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observance of the Jewish agricultural principles
concerning tithes and Seventh-Year produce in the
Holy Land. The list of regions and fruits appears
in the Talmud too. The inscription is dated later
than the 5th century according to the archaeological
finds in the synagogue—perhaps as late as
the 7th century. Sussmann (1981: 151) maintains
that this unique inscription ‘achieved several purposes:
ornamentation, instruction in the Law, and
expression of regional “patriotism”.
Notably, these two literary inscriptions were
not rendered in the nave mosaic but in the side
narthex. The presentation of the written word
on the pavement and its preference over the figured
designs might have been the decision of the
local community and probably do not indicate a
later date.
Church inscriptions were mostly dedications
and commemorations, mentioning the builders,
emperors, saints, clergy, monks, the church hierarchy,
and many patrons and members of the
congregation.
Like the dedicatory inscriptions in synagogues,
the church inscriptions were offered for the salvation
of the donors, and often include the formula
‘For the salvation of’ followed by the donor’s or
founder’s name, with an added prayer or request
(Avi-Yonah 1933: 68 and notes 10, 17, 18, 19;
Roth-Gerson 1987: 150; Piccirillo 1993: 45).
Inscriptions mention the vows that were probably
the reason for the donation, a request for forgiveness
of sins, in memory of a family deceased, all
similar to the Greek inscriptions in synagogues
(fig. XI-6). As noted, church inscriptions occasionally
name emperors, but only on one synagogue
pavement inscription (Beth ‘Alpha) is an
emperor named: Justinian. Some church inscriptions
mention the deity by a monogram appellation
(Avi-Yonah 1933: 69).
Some church inscriptions use biblical citations,
mainly from Psalms. Examples are an inscription
from a cave-church at Khirbet ed-Deir in
the Judaean desert rendering Psalms 105: 4-5 in
Greek from the Septuagint (Hirschfeld 1993: 247)
and an inscription from the northern church at
Herodium (fig. XI-6b) partly taken from Psalms
117: 20 (Netzer et al. 1993: 222). Several inscriptions
give excerpts from Isaiah 11: 6-8; 65: 25 and
Psalms 51: 21, to identify depictions of pairs of
confronting animals illustrating the vision of the
End of the Days or the Peaceful Kingdom (pls.
IV.8, figs. IV-22, 23).
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Only few inscriptions of synagogues and
churches pavements in Israel include dates. Some
use the years of the emperor, such as the Beth
‘Alpha inscription. Several inscriptions give the
date of the building’s completion or renovation,
such as those in the Gaza synagogues (Naveh
1978: 5; Roth-Gerson 1987: no.21); the monastery
of Lady Mary in Beth-She"an; and the churches
of Hazor-Ashdod, Khirbet el-Beiyudat (Hismi
1990: 160), Kissufim (Cohen 1980: 18-19; 1990:
277), Shavei Zion (Avi-Yonah 1967: 59-60) and
Shellal.
A number of church mosaics in Jordan include
inscriptions of the bishops of Madaba and Gerasa,
which enabled scholars to prepare a complete
list of these prelates and facilitated dating of
a number of pavements (Piccirillo 1993: 44-5,
figs. 124); the inscriptions also provide records
that buildings were constructed and decorated by
means of church funds as well as contributions by
donors, who included government officials. The
inscriptions mention the saint, monk, or priest
through whose zeal the holy place was built, and
with the help of God and Jesus Christ (Saller and
Bagatti 1949: 202-203). Several church inscriptions,
notably at Umm al-Rasas and Rihab, give
the dates of buildings completed in the 7th and
8th centuries. This demonstrates that although the
struggle between the Arabian tribes and the Byzantine
empire was ongoing, it did not immediately
disrupt life in Arabian towns and villages.
In sum, the differences in the synagogue and
church inscriptions exceed the similarities: the
appearance of inscriptions on mosaic pavement
of synagogues is earlier in date. They appear
already in the 4th century (Hammath Tiberias)
whereas those on church floors began only in the
5th century.
The language in the synagogues is mostly Aramaic
and Greek, and Hebrew for explanatory
inscriptions; in the churches it is almost exclusively
Greek. The literary and explanatory inscriptions
in Hebrew (biblical and in the zodiac) appear
only on synagogue floors, while Greek inscriptions
with biblical citations from Isaiah and Psalms
appear occasionally on church floors, and once in
Hebrew on the pavement of the Beth Midrash of
Meroth. Prayers and requests are common among
church inscriptions and quite rare on synagogues.
Fairly often the church inscriptions use various
expressions for God, for example, ‘Lord’, ‘Lord
the son Christ’ (Herodium, north Church: Netzer
et al. 1990: 221-2), ‘Holy spirit’ (Beth Hashitta: