Floor-mosaic with a very fragmentarily preserved inscription, once wrongly believed to have mentioned a 'Saint Plesippos', *John the Baptist (S00020), and his father *Zechariah (S00597). Found on the hill of Bēt Šaʽār, close to 'Ein 'Arrub, to the south of Jerusalem, on the road from Jerusalem to Hebron (Roman province of Palaestina I). Probably 6th c.
Evidence ID
E03569
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Images and objects - Wall paintings and mosaics
Images and objects - Narrative scenes
The correct reading:
[+ ὑπὲρ ἀν]τιλή[μψεως τ]ῶν καρποφ̣ω[ρούντων]
[- - -] ̣ο Κάσιων κ(αὶ) Ἰωάννι<ν> Ζαχαρ[ίου - - -]
[κ(αὶ) Ἰω]άνιν Ἀβέσομβον κ(αὶ) Ἰωάνιν κ(αὶ) ̣Ρ[- - -]
[- - -]α ἐτελιώθη τὸ ἔ̣ρ̣γ̣ον ἔτ(ους) [- - -]
'[+ As a vow] for the succour of the benefactors [- - -] Kasion, and Ioannis, Zacharias, [- - - and] Ioannis, Abesombos, and Ioannis, and R[- - -] the work was completed in the year [- - -].'
Text: SEG 8, 238 (after Vincent 1903, with completions by Germer-Durand 1908).
Translation: M. Avi-Yonah, lightly modified.
Barton's entirely wrong restoration and translation:
[ἅ]γι(ος) Πλή[σιπ]πος Καρποφώ-
[ρ]ο(υ) καθὼς Κ(ύριος) Ἰωάν[νης] Ζαχαρίας
[Ἰω]άννης Ἀββὰ συνέβη Κύριον Ἰωάννην Κ(ύριο)ς
[ἐτελεύ τ]ά τελέσας ρ΄ τὼν ἐτ[έων]
'Saint Plesippos, son of Karpophoros, just as Saint John, the son of Zechariah (John the Abba agreed with Saint John), the Saint died, having completed 100 year.'
Text and translation: Barton 1902, 43.
Cult Places
Place associated with saint's life
Use of ImagesPublic display of an image
Source
An inscribed mosaic panel from a floor mosaic. Dimensions not specified.The inscription was first published in 1903 by George Barton, a Canadian priest and later professor of Semitic languages at Bryn Mawr College, based on a drawing which he had made from a photograph shown to him by a friend in Jerusalem. He was told that the mosaic had been found in a church unearthed by farmers in 1902 at a place known as 'Ein 'Arrub, to the south of Jerusalem, between Bethlehem and Hebron. The shape of the mosaic floors reportedly found at the site corresponded to a nave and an apse. Our panel was set at the east end of a rectangular carpet mosaic, in front of the presumed chancel. The floors of the church were reportedly photographed by a person present at the discovery and the structure re-buried by farmers as they were afraid of 'evil consequences'.
Barton adds that he later learned that many photographs of the mosaic were on sale in the city, and he himself acquired one. He published, however, just a drawing where, he says, 'the spacing of the letters may not be absolutely accurate'. He mentions that an image of the mosaic was also published in the London Graphic of 25 October 1902.
In 1903 in La Revue biblique Louis Vincent published the same mosaic, stating that it had been found on a hill named Bēt Šaʽār (Beit Cha'ar) on the road from Jerusalem to Hebron, very close to a place known as 'Ein 'Arrub. He also offered a provisional plan of the basilica where the inscription was found. In 1908 Jean Germer-Durand suggested new completions to Vincent's text, which were reprinted in the Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 8.
Allegedly different find-spots, and different completions, meant that the two editions of the same mosaic were later considered to be two different texts, even though Mommert in 1903 and Meistermann in 1904 suggested that the two finds should be identified as the same. Avi Yonah in his corpus of the mosaic pavements of Palestine (1932) gives the two readings in two separate entries. So does Madden in his corpus (2014).
A comparison of the two drawings shows that this is clearly the same text and that Vincent is more precise in his description of the find-spot than Barton, although the two toponyms can actually be used interchangeably. The mosaic is now lost.
Discussion
The mosaic contains a regular dedicatory inscription commemorating the offerings of donors who contributed to the construction of the church. There is no mention of any patron saint, although interestingly we seehere the names Ioannes (John) and Zacharias (Zechariah) in a village close to the supposed birthplace of John the Baptist, son of the priest Zechariah.Barton who entirely misread and misunderstood the text, argued that one Saint Plesippos, son of Karpophoros, is mentioned in line 1, and that in line 2 we have a reference to John the Baptist, introduced as son of Zechariah and given the epithet Κ(ύριος). Barton (p. 43), here obviously misguided by his expertise in Semitic languages, adds that 'The use of Κύριος in the sense of "saint " corresponds to the similar use of "Mar" in Syriac'. But in fact the abbreviated word is κ(αί)/'and', not Κ(ύριος)/'Lord'. Strikingly, the last line which is very clear in Barton's drawing, also received a wrong interpretation. Barton saw here the commemoration of a person who died at the age of 100 and concluded that the author of the mosaic 'ascribed to John the Baptist the traditional age of John the Apostle' (p. 43).
Based on the references to John and Zechariah, Barton argued that 'Ein 'Arrub was to be identified with the birthplace of John the Baptist and the shrine of Zechariah, marked on the Mosaic Map of Madaba (see E02524, no. 6). Interestingly, so did Vincent regarding Bēt Šaʽār, and Germer-Durand notes that, soon after, the plot of land with the ruins of the basilica was bought by a community of Russian pilgrims in Jerusalem, and became a pilgrimage destination.
We have included this inscription in our database, although it has no reference to the cult of saints, in case users have encountered the readings of such as Barton, and as an example of the errors into which an excessive enthusiasm to discover sacred sites in the Holy Land has all too often led sensible scholars.
Bibliography
Edition:Madden A.M., Corpus of Byzantine Church Mosaic Pavements in Israel and the Palestinian Territories (Leuven - Walpole, MA: Peeters, 2014), 28-28, no. 26 (Vincent's text with completion by Germer-Durand) and 56, no. 70 (Barton's text, see also further bibliography).
Avi-Yonah, M., "Mosaic pavements in Palestine", Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine 2 (1932), no. 26 (Vincent's text with completion by Germer-Durand) and no. 67 (Barton's text).
Germer-Durnad, J., "Épigraphie de Palestine", Échos d'Orient 11 (1908), 303-307 (new completions to Vincent's text, see also further bibliography).
Vincent, L.H., "Les ruines de Beit Cha'ar", La Revue biblique 12 (1903), 612-614.
Barton, G.A., "The mosaic recently found at 'Ain 'Arrûb", Jorunal of Biblical Literature 22 (1903), 41-44.
Further reading:
Alt, A., "Die Zeitrechnung von Jerusalem im späteren Altertum", Palästinajahrbuch des deutschen evangelischen Instituts für Altertumswissenschaft des Heiligen Landes zu Jerusalem 30 (1934), 76.
Meistermann, B., La Patrie de Saint Jean-Baptiste (Paris: Picard, 1904), 92-99.
Mommert, C., Das Prätorium des Pilatus oder der Ort der Verurteilung Jesu (Leipzig: Haberland, 1903), 161, 163.
Schick, R., The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byzantine to Islamic Rule: A Historical and Archaeological Study (Studies in late antiquity and early Islam 2, Princeton, N.J: Darwin Press, 1995), 290.
Reference works:
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 8, 238 (Vincent's text with completion by Germer-Durand).
Images
)
Barton's drawing. From: Barton 1903, 42.
)
Vincent's drawing. From: Germer Durand 1908, 304.
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Plan of the church and drawing of the inscription. From: Vincent 1903, 614.
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
15/08/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00020 | John the Baptist | Uncertain | S00597 | Zechariah, father of John the Baptist | Uncertain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E03569 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E03569