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

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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.

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

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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.

Jewish Art in Late Antiquity

Jewish Art in Late Antiquity PDF Author: Shulamit Laderman
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004509585
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description
Antique Jewish art visualized the idea that the essence of God is beyond the world of forms. In the Bible, the Israelites were commanded to build sanctuaries without cult statues. Following the destruction of the Second Temple, Jews turned to literary and visual aids to fill the void. In this accessible survey, Shulamit Laderman traces the visualizations of the Tabernacle implements, including the seven-branch menorah, the Torah ark, the shofar, the four species, and other motifs associated with the Hebrew Bible and the Jewish calendar. These motifs evolved into iconographic symbols visualized in a range of media, including coins, funerary art, and synagogue decorations in both Israel and the Diaspora. Particular attention is given to important discoveries such as the frescoes of the third-century CE synagogue in Dura-Europos, mosaic floors in synagogues in Galilee, and architectural and carved motifs that decorated burial places.

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

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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.

Religious Diversity in Late Antiquity

Religious Diversity in Late Antiquity PDF Author: David Morton Gwynn
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004180001
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 584

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Book Description
This volume in the ongoing Late Antique Archaeology series draws on material and textual evidence to explore the diverse religious world of Late Antiquity. Subjects include Jews and Samaritans, orthodoxy and heresy, pilgrimage, stylites, magic, the sacred and the secular.

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

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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.

Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond

Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond PDF Author: Arietta Papaconstantinou
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131715973X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
The papers in this volume were presented at a Mellon-Sawyer Seminar held at the University of Oxford in 2009-2010, which sought to investigate side by side the two important movements of conversion that frame late antiquity: to Christianity at its start, and to Islam at the other end. Challenging the opposition between the two stereotypes of Islamic conversion as an intrinsically violent process, and Christian conversion as a fundamentally spiritual one, the papers seek to isolate the behaviours and circumstances that made conversion both such a common and such a contested phenomenon. The spread of Buddhism in Asia in broadly the same period serves as an external comparator that was not caught in the net of the Abrahamic religions. The volume is organised around several themes, reflecting the concerns of the initial project with the articulation between norm and practice, the role of authorities and institutions, and the social and individual fluidity on the ground. Debates, discussions, and the expression of norms and principles about conversion conversion are not rare in societies experiencing religious change, and the first section of the book examines some of the main issues brought up by surviving sources. This is followed by three sections examining different aspects of how those principles were - or were not - put into practice: how conversion was handled by the state, how it was continuously redefined by individual ambivalence and cultural fluidity, and how it was enshrined through different forms of institutionalization. Finally, a topographical coda examines the effects of religious change on the iconic holy city of Jerusalem.

The Archaeology of Late Antique 'Paganism'

The Archaeology of Late Antique 'Paganism' PDF Author: Luke Lavan
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004192379
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 710

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Book Description
Papers from the conference "The Archaeology of Late Antique Paganism" held in 2005 in Leuven.

A Life of Psalms in Jewish Late Antiquity

A Life of Psalms in Jewish Late Antiquity PDF Author: A. J. Berkovitz
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1512824194
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
The Bible shaped nearly every aspect of Jewish life in the ancient world, from activities as obvious as attending synagogue to those which have lost their scriptural resonance in modernity, such as drinking water and uttering one's last words. And within a scriptural universe, no work exerted more force than the Psalter, the most cherished text among all the books of the Hebrew Bible. A Life of Psalms in Jewish Late Antiquity clarifies the world of late ancient Judaism through the versatile and powerful lens of the Psalter. It asks a simple set of questions: Where did late ancient Jews encounter the Psalms? How did they engage with the work? And what meanings did they produce? A. J. Berkovitz answers these queries by reconstructing and contextualizing a diverse set of religious practices performed with and on the Psalter, such as handling a physical copy, reading from it, interpreting it exegetically, singing it as liturgy, invoking it as magic and reciting it as an act of piety. His book draws from and contributes to the fields of ancient Judaism, biblical reception, book history and the history of reading.

Viewing Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology

Viewing Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology PDF Author: Ann Killebrew
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004306595
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
In honor of eminent archaeologist and historian of ancient Jewish art, Rachel Hachlili, friends and colleagues offer contributions in this festschrift which span the world of ancient Judaism both in Palestine and the Diaspora. Hachlili's distinctive research interests: synagogues, burial sites, and Jewish iconography receive particular attention in the volume. Archaeologists and historians present new material evidence from Galilee, Jerusalem, and Transjordan, contributing to the honoree’s fields of scholarly study. Fresh analyses of ancient Jewish art, essays on architecture, historical geography, and research history complete the volume and make it an enticing kaleidoscope of the vibrant field of scholarship that owes so much to Rachel.

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

The Ancient Synagogue from Its Origins to 200 C.E. PDF Author: Anders Runesson
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004161163
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
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.