286 CHAPTER TENpowerful holy men/rabbis. Until the early fifth century, the patriarchs com-
bined several of these roles, and it would be surprising if they and their entou-
rage did not routinely patronize Palestine Jews, both rural and urban.
Yet there is scarcely a trace of any such people in the synagogue inscriptions.
Only at Hamat Tiberias is the gift of a member of the patriarchal entourage
commemorated, side by side with those of many other individuals, and of
the community collectively. This silence may help confirm my argument in
chapter 6 that Jews were gradually excluded from networks of patronage in
the course of the fifth and sixth centuries, and most of the synagogue inscrip-
tions may postdate the end of the patriarchate. On the other hand, the inscrip-
tions’ failure to mention powerful patronal figures may warn us that among
the half dozen or so individuals whose names were commemorated in each
synagogue as donors of a few solidi used for the purchase of a column or a
panel of a mosaic pavement may be hidden the actual patron or owner of the
village; if this is so, his failure to identify himself as such is significant. Rajak
was right to emphasize the ideological component of the tendency of the
Jewish communities to open the ranks of the named benefactors to even the
modestly well-off (some individual contributions were very small),^29 and to
commemorate the gifts of the community as a whole. Euergetism was modi-
fied by egalitarianism. Conversely, the inscriptions perhaps tell us less than
we might have hoped about the socioeconomic life of the villages, and they
may even tell us rather little about the actual economic functioning of the
communities. Sometimes they may have been far more dependent on individ-
uals than the inscriptions suggest.
Similarly, the Jewish inscriptions imply also the purely local, self-enclosed
character of the community. Christian villagers repeatedly acknowledged in
the inscriptions in their churches their communities’ participation in an eccle-
siastical hierarchy, and sometimes also in a political system, by naming bish-
ops and bishops’ representatives, by specifying the rank of the local clergy, and
by noting gifts from prominent outsiders.^30 Inruralsynagogue inscriptions, by
contrast, neither communal officials nor outsiders are mentioned.^31 In part,
this distinction between churches and synagogues reflects basic social reali-
(^29) Monetary gifts are noted in a few cases and range from a substantial five solidi (Hamat
Gader, given by a family that included acomes, Naveh no. 32) to a very modest gift of one
tremissis, by a father and his sons at Eshtemoa (Naveh, no. 74).
(^30) The following examples are from the mosaic inscriptions in Palestinian churches published
by Avi-Yonah, “Mosaic Pavements in Palestine,”QDAP3 (1934): bishops and chorepiskopoi (nos.
27?, 306?, 336?, 346, 359); an abbot (no. 335a); hegoumenoi (nos. 20, 98); priests (nos. 13, 20,
98, 115, 359, 23 [hiereus], 326 [kahanain Syriac]; comites (nos. 20, 86, 146, 359); a scholasticus
(no. 335a); a primicerius (no. 11); a protoducenarius (no. 306?); a cubicularius ( no. 116).
(^31) Exceptions: an inscription from Nabratein may mention two local magistrates, if Naveh’s
interpretation is correct (On Mosaic, no. 13); one from Umm el-Amed commemorates the gift
ofahazzanand his brother (no. 20); anotherhazzan, from Fiq (no. 28); aparnas, from Naaran
(no. 63). In several places, donors are entitledRabbi,kohen,orlevi.