Jews and Others
ured.^4 So Aurelius Samohil may simply have been referring to such local
Jewish officials.
The most remarkable fact about the inscription is, however, that it is both
one of the longest Hebrew texts and the longest Latin documentary text
known from the Jewish diaspora of this period. It is beyond question that
the best-attested language of the diaspora Jewish communities is Greek, and
we need not doubt that the Bible in Greek translation was very commonly
used in the synagogues of the diaspora,^5 just as it could be even in the Greek-
speaking communities of Palestine itself.^6 That does not prove that the He-
brew Bible was unknown in the diaspora (for biblical scrolls in Hebrew in use
in Rome in the s, see below); nor does it prove that Hebrew or Aramaic
was nowhere spoken or used. At least for the Greek provinces, the publica-
tion of aketubbawritten in Aramaic in Antinoopolis in Egypt, and securely
dated to.., must completely re-open the question of the use of Semitic
languages in the diaspora; and perhaps all the more so because it contains
such a high proportion of transliterated Greek, implying the use in the text
of the language of daily life.^7
Aurelius Samohil could at any rate have a line of commonplace expres-
sions inscribed in Hebrew. But the fact that he could express himself as an
observant Jew in Latin is far more significant. As we will see, there is very
clear evidence for the existence of Jewish communities in many parts of the
Latin-speaking West in this period, from Africa to Italy, Spain, and Gaul.
Though they may well have begun typically as immigrant communities of
Greek-speakers, it is very likely that by now many of their members used
Latin in ordinary life. The story of the conversion of the Jewish community
of Minorca in (see text to n. below and following it) clearly presup-
poses the use of Latin equally by the Jews and by the surrounding Christians.
But what of the Bible itself? The Christians seem to have had Latin transla-
tions of books of the Bible since the second century. Might the synagogue
service ever have been conducted in Latin? And what of religious disputa-
tion, teaching, or writing? Augustine’s story of Jewish opinions being asked
on a point of biblical interpretation at Oea in North Africa seems to imply
the use of Latin at least to discuss the text (see text to n. below). But
. E.g.,Cod.Theod.,,–Linder(n.),nos.–,..–;,,Linder
(n. ), no. ,...
. V. Colorni, ‘‘L’uso del greco nella liturgia del giudaismo hellenistico e la Novella
di Giustiniano,’’Annali di Storia del Diritto (): .
. Jerusalem Talmud,Sota.b; Schürer, Vermes, and Millar,HistoryIII., .
. C. Sirat, P. Caudelier, M. Dukan, and M. A. Friedman,La Ketouba de Cologne: un
contrat de marriage juif à Antinoopolis().