Second Life for the Psalms

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Many psalms enjoyed a second life in post­classical and medieval Greek epigraphy (inscriptions). Hundreds of Greek inscriptions from the first to 15th centuries A.D. preserve verses—or entire psalms—taken from the Book of Psalms of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) compiled in the third and second centuries B.C. Alongside the ornate manuscripts sponsored by church authorities or medieval magnates, these inscriptions might appear rugged. Yet they constituted an important cultural element in the Greek-speaking world of the long-lived eastern Roman Empire, from the beginnings of Christianity up until the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.

Greek inscriptions bearing passages from the Bible have been found in the entire postclassical Greek-speaking world, from the central Mediterranean to Asia Minor and the Levant, including late antique Syria, Crimea, Egypt, and Palestine.¹ In the first three centuries A.D., the few inscriptions preserving (or alluding to) a Greek Old Testament passage receive their text from various books, including Leviticus and Deuteronomy. The inscriptions come from various archaeological contexts, mostly Jewish and pagan (the latter should be associated with the sebomenoi, or “Godfearers,” Greek converts to Judaism or Greek attendees of synagogues).^a From the third century onward, the Book of Psalms takes the lead in Old Testament quotations, almost monopolizing the presence of the Old Testament in later Greek epigraphy: More than 95 percent of inscriptions preserving an Old Testament text contain verses from the Psalms.

The majority of medieval Greek inscriptions bearing a psalmic text contain only a few verses. 061Some inscriptions, however, bear (or initially bore) larger portions of psalmic texts or entire psalms. Notable examples include the inscriptions from Akroinon (today’s Afyonkarahisar, Turkey), which preserves five psalmic passages; from Lapethus (near modern Karavas in Cyprus), with all of Psalm 15; from Rhodes, with Psalm 80; from the catacombs of Kertsch, with Psalm 91 and other psalmic verses; and from Salamis of Cyprus, similarly with Psalm 91 in whole.^b

There is a connection between the presence of psalms in postclassical Greek inscriptions and the popular belief in certain psalms’ apotropaic (protecting from or repelling evil) nature. This is especially the case with Psalm 91 and with Psalms 29:3; Psalms 46:7, Psalms 46:11; Psalms 118:20; Psalms 121:8, which frequently appear in inscriptions. The assumed apotropaic and protective nature of those psalms is further attested in objects of Byzantine handcraft, such as amulets or jewels, and distinguished parts of civil and religious buildings, such as façades and entrance gates. Even after the demise of an early Christian building, the stone bearing the psalmic text would be incorporated into later churches to provide an unbroken continuum in apotropaic protection.

Redactors or engravers took some liberties when reproducing the psalms. They sometimes abbreviated the text, collated passages from different psalms, or rephrased the verses to adapt them to a Christian environment. Nevertheless, many inscriptions—whether inscribed on stone or handcrafted objects—are a testimony to the textual history of the Greek Psalms. This is especially the case with inscriptions dated before the ninth century A.D. Those inscriptions offer a glimpse to an early Greek text of the Septuagint, which is much older than the one preserved in the majority of the extant Greek biblical manuscripts. In many cases, some psalmic inscriptions are contemporary to the oldest extant Greek biblical manuscripts, such as the Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, or Codex Alexandrinus, those landmark Bible manuscripts that are dated from the mid-fourth to mid-sixth centuries A.D.

Inscriptions are, thus, a good source of information for the early text of the Septuagint Psalms. Inscriptions bearing psalmic verses can potentially preserve a version of Septuagint text that was available in a certain region of the eastern Mediterranean prior to the oldest surviving manuscripts, and this forms a vast unexplored area of study. Such geographically specific information on the text of the Greek Old Testament in the late antique Mediterranean cannot be gleaned from papyri, which survived almost exclusively in Egypt.

Medieval Greek psalmic inscriptions are not only a manifestation of an older biblical text but also of the presence of the Psalms in the life of the medieval Greek-speaking world and of the popular reception of the Psalms by clergy and lay people alike.