A number of inscriptions illustrate aspects of worship in the Jerusa-
lem Temple and deserve particular attention. One of them was set up on
the platform on the Temple Mount and threatens with death every for-
eigner who dares to enter the courtyard reserved for Israelites. Josephus re-
ports that such warnings were set up in Greek and in Latin (J.W.5.194;Ant.
15.417). A Greek specimen of the inscription was found in 1896 (see fig. 25),
a second, fragmentary one in 1935.
Another fragmentary inscription was found in 1968 in the debris fill-
ing a pool south of the Temple Mount. It gives in Greek the name “[S]paris
sonofAkeson...inRhodes,”amanwhodonatedanunknown number of
drachmas for a floor dated to the twentieth year of Herod (18-17b.c.e.).
Despite its fragmentary state, the inscription indicates that private dona-
tions from the Diaspora played some part in erecting and decorating the
Temple, and that donors did not have to be Jewish.
A third monumental inscription, found incomplete in the debris and
written in square script is read by excavator Benjamin Mazar as “to the
place of trumpeting to pr[oclaim the Sabbath]” (lbyt htqy}h lhk[). On an-
other fragment only the Hebrew word “elders”(zqnym)is readable. Yet an-
other, written in Paleo-Hebrew letters (only the wordbnis discernible),
was found in the fill below an Umayyad floor. It indicates that Paleo-
Hebrew was still used for monumental inscriptions in Second Temple Je-
rusalem. It is impossible to say whether the use of Paleo-Hebrew reflects a
special political or ideological intent. In any case, the material on which
the inscription was made was marble imported from Greece or Italy.
Funerary epitaphs grant insight into the society of late Second Temple
Jerusalem. Many of them are written in cursive Hebrew script, some in Ar-
amaic, others in square script, still others in Paleo-Hebrew. Several ossu-
aries found in the burial complexes at Aceldama south of the Temple
Mount demonstrate that Greek was also used. Monumental inscriptions
on tomb façades are still rare, but inscriptions are numerous and instruc-
tive. Many of them mention the occupation or origin of the deceased, and
several demonstrate that many Diaspora Jews wanted to be buried in Jeru-
salem. Some of the names on ossuaries have been identified with persons
known from the New Testament: James the brother of Jesus (unprov-
enanced and highly disputed), Nicodemus, and Caiaphas (reading not en-
tirely certain). Others name individuals who are otherwise unknown: “Si-
mon the Temple builder,” apparently one of the artisans who worked on
the Temple; “Nicanor who made the Gates”; and Yehohanan from Giv}at
ha-Mivtar, a man who was crucified. The longest inscription from a cham-345Archaeology, Papyri, and InscriptionsEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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