Digital reconstruction of the Ein Gedi synagogue. Image courtesy Roy Albag.

What were early synagogues like?

Traditional scholarship has answered this simple question with studies of the built structures, analyzing their architecture and examining evidence of construction, rebuilding, and destruction. With the help of written sources, scholars have also gained a solid understanding of how these religious buildings functioned within their communities. Only in recent years, however, has attention turned to exploring also how these sacred spaces felt.

In late antiquity (fourth–seventh centuries), following the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE, synagogues became vitally important centers of social and religious life for Jewish communities across the larger Mediterranean world. In the new environment, synagogues were not only places of worship but also centers of community life and learning. But although their architecture and decoration, brought to life through numerous excavations around the Mediterranean basin, provide a rich picture of their splendor, it is the smaller implements and objects of daily use that can answer how these holy spaces felt on a more personal level.

Menorah from Hammath Tiberias. Photo courtesy Photo Companion to the Bible.

Writing for the Spring 2026 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Karen B. Stern asks, “But how did synagogues look and feel to their ancient visitors? How did Jews illuminate their synagogues, when they congregated in the darkness of early mornings and late evenings? What were synagogue acoustics like? What did synagogues smell like?” A professor of Classics at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Stern explores in her teaching and research the material culture of Jews in the broader Mediterranean during the Roman and late antique periods.

Focusing on what archaeology and written sources can tell us about the use of lighting and incense, her BAR article explores how ancient people experienced synagogues through their senses of sight and smell. To address these questions, Stern turns to smaller artifacts from ancient synagogues that were used for lighting and burning of incense or other aromatics. These include various types of lamps, incense burners, and ritual shovels.

A Roman-period incense shovel, made of bronze around 100 CE. Photo: Public domain / The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, 1900.

Lamps in antiquity took different forms. Eminent in Jewish and Samaritan contexts was the menorah, a free-standing candelabrum. “Fragments of such menorot survive from fourth- and fifth-century synagogues discovered in both Roman and Byzantine Palestine and the broader Mediterranean world,” writes Stern. “One well-preserved stone menorah from Hammath Tiberias (see second image above) has branches carved with relief decorations, possibly etched beads, calyxes, or pomegranates. Several small depressions on top of the stone were likely fitted with cups containing oil and wicks for lighting.” Other types included chandeliers featuring glass bowls inserted into metal frames. The most common and affordable, however, were small oil lamps—either ceramic ones (made on potter’s wheel or from a mold) or cast in bronze.

“Much like illumination, the role of scent in ancient Jewish devotional practices, let alone the use of incense or aromatics inside ancient synagogues, has rarely been considered,” writes Stern, introducing another aspect of how late antique synagogues were experienced. Scholars have assumed that the ancient practice of offering incense sacrifice stopped with the destruction of the Temple. Written sources and archaeological finds from across the Mediterranean, however, suggest that at least some Jewish communities continued to use incense and other aromatics as part of their religious practice. Among the prime pieces of evidence is this incense burner now in the Brooklyn Museum. A dedicatory inscription etched on the bowl just below the ornamental rim indicates the censer was donated by one Auxanon, who must have been a wealthy member of a Jewish or Samaritan community. Another group of telling objects are incense shovels, including the example pictured above, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“These aggregated sights, smells, and tastes thus not only shaped visitors’ feelings of holiness, but also helped constitute the experience of the sacred on a practical and sensory level,” writes Stern in conclusion. “Inside ancient synagogues, where prayer was an activity of the body as well as the mind, illumination and scent functioned synergistically to blur the mundane and the holy, the functional and the devotional, and the past and the present.”

To further explore how early Jews experienced ancient synagogues, read Karen B. Stern’s article “Sensing the Synagogue,” published in the Spring 2026 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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And Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every sickness among the people. And his fame spread into all of Syria, and they brought to him those who were ill, and Jesus cured them.

Readers of the above quote have every reason to feel confused. Gospel of healing? And what’s with the rest of the text, which doesn’t quite agree with the canonical gospel attributed to Matthew? Indeed, this somewhat imprecise citation of Matthew 4:23–24 is not an excerpt from a Bible codex. The text was found inscribed on a piece of parchment excavated a hundred years ago at the site of ancient Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. Dating to the sixth or seventh century and measuring about 2 1/3 by 4 1/3 inches, the scrap—first published in 1911 (as P. Oxy. 8.1077)—is a Christian amulet (see image below).

Relying on the healing powers of a sacred text, this sixth-century Christian amulet from the Robert C. Horn Papyri Collection contains a redacted version of Matthew 4:23–24, where Jesus is described as “healing every disease and every sickness.” For added effect, the gospel text is inscribed in five columns arranged in the form of crosses and is accompanied by a human bust of uncertain meaning. The cut-out rectangles and notched edges are doubtless intentional, too. Photo: Courtesy of Special Collections and Archives, Trexler Library, Muhlenberg College.

Just like their pagan neighbors, Jesus’s followers of the first Christian centuries would commonly resort to protection amulets to guard themselves from illness and any kind of harm. Although the Church authorities used to refute what they saw as a superstition and an abomination to the Christian faith, the pagan practice of wearing protection amulets survived well into the second half of the first millennium, with some clergy even participating.

In his article “Christian Amulets—A Bit of Old, a Bit of New” in the September/October 2018 issue of BAR, Theodore de Bruyn of the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa says that the advent of Christianity did not put an end to the pagan practice of wearing protection amulets, at least not immediately. “Rather,” explains de Bruyn, “the new faith brought an adaptation of the existing pagan practice. […] Amulets, according to many, were just a traditional means of warding off evil and healing illness.”

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Among those who forcefully spoke against the amulets, encouraging his fellow Christians to pray and make the sign of the cross rather than rely upon superstitions, was Athanasius of Alexandria, a fourth-century bishop and one of the Church fathers. Athanasius writes:

Let anyone who should get seriously ill recite the psalm “I said, ‘O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you’ [Psalm 41:4],” because by recurring to the prayer and imploring the divine grace, he will follow the heavenly wisdom that states, “My child, when you are ill, do not delay, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you” [Sirach 38:9]. Amulets, in fact, and sorceries are useless in securing help. And if someone consulted these, let him know this distinctly, that he has made himself instead of a believer, an unbeliever; instead of a Christian, a pagan; instead of an intelligent person, an unintelligent one; instead of a rational person, an irrational one […] betraying the seal of the cross that brought you salvation. Not only are the illnesses afraid of that seal, but also the whole crowd of demons fears and wonders at it.¹

The example pictured above represents only one type of textual amulets, namely the healing amulets, which typically invoke the curative powers of Jesus or Christian saints. To learn about other kinds of protection amulets and the early Christian practice of wearing amulets, read “Christian Amulets—A Bit of Old, a Bit of New” by Theodore de Bruyn in the September/October 2018 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Subscribers: Read the full article “Christian Amulets—A Bit of Old, a Bit of New” by Theodore de Bruyn in the September/October 2018 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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Notes

1. Athanasius, De amuletis (Patrologia Graeca 26.1320).

A version of this post first appeared in Bible History Daily in October, 2018

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The monastic complex atop Mount Nebo grew in the fourth–sixth centuries around where Moses was buried according to the Bible. From Davide Bianchi, A Shrine to Moses (Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2021), p. 174; Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License.

This uncertainty, however, did not discourage early Christians, who determined that Moses died and was buried on Mt. Nebo, in what is today central Jordan. Known locally by its Arabic name, Siyagha, Mt. Nebo began attracting Christian worshipers in the early fourth century, when Christianity was acknowledged in the Roman Empire as a lawful religion. Its connection to Moses and the Exodus narrative brought in Christian monks, who wanted to live and pray near where Moses was buried, as well as pilgrims, who wished to commemorate the prophet and contemplate God’s promises to his people.

The monastic network of Mt. Nebo included other Christian sites, such as ‘Uyun Musa, Khirbat al-Mukhayyat, Ma‘in, and Madaba. Biblical Archaeology Society.

In her article “Moses and the Monks of Nebo,” published in the Summer 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Debra Foran outlines the early history of Christian pilgrimage to and around Mt. Nebo and describes some of the central monuments in the region. “A network of monastic communities extended from [Mt. Nebo] to the east as far as the desert fringes and to the south until the Wadi Mujib (the biblical Arnon River). This development was likely connected to the growing monastic movement across the southern Levant during the Byzantine period, exemplified by the Judean Desert monasteries near Jerusalem.”

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Assistant Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Foran also delves into related questions of how the monks of Mt. Nebo interacted with the local population. “Interwoven into this monastic landscape was an active and prosperous lay population that catered to its ascetic neighbors. The rural population also served the many pilgrims traveling through the region.”

One of the earliest Western pilgrims to the Holy Land was a noble woman named Egeria (or Etheria), who in the 380s visited the alleged place where Moses was buried. In her Latin itinerary, she wrote:

So we arrived at the summit of that mountain, where there is now a church of no great size on the very top of Mount Nabau. Inside the church, in the place where the pulpit is, I saw a place a little raised, containing about as much space as tombs usually do. I asked those holy men [i.e., monks] what this was, and they answered: “Here was holy Moses laid by the angels, for, as it is written, no one knows his burial place, and because it is certain that he was buried by the angels. His tomb, indeed, where he was laid, is not shown to this day; but as it was shown to us by our ancestors who dwelt here, so do we show it to you, and our ancestors said that this tradition was handed down to them by their own ancestors (XII, 1–2).

Northern baptistery of the Mt. Nebo Byzantine basilica features a baptismal font (front) and elaborate mosaics dating to c. 530 C.E. Photo by flowcomm, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The small church that Egeria visited was rebuilt and expanded in the fifth century to include several side chapels and a baptistery (see photo), all of which were decorated with intricate mosaics or paved with marble tiles arranged in geometric patterns. This Byzantine basilica was recently excavated, and a new church (termed the Memorial Church of Moses) was built over it to protect the archaeological remains and provide visitors with the visual experience of the sixth-century church. During the restorations in 2013, an empty tomb was discovered in the center of the nave of the basilica. Foran writes:

Located at the highest point of the mountain, this tomb initially may have been part of an earlier shrine dedicated to Moses that was later incorporated into the basilica and sealed under its floor. The monastic community of Mt. Nebo possibly regarded this tomb as a burial monument dedicated to Moses, and it could have been the one that Egeria and her fellow pilgrims saw in the fourth century.

Where was Moses buried? This empty tomb in the center of the basilica on Mt. Nebo is likely the traditional site of Moses’s burial, around which the first monks settled. From Davide Bianchi, A Shrine to Moses (Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2021), p. 64; Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License.

Several other monastic sites around the alleged burial site of Moses at Mt. Nebo flourished during the Byzantine period (fourth–seventh centuries). Among them were ‘Uyun Musa (the Springs of Moses)—a perennial spring in the valley to the northeast of Mt. Nebo that also offered caves for Christian hermits (see photo). There is also Khirbat al-Mukhayyat, which is a hill about 2 miles southeast of Mt. Nebo that has at least three churches dating from the sixth and seventh centuries. This site is the focus of current explorations within the Town of Nebo Archaeological Project, directed by Foran.

Caves at ‘Uyun Musa (2 mi. northeast of Mt. Nebo) provided shelter to the Christian monks who came to live and pray near where Moses was buried. From Davide Bianchi, A Shrine to Moses (Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2021), p. 166; Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License.

To further explore the Christian monuments of Mt. Nebo, read Debra Foran’s article “Moses and the Monks of Nebo,” published in the Summer 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Subscribers: Read the full article “Moses and the Monks of Nebo,” by Debra Foran, in the Summer 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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This article was first published in Bible History Daily on July 20, 2022

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Restored entrance to th throne room in the Northwest Palace at Nimrud, before its destruction by ISIS in 2015. Mick Sharp / Alamy Stock Photo.

The Nimrud Letters are cuneiform tablets from the Assyrian royal city of Kalhu (present-day Nimrud). Their contents shed light on the history of the ancient Near East in the second half of the eighth century BCE, when Assyria became a regional superpower that eventually conquered or subdued the biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

The tablets received their modern name after the place of their discovery, the city of Nimrud, which sits on the east bank of the Tigris River some 20 miles southeast of Mosul in northern Iraq. In the spring of 1952, a team from the British School of Archaeology in Iraq excavated them from an ancient dump beneath the chancery offices of the so-called Northwest Palace, which was established by Ashurnasirpal II as the principal royal residence in his new capital. Despite their secondary location, the tablets likely were originally housed in the same room, since they were part of the Assyrian state archives.

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The group consists of almost 300 tablets and fragments, which make up about 230 individual letters. Made of clay and shaped into rectangles to fit the human hand, they typically do not exceed 3 inches in width but vary significantly in length depending on the extent of the text. Most of the letters are written in the Neo-Assyrian dialect and cuneiform script of the Akkadian language, whereas only about 30 letters use the Neo-Babylonian dialect and script. The Nimrud Letters are currently held in the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad and the British Museum in London.

Most of these letters come from the second half of the eighth century. Although their dating and attribution is not definitive, they mostly represent the correspondence of the Assyrian kings Tiglath-Pileser III (r. 744–727) and Sargon II (r. 721–705). A small portion belongs to Shalmaneser V and Sennacherib when they were both still crown princes.

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Henry W.F. Saggs, who took part in the 1952 excavations, published an edition and translation of the entire corpus in 2001: The Nimrud Letters, 1952 (Cromwell Press). A much-improved critical edition and translation appeared in 2012: Mikko Luukko, The Correspondence of Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II from Calah/Nimrud (Eisenbrauns). A searchable version is available from the State Archives of Assyria Online portal, with facsimiles and photos of the tablets also available online, from the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative.

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The Roman military camp at Legio (foreground) was founded in the second century CE in the shadow of the ancient mound of Megiddo (background). Photo courtesy Matthew J. Adams.

From the Bronze Age to the Ottoman period and beyond, the Jezreel Valley has served as a meeting point for armies, merchants, and pilgrims. Its strategic, economic, and administrative significance made this region in northern Israel a place of conflict but also prosperity and cultural exchange. It is then not surprising that in the early second century CE, Romans founded a legionary camp there known as Legio, within sight of the imposing mound of ancient Megiddo. Recent excavations at and around the camp have uncovered a fortified military base (see photo above), a civilian settlement, an amphitheater, and cemeteries. 

Writing for the Winter 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, the archaeological team at Legio, headed by Matthew J. Adams and Yotam Tepper, presents the results of their ongoing research into the daily life and the cultural and religious transformations that took place there nearly two millennia ago.  

A cultic standing stone (betyl) found toppled next to its decorated base at Legio. Photo courtesy Matthew J. Adams.

The military base was founded under Emperor Hadrian (r. 117–138 CE) to house the Second Roman Legion (Legio II Traiana, in Latin), which was soon replaced by the Sixth Ironclad Legion (Legio VI Ferrata). “With the Tenth Legion stationed in Jerusalem following the First Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE), the presence of a second legion in the north further consolidated Roman control over Judea, which by the second century was one of Rome’s most important eastern provinces. The base at Legio enabled the empire to suppress unrest, monitor roads, and ensure the loyalty of this politically volatile frontier,” write the authors. “The presence of the Sixth Legion reinforced the site’s identity as a locus of imperial power and local resistance, as evidenced by Megiddo’s prominent role in the New Testament Book of Revelation.”

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Building on previous explorations under the auspices of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Jezreel Valley Regional Project has now spent six excavation seasons focusing on various areas of the site, including the base’s fortifications, headquarters, amphitheater, and cemeteries, as well as an adjacent civilian settlement. The image that emerges from this research is an intimate portrait of both military and civilian life at this critical outpost on Rome’s eastern frontier.

A covered pot in one of the caves near Megiddo contains the ashes of a Roman soldier. Photo courtesy of Adam Prins/Jezreel Valley Regional Project.

Among the finds that attest to the intermingling of cultural and religious traditions at Legio is a stone pillar excavated from the camp’s monumental headquarters complex (principia, in Latin). Although found toppled, it originally stood nearly 3 feet tall on a decorated base. Intriguingly, such standing stones (betyls or massebot) were part of the Near Eastern (rather than Roman) cultic tradition, where they were believed to house or represent deities. This cultic object is then an example of cultural assimilation and might reflect the fact that Roman legions were diverse by design.

While some deceased soldiers were interred intact at the site’s cemetery, most were clearly cremated in keeping with common Roman funerary practice. The ashes from their bodily remains were then collected into covered pots and deposited for eternal rest in a nearby cave (see photo above). The two different types of burial likely reflect the preferences of soldiers from different ethnic and religious backgrounds.

Archaeologists also uncovered an early Christian prayer hall in the adjacent civilian settlement. Astonishingly, this place of Christian worship predates the official recognition of Christianity by almost a century and even attests to the presence of Christian military officers mingling with local Christians.

Subscribers: Read the full article “In the Shadow of Armageddon” by Matthew J. Adams, Yotam Tepper, Mark Letteney, and Wiesław Więckowski in the Winter 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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Royal pyramids in Nuri, the ancient cemetery of Nubian kings. Photo by Hans Birger Nilsen, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

As the mighty Assyrian army of King Sennacherib was getting ready to attack Judah at the close of the eighth century BC, the Judahite King Hezekiah undertook major operations to prepare for the assault. This included building a massive defensive wall and cutting a water tunnel to redirect the waters of the Gihon Spring inside the city (2 Chronicles 32:1–7; Isaiah 22:8–11).

In the Bible, we read about another intriguing development—a Nubian pharaoh coming to Judah’s aid: “Tirhaqah, king of Cush … has set out to fight against [Sennacherib]” (Isaiah 37:9). Who was this African ruler, known in Egyptian sources as King Taharqa? In “Judah’s African Ally: Taharqa and the Kingdom of Cush,” published in the Summer 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, James K. Hoffmeier examines the biblical, Assyrian, and archaeological sources to answer the critical questions about this ruler from the African kingdom of Cush.

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Map of Egypt and the kingdom of Cush, with the region of Napata in the red square. Biblical Archaeology Society.

Professor Emeritus of Old Testament and Near Eastern Archaeology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Hoffmeier reveals who King Taharqa from the lineage of Nubian kings was and how he ended up moving his troops in defense of ancient Judah. First, however, Hoffmeier provides a concise history of the fabled land of Cush—also called Nubia—in what is today northern Sudan. Attested in Egyptian texts already in the early 20th century BC, Nubia was partially colonized and exploited by its northern neighbor through much of the second millennium BC. “Egypt’s domination of Cush endured throughout the New Kingdom (1550–1100 BC), during which magnificent temples were constructed in Nubia, including the iconic rock-cut temples of Ramesses II (1279–1213 BC) at Abu Simbel. Shortly after 1100, the New Kingdom crumbled, and […] Cush was liberated from Egyptian hegemony, but not from the influence of Egyptian culture,” summarizes Hoffmeier. “For the next thousand years, Cushite royalty were buried in pyramids, wrote inscriptions in Egyptian hieroglyphs, and followed Egyptian canons of art and architecture. The patron god of Thebes, Amun-Re, was the principal deity of the Cushites.”

King Taharqa wearing two royal cobras on his headdress. Photo by ALFGRN, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

It was not until the eighth century, however, that a new dynasty of Nubian kings based in Napata ushered in a period of Nubian power and kingship known as the Napatan period (c. 800–300 BC). Eventually, Nubian kings took control of Memphis, the traditional capital of Egypt, and established Egypt’s 25th Dynasty. The greatest among the Napatan rulers was King Taharqa, who built many monuments across Egypt and Nubia and played an active role in international politics, including the military intervention in Judah in 701.

However, King Taharqa ruled the kingdom of Cush and Egypt from 690 to 664 BC. “So how do we explain his presence in Judah in support of Hezekiah in 701 BC, more than a decade before his coronation?” asks Hoffmeier. “Scholars have long puzzled over this question, with some arguing the biblical references to Tirhaqah are anachronistic, since Egyptian chronology places another Nubian pharaoh, Shebitku, on the throne at that time. But common sense and the evidence from historical and textual sources suggest otherwise.”

King Taharqa bringing offerings to the god Amun-Re at the Temple of Kawa. Anthony Huan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

After examining inscriptions on several of King Taharqa’s own royal stelae from the temple of Kawa, Hoffmeier concludes that Taharqa was about 20 years old in 701—not a child, as some scholars have argued. In that year, his older brother Shebitku was still the pharaoh of Egypt. This, argues Hoffmeier, explains why the biblical authors call Taharqa only “king of Cush” (melek kush), not “pharaoh.” Apparently, “the biblical writers understood that in 701 BC Taharqa was simply a Cushite prince who perhaps ruled Cush on behalf of Pharaoh Shebitku in Memphis.” And it was in this function that he led his brother’s army against the Assyrians.

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We know close to nothing about King Taharqa’s military operations in Judah. Although the Bible and Cushite inscriptions are silent about the outcome, Sennacherib’s annals claim that Taharqa’s army was defeated and prisoners taken. By the end of his own reign, King Taharqa had to face the Assyrian army again. Shortly thereafter, the Nubian kings were expelled out of Egypt, and the 25th Dynasty came to an end.

To fully explore the intricacies of the historical evidence for King Taharqa’s engagement in Judah, read James K. Hoffmeier’s article “Judah’s African Ally: Taharqa and the Kingdom of Cush,” published in the Summer 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Subscribers: Read the full article “Judah’s African Ally: Taharqa and the Kingdom of Cush” by James K. Hoffmeier in the Summer 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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The apostle Paul escaping from Damascus, in a wall mosaic from Cappella Palatina in Palermo, Sicily. Photo: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

There are lots of miracles in the Book of Acts. To be fair, we find many “signs and wonders” in other parts of the New Testament, too, but while the Gospels report on the mission of Jesus of Nazareth, Acts reflects the situation after Jesus’s death and resurrection. Accordingly, the miracles packed into the Book of Acts are performed by Jesus’s followers as they spread the “good news” across the Mediterranean world. And there was no greater messenger than the apostle Paul.

Paul healing a disabled man at Lystra, by the Dutch painter Karel Dujardin (1663). Photo: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Miracles and wondrous acts are exciting unto themselves, and people always enjoy reading or hearing about the supernatural. Since antiquity, however, miracles performed in a religious context have served to demonstrate the power (or even supremacy) of a deity and to authenticate religious figures. Beyond merely proving the existence or power of God, miracles recounted in the Bible also prove the legitimacy and the validity of those who deliver his message—whether it’s Moses addressing his fellow Hebrews or Paul founding Christian communities in Asia Minor. “These miraculous deeds garner loyalty to Christ who sits at the center of the expanding web that Paul is spinning to incorporate an ever-widening number of human beneficiaries,” writes Billings.

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To further explore the miracles of Paul and their intended effects on the nascent Christian church, read Drew W. Billings’s article “Paul, the Bible’s Last Action Hero,” published in the Winter 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Subscribers: Read the full article “Paul, the Bible’s Last Action Hero” by Drew W. Billings in the Winter 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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The post Paul, the Superhero appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

The main access to the Second Temple in Jerusalem was through an area known as the Ophel (visible in the lower center of photo as the excavated area wedged between the asphalt road and the southern wall of the ancient Temple Mount). Photo: Andrew Shiva /  Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 4.0.

The biblical command to appear before God on the three major festivals every year (Deuteronomy 16:16) meant that Jerusalem received thousands of pilgrims at Passover (Pesach), Pentecost (Shavuot), and Tabernacles (Sukkot). Yet we know very little about pilgrimage during the Persian and Hellenistic periods (sixth–second centuries BCE). We are on much safer ground for the late Hasmonean and Herodian periods, which are summarily called the late Second Temple period (first century BCE–first century CE). Jerusalem pilgrimage during this particular era is the subject of the article “At the Temple Gates: The Archaeology of Jerusalem Pilgrimage,” published in the Fall 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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Although several extensive accounts testify to the importance of late Second Temple pilgrimage, we still know very little about what it looked like and how exactly it was performed. The problem is that authors like Philo of Alexandria, Flavius Josephus, and even the authors of the New Testament spend little time describing the practical and mundane aspects of Jewish pilgrimage to Second Temple Jerusalem. And the more descriptive accounts available to us in rabbinic literature come only from the second through the fourth centuries CE, which means that they are not likely to contain authentic testimonies up to four centuries prior to their time.

In the early 1970s, archaeologist Benjamin Mazar excavated this and many more ritual baths at the Ophel that served the thousands of pilgrims who visited the Temple annually. Photo: A. Mercado / The New Ophel Excavations, Hebrew University.

Fortunately, archaeological exploration in and around Jerusalem has revealed details about what pilgrimage to Second Temple Jerusalem really looked like. In their Biblical Archaeology Review article, Uzi Leibner and Orit Peleg-Barkat provide an overview of earlier excavations and then focus on their own ongoing archaeological project. Leibner is the head of the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, while Peleg-Barkat is a senior lecturer there. Together, they co-direct the new Ophel excavations just outside the southern walls of the ancient Temple Mount. This area can be identified with the biblical Ophel and represents a narrow ridge connecting the Temple Mount in the north with the City of David to the south.

This decorated architectural element excavated at the Ophel resembles those from the Herodian Temple Mount. Photo: A. Mercado / The New Ophel Excavations, Hebrew University.

To explore the routes pilgrims took to walk up to the Temple and the activities they performed at the Temple gates, read Uzi Leibner and Orit Peleg-Barkat’s article “At the Temple Gates: The Archaeology of Jerusalem Pilgrimage,” published in the Fall 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Subscribers: Read the full article “At the Temple Gates: The Archaeology of Jerusalem Pilgrimage” by Uzi Leibner and Orit Peleg-Barkat in the Fall 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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The post Jewish Pilgrimage in Second Temple Jerusalem appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Among the spoils of the Jewish War paraded through the center of Rome in the summer of 71 C.E. was the Temple Menorah, depicted in this deeply carved relief panel from the Arch of Titus in Rome, which was erected for the victorious general (and later emperor) to permanently commemorate his major accomplishment. Photo: Courtesy Steven Fine, The Arch of Titus Project.

After quelling a dangerous revolt in the Roman province of Judea in 71 C.E., Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus returned to Rome to publicly celebrate their victory. Following an ancient martial tradition, they marched victoriously through the city center in a riotous triumphal procession, parading prisoners and spoils of the war.

To commemorate this Roman triumph and to honor the victorious general (and later emperor), Titus, Emperor Domitian built an honorific monument—the Arch of Titus, which stands on the main processional street of ancient Rome (Via Sacra) to this day. The relief panels of the Arch of Titus in Rome chronicle the triumphal episodes following the fall of Jerusalem, capturing prominently the triumphal procession. One of the scenes confirms that the Temple Menorah was carried on litters in the parade that took place in the summer of 71 C.E. But what happened to the seven-branched candelabrum after that? The possibilities are explored in detail in the article “Did the Temple Menorah Come Back to Jerusalem?” in the September/October 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, where Fredric Brandfon unravels the Menorah’s intricate story.

The first-century C.E. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus informs us that after the triumph—depicted so famously on the Arch of Titus in Rome—most of the Temple treasures were deposited in the newly built Roman Temple of Peace.¹ Josephus rather vaguely mentions “those golden vessels and instruments that were taken out of the Jewish temple.” Was the Temple Menorah among these artifacts?

The Roman Temple of Peace was apparently a magnificent building that Emperor Vespasian built “in so glorious a manner, as was beyond all human expectation and opinion” and had “adorned with pictures and statues.”² It is then no wonder that the Roman polymath Pliny considered this Roman Temple of Peace among the most beautiful buildings in the city.

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Yet we can only speculate that the Temple Menorah was among the Temple spoils and “all such rarities” (as Josephus puts it) collected from every part of the Roman Empire and displayed for public viewing in the Roman Temple of Peace.

The only time the Temple Menorah reappears in our records (after it had been portrayed on the Arch of Titus in Rome in c. 81 C.E.) is when a second-century rabbi Simeon ben Yohai travels to Rome, where he reportedly sees the Menorah. Where precisely? Presumably in the Roman Temple of Peace. This temple then burned down around 192 C.E. It was later rebuilt, but we never again hear of the Temple Menorah.

Only ruins remain of the Roman Temple of Peace that once housed the spoils of the Jerusalem Temple, according to Flavius Josephus’s The Jewish War. Was the Temple Menorah among these treasures? It must have been, although no historical source mentions it explicitly. But would the Temple Menorah have survived the fire that destroyed this pagan temple around 192 C.E.? If so, what followed?

If the Temple Menorah survived the destruction of the Roman Temple of Peace, what happened to it after the sack of Rome by Visigoths in 410 and by Vandals in 455? Is it even possible that the Menorah survived all the calamities and chaos of the fifth and sixth centuries? A tradition recorded by the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea (c. 500–560) has it that the Temple treasures eventually ended up back in Jerusalem.³ Procopius relates that Emperor Justinian returned the spoils of the Temple to Jerusalem because they were cursed—any city that once housed them was eventually destroyed. Could the Temple Menorah have still been part of the Temple treasures at that point in history and thus found its way back to the holy city?

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BAS Library Members: Read the full article “Did the Temple Menorah Come Back to Jerusalem?” as it appears in the September/October 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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A version of this post first appeared in Bible History Daily in 2017

Notes

1. Josephus, The Jewish War 7.158–162.

2. Ibidem.

3. Procopius, The Wars of Justinian, trans. by Henry B. Dewing, introduction and notes by Anthony Kaldellis (Indianapolis & Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Co., 2014), 4.9.6–9.

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The post Where Did the Temple Menorah Go? appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

We can learn from Assyrian depictions of ancient musicians a good deal about how Biblical psalms might have been performed. The meditative, introverted lute player on this eighth-century B.C.E. relief from Samal in modern Turkey, for instance, can give us an idea of what the performer of a wisdom psalm may have looked like. Photo: Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin/Photo Thomas Staubli.

Biblical psalms have throughout millennia been an important part of traditional Jewish and Christian worship. In synagogues and churches around the globe, psalms are sung today as they were two or three thousand years ago. Or are they? How much do we really know about how biblical psalms were originally performed? What might a psalm performance have looked like in the First Temple period, around 900 B.C.E.?

By examining available evidence, Thomas Staubli of the University of Freiburg, Switzerland, ventures to answer these intriguing questions in his Archaeological Views column “Performing Psalms in Biblical Times,” published in the January/February 2018 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

To be sure, there are no ancient music notations to inform us on the music arrangements of psalms in Iron Age Israel. What’s more, even though the collection of biblical psalms as we know it from the Hebrew Bible was established quite late, the oldest psalms were likely composed already in the 14th century B.C.E., from which we have no adequate documentation from Israelites themselves. Finally, given the biblical prohibition against graven images (Exodus 20:4), we do not possess depictions of people performing psalms. Because of this absence of direct evidence, Staubli focuses on comparative material, suggesting that we can learn much by simply taking a look at the Levantine neighbors of the early Israelites.

“The Bible does not tell us much about how psalms were originally performed. Archaeology and extra-biblical texts, however, can shed some light on the music and dance that accompanied psalms in biblical times,” summarizes Staubli his approach to the puzzle.

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“Among the Levantine parallels to the biblical psalms is the famous text corpus from Ugarit on the northern coast of modern Syria,” explains Staubli, referencing the so-called shuilla or the Akkadian “lifted-hand” petition prayers to different deities. Like many of biblical psalms, these ritual prayers contain in their rubrics designations of the genre, the function of the prayer, or descriptions of ritual enactments. Two examples read as follows:

It is the wording of a lifted-hand to the god Enlil-banda. You do the ritual with either a ritual arrangement or an incense burner.

It is the wording of the lifted-hand prayer to the goddess Ishtar. Its ritual: In an inaccessible place (lit., where the foot is kept away) you sweep the roof, you sprinkle pure water, and you lay four bricks at right angles to one another. You heap twigs of the Euphrates poplar (on the brazier), and you kindle the fire. Aromatic plants, scented flour, and juniper wood you strew. You pour out beer. You do not prostrate yourself. This recitation before Ishtar you recite three times. You prostrate yourself, and you do not look behind you.¹

There can further be no doubt that psalm singers were accompanied by players on musical instruments, which we can find depicted on numerous stone reliefs around the Levant (see image above).

Discovered on Elephantine, an island at the very southern border of ancient Egypt, the following fourth-century B.C.E. papyrus manuscript (P.Amherst 63) reveals that Yahweh was indeed seen as a music lover. Composed within the local Jewish community in Aramaic language but recorded in an Egyptian cursive script, it translates as follows: “Drink, Lord (YHWH), from the bounty of a thousand basins; be inebriated, Adonai, from the bounty of men. Musicians stand in attendance upon Lord (Mar): a player of the bass lyre (nevel), a player of the lyre (kinnor).”²

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BAS Library Members: Read the full article “Performing Psalms in Biblical Times” by Thomas Staubli in the January/February 2018 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

Notes

1. Adapted from Alan Lenzi (ed.), Reading Akkadian Prayers and Hymns: An Introduction, Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011, pp. 241 & 284. From ancient times, lifted hands are an expression of prayer (or greeting).

2. Adapted from Richard C. Steiner and Charles F. Nims, The Aramaic Text in Demotic Script: Text, Translation, and Notes (self-published, 2017), p. 48.

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This post originally appeared in Bible History Daily in February, 2018

The post How Were Biblical Psalms Originally Performed? appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.