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→I. Art and Architecture
The question concerning the function of the synagogue "seat" divides into two: was it for the placement of the ''Torah'' scroll or was it for a person? And if for a person, was it for the president, the teacher, or for a guest? Perhaps the "seat" was employed for all of these purposes depending upon the stage of the liturgy. For the relevance here, however, none of this appears to have made an impact on the use of the bishop seat in the church except that it was a place of honor. Specifically, the Christian employment was a depiction of the ideal unity of the church in the bishop.
Apparently the connection between this feature of a church in Antiquity and that of the current Orthodox or Catholic practice is more direct than other architectural features from the past. That the bishop had supreme importance in the earliest churches there is no serious scholarly controversy; the question, today, is one of the degree of that significance. For Orthodox and Catholic dialogue, of course, the other aspect is that of judicial aspirations. But in terms of "Moses' seat" one may conclude that the unity that the synagogal community saw and today sees in ''Mosheh Rabbenu'' ("Moses our teacher") so the Catholic and Orthodox community sees churches see in its overseer, the bishop (''Episkopos'').
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