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The oldest original synagogue building in the Diaspora: the Delos synagogue reconsidered
Hesperia, Fall, 2004 by Monika Trumper
There is, indeed, an ongoing discussion about three other Jewish and Samaritan inscriptions. One was discovered in a private house nearby, in the Quartier du stade, and the other two, on two stelai, were found in an unexcavated area some 90 m north of GD 80. Did these inscriptions originally belong to GD 80, being displaced in a later period, or were they discovered in their original contexts, thus bearing witness to Jewish or Samaritan ownership of the respective buildings? (123)
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Similarly, the use of the benches and throne in the last phase can be proved, but remains hypothetical for all previous phases. This holds equally true for all other movable furniture that has been found in the building, for example several water basins (Figs. 40-42). (124) According to the construction history proposed here, the fifth phase does not correspond with a formative restoration after a possible destruction in 88 B.C., but follows much later in the construction sequence.
[FIGURES 40-42 OMITTED]
The artistic embellishment suggesting a Jewish or Samaritan provenance is to be regarded with extreme caution. Palmettes, which appear on the marble throne, on antefixes, and on a marble lintel (of the third century A.D.), and rosettes, which decorate an inscribed votive offering, might be among the most prominent motifs of Jewish and Samaritan art, (125) but they were certainly no less prominent in non-Jewish and non-Samaritan pagan art. (126) Therefore, it is difficult to decide whether the decorated objects were, at least to some degree, specially made for Jewish or Samaritan use, whether they were deliberately chosen out of a large stock of spoil material for Jewish or Samaritan reuse, or whether no special meaning can be assigned to their presence in this building because of the extensive diffusion of these motifs throughout the ancient world.
For Binder, the major architectural change that marked the transformation of the building into a synagogue, after 88 B.C., is the subdivision of the large hall, probably to create two rooms for the segregation of the sexes. (127) That this occurred, most probably, in the very last phase need hardly be drawn to our attention. Contrary to Binder and White, Bruneau's decisive dating of the architectural alteration to some time after 88 B.C. involves only the embellishment of the east wall of the large hall, leaving the latter's bisection (and characteristic furnishing) to an even later date. But if the architecture did not change at all during Bruneau's first and second phases, why then could the original building not have been conceived as a synagogue? In other words, what exactly identifies the building of the second phase as a synagogue?
Such uncertainty with regard to the original edifice is even more surprising because Bruneau argues compellingly and extensively that the water reservoir was conceived and used for ritual bathing. Since this reservoir, with its remarkable design, belongs most certainly to the very first phase, its identification as a Jewish ritual bath necessarily requires Jewish ownership and use of the building in the first phase. (128) Clearly, before discussing further evidence for the identification of the building in its first four phases, it must be determined whether the hypothesis of a ritual bath can be supported.
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