Warning inscription from the Herodian Temple

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The warning inscription from the Herodian Temple was intended to prevent non-Jews from entering the inner temple grounds in Jerusalem under threat of the death penalty . There is a complete copy in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum and a fragment in the Israel Museum Jerusalem . Both inscriptions with almost identical Greek text are dated between 23 BC. And 70 AD

Fully preserved copy (Istanbul Archaeological Museum).

Copy of the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul

Location

Charles Clermont-Ganneau discovered the inscribed marble block north of the Temple Mount as early as 1871 and published it soon after in the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres . The exact location was the inner courtyard of the Madrasa al-Muˤaẓẓamija , which is located at amariq Bab Sitti Marjam (Hebrew: Derech Scha'ar haArajot ). The object mysteriously disappeared and reappeared in Istanbul 13 years later.

Inscription bearer

The Greek inscription is placed on an originally smoothed marble block that is 60 cm high, 90 cm wide and 39 cm deep. The text consists of seven lines without word separation in Greek capital letters . The sigma has four bars, the omega is closed, the alpha is written with both a straight and a bent center bar .

The letters are over 4 cm high and may have been painted in color.

inscription

Greek text

  1. ΜΗΘΕΝΑ ΑΛΛΟΓΕΝΗ ΕΙΣΠΟ
  2. ΡΕΥΕΣΘΑΙ ΕΝΤΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΠΕ
  3. ΡΙ ΤΟ ΙΕΡΟΗ ΤΡΥΦΑΚΤΟΥ ΚΑΙ
  4. ΠΕΡΙΒΟΛΟΥ ΟΣ ΔΑΝ ΛΗ
  5. ΦΘΗ ΕΑΥΤΩΙ ΑΙΤΙΟΣ ΕΣ
  6. ΤΑΙ ΔΙΑ ΤΟ ΕΞΑΚΟΛΟΥ
  7. ΘΕΙΝ ΘΑΝΑΤΟΝ

German translation (after Deißmann)

  1. No other person [may] enter
  2. th in the order
  3. the sanctuary going lattice and
  4. Enclosure! Who
  5. is attacked, becomes itself
  6. must ascribe the consequence
  7. sen, death.
Fragment (Israel Museum, IAA Inv. No. 1936-989).

Copy from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem

Location

The fragment was discovered in 1935 near the Lion Gate in Jerusalem's Old City when a drainage ditch was being built. The exact location was the southern roadside at the confluence of the street leading from the Löwentor out of town (today Derech Scha'ar haArajot ) into Jericho Street ( Derech Jericho ). In this corner, Roman or Byzantine tombs and the remains of the foundations of a building were uncovered; The fragment was built into a wall of this building as a spoiler .

In 1938 the inscription was published by John Iliffe, the curator of the Rockefeller Museum.

Inscription bearer

The marble block was still 49 cm high, 27 cm wide and 31 cm deep. The six lines are deeply engraved in Greek capital letters ; there are traces of red paint in the letters and lightly carved lines between the lines. Below the last line is a wide, not written strip. Iliffe emphasized the differences with the Istanbul inscription; the letters of the copy found at the Lion Gate seemed to him to be less professionally written. It is the work of two different stonemasons who were active in roughly the same period.

inscription

Greek text

  1. ΘΕΝΑ ΑΛΛ
  2. ΤΟΣ ΤΟΥ Π
  3. ΤΟΥ ΚΑΙ
  4. ΗΦΘΗ ΑΥ
  5. ΙΑ ΤΟ ΕΞ
  6. ΘΑΝΑΤ

interpretation

The two almost identical inscriptions belonged to an unknown number of Greek and Latin warning inscriptions on stone blocks, which were inserted at regular intervals into the stone balustrade (Greek δρύφακτος, Deissmann: "grid") of the Herodian temple. (The term "blackboard", which is often used in the literature, gives the wrong impression.)

The Mishnah According was the balustrade (סורג, Soreg ) ten inches high. It separated the outer temple forecourt, which could also be entered by non-Jews, from the inner courtyards. The term Peribolos ( περίβολος “enclosure”) used in the inscription probably refers to the area between the balustrade and the high wall around the inner temple area. Flavius ​​Josephus described these warning inscriptions; There were similar warnings in antiquity from temples of other religions.

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae / Palaestinae . S. 42 ("Marble slab". According to other authors, in particular Clermont-Ganneau as the discoverer, but also Deißmann, who examined the Istanbul stone, the material is a particularly hard limestone.).
  2. ^ Charles Clermont-Ganneau: Une stèle du temple de Jérusalem. In: Revue archéologique. Volume 23, 1872, pp. 214-234 (on- line ), 290-296 (on- line ).
  3. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem . S. 347 .
  4. ↑ Ilan Ben Zion: Ancient Temple Mount 'warning' stone is 'closest thing we have to the Temple'. Retrieved March 8, 2018 (The stone was built into the wall of a Muslim school.).
  5. ^ Charles Clermont-Ganneau: La stèle du temple de Jérusalem. In: Revue critique d'histoire et de littérature. No. 18, 1884, p. 263 ( digitized version ).
  6. ↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae / Palaestinae . S. 42 .
  7. ^ Adolf Deißmann: Light from the East . S. 48-49 .
  8. ↑ Edwin Samuel: A Lifetime in Jerusalem . Jerusalem 1970, p. 93 .
  9. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem . S. 676-677 .
  10. ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem . S. 675 (The building could be a poorhouse with literary evidence from around AD 400).
  11. ↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae / Palaestinae . S. 43-44 .
  12. ↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae / Palaestinae . S. 42 ("Marble slab".).
  13. ↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae / Palaestinae . S. 42 .
  14. ↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae / Palaestinae . S. 44 (The only difference is ΕΑΥΤΟΥ in line 5 of the Istanbul inscription opposite ΑΥΤΟΥ in the Jerusalem fragment.).
  15. ↑ Middot . 2.3.
  16. ↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae / Palaestinae . S. 43 .
  17. ↑ Flavius ​​Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 15,417; Jewish War 5,193–194.
  18. ↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae / Palaestinae . S. 44 .