17-21, fig. 3 (ph.) (ed. pr.) | |
166-167, no. 115 | |
90, no. 118 |
SEG 8 (1937): 177
CIIP I.2 (2012): 841 (phs.)
Findspot: In the annex to the north of the church near Bethphage.
Pres. loc.: The remains of the church are not visible now and the area has been overbuilt; it is unknown, whether the mosaic was removed.
The church is 21.85 m long (23.60 on the outside) and ca. 15 m wide; the whole southern part was destroyed. It was surrounded by rooms and may have been part of a monastic complex. An annex is attached to the eastern end of the northern aisle, so that its eastern wall is flush with the back wall of the apse. Two tombs were discovered in the east end of the aisle. The annex was paved with a geometric mosaic with an inscription set in a tabula ansata beyond the southern border of the mosaic, facing south. The border and the characters are traced in black on a white background. The letters are typical of the square alphabet, including square sigma and w-shaped omega. Some of the iotas have trema. Abbreviations with stigma or diagonal stroke. Dots used as word dividers in ll. 2-3.
Meas.: h 44 cm, w 244 cm; letters 8 cm.
Ὑπὲρ ἀναπαύσεως Εὐσεβίου πρεσβυτ(έρου)
Θεοδοσίου διακ(όνου), Εὐγενίου, Ἐλπιδίου,
Εὐφρατᾶ, Ἀγαθονίκου τῶν
μοναζόντων.
For the rest of Eusebius the priest, Theodosius the deacon, Eugenius, Elpidius, Euphratas, Agathonicus the monks.
Dedicatory mosaic inscription of two clergy and three monks set in a tabula ansata, in the annex to the north of the church.
Lagrange, followed by Avi-Yonah, dated the inscription to the 7 c. because of the square letters and dotted iota, though he maintained that the building could not have been erected later than 614, the date of the Persian invasion. Jülicher (TLZ 48, 1923, 35) assumed as terminus ante quem the Arab conquest in 636. However, we know now that churches and monasteries were founded or enlarged also in the 7 c. and 8 c. Bliss dated the building and the inscription to the 5 c. or 6 c., and indeed the palaeography points to the late 5 c. or at most the early 6 c. Vincent - Abel suggested identifying this church with the one seen by the pilgrim Theodosius (ca. 518-530) in the place called Ancona, Bethphage of the Gospels (De situ Terrae Sanctae 21, ed. P. Geyer, CCSL 175, 122); see J. T. Milik, RB 67, 1960, 565 no. 42, for the survival of this church after the Muslim conquest. It is worth noting that the church was apparently still in use in the 8 c., since one of the medallions in the mosaic of the chancel shows the characteristic iconoclasm. In spite of the dedication of the inscription “for the repose” of some clerics, apparently members of the community that used the church, the inscription does not refer to the tombs, for it is located in another room and not oriented towards them, nor is it all certain that the annex – or the whole church – had a funerary function. Burial of monks and clergymen in a church was not uncommon, especially in monasteries, and inscriptions “for the repose” may just indicate the pious intention of a donor, without necessarily implying that he or his family members were buried on the spot.