MOSAICS AS MIDRASH: THE ZODIACS OF THE ANCIENT SYNAGOGUES AND THE CONFLICT BETWEEN JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY
YaVa Englard University of Haifa
For more than fty years, the mosaic oors of ancient synagogueshave engendered extensive discussion. 1 There is broad agreement that the panels portraying an architectural facade, seven-branched candelabras, and other ritual symbols ( gures 1, 2) express a longing for the re- building of the Temple and the renewal of the divine service. The zodiac, with Helios at its center, found in ve synagogues from the fourth to sixth century 2 is a riddle to this day. It has been suggested that it may be a consequence of pagan in uence on non-Rabbinic, “Hellenistic” Jews 3 or evidence of belief in evil spirits, black magic, and astrology among the Jews of the land of Israel. 4 Alternatively, it is even seen as evidence that some Jews worshiped Helios as a minor deity. 5 By contrast, most scholars try to place the synagogue zodiacs within a Jewish context, as either connected with the Hebrew calendar,6 as representing a liturgical calendar that served annual ceremonies performed by the community, 7 or as a metaphor for the
1 This article elaborates a lecture delivered at the Congress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem in the summer of 1997 and an article published in Hebrew in Cathedra Quarterly 98 , December, 2000. 2 Hammat Tiberias, Beth Alpha, Na "aran, Usse yeh, and Sepphoris, where the depiction of the sun disc replaces Helios. A zodiac was present in the synagogue at Susiya, too, but it was covered by another mosaic. R. Hachlili, Ancient Jewish Art and Archeology, the Land of Israel (Leiden, 1988), p. 305; Z. Ilan, Ancient Synagogues in Israel (Tel Aviv, 1991) (Hebrew), p. 315. 3 E.R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period (New York, 1953), vol. 8, pp. 214-218; vol. 1, pp. 3-6; vol. 14, pp. 7-8, 26-27. 4 E.L. Sukenik, Ancient Synagogues in Palestine and Greece (London, 1934), pp. 64-67. 5 L.A. Roussin, “Helios in the Synagogue: Did Some Ancient Jews Worship the Sun God?” in BAR 27/2, March/ April 2001, pp. 53-56. 6 M. Avi-Yonah, Art in Ancient Palestine (Jerusalem, 1981), pp. 396-397 (Hebrew). A.G. Sternberg nds a link with the publication of the intercalary method by Nasi Hillel in the second century: The Zodiac of Tiberias (Tiberias, 1972), pp. 72-87(Hebrew). 7 R. Hachlili, “The Zodiac in Ancient Jewish Art, Representation and Signi cance,” in BASOR 228 (1977), p. 76.
©Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2003 Review of Rabbinic Judaism 6.2-3 190 yaffa englard . r e h p a r g o t o h p
, n a v o d a R
. Z
. a h p l A
h t e B
, s n o i l
f o
r i a p
a
d n a
t o r o n e m
o w t
y b
d e k n a
e d a c a f
l a r u t c e t i h c r a
n a
h t i w
l e n a p
e h T
. 1