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The oldest original synagogue building in the Diaspora: the Delos synagogue reconsidered
Hesperia, Fall, 2004 by Monika Trumper
White argued that the building was originally a private house, erected in the second century B.C. and defined by gneiss walls that delimited the large hall (A/B) and the complex of rooms to its south (D). (12) Renovations of this dwelling then occurred in two stages, in the late-second and mid-first centuries B.C. The first renovation, the conversion of the house into a synagogue edifice, included the modification of the portico in area C to create a three-winged portico entrance on the side that fronts the sea, and perhaps the partitioning that resulted in rooms A and B. In the second stage of renovation, dated to after the Mithridatic destruction of 88 B.C., the east wall of rooms A and B was rebuilt with reused blocks and the rooms themselves may have been refurbished. Even though White's description is extensive and illustrated by a plan indicating four different types of walls, some questions concerning the construction history remain. (13)
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White was not the first to identify the original building as a domestic residence, but he was "the most vigorous proponent of this viewpoint." (14) It is interesting to note, however, that most scholars writing about synagogues after the publication of White's article in 1987 follow his hypotheses, and usually reprint his schematic plan instead of Bruneau's much more detailed field plan. (15)
Both Bruneau and White agree that GD 80 is situated in what was a residential quarter and was surrounded by buildings, but they do not try to establish a relative chronology between the building and its neighbors. (16) They also agree that a thin wall in D (Fig. 3, "Predecessor(?) granite wall"), which was made entirely of granite and is now razed to the ground, does not fit into any phase of the building's history and must, therefore, belong to an earlier structure that stood on the same site.
[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]
Recently, Binder has tried to rehabilitate the construction history proposed by Belle D. Mazur in 1935, which was challenged by Bruneau in 1970 and again in 1982, and successfully, as no one has supported Mazur's ideas since then. (17) Mazur came to the conclusion that the building as she reconstructed it could never have functioned as a synagogue, yet Binder has no problem identifying it as a Jewish, or rather Samaritan, assembly hall, at least in its second phase. According to him, following Mazur, the original building comprised the large hall A/B, the D-complex, and a courtyard of enormous size (28 x 28 m) with a full peristyle of eight columns on a side. He then conjectures that rooms to the north and to the south of the courtyard, which are not yet excavated, also could have been part of the building. Later changes (second phase) consisted of some additions in the D-complex and, primarily, the division of the large hall and the renovation of its east wall (both incorporating reused marble blocks from the gymnasium and, therefore, dating after 88 B.C.). Although Binder does not completely reject the hypothesis that the building was constructed as a synagogue, he favors an alternative scenario: the building was erected as a cultic hall by a pagan association in the second century B.C., but after 88 B.C. it was taken over by Jews (or rather Samaritans) who renovated it and transformed it into a synagogue. (18)
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