The Talmud is a compact, elliptical, but many-volumed collection of Jewish law and teachings. The achievement of Jews both in ancient Palestine and in Babylonia, the Talmud has come down to us in two basic editions. The Palestinian version, compiled around 400 A.D., is known as the Jerusalem Talmud or “Yerushalmi”, and, oddly enough, is […]
C. Th. XV.xii.1- Bloody spectacles are not suitable for civil ease and domestic quiet. Wherefore since we have proscribed gladiators, those who have been accustomed to be sentenced to such work as punishment for their crimes, you should cause to serve in the mines, so that they may be punished without shedding their blood. Constantine […]
The ancient synagogue at Ein Gedi, which is at the foot of the hill and was at the center of the settlement, was excavated and cleared for tourist visitation. North of the synagogue – there are archaeological finds of the village’s homes and roads, which were excavated by an archaeological group headed by the late […]
Highlights- Nag Hammadi Library, 3rd-4th century CE Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 325 CE Codex Vaticanus, 350 CE Codex Sinaiticus, 350 CE Ein Gedi Synagogue- “Peace upon Israel,” 450 CE Rehov Synagogue Mosaic Floor, 6th-7th century CE Babylonian Talmud, c. 500 CE Madaba Map, 527-565 CE Overview Christian Jerusalem 324-638, Teddy Kollek and Moshe Pearlman, […]
Gold Coin Hoard Gold Coin Hoard in situ A hoard of more than 250 gold coins was exposed on Dec. 21, 2008, in the excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting in the Givati car park in the City of David, in the Walls Around Jerusalem National Park. According to Dr. Doron Ben-Ami and Yana […]
Hammat Tiberias Synagogue Mosaic With the excavation of the 4th century Galilean synagogue at Hammath Tiberias by the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society in 1920-1, and the exposure of a mosaic floor depicting a Zodiac panel, torah shrine, and menorahs, as well as a portable stone candelabrum, the image of Jewish art as a contradiction in […]
In 1945 an Egyptian discovered a set of 13 books in an earthenware jar in upper Egypt. The book are made up of religious and hermetic texts, works of moral maxims, Apocryphal texts, and a rewriting of Plato’s Republic. In addition to the importance of the manuscripts for the history of books (they are the […]
The holy land, from Lebanon to the Nile Delta, and from the Mediterranean to the Jordanian desert, is depicted on the Madaba mosaic map, found in a sixth-century Byzantine church about 18 miles south of Amman, Jordan. The map covers about 33 square yards of the church’s floor (it was probably originally three times as […]
Susiya had a large Jewish community in the Byzantine period. This mosaic is from the courtyard of the ancient synagogue uncovered in excavations after the Six Day War. The inscription reads- “In honor of the kindness of my master, Rabbi Issi HaCohen, the honored, who generously donated this mosaic and plastered the walls of the […]
Coin of Helena Fl[avia] Helena Augusta reads the legend on this coin minted in 324/5 C.E., just a year or two before Helena traveled to Palestine. The coin shows Helena in profile, wearing a diadem and a mantle. Of humble origins (Helena may have been an innkeeper or a prostitute; she never married), Helena […]