The Jewish elite of Sepphoris in late antiquity: indications from burial inscriptions

The inscriptions from the cemeteries of Sepphoris serve as a vivid reflection of Jewish life and culture in this vibrant city of late antique Palestine. Two of these burial inscriptions are studied in this article: a bilingual inscription (Greek and Aramaic) and a Greek inscription that was uncovere...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Ashkenazi, Yaʿaḳov (Author) ; Aviʿam, Mordekhai (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: [2017]
In: Journal of Jewish studies
Year: 2017, Volume: 68, Issue: 2, Pages: 308–323
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:The inscriptions from the cemeteries of Sepphoris serve as a vivid reflection of Jewish life and culture in this vibrant city of late antique Palestine. Two of these burial inscriptions are studied in this article: a bilingual inscription (Greek and Aramaic) and a Greek inscription that was uncovered more than a century ago and mistakenly read as a dedicatory inscription from an unexcavated synagogue. Reading the first one and rereading the second introduces us to senior Jewish officials in the Roman provincial and imperial administration. It affords us a unique glance into the social and cultural background of the Jewish elite of Sepphoris at the turn of the fourth–fifth centuries, at a time when the Christianization of the Roman administration had accelerated and Jews were forced once again to deal with questions of identity and introspection.
ISSN:2056-6689
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of Jewish studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.18647/3327/JJS-2017