Theodotos inscription


The Theodotos inscription is the earliest known inscription from a synagogue. It was found in December 1913 by Raymond Weill in Wadi Hilweh, in an area also known as the City of David.
It is the earliest-known evidence of a synagogue building in the Palestine region.
The ten-line inscription is on an ashlar stone measuring.

Discovery

The inscription was found during Weill's excavations, in a cistern labelled "C2". Weill described the cistern as being filled with "large discarded wall materials, sometimes deposited in a certain order, enormous rubble stones, numerous cubic blocks with well-cut sides, a few sections of columns: someone filled this hole with the debris of a demolished building".

Inscription

Greek script

Transliteration

Thódotos Ouettḗnou, hiereùs kaì | achisynágōgos, yiòs archisyn|gy, yionòs archisyngṓgou, ōko|dómēse tḕn synagogn eis anō||s nómou kaí eis idachn entolο̂n, kaí tn xenο̂na, ka dṓmata kaì tà chrē|sḗria tòn hydátōn eis katályma toî|s rḗzousin apò tês xéēs, hḕn etheme|lsan hoi patéres utoù kaí hoi pre||sýteroi kaì Simondēs.

Translation

Theodotos son of Vettenus, priest and head of the synagogue, son of a head of the synagogue, and grandson of a head of the synagogue, built the synagogue for the reading of the law and for the teaching of the commandments, as well as the guest room, the chambers, and the water fittings as an inn for those in need from abroad, the synagogue which his fathers founded with the elders and Simonides.

Secondary sources

  • John S. Kloppenborg, “,” Journal of Jewish Studies 51 243-280
  • John S. Kloppenborg: The Theodotos Synagogue Inscription and the Problem of First-Century Synagogue Buildings. In: James H. Charlesworth : Jesus and Archaeology. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids 2006, S. 236–282.
  • Fine, Steven. "6. The Emergence of the Synagogue". Early Judaism: New Insights and Scholarship, edited by Frederick E. Greenspahn and Frederick E. Greenspahn, New York, USA: New York University Press, 2018, pp. 123-146. https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479896950.003.0007
  • Jonathan J. Price: Synagogue building inscription of Theodotos in Greek, 1 c. BCE–1 c. CE. In: Hannah M. Cotton u. a. : Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae. Bd. 1: Jerusalem, Teil 1. De Gruyter, Berlin 2010, S. 53–56.
  • Gustav Adolf Deissmann: Licht vom Osten. Das Neue Testament und die neuentdeckten Texte der hellenistisch-römischen Welt. 4., völlig neubearbeitete Auflage. Mohr, Tübingen 1923, S. 379–380.
  • Rachel Hachlili: Ancient Synagogues – Archaeology and Art: New Discoveries and Current Research. Brill, Leiden 2013, S. 523–526.
  • Howard Clark Kee: The Transformation of the Synagogue After 70 C.E.: Its Import for Early Christianity. In: New Testament Studies. Band 36, Nr. 1, 1990, S. 1–24.
  • Howard Clark Kee: Defining the First-Century CE Synagogue: Problems and Progress. In: New Testament Studies. Band 41, Nr. 4, 1995, S. 481–500.
  • Max Küchler: Jerusalem. Ein Handbuch und Studienreiseführer zur Heiligen Stadt. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007,.
  • Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau, , Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Année 1920 64-3 pp. 187-189
  • Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau. “Découverte a Jérusalem D'une Synagogue De L'epoque Hérodienne.” Syria, vol. 1, no. 3, 1920, pp. 190–197. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4195086

    Primary sources

  • Raymond Weill: La Cité de David. Campagne de 1913–1914. Geuthner, Paris 1920.
Category:Ancient synagogues
Category:Greek inscriptions
Category:Judaic inscriptions
Category:Roman-era Greek inscriptions
Category:1st-century inscriptions
Category:1913 archaeological discoveries
Category:Archaeological discoveries in Israel
Category:Israelite and Jewish archaeological artifacts
Category:Silwan