Inscribed “To God Jesus Christ” - The BAS Library
Login
Home > Magazines > BAR > March/April 2007

Inscribed “To God Jesus Christ”

Early Christian Prayer Hall Found in Megiddo Prison

By Vassilios Tzaferis

In the late 1990s, authorities at the prison that sits near the base of Tel Megiddo in northern Israel decided they needed more room. Accordingly, an addition was planned within the prison compound and work commenced. It was not long, however, before the construction workers (prisoners) hit ancient remains. Work on the prison extension was immediately stopped and the Israel Antiquities Authority notified. A so-called salvage, or rescue excavation was organized under the direction of archaeologist Yotam Tepper, and the archaeologists were soon in the field. (The prisoners also helped; Tepper dedicates his popular pamphlet on 040 the excavation […]

Please join the BAS Library or become an All Access member of BAS to gain full access to this article and so much more.

Join the BAS Library!

Already a library member? Log in here.

Institution user? Log in with your IP address or Username

Footnotes

1.

A Roman bread stamp found in Jerusalem was recently published in BAR. See Eilat Mazar, “Hadrian’s Legion Encamped on the Temple Mount,” BAR 32:06.

2.

George Howard, “The Name of God in the New Testament,” BAR 04:01.

Endnotes

1.

The excavator and epigraphist call it a prayer hall, rather than a church, because it is not a separate building in the plan of later churches. They also prefer prayer hall to domus ecclesia (house church) because the building was owned privately rather than by the Christian community. In common parlance, however, the prayer hall would certainly be considered a church.

2.

Yotam Tepper and Leah di Segni, A Christian Prayer Hall of the Third Century C.E. at Kefar Óthnay (Legio) (Jerusalem: IAA Publications, 2006).

3.

Clark Hopkins, The Excavations at Dura-Europos, by Mikhail Rostovtzeff (New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press, 1934), pp. 238–253, pl. xxxix.

4.

A. Orlandos, in Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique (1930), p. 49; (1936), p. 84, Fig. 15.

5.

Mark 14:15; Luke 22:12 Acts 10:9; Romans 16:5, 23; Colossians 4:16.

6.

Lee I. Levine, “Ancient Synagogues—A Historical Introduction” in Ancient Synagogues Revealed (IEC Publications, 1981), pp. 1–5.

7.

Tertullian, Patrologia Latina, ed. J.P. Migne, 2, 1039.

8.

Cyprian, De Opere et Eleemosyne 15, p. 384.

9.

J.I. Dolger, Antike und Chrisentum (1941), pp. 161–195.

10.

Migne, Patrologia Latina 3.270.

11.

Origen, On Prayer, ed. Berlin, 31, 6.

12.

Eusebius of Caesarea, The Ecclesiastical History, trans. J.E.L. Oulton (1957), Book VIII, 1.5.