Menorah and Cross in Late Antiquity: the Dialogue of Images

Torah Ark in the syn- agogue of Dura-Euro- pos (Syria), 2nd–3rd centuries. EARS TO HEAR, EYES TO SEE Menorah and Cross in Late Antiquity: The Dialogue of Images Lidia Chakovskaya Translated by Vera Winn Some time ago, a magazine asked for between races. And, of course, its inti- my comments on a certain project mate identification with the monstrous launched by an international network Nazi state and its vast crimes against of tattoo salons, the goal of which was humanity transposed the swastika into to restore the swastika’s primordial a mark of unfathomable evil across solar meaning. Before submitting my much of the world. The story of the analysis, I spent some time exploring swastika demonstrates how a symbol’s the history of the symbol. I was struck manifold meanings, accumulated over by the deep iconic resonance of the time, persist even while providing the swastika in a variety of different cul- ground for developing new ones. But tures, where it stood for well-being, after its most recent iteration as the light, and movement. But even more re- symbol of Nazi Germany, the swastika markable was the speed with which it cannot be simply restored as an image acquired a new, vastly more sinister set of heavenly realms. of meanings during the 20th century. Among other novel interpretations, the Yet as horrible as this transformation of Indian origin of the swastika was cited an ancient symbol of light into a mod- as the reason for its iconic representa- ern mark of maleficence is, its journey tion of the “Aryan” race, and its cir- is instructive in understanding our cular movement was reimagined as a own cultural iconography. The cross, reference to the never-ending struggle for example, has for centuries been the 40 iconic heart of Christian civilization, aspects of the cross during the period emerging into cultural prominence af- when the specifically Christian symbol ter the Roman embrace of Christianity. was negotiating its relationship to the We take for granted that in the image shameful and terrifying Roman cross. of the cross, all aspects of Christian To identify the nexus of interaction be- aspirations and longings are united. tween menorah and cross, we have to Over the years it has become, in most consider the stages of their historical European countries, a prominent state existence. symbol and, in one fashion or another, a source of governing legitimacy. Let us first examine the ancient re- ported history of the Menorah itself.1 Before the common era, however, an- In Exodus, God provides direction for 1 other symbol—the Menorah from the its construction, stylizing it as a tree of The Temple’s Menorah is one of the Temple in Jerusalem—emerged in gold adorned with almond blossoms, most studied objects the land where Christianity was soon and thereby associating the lampstand of the Jewish Temple. born. First depicted on a coin minted of the Tabernacle with the notion of See Rachel Hachlili, by the last Hasmonean King of Judea, the tree of life (35:14). The almond tree The Menorah, the Ancient Seven-Armed Antigonus II Mattathias (died 37 BC), provided wood for the rod of Aaron Candelabrum: Origin, the menorah soon began to appear (Num. 17:8), leading to an associa- Form and Significance on graves and in synagogues, and by tion between the menorah, commu- (Leiden: Brill, 2001); the fourth century had come to be de- nity authority, and divine protection.2 Carol L. Meyers, The Tabernacle Menorah: picted in a wide variety of artifacts, Jeremiah also makes an association A Synthetic Study both domestic and funerary, that have between the almond tree and God’s of a Symbol from the since been discovered in Palestine and watchfulness, using a Hebrew word Biblical Cult (Mis- throughout the ancient Mediterranean. play that builds on the almond tree’s soula, Mont.: Scholars It is clear from the archaeological and early seasonal blooming as a sign of Press, 1976); In the Light of the Menorah: literary evidence that the menorah be- the potential—but fragile—natural Story of a Symbol, ed. came a touchstone of Jewish national fertility of the land (Jer. 1:11–12). Al- Yael Israeli (The Israel identity, appearing in Byzantine syna- though biblical accounts report that in Museum, 1999). gogues, medieval Jewish manuscripts, Solomon’s Temple there were ten other 2 Leon Yarden, and, finally, as the seal of the modern lampstands (1 Kgs. 7:49), Josephus “Aaron, Bethel, and state of Israel. claims that the Menorah was the only the Priestly Meno- one lit in the rituals.3 After the destruc- rah,” Journal of Jewish Late antiquity witnessed the trans- tion of the First Temple by Nebuchad- Studies 26 (1975): 39–47. formation of the language of art from nezzar in 586 BC, all temple supplies a concentration on visible realities to were carried to Babylon, from which 3 Flavius Josephus, more intangible meanings derived there is no record of their return (Jer. Jewish Antiquities, from motifs inherent in the literature 52:18–20). 8:89–90. and culture undergirding various symbols. As a result, physical images The end of the Babylonian captivity in became only the first layer of the multi- 520 BC, the return to Jerusalem, and ple meanings that educated audiences the construction of the Second Temple could discern in a symbol. The meno- marked a new epoch in Jewish life. For rah’s evolution from a specific ritual Zechariah, a critical symbol of God’s object into a far more expansive sign presence in the renewed Jerusalem of Jewish national identity paved the was the new lampstand, representing way for a similar development of the “the seven eyes of the Lord that range cross. Semantic analogues with ancient throughout the earth” (4:1–11). The Jewish symbolism played an impor- building of the new Temple required tant role in the formation of the visual not only physical human effort, but THE WHEEL 6 | Summer 2016 41 The Golgotha cross the course of their ascent to power, the behind the veil. The menorah became a symbol of the strug- marble mosaic from Hagia Sophia in gle against Hellenization, support for Constantinople, 6th Jewish identity, and the restoration of a century. legitimate Jewish government—a new role encapsulated by the story of the eight-day rededication of the Temple in 164 BC, when the new golden Menorah was lighted. The Festival of Lights, or Hanukkah, has since been observed as a national celebration, and in time the 4 menorah became not only the object of Philo of Alexandria, Temple rituals: a version of it also be- On the Life of Moses, 2:102–3; Questions and came a household object in the form of Answers on Exodus. the Hanukkah lamp. After the Maccabean uprising, the new Hasmonean dynasty constructed a new Menorah. The menorah became also cosmic intervention to remove a symbol of the legitimacy of the Mac- the causes and consequences of the ex- cabees. The Hasmoneans who reconse- pulsion; therefore, the lampstand here crated the Temple merged the ideas of was both the symbol of the Temple and the Temple and the city of Jerusalem as the image of God’s vision manifested part of their state-building campaign. as light. The symbolism of the tree of Despite their general aniconic policies, life was also further developed, as two in certain cases they began using art, olive trees were added on either side including depictions of the Menorah, of the lampstand, representing the as a support for their rule (a menorah anointed civil and religious author- relief has also been discovered in a syn- ities of the restored nation. Through agogue at Migdal dating from the early its association with divine anointing, Roman period). At a time of brutal the Menorah here became linked with confrontation with Rome’s appointed certain messianic properties that were Herod the Great, the menorah was an later to be transferred to Christ, as the iconic affirmation of the Temple, an in- tree of life would blossom with the dependent Judah, and the legitimacy branch of the Messiah (Zech. 3:8). of Hasmonean rule—a role manifested by its depiction on the coin of Matta- During the turbulent Hellenistic pe- thias Antigonus, the last king and high riod, the Temple became identified as priest from the Hasmonean dynasty. the singular locus of authority, both religious and political. In 168 BC, the When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epipha- and the Herodian Temple in AD 70, the nes pillaged the Temple, looted all the Menorah was removed to Rome with precious ritual objects, and “departed other trophies, as depicted on the Arch to his own land” (1 Macc. 1:21–24). As of Titus in the Roman Forum. Several a result of the revolt and civil war oc- centuries later, according to Procopius casioned by this defamation, the Has- of Caesarea, “the treasures of the Jews” monean dynasty ultimately took con- were looted from Rome by the Vandals, trol of Judea, cleansed the Temple, and who took them to Carthage. In 534, the reasserted Jewish religious practice. In Byzantine general Flavius Belisarius 42 took them to Constantinople, where to Moses in Exodus, the menorah has the Emperor Justinian, afraid that the evolved into an image of the entire Menorah would bring him misfortune, world, becoming a sacral divine tree of sent it back to Jerusalem, from which it anointment, evidence for the restora- subsequently vanished without record. tion of Jewish statehood and the direct divine interference in that history, and By the time the physical Menorah dis- then, in the visions of Philo and Jose- appeared, its image had been fully in- phus, a celestial archetype.

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