How Jewish Was Sepphoris in Jesus’ Time?

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Sepphoris is a bare 4 miles from Jesus’ hometown, Nazareth. So it is not surprising that the ancient city has become central to the study of the historical Jesus, especially because it has been very extensively excavated, while Nazareth has yielded far fewer archaeological remains.

Everyone agrees that to understand Galilee in Jesus’ time, it is necessary to understand Sepphoris, but that is where agreement largely ends. The issue is simply stated: What kind of city was Sepphoris when Jesus was growing up in nearby Nazareth and when he was preaching in the surrounding countryside in such places as Capernaum and Bethsaida? Was Sepphoris a Jewish city? Did it have a mixed population? Was it a Hellenistic Roman city?

Some scholars characterize ancient Sepphoris as essentially non-Jewish—as, in the words of one scholar, a “burgeoning Greco-Roman metropolis” with a population of “Jews, Arabs, Greeks, and Romans,”¹ or as an 020“important Roman cultural and administrative center” with “all the features of a Hellenistic city.”² Coming from this context, certain scholars argue, Jesus would have had more in common with Greco-Roman philosophers than with rabbis or with classical Hebrew prophetic tradition.

After more than 15 years of excavating at Sepphoris, we believe that this view seriously mischaracterizes what the city was like in Jesus’ time. The archaeological evidence indicates that Sepphoris was largely Jewish, as was Galilee in general, albeit with some Hellenistic characteristics. The situation in Jesus’ day is best understood, however, in the context of the history of Sepphoris from earliest times until the Byzantine period, hundreds of years after Jesus. So we shall begin at the beginning.

The Hebrew name for Sepphoris is Zippori. The earliest major rabbinic text, the Mishnah, which dates to about 200 C.E., tells us that Zippori was one of the cities fortified by Joshua when the tribes of Israel first settled in the promised land.³ Despite many seasons of excavation, it is still not clear whether this tradition is accurate and, if so, whether the text refers to Sepphoris or another site, Tel ‘Ein Zippori, a few miles north of Sepphoris in the Nazareth basin.⁴ Two of the earliest artifacts (see photo) found at Sepphoris date, not from the time of Joshua, but from the fifth to fourth century B.C.E., after the Jews were permitted by the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great to return from the Babylonian Exile. The first item is a black-ware drinking goblet, or rhyton, the lower 021portion, or protome, of which resembles the face of a lion, the body of a horse and the outspread wings of a bird.⁵ The second artifact is a fragment from a marble or calcite vase originally inscribed in four languages. The text included the name Artaxerxes in the cuneiform signs of the Persian, Elamite and Old Babylonian languages; there was also a version of the text in Egyptian hieroglyphics.⁶ Since the Persians are known to have established garrisons at various points along the road system in Syria-Palestine, these fine objects suggest the presence of one such garrison near Sepphoris. They also underscore the city’s strategic location along the major trans-Galilee highway, which linked the area of Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee with the Mediterranean coast at Akko.

From the Hellenistic period, we found the remains of a fort constructed in about 200 to 100 B.C.E., when the city was part of the Seleucid^a Empire. This fort, on the western summit of the site, was probably built by the Seleucid monarch Antiochus III or his successor, Antiochus IV. The Jews successfully rebelled against Antiochus IV in 167 B.C.E., a victory that is still recalled at the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. The victory of Judah Maccabee and his brothers eventually led to the installation of the Hasmonean^b dynasty, 022which ruled the first independent Jewish state since Judah fell to the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. The original Seleucid fort was probably taken over by the Hasmoneans in about 100 B.C.E.

Several rather elegant stepped pools, or Jewish ritual baths (mikva’ot), are associated with this early Hasmonean phase. Although it was very surprising to find mikva’ot so early, an ostracon dated to this same period (late second century B.C.E.) indicates that Jews did indeed live at Sepphoris in the early Hasmonean period. The ostracon is inscribed in square Hebrew script.⁷

The first-century C.E. Jewish historian Josephus tells us in his history of the Jews that the governor of Cyprus attempted to conquer Sepphoris and take it from the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus (103–76 B.C.E.), thereby confirming that it was under Hasmonean rule.⁸

Shortly after the Roman general Pompey conquered Syria-Palestine in 63 B.C.E., the Romans divided Jewish Palestine into five districts and established Jewish councils to administer local affairs in these districts. Sepphoris was selected as the only Galilean town to be assigned a Jewish council.⁹

In 37 B.C.E. the Hasmoneans were replaced by Herod the Great, although not without a struggle. Indeed, Sepphoris was a stronghold of the last Hasmonean king, Antigonus (c. 39–38 B.C.E.). Antigonus was supported by the Parthians (Persians), who had been instrumental in his appointment.

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Herod captured the city, however, and made it his base of operations in the north.¹⁰ He could well have used the old Seleucid fort as a kind of arsenal.

When Herod died in 4 B.C.E., a Galilean named Judas son of Ezekias led a rebellion directed at Sepphoris and its “royal” palace, or fort and arsenal.¹¹ The Roman legate of Syria, Varus, responded by burning the city to the ground and selling its rebellious inhabitants into slavery.¹²

The city seems to have recovered quickly, however. Perhaps Josephus exaggerated Varus’s retaliatory attack. Already during the reign of Herod’s son Herod Antipas (who fell heir to Galilee), the city expanded and its acropolis was rebuilt. Josephus describes this city as the “ornament of all Galilee.” “Ornament” refers to more than beauty, however; the Greek word for ornament, proschema, also has a military connotation—fortification or impregnable city.¹³

Sepphoris was the capital of Galilee until about 20 C.E., when Herod Antipas constructed a new city on the Sea of Galilee, Tiberias, and shifted his capital there.

In 61 C.E., when the Roman emperor Nero turned Tiberias over to Herod Agrippa II, another descendant of Herod the Great, Sepphoris once again became the administrative center of Galilee.¹⁴ Both the royal bank and the official archives were moved there.¹⁵

In 66 C.E. the First Jewish Revolt against Rome began. It effectively ended in 70 C.E. with the burning of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple. Sometimes called the Great Revolt, this uprising often conjures up visions of staunch resistance, symbolized by the Zealots’ last stand at Masada or by the fierce defenders of Jerusalem during the Roman siege of the city in the spring and summer of 70 C.E. In truth, however, there was a very strong peace movement within the Jewish ranks, which included such luminaries as Yochanan ben Zakkai and, eventually, Josephus. As early as the time of Herod the Great, Hillel the Elder articulated a position of nonviolence and espoused a policy of working within the administrative structure of Roman rule.

Sepphoris, like Josephus, seems to have started out supporting the revolt but later thought better of it. (Unfortunately, our only source for these events is Josephus himself, and his reports are sometimes inconsistent.) Josephus served as commander of the Jewish force in the Galilee from 66 to 67 C.E. He was taken captive by the Romans at Jotapata, where he surrendered after the last of his companions committed suicide. After his capture, Josephus apparently experienced a profound change in his attitude toward Rome.

Similarly, Sepphoris residents were at first eager for hostilities against Rome.¹⁶ Josephus 024himself was involved in fortifying Sepphoris. What may be the remains of a fortification wall from this period have recently been discovered by an archaeological expedition led by Zeev Weiss of Hebrew University. Sepphoris was “the strongest city in Galilee” according to Josephus.¹⁷

Nevertheless, at some point the city fathers appear to have changed their minds. Rather than risk destruction, the city chose the safer option—solidarity with the Romans. Early in the conflict, Sepphoris admitted a garrison of Roman soldiers,¹⁸ which was later joined by another contingent from the Roman general and future emperor Vespasian.¹⁹

Josephus at first viewed the refusal of the city’s inhabitants to participate in the revolt as a betrayal of their fellows.²⁰ But his own attitude changed after Sepphoris eagerly welcomed Vespasian and his army in peace.

Evidence that Sepphoris adopted a pro-Roman, or “peace,” position comes from city coins minted there during the revolt. Some of these coins are inscribed “Under Vespasian, Eirenopolis [meaning “City of Peace”]–Neronias [in honor of Nero]–Sepphoris.” The old fort, first used by the Seleucids and later by the Hasmoneans, and ultimately by Herod the Great, may have been filled in shortly before 68 C.E. and made into a great open plaza as a sign of Sepphoris’s good will and change of heart toward the Romans.

We may now stop to consider the ethnic character of the city. Since we have been discussing the ancient literature, we may begin with Josephus. Aside from his report of the Roman soldiers who were garrisoned in Sepphoris during the revolt, Josephus nowhere refers to any gentile inhabitants of the city. Nor does he refer to any pagan temples or other Hellenistic institutions, such as a gymnasium, in the city. Indeed, nothing in his accounts suggests that Sepphoris in the first century C.E. was anything but a Jewish city. Later rabbinic traditions corroborate this image, preserving memories of the participation of priests from Sepphoris in the Temple cult in Jerusalem.²¹

Whether Jewish or gentile, however, it is clear that the city was no rural backwater. It was, at least architecturally, a sophisticated city with paved and colonnaded streets; water installations, possibly including a bathhouse on the eastern plateau and some sort of public water works nearer the acropolis; multistory buildings; and major public structures, including a large columned building also on the eastern plateau. A honeycomb of cisterns was cut into the bedrock underlying the city. The proximity of Sepphoris to Nazareth indeed undermines the notion that Jesus was unfamiliar with sophisticated urban culture; 025the question is whether that culture was predominantly Jewish or gentile.

A number of archaeological considerations lead us to the same impression we get from Josephus—that Sepphoris was a Jewish city. This archaeological evidence will become even more persuasive when we contrast it with the materials from later periods.

The first bit of evidence comes from the faunal remains. Thousands upon thousands of fragments of animal bones have been recovered from the western summit of the site. These have been studied by Billy Grantham, associate professor of anthropology at Troy State University.²² In the entire lot, there were so few pig bones from the Roman era that Grantham concluded that pork was a negligible component of the Sepphoreans’ diet. This is especially significant because in the Byzantine era the percentage of pig bones rises to nearly 30 percent in Christian areas of the city. Clearly, the residents of the western summit avoided pig consumption, in keeping with Jewish dietary laws.

The second ethnic marker is already familiar to BAR readers.^c In the residential area of the city, 114 fragments of stone vessels were recovered. Stone vessels are not subject to ritual impurity. When pottery vessels became ritually unclean they were destroyed. Metal and glass vessels could be repurified. But stone vessels did not become impure. Hence, large stone vessels were used to store pure water for ritual hand washing. (The Gospel of John 2:6 refers to “six stone jars [that] were standing for the Jewish rites of purification.”) Bathhouse benches were made of stone for the same reason.²³

Stone vessels have—and have not—been encountered in so many excavations that their presence may be used as an ethnic marker, as Yitzhak Magen, who has studied them extensively, has observed. The presence of more than a hundred stone vessel fragments in the residential area of Sepphoris is a strong indication that the inhabitants were Jewish.

The next ethnic marker is somewhat more controversial. There is no question that the presence of Jewish ritual baths, mikva’ot, indicates the presence of Jews. In our view, the many water pools found in the residential areas of Sepphoris from the late Hellenistic and Roman periods should be identified as mikva’ot. This has been challenged by Hanan Eshel, an Israeli scholar. The arguments on either side are aired elsewhere in this issue. Readers can decide for themselves the merits of the arguments, although in our view the outcome is clear. But even Eshel concedes that some of these pools may be mikva’ot. And there can be no doubt 027that where there are mikva’ot there are Jews.

Thus the lack of pig bones, the abundance of stone vessels and the presence, at least in our view, of many mikva’ot all support our conclusion that during Jesus’ time Sepphoris was home to a significant Jewish community. This is entirely consistent with Josephus. This conclusion is also supported by the Hellenistic period Hebrew ostracon referred to earlier and by several late Roman period lamp fragments with menorahs (seven-branched candelabra) depicted on their central discus. In addition, numerous mosaic fragments with Hebrew and Aramaic letters have been recovered from the western summit of Sepphoris. All together, the evidence points to a Jewish population in the Hellenistic-Roman period that maintained at least some of the most important religious laws of the Bible and the Mishnah.

The two types of coins minted by Sepphoris during the Great Revolt also suggest the city was primarily Jewish. Neither contains any image of the Roman emperor or pagan deities, although these images were common on coins of this period issued by cities on the Palestinian coast as well as by cities of the Decapolis (a group of ten cities mostly east of Galilee). On one of the Sepphoris coins is a double cornucopia (horn of plenty) with a staff in the middle. These were common symbols on first-century Jewish coins (the cornucopia, however, was by far the more common of the two). The other coin minted at Sepphoris during the revolt contains only an inscription, in Greek, with no image whatsoever.

In contrast to the abundant evidence of a Jewish presence in the city, evidence of a pagan presence in the first century C.E. is practically nonexistent. After more than 15 years of extensive excavations, no remains of a temple have been discovered, no cultic objects, no inscriptions referring to the worship of pagan deities. The typical architectural features of a Hellenistic city are also missing—we have discovered no gymnasium, no hippodrome (chariot-racing course), no amphitheater, no odeum (small, sometimes roofed theater), no nymphaeum (elaborately decorated fountain), no shrines, no statues.

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We do not mean to suggest that Sepphoris was totally removed from the cultural trends of larger Roman society but only to demonstrate that the first-century city’s Jewish character had by no means been submerged in a sea of Hellenism. While Sepphoris’s economic, social and political influence in Galilee is clear, there is no reason to characterize the city as a center of Hellenism or as a typical Greco-Roman city in the first century.

Not until the second and third centuries C.E. do we find evidence of a non-Jewish presence at Sepphoris. But before examining this material, we must consider the very impressive theater that was first excavated at Sepphoris 70 years ago by Leroy Waterman of the University of Michigan. Renewed excavation by James F. Strange (University of South Florida) in 1983; by Eric Meyers (Duke University), Ehud Netzer (Hebrew University) and Carol Meyers (Duke University) in 1985; and by Ehud Netzer and Zeev Weiss (Hebrew University) in 1991 has unfortunately not entirely settled the question of the date of the theater. In our view, it was constructed some time near the end of the first century C.E., after the Great Revolt, or, more likely, early in the second century C.E. Several scholars have attempted to date the theater to a period before the Great Revolt. Some have even sought to associate the theater with Jesus. This dispute has already been aired in these pages.^d Suffice it to say that few scholars have come forth in support of such an early dating.

As the city grew and expanded during the second century C.E., a new aqueduct system was constructed. This system served most of the needs of the city, as well as two public bathhouses in the lower city. An agora (marketplace) was probably also added.²⁴ Coins bearing the bust of the emperor Trajan (98–117 C.E.) were minted by the city. Coins minted under Antoninus Pius (138–161 C.E.) not only bear the bust of the emperor but also display images of pagan deities—the Capitoline triad and Tyche, who is usually regarded as a city goddess.

The Antoninus Pius coins also reveal a new name for the city: Diocaesarea. This name, which honors both Zeus (in Latin, Dio) and the emperor, appears on all subsequent coins issued by the city and becomes the name by which the city is known in pagan and Christian literature.

Other post-first-century artifacts reflect growing Hellenistic and pagan influence. Second- and third-century lamps bear Hellenistic motifs, such as a medusa (from Greek mythology, a witch-like woman with snakes for hair). Other Sepphoris lamps from the period depict 029explicit erotic poses. A mid-second-century C.E. lead weight contains a Greek inscription identifying two of the city’s market officials (agoranomoi), one with a Semitic name (Simon) and one with a Latin name (Justus).²⁵

One of the most famous and most frequently visited discoveries at Sepphoris is a magnificent villa, situated on the acropolis near the theater, that dates to the early third century C.E. The floor is decorated with a beautifully preserved mosaic that contains an enigmatic portrait of an unknown woman often called the “Mona Lisa of the Galilee.” More important for our purposes, however, are the panels in the center of the mosaic. Accompanied by explanatory Greek inscriptions, they depict a drinking contest between Dionysus, the god of wine, and Heracles, here depicted as a participant in a Greek-style symposium. Not surprisingly, Dionysus wins the contest. One panel shows Heracles drunk, and another features a procession in his honor.²⁶

But that is not all. Two tiny bronze figures—one depicting either Pan or a satyr, the other depicting Prometheus—were found in a cistern of a house on the western acropolis, and they, too, date to the second or third century C.E. A bronze bowl, a small bronze incense altar and a small bronze bull found together in a cistern and probably dating to the fourth century C.E. are most likely associated with the worship of Serapis.²⁷

After the Great Revolt (66–70 C.E.), and especially after the Second Jewish Revolt (132–135 C.E.; sometimes called the Bar-Kokhba Revolt), Jews from southern Palestine migrated north to Galilee, bringing with them the Hellenistic culture that had previously been more pronounced at Jerusalem and its environs than in Galilee. The hellenization of Galilee was also significantly increased by the arrival of Roman troops, who, in 120 C.E., were for the first time permanently stationed there. The VI Ferrata Legion and their support personnel were headquartered at Legio, only a few miles south of Sepphoris. But all this occurred well after the time of Jesus.

By the fourth century C.E., Greek inscriptions are common at Sepphoris. The name of the city had already been changed to Diocaesarea, perhaps to placate the nearby Romans, and the city administration may well have been composed of a mixture of gentiles (pagans as well as Christians) and Jews.

While the growing visibility of Greco-Roman culture at Sepphoris is unmistakable, evidence of pagan worship is still scant. Despite images of temples on second- and third-century C.E. city coins, no actual temple has yet been discovered at Sepphoris. And while the figurines and other cultic objects 031mentioned above provide glimpses of pagan practices, they are few in number and late in date.

Moreover, the evidence for Judaism in Sepphoris only grows after the first century C.E. The most obvious evidence is the prominence of Sepphoris in rabbinic sources. Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, or Judah the Prince, apparently supervised the codification of Jewish law in the Mishnah at Sepphoris. Mikva’ot dating as late as the fourth century C.E. are common. Few pig bones are found before the Byzantine period (fourth century C.E.). Two fourth-century C.E. lamps from Sepphoris depict a menorah; another shows an aedicula resembling a Torah shrine.²⁸ The fourth-century bishop Epiphanius records an application by a Christian to build churches in Sepphoris; Emperor Constantine’s reply refers to “the cities and villages of the Jews … where there is not among them a pagan or a Samaritan or a Christian.” It then mentions four cities in which “no gentile can 032be found among them”: Nazareth, Capernaum, Tiberias—and Diocaesarea, that is, Sepphoris.²⁹

It is against this background that we must consider Sepphoris as it may be relevant to the search for the historical Jesus.

Unfortunately, some scholars have misperceived Sepphoris as a center of Greco-Roman culture in the time of Jesus on the basis of finds from the centuries after Jesus. Sepphoris was indeed a thriving and growing city in the early first century C.E., but the evidence for Hellenistic culture is limited. As for the city’s population, the overwhelming majority were Jews. Gentiles, if they were present at all, were a small and uninfluential minority.

Some scholars have gone so far as to suggest that the cultural trends in Galilee in Jesus’ time differed little from those elsewhere in the Roman Empire. On this basis, they view Jesus as a kind of sage influenced by popular—that is, less scholarly—versions of Greek and Roman philosophy. Popular philosophers could be found throughout the urban centers of the Roman Empire, standing on street corners haranguing passersby with their views, so why not in Sepphoris? So the argument runs. These scholars, incorrectly in our view, reject the notion that Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet proclaiming the end of the present age and the arrival of a new age where God’s rule would be accomplished on earth—the traditional Jewish understanding of the “kingdom of God” that he preached.

John Dominic Crossan, for example, has painted a picture of Jesus espousing an eastern Mediterranean version of a Greek philosophy known as Cynicism. According to scholars like Crossan, Jesus the peasant Cynic traveled throughout Galilee calling for a countercultural rejection of social norms. His followers were to abandon their possessions, “storing up treasures in heaven” instead (Matthew 6:19).

If the apocalyptic understanding of this kingdom is rejected, then what did Jesus mean by the “kingdom of God”? According to 033Crossan, Jesus, advocating Cynic-like values, wanted to bring about, not an apocalyptic kingdom, but a kingdom in which social barriers were eliminated and society’s outcasts and rejects were elevated.

In fact, however, there is no evidence for the presence of philosophic teachers, Cynic or otherwise, in first-century C.E. Galilee. While the influence of Hellenistic culture was growing in Galilee, it did not reach its apex until the following centuries. Sepphoris was a primarily Jewish city, and nothing suggests that Greco-Roman philosophers would have been found there.

In a book entitled Jesus and the Forgotten City, Richard Batey even tries to make a case that Sepphoris was a booming Hellenistic city early in the first century C.E. He posits a Sepphoris with many gentiles practicing pagan rituals, and a pagan culture that had a far-reaching effect on the indigenous people of the region, including nearby Nazarenes such as Jesus. Although most of Batey’s views have been rejected, his assumption that the Lower Galilee was fully hellenized in the time of Jesus has been shared by many scholars. As a result, many scholars are looking for Hellenism as an influence on Jesus’ teaching, rather than looking for its source in Jewish culture. Although some aspects of Jewish culture were fully at home in Hellenistic culture, it nevertheless remains the case that Hebrew language and literature, as well as Aramaic and Jewish culture, dominated the region at this time. And it is there that we must search for the historical Jesus.

Sepphoris is a bare 4 miles from Jesus’ hometown, Nazareth. So it is not surprising that the ancient city has become central to the study of the historical Jesus, especially because it has been very extensively excavated, while Nazareth has yielded far fewer archaeological remains. Everyone agrees that to understand Galilee in Jesus’ time, it is necessary to understand Sepphoris, but that is where agreement largely ends. The issue is simply stated: What kind of city was Sepphoris when Jesus was growing up in nearby Nazareth and when he was preaching in the surrounding countryside in such places […]