Art and Architecture of the Synagogue in Byzantine Palaestina

Art and Architecture of the Synagogue in Byzantine Palaestina PDF Author: Asaf Friedman
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527535053
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 173

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Byzantine era was a time of the formation of the Abrahamic religions and a battleground for people’s hearts and minds. This book shows that, during the time of the Byzantine Empire, the synagogues in Palaestina developed a visual language adhering to traditional literary sources. Until now, scholars believed that Judaism was oblivious to all art forms, regarding them as mere “decoration.” This book shows that, contrary to those beliefs, Jewish art was, in fact, flourishing in this period. The visual language that emerged is a trope that utilizes literal and figurative readings to arrive at an inquisitive mixture—a probing language that facilitates learning. It is a visual language of “becoming,” of inward introspection and outward scrutiny. This new analysis goes beyond the limits of compositional rules, and requires an analytical, as well as emotive, thought process, to form a cultural interpretation that reveals the hidden language. This means that some parts of Judaism and some parts of Christianity were in agreement despite the commandment of “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” and operated under the assumption that paintings were not necessarily the creation of idols. Thus, we see that the modern movements of art and architecture were not the first to deal with images through themes such as abstraction and denotation. The language developed during the Byzantine period could rival the best of such visual languages.

Art and Architecture of the Synagogue in Byzantine Palaestina

Art and Architecture of the Synagogue in Byzantine Palaestina PDF Author: Asaf Friedman
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527535053
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 173

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Byzantine era was a time of the formation of the Abrahamic religions and a battleground for people’s hearts and minds. This book shows that, during the time of the Byzantine Empire, the synagogues in Palaestina developed a visual language adhering to traditional literary sources. Until now, scholars believed that Judaism was oblivious to all art forms, regarding them as mere “decoration.” This book shows that, contrary to those beliefs, Jewish art was, in fact, flourishing in this period. The visual language that emerged is a trope that utilizes literal and figurative readings to arrive at an inquisitive mixture—a probing language that facilitates learning. It is a visual language of “becoming,” of inward introspection and outward scrutiny. This new analysis goes beyond the limits of compositional rules, and requires an analytical, as well as emotive, thought process, to form a cultural interpretation that reveals the hidden language. This means that some parts of Judaism and some parts of Christianity were in agreement despite the commandment of “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” and operated under the assumption that paintings were not necessarily the creation of idols. Thus, we see that the modern movements of art and architecture were not the first to deal with images through themes such as abstraction and denotation. The language developed during the Byzantine period could rival the best of such visual languages.

Art and Architecture of the Synagogue in Late Antique Palestine

Art and Architecture of the Synagogue in Late Antique Palestine PDF Author: David William Milson
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047418719
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 608

Get Book Here

Book Description
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 Synagogue in Ancient Palestine: Current Issues and Emerging Trends

The Synagogue in Ancient Palestine: Current Issues and Emerging Trends PDF Author: Rick Bonnie
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
ISBN: 3647522147
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 420

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

The Ancient Synagogue

The Ancient Synagogue PDF Author: Lee I. Levine
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300074751
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 816

Get Book Here

Book Description
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 Eerdmans Encyclopedia of Early Christian Art and Archaeology

The Eerdmans Encyclopedia of Early Christian Art and Archaeology PDF Author: Finney
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802890164
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 822

Get Book Here

Book Description
One of the most widely respected theological dictionaries put into one-volume, abridged form. Focusing on the theological meaning of each word, the abridgment contains English keywords for each entry, tables of English and Greek keywords, and a listing of the relevant volume and page numbers from the unabridged work at the end of each article or section.

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

Ancient Synagogues of Southern Palestine, 300-800 C.E. PDF Author: Steven H. Werlin
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004298401
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 529

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Ancient Synagogues - Archaeology and Art: New Discoveries and Current Research

Ancient Synagogues - Archaeology and Art: New Discoveries and Current Research PDF Author: Rachel Hachlili
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004257721
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 772

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ancient Synagogues - Archaeology and Art. New Discoveries and Current Research presents archaeological evidence - the architecture, art, Jewish symbols, zodiac, biblical tales, inscriptions, and coins – which attest to the importance of the synagogue. When considered as a whole, all these pieces of evidence confirm the centrality of the synagogue institution in the life of the Jewish communities all through Israel and in the Diaspora. Most importantly, the synagogue and its art and architecture played a powerful role in the preservation of the fundamental beliefs, customs, and traditions of the Jewish people following the destruction of the Second Temple and the loss of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. The book also includes a supplement of the report on the Qazion excavation.

Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World

Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World PDF Author: Steven Fine
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521844918
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Get Book Here

Book Description
Publisher Description

Architecture of the Sacred

Architecture of the Sacred PDF Author: Bonna D. Wescoat
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110737829X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 467

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Ancient Synagogues in Palestine

Ancient Synagogues in Palestine PDF Author: Jodi Magness
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198924879
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 126

Get Book Here

Book Description
Dozens of ancient synagogues have been discovered around the Mediterranean, most of which date to the fourth-sixth centuries CE and are concentrated in Palestine. In the 1930 Schweich Lectures, Eleazar Lipa Sukenik established a typology and chronology for these buildings. Ancient Synagogues in Palestine evaluates Sukenik's conclusions in light of new discoveries since his time. It opens with an overview of ancient synagogues in the region, followed by a survey of the historiography of the study of these buildings, highlighting its ideological roots in the early Zionist movement. In the final chapters, Magness examines the evidence for the dating of the synagogues at Khirbet Wadi Hamam and Capernaum, arguing that different synagogue types overlapped and were contemporary to the fourth-sixth centuries CE instead of being sequential, as Sukenik thought. This conclusion contradicts a widely accepted view that late antique Jewish communities in Palestine suffered and declined under supposedly oppressive Christian rule.