Greek inscription commemorating the consecration of a church dedicated to *Markos (probably *Mark the Evangelist, S00293). Found at Jueîzeh, near Quneitra and Paneas/Caesarea Philippi, in the Golan Heights, to the north-east of the Sea of Galilee (Roman province of Phoenicia Paralias). Probably 5th-6th c.
Evidence ID
E04421
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
+ εἰσὶν τὰ ἐν- +
κένια τοῦ ἁγίου
Μάρκου, μη(νὸς) Αὐγού<σ>του
ιε΄
[4. ιε΄ Gregg & Urman, τε΄ Schlatter in Dalman 1913, πε΄ Lohmann in Dalman 1913]
'+ The consecration + (of the church) of Saint Markos. In the month of August, on the 15th (day).'
Text: Gregg & Urman 1996, no. 161.
Translation: R. Gregg & D. Urman, lightly modified.
Liturgical ActivitiesSaint’s feast
Cult Places
Ceremony of dedication
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Anniversary of church/altar dedication
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityConstruction of cult buildings
Source
Stone lintel, lightly damaged at the right-hand end. The inscription, almost certainly complete, is carved on both sides of a disc or wreath, possibly containing an unfinished or erased cross. Dimensions not specified.First recorded at Jueîzeh, a Circassian village sited 10 km to the south of Quneiṭra, during the 1911 survey of the Deutsche Evangelische Institut für Altertumswissenschaften des Heiligen Landes in Jerusalem, and published by Gustaf Dalman in 1913. Dalman did not see the stone, but published the inscription from a drawing made by Paul Lohmann and Adolf Schlatter. Revisited during surveys organised by the Israel Antiquities Authority after 1967, and re-published with a photograph by Robert Gregg and Dan Urman in 1996.
Discussion
The inscription commemorates the construction of a church over whose doorway it was displayed. The term ἐγκαινία/'consecration', 'dedication' is rare in inscriptions recording shrines dedicated to saints.The saint to whom the church was dedicated is Markos. A saint bearing this name is mentioned also at Nessana in the Negev desert (E04337).
This is most likely to be Mark the Evangelist (whose cult was popular in Alexandria and Egypt, and whose feast in Jerusalem is recorded in the Church Calendar of Ioane Zosime on 6 April, E3701, and by the Georgian version of the Lectionary of Jerusalem on 24 April, E03120, 12 June, E03193, and 20 October, E03404); but it could just possibly be, Markos, bishop of Arethousa in Syria, and confessor under the emperor Julian, known to Theodoret (E04153) and Sozomen (E04103).
The last line contains a dating formula. Gregg and Urman, based on their examination of the stone, argue that its last two signs are ιε΄ = 15, and that this is the day of the month when the church was dedicated (15 August). Lohmann had read these signs as πε΄ = 85, and Schlatter as τε΄= 305. The first editor, Dalman, preferred the latter reading and considered the number the 305th year of the era of the province of Arabia, which he converted as AD 410/411. The photograph published by Gregg and Urman, however, proves that their reading is correct: the first sign is an iota flanked by two dots. This is more likely to be the day of the month than the indiction year.
Bibliography
Edition:Gregg, R., Urman, D., Jews, Pagans, and Christians in the Golan Heights: Greek and Other Inscriptions of the Roman and Byzantine Eras (Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1996), no. 161.
Dalman, G., "Studien aus dem Deutschen evang. Institut für Altertumswissenschaft in Jerusalem. 21. Inschriften aus dem Ostjordanland nebst einem Anhang über einige andere Inschriften", Zeitschrift des deutschen Palästina-Vereins 36 (1913), 254-255.
Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1997), 648.
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 46, 1959.
Images
)
Photograph. From: Gregg & Urman, 198.
)
Drawing. From: Dalman 1913, 254.
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
30/11/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00293 | Mark the Evangelist | Μᾶρκος | Uncertain | S01563 | Markos, bishop of Arethousa and confessor, ob. 4th c. | Μᾶρκος | Uncertain | S01736 | Markos, a saint invoked at Nessana in the Negev desert | Μᾶρκος | Uncertain |
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Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E04421 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E04421