Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

ber tomb comes from the Giv}at ha-Mivtar neighborhood of Jerusalem. It

was placed on the wall opposite the entrance of the tomb and written in

Aramaic using Paleo-Hebrew script (see fig. 23). It is inscribed, very un-

usually, in the first person by the man who buried the deceased:

I, Abba, son of the priest Eliez[ar] son of Aaron the Great; I, Abba, the

oppressed, the pursued, who was born in Jerusalem and went into exile

in Babylonia and (was) carried up (for interment), Mattathi[ah] son of

Yud[ah], and I buried him in the cave that I purchased by the writ.

The Diaspora in the Early Roman Period

Compared to Palestine, the archaeological evidence for Jewish life in the

Diaspora in the first centuryb.c.e.andc.e.is slim.

Inscriptions

In the first centuryb.c.e.the number of inscriptions from the Greek Dias-

pora in Achaia and Ionia grew. Between 37 and 27b.c.e.the people of Ath-

ens honored King Herod (titledphilorhZmaios[friend of the Romans] and

philokaisar[friend of Caesar]) with at least two inscriptions for his bene-

faction(euegersia)and goodwill(eunoia).A similar inscription was set up

somewhere in the propylon (monumental gateway) of the temple of

Apollo in Delphi by the “Athenian people and those living on the islands”

in honor of the “Tetrarch Herod son of King Herod” (Herod Antipas). Ob-

viously the Herodian family showed particular sympathy towards Apollo.

A certain Justus son of Andromache from Tiberias is mentioned in an epi-

taph from Taenarum on the Peloponnesus dated to the first centuryc.e.or

later.

Jews moved not only from the Diaspora to Palestine and especially Je-

rusalem but also in the opposite direction. A Greek epitaph from Smyrna

dated to the early Imperial period mentions a certain Lucius Lollius Justus,

“secretary of the people in Smyrna”(grammateus tou en Zmyrn 3 laou).The

wordlaosmay refer to the Jewish people, but judging from the tripartite

name Justus was a Roman citizen. During the first centuryc.e., Jews prob-

ably originating from Egypt began to leave traces in North Africa; evidence

for this comes in two honorary inscriptions of Jews from Berenike in Cyre-

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jürgen k. zangenberg

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:04:13 PM