Wednesday, July 12, 2006

PhDiva- Jewish mosaics

I just ran into this interesting blog entry from PhDiva on Jewish mosaics of the Late Roman period. These findings are part of the growing interest in Judaism in the Roman Empire, especially after the great revolts of the first and second centuries AD. I really think that awareness of what is happening in Judaism in this period is an important element of understanding the religious landscape of the Roman Empire which Christianity shared. Besides, given Judaism and Christianity's close relationship,these findings have a direct bearing on Christian history.

Peace,
Phil

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Phil,

This Link points to a bit about the synagogue in Dura Europas (Syria) from about 240-255 CE. (If memory serves, Dura was lost to a sandstorm around 260 CE or so.)

Interesting thing is that the synagogue is within a few tens of meters of a contemporaneous Christian Temple decorated in a very similar iconographic style... somewhat different subject matter (a lot of NT stuff), but VERY similar style.

Cheers,
dj

Phil Snider said...

Thanks for this dj.