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Zev Radovan/www.biblelandpictures.com

GREEK IN THE SYNAGOGUE. Countless Greek inscriptions written by Jews—both in Palestine and Europe—attest to the continued use of Greek among the Jewish communities of late antiquity. A panel from the fourth-century synagogue at Hammat Tiberias in northern Israel, for example, includes Greek inscriptions of nine Jewish residents who donated funds for the construction of the mosaic, including one Severus, from the “household of the Patriarch.” The dedicatory inscriptions, contained in a grid of nine squares, are flanked on each side by two lions. In Jewish tradition, the lion was regularly associated with the Biblical tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:9).