Art and Architecture of the Synagogue in Late Antique Palestine
Art and Architecture of the Synagogue in Late Antique Palestine

Author: David William Milson

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2006-12-31

Total Pages: 608

ISBN-13: 9047418719

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This study examines the material evidence for synagogues and churches in the Holy Land from the age of Constantine in the fourth century CE to the Arab conquest of the eastern provinces in the seventh century CE. Whereas scholars once viewed the growth of the Byzantine empire as time of persecution, a re-evaluation of the archaeological evidence indicates that Jews prospered along with their Christian neighbours. What influence did Christian art and architecture have on ancient synagogues? In the sixth century, one-third of all known synagogues in Palestine bear features similar to early Byzantine churches: basilical layouts, mosaic floors, apses, and chancel screens. Focusing on these features sheds light on how Jewish communities met the challenges posed by the Church’s development into a major religious and political power. This book provides a critical analysis of the archaeological evidence as a basis for our better understanding of Jewish identity and community in late Antique Palestine.

The Ancient Synagogue
The Ancient Synagogue

Author: Lee I. Levine

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2000-01-01

Total Pages: 816

ISBN-13: 0300074751

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Annotation The synagogue was one of the most central and revolutionary institutions of ancient Judaism leaving an indelible mark on Christianity and Islam as well. This commanding book provides an in-depth and comprehensive history of the synagogue from the Hellenistic period to the end of late antiquity. Drawing exhaustively on archeological evidence and on such literary sources as rabbinic material, the New Testament, Jewish writings of the Second Temple period, and Christian and pagan works, Lee Levine traces the development of the synagogue from what was essentially a communal institution to one which came to embody a distinctively religious profile. Exploring its history in the Greco-Roman and Byzantine periods in both Palestine and the Diaspora, he describes the synagogue's basic features: its physical remains; its role in the community; its leadership; the roles of rabbis, Patriarchs, women, and priests in its operation; its liturgy; and its art. What emerges is a fascinating mosaic of a dynamic institution that succeeded in integrating patterns of social and religious behavior from the contemporary non-Jewish society while maintaining a distinctively Jewish character.

The Synagogue in Ancient Palestine: Current Issues and Emerging Trends
The Synagogue in Ancient Palestine: Current Issues and Emerging Trends

Author: Rick Bonnie

Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Published: 2020-12-14

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 3647522147

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This book brings together leading experts in the field of ancient synagogue studies to discuss the current issues and emerging trends in the study of synagogues in ancient Palestine. Divided into four thematic units, the different contributions apply archaeological, textual, historical and art historical methodologies to questions related to ancient synagogues. Part One addresses issues related to the origins and early development of synagogues up to 200 CE. The contributions provide different explanations to the alleged lack of evidence for synagogues built in the second and third centuries CE and ask how much continuity or change there is between the late Second Temple and late Roman/early Byzantine synagogues. Part Two deals with architecture and dating of ancient synagogues. It gives an overview of all synagogues found so far, approaches the dating of Galilean synagogues in the light of the recently-exposed synagogue at Huqoq, and provides a stylistic re-evaluation of the Capernaum synagogue decoration. Part three examines leadership, power and daily life in late antique synagogue contexts, illustrating non-monumental inscriptions, amulets and dining in synagogue contexts as well as the role of individual benefactors. Section four contextualizes synagogue art. An overview of synagogue mosaics in late antique Palestine is complemented with reinterpretations of the mosaics two synagogues. The section also offers a discussion of the appearance of the menorah.

Ancient Synagogues of Southern Palestine, 300-800 C.E.
Ancient Synagogues of Southern Palestine, 300-800 C.E.

Author: Steven H. Werlin

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2015-08-25

Total Pages: 529

ISBN-13: 9004298401

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Following the failure of the Bar-Kokhba revolt in the second century, the majority of the Jewish population of Palestine migrated northward away from Jerusalem to join the communities of Jews in Galilee and the Golan Heights. Although rabbinic sources indicate that from the second century onward the demographic center of Jewish Palestine was in Galilee, archaeological evidence of Jewish communities is found in the southern part of the country as well. In The Ancient Synagogues of Southern Palestine, 300-800 C.E., Steve Werlin considers ten synagogues uncovered in southern Palestine. Through an in-depth analysis of the art, architecture, epigraphy, and stratigraphy, the author demonstrates how monumental, religious structures provide critical insight into the lives of those who were strangers among Christians and Muslims in their ancestral homeland.

Jewish Art in Late Antiquity
Jewish Art in Late Antiquity

Author: Dr Shulamit Laderman

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-12-06

Total Pages: 86

ISBN-13: 9004509585

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This survey of ancient Jewish art traces Tabernacle implements and their iconographic development from the Second Temple period until late sixth century CE. It examines appearances of seven-branch menorah, Torah ark, and other motifs found in archeological discoveries of burial art synagogue decorations.

Architecture of the Sacred
Architecture of the Sacred

Author: Bonna D. Wescoat

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-10-13

Total Pages: 467

ISBN-13: 110737829X

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In this book, a distinguished team of authors explores the way space, place, architecture, and ritual interact to construct sacred experience in the historical cultures of the eastern Mediterranean. Essays address fundamental issues and features that enable buildings to perform as spiritually transformative spaces in ancient Greek, Roman, Jewish, early Christian, and Byzantine civilizations. Collectively they demonstrate the multiple ways in which works of architecture and their settings were active agents in the ritual process. Architecture did not merely host events; rather, it magnified and elevated them, interacting with rituals facilitating the construction of ceremony. This book examines comparatively the ways in which ideas and situations generated by the interaction of place, built environment, ritual action, and memory contributed to the cultural formulation of the sacred experience in different religious faiths.

Perspectives on Early Islamic Art in Jerusalem
Perspectives on Early Islamic Art in Jerusalem

Author: Lawrence Nees

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2015-09-17

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9004302077

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Through its material remains, Perspectives on Early Islamic Art in Jerusalem analyzes several overlooked aspects of the earliest decades of Islamic presence in Jerusalem, during the seventh century CE. Focusing on the Haram al-Sharif, also known as the Temple Mount, Lawrence Nees provides the first sustained study of the Dome of the Chain, a remarkable eleven-sided building standing beside the slightly later Dome of the Rock, and the first study of the meaning of the columns and column capitals with figures of eagles in the Dome of the Rock. He also provides a new interpretation of the earliest mosque in Jerusalem, the Haram as a whole, with the sacred Rock at its center.

The Ancient Synagogue from Its Origins to 200 C.E.
The Ancient Synagogue from Its Origins to 200 C.E.

Author: Anders Runesson

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 9004161163

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This volume gathers for the first time all of the primary source material on the early synagogues up through the Second Century C. E. Each entry contains bibliographic citations and interpretative comments. An Introduction frames the current state of synagogue research, while extensive indices allow for easy location of specific allusions.

Diversity and Rabbinization
Diversity and Rabbinization

Author: Gavin McDowell

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

Published: 2021-04-30

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 1783749962

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This volume contains Hebrew and Syriac text. Please, check that your e-reader supports texts set in left-to-right direction before purchasing the epub and azw3 editions of the book. This volume is dedicated to the cultural and religious diversity in Jewish communities from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Age and the growing influence of the rabbis within these communities during the same period. Drawing on available textual and material evidence, the fourteen essays presented here, written by leading experts in their fields, span a significant chronological and geographical range and cover material that has not yet received sufficient attention in scholarship. The volume is divided into four parts. The first focuses on the vantage point of the synagogue; the second and third on non-rabbinic Judaism in, respectively, the Near East and Europe; the final part turns from diversity within Judaism to the process of "rabbinization" as represented in some unusual rabbinic texts. Diversity and Rabbinization is a welcome contribution to the historical study of Judaism in all its complexity. It presents fresh perspectives on critical questions and allows us to rethink the tension between multiplicity and unity in Judaism during the first millennium CE. L’École Pratique des Hautes Études has kindly contributed to the publication of this volume.