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The oldest original synagogue building in the Diaspora: the Delos synagogue reconsidered
Hesperia, Fall, 2004 by Monika Trumper
(186.) For different opinions regarding Jewish or Samaritan ownership of GD 80, see n. 123; see also Pummer 1999, pp. 120-121.
(187.) As was probably also the case for the marble base with ID 2329; see n. 123, above.
(188.) Gruen (2002, p. 110) states that the first phase of the building was "placed by excavators in the early second century BCE" but I do not find this date in Plassart 1913 or 1914, or in Bruneau 1970 or 1982.
(189.) Only much later, from the third century A.D. onward, can Samaritan synagogues be distinguished from Jewish ones, and mainly on the basis of specific symbols, inscriptions, and the presence of a miqveh; see Pummer 1998, 1999.
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(190.) 1 Macc. 15.
(191.) But see ID 2616, a "liste des souscripteurs" from Sarapieion C (GD 100), and ID 2532, two epitaphs from Rheneia. The later Samaritan stele is dated to 150-50 B.C. (no. 1 in n. 123 above; Bruneau 1982, pp. 483-485).
(192.) Joseph, AJ 14.231-232; for an English translation, see Binder 1999, p. 298.
(193.) Joseph, AJ 14.213-215; for English translations, see Binder 1999, pp. 298-299; Levine 2000, p. 104.
(194.) Binder 1999, p. 299; elsewhere (pp. 314, 316) he attempts to place this separate ancillary banquet hall in room B of GD 80 or in an unexcavated part of the building--without success, as room B was furnished with benches like room A and no other rooms belonged to this building.
(195.) Plassart (1914, p. 533) argued that the letter could not refer to the Jews in Delos because "ceux-ci ne pouvaient dependre que des autorites atheniennes de Delos; s'ils sont intervenus au benefice de leurs coreligionnaires molestes, c'est que le magistrat romain se trouvait alors a Delos, ou precisement des deputes pariens s'etaient rendus aupres de lui." The close connection between the Jews in Delos and Paros is attested in ID 2331 (see n. 122, above), the votive of a Parian Jew to the synagogue in Delos. Bruneau (1982, p. 498) specifies in his translation that the decree referred to the Jews in Delos and "quelque-uns des Juifs domicilies chez vous" (which means in Paros); he furthermore assumes either that the Delian, as well as the Parian, Jews were being harassed and therefore took the initiative to complain in Rome, or, more probably, that the Delian Jews had, thanks to the Romans, a strong and favorable position that enabled them to intercede in Rome on behalf of the Jews in Paros. According to White (1987, p. 137, n. 14), the decree pertained to the rights of Jews on Delos. He discusses (1987, pp. 146-147) this decree extensively as referring to two different groups of Jews on Delos itself ("the Jews in Delos and some other Jews sojourning there") without mentioning the problematic identity of the addressee(s) of this decree. Binder (1999, p. 298) seems to suppose that the regional magistrates in Parium were responsible for the Delian Jews. Levine (2000, p. 104) concludes that the Jews in Delos obviously had encountered considerable difficulties with their neighbors: "The Jews were forced to appeal to Rome because Delian authorities were perceived to be undermining Jewish communal life." Both Binder and Levine translate "the Jews in Delos and some of the neighboring Jews"; Claussen (2002, p. 248) does not mention the addressee at all and speaks of "die Juden von Delos . . . und einige judische[r] Nachbarn aus derselben Gegend." Most recently, Pucci Ben Zeev (1996) has discussed the disputed identity of the Roman magistrate who wrote the decree (Octavian in 43 B.C., during his consulship, according to her); although she briefly comments on the identity of the addressee (Troad Parium or Cycladic Paros, p. 238, n. 3), she does not discuss the relationship between Parian authorities and Delian Jews. The title of her article and the abstract make it clear that she takes the decree as confirming the rights of Delian Jews. A good summary with further literature is provided in Gruen 2002, pp. 92-93, n. 52.
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