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  • From: Jim West <jwest AT highland.net>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: synagogues) in Thessalonika
  • Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 20:51:23 -0400


At 07:29 PM 9/20/99 -0500, you wrote:
>At the risk of showing my ignorance here, is there any archaeological
>evidence that backs up the claim in Acts 17:1 that there was at least
>one synagogue in Thessalonika in mid first cent. CE? Any documentation
>of a Jewish presence in the city? And if so, any indication of just how
>large/influential it was?
>

The earliest archaeological evidence is an inscription in samaritan and
greek - 2 lines in samaritan read:
"blessed be our lord forever"
"blessed be his name forever"
and in greek a rendering of Num 6:22-27.
This dedicatory inscription "seems" to have been placed at a synagogue-
though the date of the inscription is generally assumed to have been the
Byzantine era (4th-6th c. CE). This synagogue (if that is indeed where the
inscription originates) must have been used by members of the Samaritan
community, since the inscription makes use of the Samaritan script.
There is nothing earlier however. So there is apparently no archaeological
support for the claim of Acts 17 (however, absence of evidence does not
prove absence of a synagogue).

Cf. C. Edson's 1972 collection of inscriptions.

best,

Jim

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West, ThD
email- jwest AT highland.net
web page- http://web.infoave.net/~jwest





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