Endnote 3 – “The Lord Is One”: How Its Meaning Changed

The text of the Mulvius Inscription reads as follows:

Marcus? Mulvius … / … Of the house of the Jews, … years of age / businessman, is buried here, Marcus Mulvius Ama… / …stus and Marcus? Mulvius Pro… /…s M… Marcus? Mulvius…

M.?] Mulviu[s – – -] / [- – – ] domo Iudaeus an[norum – – -] / [ne]gotians h(ic) s(itus) e(st) M(arcus) Mul[vius – – -] / [- – -]s et M(arcus) Mulvius Ama[- – -] / [- – -]stus e[t (M)arcus?] Mulvius Pro[- – -] / [- – -]s M[- – -] M(arcus) Mulviu[s – – -]

When Mulvius uses the phrase domo Iudaeus, he merges two uses of the Latin word domus. In inscriptions it often points to the province of the Roman Empire the deceased comes from. The province Iudaea is never mentioned in the preserved Latin inscriptions in this way though. The domo Iudaeus renders hence most probably the phrase bet yehudah (house of Judah) which was still used in Rabbinic literature to describe the Jewish people (see, e.g., Seder Olam Rabbah 26:20–25). Both the Vulgate (2 Samuel 2:7, 10, 11; 1 Kings 12:21; 2 Kings 19:30; Isaiah 22:21, 36:3, 37:31; Jeremiah 3:18, 5:11, 11:10, 17, 12:14, 13:11, 31:27, 31, 33:14; Ezekiel 4:6, 8:17, 9:9, 25:3, 8; Hosea 1:7, 5:12, 14; Zephaniah 2:7; Zechariah 8:13, 15, 19, 10:3, 6, 12:4; 2 Chronicles 11:1) and the Old Latin (Hosea 5:12, 14; Micah 1:5; Zechariah 8:15; Jeremiah 11:10, 17, 36:3; Baruch 2:26; Ezekiel 4:6, 8:17) translations of the Hebrew Bible render bet yehudah with domus Iuda or similar phrases.