And they came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them … They brought back word to them [Moses and Aaron] and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.
– Num 13:23, 26-28 (ESV)
A colorful mosaic depicting the return of the Israelite spies sent from Canaan has been uncovered at a 5th century (400s AD) synagogue in the southern Galilee region of Israel. The discovery was made by a team headed by Professor Jodi Magness from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and announced on the university’s website last week.
This is the latest in a string of biblical scenes found at the site that display some of the oldest biblical art ever found. However, the stunning mosaics are just part of the story. The study of this synagogue may give strong clues about relations between Christians and Jews in Israel at that time.
“The mosaics decorating the floor of the Huqoq synagogue revolutionize our understanding of Judaism in this period,” said Professor Magness. “Ancient Jewish art is often thought to be aniconic, or lacking images. But these mosaics, colorful and filled with figured scenes, attest to a rich visual culture as well as to the dynamism and diversity of Judaism in the Late Roman and Byzantine periods.”
The discovery of the synagogue and its floor filled with scenes constructed of tesserae—or small mosaic cubes, took place at Huqoq, a Jewish village that has ancient roots and a long history, being occupied as recently as 1947. Huqoq is located about three miles west of Capernaum, the Galilean town where Jesus taught in the synagogue and near where he gave the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 4:13, 23 and chapter 5 ff.).
Magness is a professor of Early Judaism at the university and is widely known as an expert on the Dead Sea scrolls. She was interviewed at Qumran by Tim Mahoney, and will be featured in the upcoming Patterns of Evidence: Moses series.
“What we found this year is extremely exciting,” Magness told The Times of Israel, saying the biblical scenes are “unparalleled” and not found in any other ancient synagogue. “The synagogue just keeps producing mosaics that there’s just nothing like, and is enriching our understanding the Judaism of the period.”
The spies mosaic from this year’s excavation, features two men carrying a pole on their shoulders with a massive cluster of grapes hanging from it. Above them is a Hebrew inscription reading, “a pole between two.” The scene represents the events of Numbers chapter 13 where twelve Israelite spies were sent into Canaan by Moses before the Conquest. They returned with produce from the land, but ten of the spies gave a fearful report of giants and fortified cities that they thought were too strong to defeat.
About three feet above the level of the 5th century synagogue, excavators found evidence of a later 12-13th century Jewish house of prayer that may have been a synagogue reportedly visited by medieval travelers. To Magness, this find is as significant as the more glamorous mosaics, since there are no surviving medieval synagogues in Israel today.
The Times of Israel notes that Huqoq (with an alternate spelling) appears twice in the Hebrew Bible, in Joshua 19:34 and 1 Chronicles 6:75. Excavators have not yet reached levels as deep as these earlier periods.
Then the boundary turns westward to Aznoth-tabor and goes from there to Hukkok, touching Zebulun at the south and Asher on the west and Judah on the east at the Jordan.
– Joshua 19:34 (ESV)
This year’s team of 20 excavators included students and specialists from the University of North Carolina, Baylor University, Brigham Young University and the University of Toronto. They also uncovered a mosaic panel showing a youth leading an animal on a rope with the inscription, “a small child shall lead them,” in reference to Isaiah 11:6.
These discoveries join other spectacular mosaics that have been found in the eight seasons of digging at Huqoq since 2011. These include scenes of Noah’s ark, the tower of Babel, the splitting of the Red Sea, Samson and an as yet unpublished depiction of Jonah being swallowed by the great fish – the first such depiction ever found in an ancient synagogue.
And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.
– Genesis 6:19 (ESV)
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
– Genesis 11:4 (ESV)
The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.
– Exodus 14:28 (ESV)
But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.
– Judges 16:3 (ESV)
The partially preserved Samson and the foxes mosaic. (Photo: Jim Haberman, U. North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards.
. – Judges 15:4-5 (ESV)
Alexander the Great?
Some of the mosaics depict such things as cupids, the sign of Capricorn, and according to the University’s website, the first non-biblical story ever found decorating an ancient synagogue.
The scene shows a Greek (or Roman) military commander with blond hair, wearing regal purple attire and a diadem. Jodi Magness thinks this corresponds to a story told in the Talmud describing the dramatic meeting between the high priest, Simon the Just, and Alexander the Great at the gates of Jerusalem.
Magness believes the account is fictional, but to support her view that this is the story depicted, she noted that there is no inscription telling the viewer who the scene involves. “There was only one Greek king in antiquity who was so great that he didn’t need a label,” she said.
Others favor alternate interpretations, proposing different events in Israel’s history involving Greeks and Romans that were significant.
The Debate Over Jewish-Christian Relations
For Magness, perhaps the most important thing that can be learned from the excavation is the state of Jewish and Christian relations during the time this synagogue flourished. This is a debated issue among scholars, and as usual, the different views hinge on different conclusions about dating. The evidence recently uncovered at Huqoq promises to overturn a long-held paradigm.
Besides the ornate mosaics, the synagogue also had columns with painted plaster of colorful floral motifs and others imitating marble, showing that this was a wealthy, flourishing 5th-century Jewish settlement, in Magness’ view. However, according to an article in Endeavors, a newsletter covering research at UNC – Chapel Hill, the normal view is that Christian rule in the 5th century was oppressive, and the Jews would never have had the freedom to construct such a lavish building.
In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the Roman rulers of Israel were pagan, but by the 5th and 6th centuries they were Christians. The general view is that pagan Roman rulers would have permitted the building of conspicuous Jewish synagogues, but not so under the antagonistic Christian rule in the fifth century.
The Huqoq synagogue has been categorized by scholars as a “Galilean-type synagogue,” and since synagogues in this category are dated to the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, this was the date assigned to the Huqoq synagogue. Magness has now found strong evidence challenging this conclusion.
“My argument,” Magness said in Endeavors, “is that the pottery and coins found under the floors and in the foundation of the synagogue suggest a later date—possibly the fourth, but more likely the fifth or sixth century.” If so, then Jews had more religious freedom under Christian rule than some historians and archaeologists thought.
Magness also pointed out that the building couldn’t have been hidden from the Christian rulers. “It was a basilica constructed of large blocks of stone, with beautifully carved decorations around doors and windows, and a pitched, red-tiled roof,” she says. “It would’ve been the only public building in a village full of smaller, undecorated houses with flat roofs.”
According to Magness, Rabbinic sources indicate that Huqoq flourished during the Late Roman and Byzantine periods (4th-6th centuries AD). If the synagogue was built in 5th or 6th century, “then it puts a whole new spin on how we understand the relationship between Judaism and Christianity during the first centuries of Christian rule,” Magness says.
Although there have been many rocky periods in the history of Christian-Jewish relations, at times rising to the level of terrible Christian persecutions, the synagogue at Huqoq suggests that, at least in this setting, Christians and Jews coexisted in relative peace, freedom and prosperity.
The mosaics have been removed to preserve them and the site has been “backfilled” with soil to protect the remains until next summer’s dig. Magness estimates she needs at least four more years to complete the project. We can’t wait to see what will be discovered next. Keep Thinking!
TOP PHOTO: A mosaic from the 5th century synagogue in northern Israel depicting the Israelite spies returning from the land of Canaan. (credit: Jim Haberman, U. North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
