Khirbet Beit Sila - St. Theodor

Church/Monastery name: 
Khirbet Beit Sila - St. Theodor
Inscription number: 
1
Selected bibliography: 
379-381, figs. 8-9 (phs., dr.)
464, fig. 28 (ph.)
409-411, no. 1 (dr.)
29, no. 27
Abbreviation for Journals and Series
Epigraphical corpora: 

SEG 52 (2002): 1662 (ed. pr.)

CIIP IV.1 (2018): 2749 (phs., dr.)

Inscription type: 
building
dedicatory
Location: 

Findspot: Directly to the right side of the ambo, in the mosaic pavement at the eastern end of the nave and at the foot of the bema.

Pres. loc.: Good Samaritan Museum, Maʿale Adumim. Autopsy: 22 October 2013 (Werner Eck, Dirk Koßmann), 14 April 2017 (Walter Ameling).

Physical description : 

11-line mosaic inscription set in a tabula ansata (57 x 168 cm with handles). The end of the inscription is written outside the frame,in short rows, below the right handle. Letters are ca. 5 cm high, traced in black tesserae, and in round script, roughly shaped. They are difficult to date but do not appear to be later than the first third of the 6th century. Text begins with a cross and ended with a sprig. First lines partially damaged. καί abbreviated by kappa. Lifted eta over mu to abbreviate the word for month.

Text: 

       ☩ Ὑπὲρ σωτ[ηρίας κ(αὶ) ἀ]ντιλή-

       μψεως Πέτρου [τ]οῦ πρε-

       σβυτέρου· ἐξ ῶν παρίσχ-

4     εν αὐτοῦ ὁ ἅγιος Θεόδ-

       ωρος ἐποίησεν τὴν προ-

       σθίκην τῆς ἐκλησίας κ(αὶ) τὴ-

       ν κώνχην κ(αὶ) γήνοντε τὰ κατα-

8     θέσια

       μη(νὶ) Νοεμ-

       βρίῳ δ-

       εκάτῃ.
(sprig)

Translation: 

For the preservation and succor of Peter the priest; from what Saint Theodore granted him, he made the main body of the church and the apse; and the deposition of relics is done in the month of November, on the tenth (day). 

Given date: 
month
day of the month
Summary: 

Building mosaic inscription of Peter the priest within a tabula ansata, in front of the bema.

Contents
Actions: 
was made (ἐποίησεν)
Definitions of building/part of building: 
ekklesia
konkhê (apse)
prostheke (nave?)
Ecclesiastical titles: 
presbyter
Personal names: 
Petrus
Saints names: 
Theodorus
Epithets of saints: 
hagios/hagia
martyr
Epigraphical formulae: 
succour (antilêpsis, boêqeia)
salvation/preservation (sôtêria)
Epigraphical Abbreviations: 
small diagonal stroke for κ(αί), overhanging eta for μη(νί)