types including the death penalty were no longer used or practical.6
