What Can We Learn from Early Jewish Epigraphy?

Pieter W. van der Horst

Titles

Abstract

This article presents a concise overview of the most relevant information that can be gleaned from the approx. 4000 Jewish inscriptions from antiquity (c. 300 BCE – 700 CE). Special attention is paid to those areas and topics about which inscriptions are our only (or main) source of information because the ancient Jewish literary sources are silent about them. The stones turn out to be especially relevant to the study of the western diaspora in the Roman and early Byzantine periods.

Keywords

inscriptions, epigraphy, Greek language, diaspora, synagogue, age at death, women, manumission, onomastics, professions, pagan-Jewish relations

synagogue, age at death, women, manumission, onomastics, professions, pagan-Jewish relations, inscriptions, epigraphy, Greek language, diaspora

References

Avemarie, F. (2009), Jüdische Diasporagemeinden in der Antike: Ihr Selbstverständnis im Spiegel der Inschriften, [in:] H.J. Körtner (ed.), Kirche – Christus – Kerygma: Profil und Identität evangelischer Kirche(n), Neukirchen: 21-61.

Avemarie, F. (2013), Neues Testament und frührabbinisches Judentum, Tübingen.

Bagnall, R., Frier, B.W. (1994), The Demography of Roman Egypt, Cambridge.

Barclay, J.M.G. (1996), Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora from Alexander to Trajan (323 BCE – 117 CE), Edinburgh.

Bloedhorn, H. (1999), ‘Appendix: Inschriften,’ Journal of Semitic Studies 35: 64-72.

Brooten, B.J. (1982), Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue, Chico.

Burn, A.R. (1953), Hic breve vivitur: A Study of the Expectation of Life in the Roman Empire, Past and Present 4: 1-31.

Burtchaell, J.T. (1992), From Synagogue to Church: Public Services and Offices in the Earliest Christian Communities, Cambridge.

Cappelletti, S. (2009), Biblical Quotations in the Greek Jewish Inscriptions of the Diaspora, [in:] N.R.M. de Lange, J.G. Krivoruchko, C. Boyd-Taylor (eds.), Jewish Reception of Greek Bible Versions, Tübingen: 128-141.

Chester, A. (2011), Jewish Inscriptions and Jewish Life, [in:] R. Deines et al. (eds.), Neues Testament und hellenistisch-jüdische Alltagskultur, Tübingen: 404-408.

Clauss, M. (1973), Probleme der Lebensalterstatistiken aufgrund römischer Grabinschriften, Chiron 3: 395-417.

Claußen, C. (2002), Versammlung, Gemeinde, Synagoge: Das hellenistisch-jüdische Umfeld der frühchristlichen Gemeinden, Göttingen.

Cohen, S.J.D. (1981/82), Epigraphical Rabbis, Jewish Quarterly Review 72: 1-17.

Collar, A. (2013), Religious Networks in the Roman Empire: The Spread of New Ideas, Cambridge.

Cotton, H.M., Cockle, W.E.H., Millar, F.G.B. (1995), The Papyrology of the Roman Near East: A Survey, Journal of Roman Studies 85: 214-235.

Duncan Jones, R.P. (1977), Age-Rounding, Illiteracy and Social Differentiation in the Roman Empire, Chiron 7: 333-353.

Edre, A., Mendels, D. (2007), A Split Jewish Diaspora: Its Dramatic Consequences, JSP 16: 91-137.

Edre, A., Mendels, D. (2008), A Split Jewish Diaspora: Its Dramatic Consequences, JSP 17: 163-187.

Feldman, L.H. (1993), Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian, Princeton.

Fischer, U. (1978), Eschatologie und Jenseitserwartung im hellenistischen Diasporajudentum, Berlin.

Frier, B. (1983), Roman Life Expectancy. The Pannonian Evidence, Phoenix 37: 328-344.

Gibson, E.L. (1999), The Jewish Manumission Inscriptions of the Bosporus Kingdom, Tübingen.

Goodman, M. (2007), Sacred Space in Diaspora Judaism, [in:] M. Goodman, Judaism in the Roman World, Leiden – Boston: 219-231.

Goodman, M. (2010), Under the Influence: Hellenism in Ancient Jewish Life, BAR 36 (1): 60-67, 84.

Horbury, W. (1999), Women in the Synagogue, [in:] W. Horbury et al. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. III: The Early Roman Period, Cambridge: 358-401.

Horsley, G.H.R. (1987), New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity: A Review of the Greek Inscriptions and Papyri published in 1979, vol. 4, Sydney.

van der Horst, P.W. (1991): Ancient Jewish Epitaphs. An Introductory Survey of a Millennium of Jewish Funerary Epigraphy (300 BCE – 700 CE), Kampen.

van der Horst, P.W. (2001), Greek in Jewish Palestine in the Light of Jewish Epigraphy, [in:] J.J. Collins, G.E. Sterling (eds.), Hellenism in the Land of Israel, Notre Dame: 174-194 (= van der Horst 2002: 9-26).

van der Horst, P.W. (2002), Japheth in the Tents of Shem: Studies on Jewish Hellenism in Antiquity, Leuven.

van der Horst, P.W. (2006), His Days Shall Be One Hundred and Twenty Years: Genesis 6:3 in Early Judaism and Ancient Christianity, [in:] P.W. van der Horst, Jews and Christians in Their Graeco-Roman Context. Selected Essays on Early Judaism, Samaritanism, Hellenism, and Christianity, Tübingen: 66-70.

van der Horst, P.W. (2013), Biblical Quotations in Judaeo-Greek Inscriptions, [in:] B.J. Koet, S. Moyise, J. Verheyden (eds.), The Scriptures of Israel in Jewish and Christian Tradition: Essays in Honour of Maarten J.J. Menken, Leiden – Boston: 363-376 (= van der Horst 2014: 66-79).

van der Horst, P.W. (2014), Studies in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, Leiden – Boston.

Ilan, T. (2002-2012), Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity , 4 vols., Tübingen.

Kleywegt, M. (1991), Ancient Youth: The Ambiguity of Youth and the Absence of Adolescence in Greco-Roman Society, Amsterdam.

Kraemer, R.S. (1992), Her Share of the Blessings: Women’s Religions among Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the Greco-Roman World, New York – Oxford.

de Lange, N.R.M. (2001), A Gold Votive Medaillon in the Jewish Museum, London, Zutot 1: 52-53.

de Lange, N.R.M., Krivoruchko, J.G., Boyd-Taylor, C. (eds.) (2009), Jewish Reception of Greek Bible Versions, Tübingen.

Levine, L.I. (1989), The Rabbinic Class of Roman Palestine in Late Antiquity, Jerusalem – New York.

Levine, L.I. (2000), The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years, New Haven – London.

Lifshitz, B. (1961), La vie de l’au-delà dans les conceptions juives. Inscriptions grecques de Beth She’arim, Revue Biblique 68: 401-411.

Lifshitz, B. (1967), Donateurs et fondateurs dans les synagogues juives, Paris.

Mendels, D., Edrei, A. (2010), Zweierlei Diaspora: Zur Spaltung der antiken jüdischen Welt, Göttingen.

Mitchell, S. (1993), Anatolia. Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor, vol. 2, Oxford.

Mussies, G. (1994), Jewish Personal Names in Some Non-Literary Sources, [in:] J.W. van Henten,

P.W. van der Horst (eds.), Studies in Early Jewish Epigraphy, Leiden – Boston: 242-276.

Nordberg, N. (1965), Biometrical Notes, Journal of Roman Studies 55: 253-257.

Park, J.S. (2000), Conceptions of Afterlife in Jewish Inscriptions, Tübingen.

Price, J.J. (2010), Synagogue Building Inscription of Theodotos in Greek, CIIP I/1: 53-56.

Rajak, T. (2009), Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora, Oxford.

Reynolds, J., Tannenbaum, R. (1987), Jews and Godfearers at Aphrodisias, Cambridge.

Rutgers, L.V. (2000), Death and Afterlife: The Inscriptional Evidence, [in:] J. Neusner, A. Avery-Peck, B. Chilton (eds.), Judaism in Late Antiquity, vol. 3, Leiden Boston: 293-310.

Schürer, E. (1986), The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ: 175 B.C. – A.D. 135, rev. ed. by G. Vermes et al., vol. 3/1, Edinburgh: 1-86.

Williams, M.H. (1997), The Meaning and Function of Ioudaios in Graeco-Roman Inscriptions, Zeit- schrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 116: 249-262 (= Williams 2013: 267-288).

Williams, M.H. (1998), The Jews among the Greeks and Romans: A Diaspora Sourcebook, Baltimore.

Williams, M.H. (1999), The Contribution of Jewish Inscriptions to the Study of Judaism, [in:] W. Horbury et al. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. III: The Early Roman Period, Cambridge: 75-93.

Williams, M.H. (2004/2005), The Epigraphy of the Jewish Diaspora since the Publication of Schürer (revised vol. III, 1986), Bulletin of Judaeo-Greek Studies 35: 26-33.

Williams, M.H. (2005), Jewish Festal Names in Antiquity: A Neglected Area of Onomastic Research, JSJ 36: 21-40 (= Williams 2013: 363-387).

Williams, M.H. (2013), Jews in a Graeco-Roman Environment, Tübingen.Avemarie, F. (2009), Jüdische Diasporagemeinden in der Antike: Ihr Selbstverständnis im Spiegel der Inschriften, [in:] H.J. Körtner (ed.), Kirche – Christus – Kerygma: Profil und Identität evangelischer Kirche(n), Neukirchen: 21-61.
Avemarie, F. (2013), Neues Testament und frührabbinisches Judentum, Tübingen.
Bagnall, R., Frier, B.W. (1994), The Demography of Roman Egypt, Cambridge.
Barclay, J.M.G. (1996), Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora from Alexander to Trajan (323 BCE –
117 CE), Edinburgh.
Bloedhorn, H. (1999), ‘Appendix: Inschriften,’ Journal of Semitic Studies 35: 64-72.
Brooten, B.J. (1982), Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue, Chico.
Burn, A.R. (1953), Hic breve vivitur: A Study of the Expectation of Life in the Roman Empire, Past and Present 4: 1-31.
Burtchaell, J.T. (1992), From Synagogue to Church: Public Services and Offices in the Earliest Christian Communities, Cambridge.
Cappelletti, S. (2009), Biblical Quotations in the Greek Jewish Inscriptions of the Diaspora, [in:] N.R.M. de Lange, J.G. Krivoruchko, C. Boyd-Taylor (eds.), Jewish Reception of Greek Bible Versions, Tübingen: 128-141.
Chester, A. (2011), Jewish Inscriptions and Jewish Life, [in:] R. Deines et al. (eds.), Neues Testament und hellenistisch-jüdische Alltagskultur, Tübingen: 404-408.
Clauss, M. (1973), Probleme der Lebensalterstatistiken aufgrund römischer Grabinschriften, Chiron 3: 395-417.
Claußen, C. (2002), Versammlung, Gemeinde, Synagoge: Das hellenistisch-jüdische Umfeld der frühchristlichen Gemeinden, Göttingen.
Cohen, S.J.D. (1981/82), Epigraphical Rabbis, Jewish Quarterly Review 72: 1-17.
Collar, A. (2013), Religious Networks in the Roman Empire: The Spread of New Ideas, Cambridge.
Cotton, H.M., Cockle, W.E.H., Millar, F.G.B. (1995), The Papyrology of the Roman Near East: A Survey, Journal of Roman Studies 85: 214-235.
Duncan Jones, R.P. (1977), Age-Rounding, Illiteracy and Social Differentiation in the Roman Empire, Chiron 7: 333-353.
Edre, A., Mendels, D. (2007), A Split Jewish Diaspora: Its Dramatic Consequences, JSP 16: 91-137.
Edre, A., Mendels, D. (2008), A Split Jewish Diaspora: Its Dramatic Consequences, JSP 17: 163-187.
Feldman, L.H. (1993), Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian, Princeton.
Fischer, U. (1978), Eschatologie und Jenseitserwartung im hellenistischen Diasporajudentum, Berlin.
Frier, B. (1983), Roman Life Expectancy. The Pannonian Evidence, Phoenix 37: 328-344.
Gibson, E.L. (1999), The Jewish Manumission Inscriptions of the Bosporus Kingdom, Tübingen.
Goodman, M. (2007), Sacred Space in Diaspora Judaism, [in:] M. Goodman, Judaism in the Roman World, Leiden – Boston: 219-231.
Goodman, M. (2010), Under the Influence: Hellenism in Ancient Jewish Life, BAR 36 (1): 60-67, 84.
Horbury, W. (1999), Women in the Synagogue, [in:] W. Horbury et al. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. III: The Early Roman Period, Cambridge: 358-401.
Horsley, G.H.R. (1987), New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity: A Review of the Greek Inscriptions and Papyri published in 1979, vol. 4, Sydney.
van der Horst, P.W. (1991): Ancient Jewish Epitaphs. An Introductory Survey of a Millennium of Jewish Funerary Epigraphy (300 BCE – 700 CE), Kampen.
van der Horst, P.W. (2001), Greek in Jewish Palestine in the Light of Jewish Epigraphy, [in:] J.J. Collins, G.E. Sterling (eds.), Hellenism in the Land of Israel, Notre Dame: 174-194 (= van der Horst 2002: 9-26).
van der Horst, P.W. (2002), Japheth in the Tents of Shem: Studies on Jewish Hellenism in Antiquity, Leuven.
van der Horst, P.W. (2006), His Days Shall Be One Hundred and Twenty Years: Genesis 6:3 in Early Judaism and Ancient Christianity, [in:] P.W. van der Horst, Jews and Christians in Their Graeco-Roman Context. Selected Essays on Early Judaism, Samaritanism, Hellenism, and Christianity, Tübingen: 66-70.
van der Horst, P.W. (2013), Biblical Quotations in Judaeo-Greek Inscriptions, [in:] B.J. Koet, S. Moyise, J. Verheyden (eds.), The Scriptures of Israel in Jewish and Christian Tradition: Essays in Honour of Maarten J.J. Menken, Leiden – Boston: 363-376 (= van der Horst 2014: 66-79).
van der Horst, P.W. (2014), Studies in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, Leiden – Boston.
Ilan, T. (2002-2012), Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity , 4 vols., Tübingen.
Kleywegt, M. (1991), Ancient Youth: The Ambiguity of Youth and the Absence of Adolescence in Greco-Roman Society, Amsterdam.
Kraemer, R.S. (1992), Her Share of the Blessings: Women’s Religions among Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the Greco-Roman World, New York – Oxford.
de Lange, N.R.M. (2001), A Gold Votive Medaillon in the Jewish Museum, London, Zutot 1: 52-53.
de Lange, N.R.M., Krivoruchko, J.G., Boyd-Taylor, C. (eds.) (2009), Jewish Reception of Greek Bible Versions, Tübingen.
Levine, L.I. (1989), The Rabbinic Class of Roman Palestine in Late Antiquity, Jerusalem – New York.
Levine, L.I. (2000), The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years, New Haven – London.
Lifshitz, B. (1961), La vie de l’au-delà dans les conceptions juives. Inscriptions grecques de Beth She’arim, Revue Biblique 68: 401-411.
Lifshitz, B. (1967), Donateurs et fondateurs dans les synagogues juives, Paris.
Mendels, D., Edrei, A. (2010), Zweierlei Diaspora: Zur Spaltung der antiken jüdischen Welt, Göttingen.
Mitchell, S. (1993), Anatolia. Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor, vol. 2, Oxford.
Mussies, G. (1994), Jewish Personal Names in Some Non-Literary Sources, [in:] J.W. van Henten,
P.W. van der Horst (eds.), Studies in Early Jewish Epigraphy, Leiden – Boston: 242-276.
Nordberg, N. (1965), Biometrical Notes, Journal of Roman Studies 55: 253-257.
Park, J.S. (2000), Conceptions of Afterlife in Jewish Inscriptions, Tübingen.
Price, J.J. (2010), Synagogue Building Inscription of Theodotos in Greek, CIIP I/1: 53-56.
Rajak, T. (2009), Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora, Oxford.
Reynolds, J., Tannenbaum, R. (1987), Jews and Godfearers at Aphrodisias, Cambridge.
Rutgers, L.V. (2000), Death and Afterlife: The Inscriptional Evidence, [in:] J. Neusner, A. Avery-Peck, B. Chilton (eds.), Judaism in Late Antiquity, vol. 3, Leiden Boston: 293-310.
Schürer, E. (1986), The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ: 175 B.C. – A.D. 135, rev. ed. by G. Vermes et al., vol. 3/1, Edinburgh: 1-86.
Williams, M.H. (1997), The Meaning and Function of Ioudaios in Graeco-Roman Inscriptions, Zeit- schrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 116: 249-262 (= Williams 2013: 267-288).
Williams, M.H. (1998), The Jews among the Greeks and Romans: A Diaspora Sourcebook, Baltimore.
Williams, M.H. (1999), The Contribution of Jewish Inscriptions to the Study of Judaism, [in:] W. Horbury et al. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. III: The Early Roman Period, Cambridge: 75-93.
Williams, M.H. (2004/2005), The Epigraphy of the Jewish Diaspora since the Publication of Schürer (revised vol. III, 1986), Bulletin of Judaeo-Greek Studies 35: 26-33.
Williams, M.H. (2005), Jewish Festal Names in Antiquity: A Neglected Area of Onomastic Research, JSJ 36: 21-40 (= Williams 2013: 363-387).
Williams, M.H. (2013), Jews in a Graeco-Roman Environment, Tübingen.

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Information: Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, 2014, Volume 12, pp. 33 - 46

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.14.003.2809

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

What Can We Learn from Early Jewish Epigraphy?

English:

What Can We Learn from Early Jewish Epigraphy?

Authors

Pieter W. van der Horst

Universiteit Utrect, Domplein 29, 3512 JE Utrecht, Netherlands

Published at: 07.11.2014

Article status: Open

Licence: None

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Pieter W. van der Horst (Author) - 100%

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