The Sepphoris Synagogue: Deciphering an Ancient Message through its Archaeological and Socio-Historical Contents.

• Author: Eliav, Yaron Z.

The Sepphoris Synagogue: Deciphering an Ancient Message through its Archaeological and Socio-Historical Contents. By ZEEV WEISS. Jerusalem: ISRAEL EXPLORATION SOCIETY, 2005. Pp. xiv + 360, illus. $80.

Sprawling across an unassuming hilly range in northern Israel, Sepphoris, "the ornament of all Galilee" according to first-century Jewish historian Josephus, played a pivotal role in the drama of ancient Palestine. The city's tortuous history has been documented in numerous sources, from the earliest days of Roman occupation in the region (in the late 60s of the first century b.c.e.) to the twilight of antiquity and beyond. Seventy-five years of archaeological excavations uncovered a major urban center, including a theater, bathhouses, and paved thoroughfares, as well as an abundance of other structures. Although admittedly less impressive in its appearance than neighboring Beth-Shean / Scythopolis, Sepphoris features a handful of tantalizing mosaic floors with some spectacular depictions. The author of the current book, for over a decade the director of the Sepphoris excavations, focuses on one of those findings, the mosaic floor of a fifth-century synagogue unearthed in the northern part of the city.

Late Antiquity, the period spanning the fourth through seventh centuries C.E., witnessed the rise of the synagogue to the acme of Jewish life. Hundreds of these institutions peppered the landscape of the Mediterranean, in cities and villages alike, and their remains, whether large or small, frequently surface in archaeological excavations. Utilizing common architectural features of Roman public buildings, such as the basilical layout and the apsidal wall, the synagogue housed communities who gathered to worship the god of Israel. However, the ritual procedures--what people did in the building, and how they acted out reverence for their deity--although apparently distinct from those of their Roman surroundings, remain largely obscure. Even vaguer are the perceptions, the worldviews, of those engaged with the synagogue. How did the divine nature of the god of Israel register in their minds? How conspicuous was the dividing line between their religious mechanisms and the rituals and beliefs of their neighbors, including both "pagans" and followers of Jesus, who frequently attended the synagogue themselves? Due to lack of written sources (except for the large rabbinic corpus, which 1 shall discuss below), the only channel of communication with the inner world of the synagogue's congregants are the pictorial representations that ornament their building. These survive mainly in the form of mosaic floors. One of the most elaborate artistic programs known to date was found by Weiss and his team in the Sepphoris synagogue.

Scholars have long debated the role of the...