Archaeologists unveil ancient church in Israel

MSNBC ^ | 5 Nov 05 | AP

[gobucks]

MEGIDDO PRISON, Israel - Israeli prisoner Ramil Razilo was removing rubble from the planned site of a new prison ward when his shovel uncovered the edge of an elaborate mosaic, unveiling what Israeli archaeologists said Sunday may be the Holy Land’s oldest church.

The discovery of the church in the northern Israeli town of Megiddo, near the biblical Armageddon, was hailed by experts as an important discovery that could reveal details about the development of the early church in the region. Archaeologists said the church dated from the third century, decades before Constantine legalized Christianity across the Byzantine Empire.

“What’s clear today is that it’s the oldest archaeological remains of a church in Israel, maybe even in the entire region. Whether in the entire world, it’s still too early to say,” said Yotam Tepper, the excavation’s head archaeologist.

[Kurt_Hectic]

Isn't it strange that the symbols of the zodiac seems to accompany the dominant religions of the times? The christian age 0-2000 A.D. is connected to pisces, the jewish people sacrified goats (aries) thousands of years ago, the culture in greece was a bull-cult (taurus) at the time the jews fled egypt. In a book by Graham Hancock (dubious fellow, I know) he outlined a theory where the Sfinx in Giza actually was a lion from the beginning, and that the human head was made later. Based on measurements of the grade of erosion on the Sfinx he calulated the statue to have been built in the age of Leo, so that every summer solstice in the age of Leo the Sfinxs' head pointed directly towards the star constellation Leo. I saw a program once about the jewish escape from Egypt, where the makers put out the theory that the cloud in the sky the jews used for direction day and night in fact could have been a pillar of smoke and lava from the volcano eruption that destroyed so many islands in the mediteranian (Santorini etc). The eruption could also explane the parting of the sea as told in the Bible. The bull cult in the mediteranian was wiped out by this event. Maybe a religion has to comply to the zodiac to be succesfull? But I don't know what it means that we now are in the age of aquarius.

[Zechariah_8_13]

cool discovery ping

[VoiceOfBruck]

Thanks.

Razilo, who is serving a two-year sentence for traffic violations, ...

Evidently they take traffic infractions pretty seriously over there!

[gobucks]

Very, very cool translation; thanks.

AG, I'm sure you have heard of this find by now, but I didn't know if the words in the mosiac you had seen translated ... so this post by C.H. is the one it seems to pay some attention to.

By the way, ABC NEWS had a segment on this tonight - they garbled up what the words meant it seemed to me, but the word JESUS was actually uttered during an ABC news cast....

[Charles Henrickson]

ABC NEWS had a segment on this tonight - they garbled up what the words meant it seemed to me. . . .

I heard it, too. It was a rather loose paraphrase, even leaving out the key point: the attribution of divinity to Jesus Christ as "God." The translation I have provided above is exactly accurate.

[VOA]

bump

[gobucks]

Thanks for the clarification...

[Ciexyz]

Lovely pics. Thanks for posting!

[Ciexyz]

ping for your enjoyment.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for the ping to the translation! And I'm thrilled that ABC News actually said Jesus on broadcast.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Interesting; thanks for the ping.

[Western Phil]

Not to be greedy or anything, but any chance for translations on some of the other lettering?

[Charles Henrickson]

any chance for translations on some of the other lettering?

That's more difficult, because in the photos those words are smaller, less distinct, incomplete, and even sideways or upside-down! Let's start with what can be seen of the "upside-down" inscription:

The long word that makes up the top line is easy enough to read (transliterated below into English characters--I hope the long "E" character comes out):

MNĒMONEUSATE

which is a plural imperative, "REMEMBER"

What follows then is *I think* a series of four names, all feminine, all with the genitive case endings (since that verb takes the genitive). So the whole thing reads:

MNĒMONEUSATE
PRIMILLĒS KAI KYRI-
AKĒS KAI DOROTHEĒS
ETI DE KAI CHRĒSTĒS

Remember Primilla and Kyriaka and Dorothea and still also Chresta

So apparently it is some kind of commemoration of those four women.

[Charles Henrickson]

The sideways one is really hard to make out:

About the only word that is clearly and completely decipherable from these photos is the first word, GAIANOS, which is the Latin name, "Gaianus." But from additional information in the news articles I've seen, it appears that a Roman officer named Gaianus paid for the mosaics with his own money.

[Charles Henrickson]

Here's a nice photo of the fish mosaic I've just come across, in which the colors really come out:

[Whitewasher]

Wonderful! Thank you for bringing these additional pictures and the text to my attention!!

[Ciexyz]

Wonderful photos. This will certainly be a site for future pilgrimmages.

[Tempest]

Beautiful stuff, and thanks for keeping them coming.