Ancient inscription dedicated to Jesus son of Mary
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1/20/2021
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GovXContentSection
Israel Antiquities Authority excavations in the village of et-Taiyiba in the Jezreel Valley recently
unearthed an inscription dedicated to Jesus, the son of Mary. The Greek
inscription, engraved in stone, comes from the frame of an entrance door
dating from the Byzantine period (late fifth century CE). It was discovered
incorporated in secondary use in one of the walls of a magnificent building
dating from the Byzantine or Early Islamic period, where the excavations
uncovered two rooms containing mosaic pavements with a geometric design.
The inscription was recovered
in an archaeological excavation directed by Tzachi Lang and Kojan Haku of
the Israel Antiquities Authority prior to the construction of a road inside
the village. As part of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s policy of
increasing public interest in archaeology, students, volunteers and workers
from the local community, participated in the excavation.
According to Dr Leah Di-Segni,
researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, who deciphered the text, it is a dedicatory inscription that was
engraved while casting the foundations of the church. It reads, “Christ
born of Mary. This work of the most God-fearing and pious bishop
[Theodo]sius and the miserable Th[omas] was built from the foundation - -.
Whoever enters should pray for them.” According to Di-Segni, the formula
“Christ born of Mary” was intended to protect its readers from the evil eye
and it was commonly used at the beginning of inscriptions and documents of
the time. Christ (Christos in Greek, or ‘Messiah’) refers to Jesus.
Di-Segni adds that “The inscription greets those who enter and blesses
them. It is therefore clear that the building is a church, and not a
monastery: Churches greeted believers at their entrance, while monasteries
tended not to do this.”
Theodosius, whom the text
refers to as the building’s founder, was one of the first Christian bishops.
He served as the regional archbishop – the supreme religious authority of
the metropolis of Bet She’an, to which et-Taiyiba in the valley belonged.
Dr Walid Atrash of the Israel Antiquities Authority says, “This is the
first evidence of the Byzantine church’s existence in the village of
et-Taiyiba and it adds to other finds attesting to the activities of
Christians who lived in the region. Remains of a church from the Crusader
period were previously uncovered at the site, and a monastery discovered more
recently by Nurit Feig of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Dr Moti
Aviam of Kinneret College in Kfar Kama is one of a series of monasteries
that were under the jurisdiction of the Bet She’an religious metropolis.”
According to excavation directors
Tzachi Lang and Kojan Haku of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The
excavation yielded finds from a variety of periods, shedding light on the
long settlement sequence at et-Taiyiba in the valley, and on its status
among the local settlements.”
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