Oboda - St. Theodore (South Church)

Inscription number: 
1
Selected bibliography: 
25, pl. 3.3 (ph.)
106-107, no. 17, pl. 12.19 (ph.) (ed. pr.)
30-31, no. 17, pl. 8.19 (ph.)
237, no. 287
861-866, no. 352, figs. 405 A-B (ph., dr.)
Abbreviation for Journals and Series
Epigraphical corpora: 

SEG 28 (1978): 1393; 31 (1981): 1400

Inscription type: 
epitaph
Location: 

At the western end of the southern aisle. Found in situ.

Physical description : 

A tombstone of grey marble, 170 cm long and 60 cm wide. The inscribed area measures 55x40 cm; the letters are 5 cm high. The characters are oval and calligraphic, with drop-shaped omicron and theta, sloping upsilon. The text begins and ends with crosses.

Text: 

     ☩ Ἀνεπάη Ζαχα-

     ρίας Ἰωάννου ἐτῶ(ν)

     κʹ ἐν μη(νὶ) Χοιὰκ κγʹ ἰνδ(ικτιῶνος) εʹ

4   ἔτ(ους) υλςʹ· ἐτάφη δὲ ἐν

     τῷ μαρτυρίῳ τοῦ

     ἁγ(ίου) Θεοδώρου. ☩

Translation: 

Came to rest Zachary (son) of John, aged 20, on the 23rd of the month of Choiak, indiction 5, year 436, and was buried in the Martyrium of St. Theodore.

Apparatus: 

L.3 Χοιάκ(ῳ) Negev, I follow Bingen's correction in SEG.

Commentary: 

Year 436 of the era of Arabia corresponds to 541/2; the 5th indictional year began in 1 September 541, and in that year, the 23rd of the Egyptian month of Choiak fell on 19 December. In autumn-winter of 541/2, the number of burials recorded at Nessana and Rehovot was above average, and it has been suggested that the deceased were victims of the plague that reached the region in that period.

The inscription yields the information that the church was a martyrium of St. Theodore. Other invocations to St. Theodore were found in the church and in a cave nearby: here the figures of St. George and St. Theodore, both in military dress, were drawn in red ochre on a wall. The saint is invoked also in graffiti at En Avdat. Negev pronounced him a local martyr, based on the surmise that a martyrium was supposedly built on the tomb of a martyr. But the case for a local martyr is not strong, as the central Negev was christianized after the peace of the Church. All considered, the μαρτύριον τοῦ ἁγίου Θεοδώρου may well have been an ordinary basilica specially dedicated to the celebrated soldier martyr, whose cult was popular in the town, and term does not necessarily imply that relics of the martyr's body were buried in the church. (see full discussion in Di Segni.)

Given date: 
year
month
day of the month
indiction
Date: 
19 December 541
Summary: 

Dated marble tombstone of Zacharias at the western end of the southern aisle, 19 December 541.

Contents
Actions: 
was buried
Definitions of building/part of building: 
martyrium
Personal names: 
Ioannes, Zacharias
Kinship terms: 
son
Saints names: 
Theodorus
Epithets of saints: 
hagios/hagia
Epigraphical Abbreviations: 
stigmas, horizontal or curvilinear lines, horizontal stroke for numerals, consistent use of ligature ΟΥ