Church/Monastery name:
Jerusalem (Mount of Olives) - Cave of Gethsemane
Inscription number:
4
Selected bibliography:
45-46, no. 3, fig. 39.3 (ph.) (ed. pr.) |
Epigraphical corpora:
CIIP I.2 (2012): 905 (ph.)
Inscription type:
epitaph
quotation
Location:
Findspot: Mount of Olives, Cave of Gethsemane.
Pres. loc.: SBF Museum, Jerusalem. Autopsy: 21 January 2008.
Physical description :
Fragment of white veined marble with remains of two lines of Greek script carefully engraved; tall narrow letters with notable serifs. W-shaped omega.
Meas.: h 18, w 13, d 5 cm; letters 5-6 cm.
Text:
- -]τό τε ἀγώ[νισμα?
- -] ἐκλ[σι? - -
Translation:
… and the contest (?) … church (?) …
Apparatus:
l.1 ΙΟΙΕΑΤΩ Corbo; l.2 ΕΚΜ Corbo.
Date:
late 6th-early 7th cent. (?)
Summary:
Small fragment of white marble with remains of inscription.
Citations from LXX / NT:
2 Tm. 4:7 (?)
The fragment may belong to an epitaph containing a paraphrase of 2 Tm 4,7 (τὸν καλὸν ἀγῶνα ἠγώνισμαι, τὸν δρόμον τετέλεκα), something along the lines of τὸν δρόμον τελέσας τό τε ἀγώνισμα καλὸν ἀγωνισάμενος, καὶ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ δουλεύσας ἐνθάδε κεῖται ὁ δεῖνα[--]. This would be the epitaph of a priest. For similar formulae, all in epitaphs of clerics or nuns, cf. Felle, Biblia epigraphica, nos. 198, 212 (CIIP I/2 no. 875), 246 from Palestine, 771 from France. All the Palestinian examples date from the late 6th-early 7th cent., a date that can also fit the present fragment.