Temple Warning inscription


The Temple Warning inscription, also known as the Temple Balustrade inscription or the Soreg inscription, is an inscription that hung along the balustrade outside the Sanctuary of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Two of these tablets have been found. The inscription was a warning to pagan visitors to the temple not to proceed further. Both Greek and Latin inscriptions on the temple's balustrade served as warnings to pagan visitors not to proceed under penalty of death.
A complete tablet was discovered in 1871 by Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau, in the ad-Dawadariya school just outside the al-Atim Gate to the Temple Mount, and published by the Palestine Exploration Fund. Following the discovery of the inscription, it was taken by the Ottoman authorities, and it is currently in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums. A partial fragment of a less well made version of the inscription was found in 1936 by J. H. Iliffe during the excavation of a new road outside Jerusalem's Lions' Gate; it is held in the Israel Museum.

Inscription

Two tablets have been found, one complete, and the other a partial fragment with missing sections, but with letters showing signs of the red paint that had originally highlighted the text. It was described by the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1872 as being "very nearly in the words of Josephus".
The inscription uses three terms referring to temple architecture:To hieron, "holy place", the sacred area, to which the forecourt ledPeribolou, a wall encompassing the holy terrace within the outer courtTryphaktou, a stone barrier across the outer court

Translation

The tablet bears the following inscription in Koine Greek:
Original GreekIn minuscules with diacriticsTransliterationTranslation
ΜΗΘΕΝΑΑΛΛΟΓΕΝΗΕΙΣΠΟ
ΡΕΥΕΣΘΑΙΕΝΤΟΣΤΟΥΠΕ
ΡΙΤΟΙΕΡΟΝΤΡΥΦΑΚΤΟΥΚΑΙ
ΠΕΡΙΒΟΛΟΥΟΣΔΑΝΛΗ
ΦΘΗΕΑΥΤΩΙΑΙΤΙΟΣΕΣ
ΤΑΙΔΙΑΤΟΕΞΑΚΟΛΟΥ
ΘΕΙΝΘΑΝΑΤΟΝ		Μηθένα ἀλλογενῆ εἰσπο-
ρεύεσθαι ἐντὸς τοῦ πε-
ρὶ τὸ ἱερὸν τρυφάκτου καὶ -
περιβόλο Ὃς δ᾽ ἂν λη-
φθῇ, ἑαυτῶι αἴτιος ἔσ-
ται διὰ τὸ ἐξακολου-θείν θάνατον		Mēthéna allogenē eispo
révesthai entós toú pe
rì tò hieròn trypháktou kaì peribólou.
Hòs d'àn lē
phthē heautōi aítios és
tai dià tò exakolou
thein thánaton.		No stranger is to enter
within the balustrade round
the temple and
enclosure. Whoever is caught
will be himself responsible
for his ensuing
death.

The identity of the hypothetical stranger/foreigner remains ambiguous. Some scholars believed it referred to all gentiles, regardless of ritual purity status or religion. Others argue that it referred to unconverted Gentiles since Herod wrote the inscription. Herod himself was a converted Idumean and was unlikely to exclude himself or his descendants.

Forgeries

Several forgeries were promptly prepared following the 1871 discovery. Clermont-Ganneau was shown a similar artifact at the Monastery of St Saviour, which was later shown to be a forgery created by Martin Boulos.

External references

  • Millard, Alan, Discoveries from the Time of Jesus. Oxford: Lion Publishing, 1990.
  • Roitman, Aldopho, Envisioning the Temple, Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 2003.
  • Elias J. Bickerman, "The Warning Inscriptions of Herod's Temple," The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Ser., Vol. 37, No. 4., pp. 387–405.
  • Matan Orian, "The Purpose of the Balustrade in the Herodian Temple," Journal for the Study of Judaism 51, pp. 1–38.