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רב סחניפ הלס ןמא ןמא לארשי לכ לע םולש
היקזח רב ןד[ו]יו לאומש רב הסוי ךורב ‘Peace
upon all Israel Amen Amen Selah. Phinhas
son of Baruch, Jose son of Samuel, and
Judan son of Heskiah’; Sukenik (1934: 77)
maintains that this inscription commemorated
the Aramaic-speaking mosaicists and
not the donors.
In several inscriptions on church pavements, usually in
Greek, one or more mosaicists signed their names
referring to their work.
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A Greek inscription (no. 7) on the north-
west room of the ‘Evron church with a 415
CE date, refers to [Κύριε Ίησοΰ] Χρ(ιστ)
έ μνήσκου τ[οΰ] δούλου σου Ίυλ[ι]ανοΰ
καί Παύλου τοΰ ψηφοθέτου ‘Lord Jesus
Christ, remember your servant Ioulianos
and Paulus the mosaicist’ under the inscription
is a cross (Tzaferis 1987: 44*, 49*).
One of the panels on the mosaic in the
northern aisle of the Kissufim church
(pl. VII.13a) shows a horseman spearing a
leopard with a lance, above which a Greek
inscription is preserved: Èργον Άλεξάνδρου
‘The work [or deed] of Alexander’ (Cohen
chapter twelve
Figure XII-2. Aramaic inscriptions on synagogue pavements: a. Beth She"an small synagogue B;
b. Kefar Kana; c. Sepphoris.
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1980: 20; Donderer 1989: 53, no. A1, pl. 1).
According to the excavator (Cohen 1980:
20), it could refer to the artist but he prefers
to relate it to Alexander the Great. However,
the word Èργον ‘work of’ or ‘made
by’ is quite common in reference to mosaicists’
work, and it appears on several other
inscriptions (Donderer 1989: 16, 34; A1,
25, 27). Accordingly, the Kissufim inscription
evidently relates to the mosaic work
created by the craftsman Alexander.
In El-Maqerqesh chapel at Beth Guvrin
the mosaic field is decorated with inhabited
vine scrolls; above the design two peacocks
hold a garland in their beaks, with a Greek
inscription rendered above (fig. XII-3):
Χριστου παμβασιληος έκόσμησα τό
μέλαθρον Οΰδας όδόν ψηφϊσιν ίδίων διά
μαθητων τοϋδ ίερεύς άμύμων Όβοδιανός
ήπιόθυμος, ‘I have decorated the house of
Christ, the Universal Monarch, with mosaics,
the floor and the entrance, through my
disciples (or: in memory of His disciples)
(I) His blameless priest, Obodianos the
Gentle’. It is suggested that the inscription
honors the mosacists (Avi-Yonah