Jewish Art
(97 previous messages)
- May 9, 2006 8:22 pm (#98 of 344)
Edited by May 9, 2006 8:27 pm
Synagogue at Sardis, Turkey - 3rd century CE
It has been estimated that it could house 1,000 people – a very large building indeed.
Over 80 Jewish inscriptions have been found in the excavations – mainly in Greek! Recent analysis of the finds suggest that the synagogue may date to the 6th(!), rather than to the 4th, century A.D.
- May 9, 2006 8:50 pm (#99 of 344)
Inscription mentioning
three Jewish freedmen
L. Valerius L.L. Baricha
L. Valerius L.L. Zabda
L. Valerius L.L. Achiba
[L.L. = freedman of Lucius]
Via Appia, fifth milestone
The last one was not only the largest catacomb, but also the oldest. It was probably used from the late first century BCE (until the fourth century CE) and its early date confirms the words of Philo that many Jews were settled in Rome after the war against Pompey in 63 BCE. The oldest inscriptions mention freed slaves, who must have been Pompey's prisoners of war.
- May 10, 2006 6:06 am (#100 of 344)
Edited by May 10, 2006 6:14 am
Jewish Catacombs in Rome - Vaults of Memory
Entrance to the Jewish Catacomb from the via Appia Pignatelli (parking inside the gate at the corner of the via Appia Pigantelli and vicolo della Basilica di San Sebastiano).
General view of the entrance to the Randanini Catacomb. The second door on the far left of the vestibule led to a small well room encircled by a bench, perhaps utilized for purification of the deceased and/or repasts; the other doorway led into the catacomb proper, which also connects to the well room.
Entrance to Cubiculum III of the Vigna Randanini catacomb.
Painting of a menorah on back wall of Cubiculum IV of the Randanini catacomb above an arcosolium containing a broken sarcophagus.
Rear view of the Villa Torlonia, which sits above the Jewish catacomb of Torlonia. This villa was built in 1802 by Guiseppe Valadier and was the home of Mussolini in the 1920s.
- May 10, 2006 6:08 am (#101 of 344)
Edited by May 10, 2006 8:37 am
Catacombs had Jewish origin, not Christian
"It shows that the cemeteries under Villa Torlonia range in age from 50 BC to 400 AD, making the catacombs Rome's oldest.
The date is consistent with the chronological layout of the catacombs, with the oldest sample deriving from the entrance, the earliest construction point, and the other samples becoming progressively later as one goes deeper down the tunnels.
"This evidence indicates that the Villa Torlonia catacomb came into use in the 2nd century AD, a century before the building of the earliest Christian catacombs started.
Bursting bubbles?
Italian media were disconcerted by the finding.
"The last myth on the catacombs has fallen. Not only were they not used as secret hiding places of the early Christians during the persecutions. Now we learn that the Christians did not even invent them," Rome's daily Il Messaggero writes."
- May 10, 2006 6:28 am (#102 of 344)
Edited by May 10, 2006 6:28 am
Roman Mosaics, 3rd century-5th century A.D., from an unknown Roman artist, Hammam-Lif Synagogue, Tunis, Tunisia. Brooklyn Museum 
- May 10, 2006 7:45 am (#103 of 344)
Edited by May 10, 2006 8:06 am
The catacomb inscriptions
"Until now, we have discussed the evidence in literary sources, classical and rabbinical. However, there is a third category of evidence: 534 brief tomb inscriptions from the Jewish catacombs, the large underground burial places outside Rome. (The catacombs are not open to the public. Copies of some of the inscriptions can be seen in the stairhouse of the modern synagogue at the Lungotevere dei Cenci; a few originals in Oxford's Ashmolean Museum.) The following Jewish catacombs have been identified:
on the Via Nomentana near the Villa Torlonia,
on the Via Labicana outside the Porta Maggiore,
on the Via Appia Pignatelli (beyond the second milestone, closer to the city than the Christian catacombs),
on the Via Appia (Via Cimarra),
on the Via Ostiensis, at Monteverde.
............................................
The tombstones offer us a map of the the Jewish community in Rome. For example, the inscriptions mention the names of the Roman synagogues, and it is possible to establish where they were, because people would bury their dead in the nearest catacomb.
Via Nomentana - Synagogue of the 'Agger'
Synagogue of the Subura
Via Labicana - Unknown synagogue
Via Appia Pignatelli - Synagogue of the Field of Mars
Via Appia - Synagogue of Elaias
Via Ostiensis - Synagogue of the Agrippaeans
Synagogue of the Augustiales
Synagogue of the Hebrews
Vernacular synagogue
Synagogue of Volumnius
Synagogue of the Tripolitans
Synagogue of the Calcaresians
The synagogue at Ostia - Synagogue of the 'Agger': also known as the synagogue of the Secenians (from Zekenim, 'elders').
Synagogue of the Subura: no inscriptions before 70 CE. It may have been founded by (freed) prisoners of war. The location suggests that they had been involved in the urban renewal projects of Vespasian (Colosseum, temple of Peace).
Synagogue of the Field of Mars and Synagogue of the Calcaresians: both on the Field of Mars. Maybe, these places of worship are the ancestors of the medieval 'cinque scuole' in the Ghetto and the modern synagogue.
Synagogue of the Agrippaeans and Synagogue of the Augustiales: the names may honor the emperor Augustus and his close friend Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. However, the second name may also refer to the Jewish king Herod Agrippa.
Synagogue of the Hebrews and Vernacular synagogue: the name of the first one suggests that it was the first synagogue in Rome, or that it maintained the Hebrew liturgical language; the second name suggest that Latin was spoken.
Synagogue of Volumnius and Synagogue of Elaias: called after otherwise unknown people. As we will see below, in the latter synagogue, many people had Latin names - we do not know why.
Synagogue of the Tripolitans: probably called after the 'three cities' in Africa, and therefore believed to be the place where African rites were performed.
Three synagogues are known only by name and can not be localized; a fourth synagogue was at Ostia, the Roman port.
Most of the 534 names on the inscription are Greek: 405 (76%). 123 people (23%) had a Latin name, whereas the remaining 5 inscriptions show Hebrew, Aramaean and hybrid names. This confirms that most Roman Jews were culturally Greek, not Latins. Another argument for the Greek orientation of Roman Judaism can be found in the letter that the Christian teacher Paul wrote to the Roman Christians: he gives his regards to 18 people with a Greek name, 4 Latins and 2 Hebrews (Epistle to the Romans 16.5-16).
Actually, we would have expected less Latin names, because the Roman populace overwhelmingly spoke Greek. However, it turns out that almost all Jews with a Latin name were members of the Synagogue of Elaias. This suggests that most Roman Jews were 'ordinary' people, speaking Greek, and that the Latin-speaking minority had a synagogue of their own. We do not know what led to this arrangement.
The use of the Greek language is interesting too. It is grammatically correct, but contains remarkable spelling mistakes. For example, kai ('and') is sometimes written as ke, and Ebraios ('Hebrew') becomes Aibreos. In other words, -ai- and -e- are interchangable. This is a normal linguistic phenomenon in the first centuries CE, but an educated Roman or Greek would never make these mistakes. This suggests that most literate Jews were unable to pay for further education; it more or less corroborates the statement of Juvenal (above) that the Jews were poor.
The catacomb inscription inform us also about the officials in the Jewish community. Every synagogue had a gerousiarch, 'president', and a board of archontes, 'governors'. The possessions of the community were guarded by a phronistes. We also learn about grammateis ('scribes') and presbyteres ('elders'). A benefactor would be called 'father of the synagogue'. (One inscription mentions a benefactor who married his sister-in-law after his brother had died, a practice that had become obsolete in mainstream Judaism.) The archisynagogos was responsible for the maintenance of the synagogue; his assistant was the hyperetes. Finally, there was the archigerousiarch: he represented the Roman community as a whole. We may imagine that the above-mentioned Theudas was an archigerousiarch.
Although one inscription mentions a 'teacher of the Law' the 'new' title of rabbi or Greek/Latin equivalents are not attested in the catacomb inscriptions (nor is Theudas called 'rabbi' in the Talmud).
In conclusion, we may probably state that in the first centuries CE, the Jewish community of Rome still retained several traits from a Jewish faith that antedated rabbinical Judaism: no rabbi's (at least not in the age of the catacombs) and no female presbyters; the custom to marry a sister-in-law still existed; and the paschal lamb was prepared as it had always been done.
The archaic character of this Jewish community has, of course, disappeared. However, even today, the Roman Jews are still proud to be neither Ashkenazic nor Sephardic Jews - the main branches of Judaism that originated long after the Roman community."
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Jewish Art