Richly decorated synagogue — one of the oldest — unearthed. See its marble treasures

Sacramento Bee ^ | August 15, 2023 | Moira Ritter

[SunkenCiv]

Archaeologists pieced together the menorah fragments from the site.

Oleg Deripaska Volnoe Delo Foundation

[SunkenCiv]

The other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping, alpha sort:

• Ankaya Cave excavations in Turkiye's western uncovers 86,000-year-old traces of human life [08/25/2023]
• The Biggest Loch Ness Monster Hunt Is Taking Place This Week [08/24/2023]
• Bodies found near Powder Magazine identified as Confederate soldiers [Colonial Williamsburg] [08/27/2023]
• Bronze Age cauldrons show we've always loved meat, dairy, and fancy cookware [08/22/2023]
• Dating the Arrival of Modern Humans in Asia [08/25/2023]
• Deformed skulls and ritual beheadings found at Maya pyramid in Mexico [08/26/2023]
• First-ever slavery plantation is discovered in Africa: Ruins of a nearly 500-year-old sugar mill and estate located on a tiny island to the west [08/22/2023]
• Genome Study Reveals That Iceman Ötzi Had Dark Skin and Male Pattern Baldness [08/24/2023]
• Human origin story may need rewriting after discovery of 8.7-million-year-old fossil [08/24/2023]
• In History's Bloodiest Persecution of Christians, the Russian Communists Murdered Millions [08/09/2023]
• İnkaya Cave excavations in Türkiye’s western uncovers 86,000-year-old traces of human life [08/25/2023]
• The Medieval Kingdom that was Erased from History [08/25/2023]
• Medieval Roman Colony Found in Nola: Hub of Arts & Crafts [08/25/2023]
• Mint, Wax, Poisonous Plants: Beauty Tips From Renaissance Italy [08/20/2023]
• Naked 'Wolf Man' spotted by hikers in German mountains: 'He wouldn't take his eyes off us' [08/25/2023]
• Rare Stone Age discovery in mid-Norway [08/25/2023]
• Roman-era aqueduct collapses in central Israel [08/20/2023]
• Scientists Sequence Last Piece of The Human Genome: The Y Chromosome [08/23/2023]08/24/2023]
• Skeptics Stunned by Resurfaced Video of 'Bigfoot' in Mississippi Woods: 'Best Footage Ever Recorded' [08/20/2023]
• Through Prague to Freedom: The Exodus of GDR Citizens through Czechoslovakia to the Federal Republic of Germany, September 30 - November 10, 1989 [08/23/2023]
• 2,300-year-old shipwreck -- filled with wine jars -- found off Egypt coast. See them [08/27/2023]
• 2 Massive Great White Sharks Weighing As Much As a Polar Bear Each Found Swimming Off the Coast of Canada [08/23/2023]
• 'Unmarked Indigenous Mass Grave' Detected Under 'Abusive Catholic Residential School' Excavated in Canada - Turns Out to Be Just Rocks [08/22/2023]
• Why Judy Garland's Blackface Photo Resurfaced Decades Later [08/23/2023]

[dangus]

>> From 516 B.C. until 70 A.D., most Jewish rituals took place at the second Jerusalem Temple <<

So we’re just going to deny the existence of the Hellenic Jews?

[SunkenCiv]

Until the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, there wasn't a big buildout of synagogues, but the Diaspora didn't start then. Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the First Temple, and before that the Assyrians kicked the ten tribes out onto the frontiers of their empire, which ultimately is how this particular synagogue (as well as Ashkenazi Jews overall) came to be.

[Verginius Rufus]

There was a synagogue in Capernaum in Jesus’ day (Mark 1.21).

[OldGoatCPO]

The statement as written is correct. Hellenistic Jews did not build their own temple in Alexandria or elsewhere. The Temple in Jerusalem was the center of Judaism and Jewish worship until its destruction ins 70 AD. Hellenistic Jew were in constant conflict with traditionalists but they still saw the Temple as the center of the Jewish faith. The majority of religious rituals occurred tin the Temple.

[BelleAl]

The ruins of that building are still there.

[Burma Jones]

Cool find, but synagogue Judaism didn’t start with the destruction of Herod’s Temple (which is still called the Second Temple for reasons I don’t understand). Jesus taught in “the synagogues” of Galilee even before the famous incident in the Nazareth synagogue. For Pete’s sake, a Roman centurion built a synagogue in this period.

[dangus]

Yes, Hellenic Jews did regard the Temple as the center of Jewish worship, but Catholics believe the Vatican is the center of the Catholic Church; thet doesn’t mean the MAJORITY of religious rituals take place there. Most important =/= majority.

[OldGoatCPO]

You should look a bit closer at the history. The Bible is very clear on what rites were performed in the Temple and only in the Temple.

[dangus]

Apparently, it’s the word, “majority” that you’re hung up on.

[OldGoatCPO]

The Vatican is not similar to the 2nd Temple in any historical context, nor are 2nd Temple era synagogues similar to Catholic Churches other then the fact that people of like faith gather there. You are comparing something that is a modern construct to something that was ancient. The oldest known synagogue was in use over 100 years before the death of Christ. Opinions and verbal slights of hand do not trump historical facts.

[dangus]

OK, then here’s a simple historical fact: There were DOZENS of synagogues at the time of Christ. I know some people (Kee, etc.) have tried to deny the existence of these synagogues, insisting that their presence in the New Testament is anachronistic. That’s was an unreasonable assertion in the 1990s when Kee made it, and has been easily refuted by the discovery of many of these synagogues since then.

This is in addition to the Samaritan synagogues, and the fact that the Jews in Christ’s time in diaspora regular refer to houses of prayer using the same Greek word used for Samaritan synagogues suggest that Jews in diaspora likely had synagogues similar to the Samaritans. (If they disparaged the Samaritan synagogues, why would they use the same name for their own?) So it’s reasonable to assume there were synagogues in literally every Jewish settlement across the entire Hellenic world (see Mordecai Aviam, for instance).

So yeah, the entire issue is created by Jews and anti-skeptics to cast doubt on both Christian scripture and the authenticity of Christian worship, but is a complete and utter deliberate, indefensible lie.

And that’s why I noted that this mainstream publication was siding with indefensible bigotry in the way it worded things, in spite of the fact that the news item they were covering is added proof of that the claims are incontrovertably nonsensical and ideological deceit.

[jjotto]

Oleg Deripaska, John McCain and Rick Davis patron. Deripaska hit with sanctions during Trump Administration over eastern Ukraine. Convoluted story.

[OldGoatCPO]

Synagogues were not churches. During the Second Temple period they were meeting places, places of study and Torah reading. After the destruction of the Second Temple they gradually became places of meeting, study and ceremony. During Christs time they were not ceremonial places. As a I said the oldest KNOWN synagogue was in use 30-50 years before the birth of Christ. Jews in Babylon, Alexandria and throughout the Roman Empire, during the Second Temple period, certainly celebrated Holy Days, read and studied Torah in their Synagogues. But there was only one Temple and it was the only place that rituals outlined in the Old Testament took place.

[OldGoatCPO]

Synagogues were not churches. During the Second Temple period they were meeting places, places of study and Torah reading. After the destruction of the Second Temple they gradually became places of meeting, study and ceremony. During Christs time they were not ceremonial places. As a I said the oldest KNOWN synagogue was in use 30-50 years before the birth of Christ. Jews in Babylon, Alexandria and throughout the Roman Empire, during the Second Temple period, certainly celebrated Holy Days, read and studied Torah in their Synagogues. But there was only one Temple and it was the only place that rituals outlined in the Old Testament took place.

[Verginius Rufus]

I have an old Bazak Guide to Israel which mentions "The ruins of the splendid late 2nd or early 3rd century synagogue..." in Capernaum (Kfar Nahum), so that would be a later building than the one mentioned in the New Testament.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

[dangus]

>> Synagogues were not churches. <<

No shit, Sherlock. I’m done with you and your condescension.

[Jewbacca]

I think where you are misunderstanding (or disagreeing) is what is a “ritual”, and it’s due to the nature of Judaism since the Romans destroyed the Temple.

You are interpreting “ritual” broadly. If, for example, one considers every bris a “ritual”, then, sure numerically, many more “rituals” have always been held outside the Temple.

If you are interpreting “ritual” in the more traditional fashion to mean the Aaronic duties of Passover sacrifice and the like, then, no, Jerusalem has always been the center.