Helios in the Synagogue

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Archaeologist Zeev Weiss has described in these pages the extraordinary synagogue mosaic recently uncovered at ancient Sepphoris.^a Its most striking feature is a zodiac in whose center is an abstract depiction of the Greek sun god Helios (represented as a radiant sun disk) riding in his quadriga, or four-horse chariot.

What in the world is a Greek god doing in a synagogue? As Weiss correctly observed, the zodiac and Helios together are common features in ancient synagogues. Even worse—in some synagogues, Helios is shown in human form, rather than as an abstract sun disk!

Weiss may have been slightly uncomfortable with his explanation of these symbols. He writes that the zodiac is “intended to remind the viewer of the cyclical pattern of nature.” Since the sun was regarded as the “central body in the universe,” the abstract Helios, he says, was meant “to serve as a reminder of God’s omnipotence.” That he has doubts is reflected in the concluding two sentences of this paragraph: “Does this still leave a puzzle as to why Jews could incorporate in that synagogue a Greek zodiac adapted to Hebrew months and a metaphor for God’s omnipotence involving a Greek god? We leave this for our readers to decide.”

This reader believes she has a better, although perhaps more blasphemous, explanation.

The Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 156b) records a debate about the validity of astrology for Jews. Rabbi Hanina, a Babylonian who came to Palestine to study with the great Judah ha Nasi, compiler of the Mishnah (d. before 230 C.E.), said, “The planetary influence gives wisdom, the planetary influence gives wealth and Israel stands under planetary influence.” In contrast, Rabbi Yohanan, who lived in about 250 C.E., declared, “There are no constellations for Israel.” The rest of Shabbat 156b is devoted to arguments in support of Rabbi Yohanan’s position against planetary 054influence. Such debates indicate that astrology was quite problematic for the rabbinic authorities—and that some believed in it.

Synagogue mosaics from the late Roman and early Byzantine periods in Palestine offer evidence that Jews did indeed believe that Israel stood under planetary influence.

Representations of the twelve signs of the zodiac in a radial arrangement around Helios in his sun chariot (often, as at Sepphoris, with personifications of the seasons in the corners) have been found in at least seven late antique synagogues in Israel.^b By contrast, zodiac pavement mosaics have not been found in the decoration of churches or other Christian buildings, or in Diaspora synagogues. Aside from these synagogues in Israel, only three other mosaic pavements with the Helios-in-the-zodiac composition have been uncovered elsewhere: one in a villa in Avenches, Switzerland, dating to about 250 C.E.; another from about the same time in a villa at Bingen, near Mainz, Germany; and a third with both the sun and the moon in the center in a building in Sparta, Greece, dating to the fourth century.¹

Liturgical poems (piyyutim) read during services in late antique and early Byzantine synagogues contain numerous references to the zodiac. For example, a poem found in the Cairo Genizah^c declares that “There arose a dispute among the months, when the August one sent to the land of Egypt. Come let us cast lots on the zodiac, that we might know in which of us Israel is to be redeemed.² In a lamentation for the Ninth of Av (the date on which the destruction of both the First and Second Temples is observed), the first eight 055signs of the zodiac bewail the fate of Jerusalem, while the last four are practically accused of betrayal.³ This lamentation is still recited in synagogues that follow the Ashkenazic tradition.

So much for the zodiac. Now let us turn to the sun god. Worship, or at least reverence, of Helios as the sun god reaches far back into Jewish history. In 2 Kings 23:11 we are told that King Josiah “destroyed the horses that the kings of Judah had set up in honor of the sun at the entrance to the House of the Lord … and he burnt the chariots of the sun.”

In an area of Jerusalem that excavator Kathleen Kenyon characterized as a cult center from the time of the Israelite monarchy, she found figurines of horses with an unusual disk between their ears.^d By analogy to finds in western Asia and Egypt, and through reference to the text in 2 Kings, Kenyon concluded that “horses with a disk on the forehead are miniature models of the Horses of the Sun.”⁴ The disk is not unlike the disk that represents Helios in the Sepphoris synagogue mosaic.

From this same period of Israel’s monarchy (seventh century B.C.E.), sun disks with winged scarabs appear on various official seals, including so-called l’melekh (belonging to the king) handles, and even on the personal seal of King Hezekiah of Judah.^e

Morton Smith has interpreted the golden staircase described in an important Dead Sea Scroll as a staircase built for worship of the sun, “beseeching him to rise.”^f

The figure of Helios is frequently found on Jewish magical amulets, often with inscriptions naming the deity and such angels as Michael and Raphael.⁵

That the sun, moon and stars were revered as angels is evident from the text of Psalm 148:1–4: “Praise the Lord out of heaven; praise him in the heights. Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his host. Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars; praise him, heaven of heavens.”

In the Mishnah (the earliest rabbinical code, dating to about 200 C.E.), we are told that anyone who finds an object with representations of the sun, the moon or a serpent must cast it into the Dead Sea (Avodah Zarah 3.3). This admonition surely indicates that such representations were not unusual.

A connection between the Jewish worship of angels and astrology is attested by many early Christian writers. According to the Preachings of Peter, referred to by Clement of Alexandria, the Jews, “thinking that they only know God, do not know him, adoring as they do angels and archangels, the months and the moon.”⁶ Origen writes in Contra Celsius that “what is astonishing about the Jews is that they adore the sky and the angels that inhabit it.”⁷

Jewish texts are even more helpful in shedding light on the worship of angels, and they provide insight into the symbolism of the zodiac pavements in ancient synagogues. The first-century C.E. Jewish historian Josephus writes, “Sun and moon are indicated by the two sardonyxes [a semiprecious gem] wherewith [the high priest] pinned his robe. As for the twelve stones [on the high priest’s breastplate], whether one would prefer to read in them the months or the constellations of like number, which the Greeks call the circle of the zodiac, he will not mistake the lawgiver’s intention.”⁸

The Sefer ha-Razim (Book of Secrets), a text of the late third or early fourth century discovered in the Cairo Genizah, includes a prayer to Helios. The language is Greek, but it is written in Hebrew letters. It reads in part: “Holy Helios who rises in the east, good mariner, trustworthy leader of the sun’s rays … who of old did establish the mighty wheel of the heavens … ”⁹

In my view, Helios on synagogue pavements represents a minor deity to whom some members of the congregation might have addressed prayers—not to the 056image itself, but to the deity it represents.¹⁰

The Helios-in-the-zodiac panel in the center of these synagogue mosaics represents the celestial sphere. It usually occupies the center of three panels, misleading some to suggest that this is the most important panel. Not so. The entire pavement has a program. Virtually all the synagogue mosaics feature a three-panel arrangement: In the lowest panel is an inscription or a figural scene; in the center is the zodiac panel; and on the top is a representation of the Torah shrine with menorahs and other objects used in Jewish liturgy. At Sepphoris, however, there are two figural panels below the zodiac, showing (from east to west) the angel’s visit to Abraham and Sarah at Mamre and the story of the binding of Isaac. There are also four panels above (i.e., west of) the zodiac panel, depicting the offerings to the Tabernacle and the Temple, the consecration of Aaron, the high priest, and the daily offerings, the Torah shrine flanked by menorahs and other objects used in Jewish liturgy, and a pair of guardian lions grasping rams’ heads in their forepaws and flanking an inscribed wreath. The Sepphoris mosaic is unusual for the richness of its iconographical program, but the basics remain the same. The panels below represent the earthly sphere. The panels depicting the consecration of Aaron and the rituals of the Temple represent the Temple in Jerusalem. The panel above, with the Torah shrine, represents the highest sphere, symbolic of the seventh firmament, where according to the Sefer ha-Razim, Yahweh resides, “King of Kings, ruling over all the kings of the earth and exalted among the angels of heaven.”¹¹

Archaeologist Zeev Weiss has described in these pages the extraordinary synagogue mosaic recently uncovered at ancient Sepphoris.a Its most striking feature is a zodiac in whose center is an abstract depiction of the Greek sun god Helios (represented as a radiant sun disk) riding in his quadriga, or four-horse chariot. What in the world is a Greek god doing in a synagogue? As Weiss correctly observed, the zodiac and Helios together are common features in ancient synagogues. Even worse—in some synagogues, Helios is shown in human form, rather than as an abstract sun disk! Weiss may have been slightly […]