First Person: The Sun God in the Synagogue
Hershel Shanks’s First Person as it appeared the November/December 2013 issue of BAR
The 92nd Street Y in New York City called me a few months ago, asking me to speak. We discussed possible topics, and I finally chose “What’s a Greek God Doing in an Ancient Synagogue?” They also agreed to my asking two real experts to join me on the platform: Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Steve Fine of Yeshiva University. We had a good time—and so did the enthusiastic audience—but we didn’t solve the problem, at least to my mind.
The mosaic pavement from the Beth Alpha synagogue in Israel. Art Resource, NY
I, of course, had been thinking of the mosaic pavement of the Hammath Tiberias synagogue on the Sea of Galilee. It wasn’t only that there was Helios, the Greek sun god, riding his four-horse chariot (quadriga) right there in the middle of the zodiac, but it was featured in the center of the floor right behind a mosaic of the Torah ark that was flanked by two large menorahs. Below the Helios mosaic was an inscription thanking the good Jews who founded or contributed money to the synagogue.
But that was just the beginning. Mosaics with Helios in his quadriga were featured in half a dozen synagogues in Late Antiquity (fourth–seventh centuries C.E.) sprinkled around upper Judea. And if you try to limit things geographically, I’ll call your attention to a text-only zodiac in the mosaic floor of the ancient synagogue at Ein Gedi on the shore of the Dead Sea.
Interested in mosaics and synagogue imagery? Learn more for free in the Bible History Daily posts “Jewish Worship, Pagan Symbols: Zodiac mosaics in ancient synagogues” by Walter Zanger and “A Samson Mosaic from Huqoq: An Inside Look at Discovering Ancient Synagogues with Jodi Magness.”
Helios is shown in one ancient synagogue excavated in Sepphoris. Gabi Laron/Courtesy Zeev Weiss
In one ancient synagogue excavated in 2000 in Sepphoris, Helios is transformed; instead of his image there is only a sun disk—driving the quadriga.a It’s almost as if the congregation was feeling a little guilty about having a picture of the sun god on the synagogue floor and alleviated their guilt somewhat by picturing only the sun itself driving its chariot instead of the face of the Greek god.
Every attempt to limit our subject has failed. It wasn’t just Helios or the zodiac. In another ancient synagogue (at Chorazin), it was Medusa. Medusa was a mythological female monster with snakes for hair. Looking at her would turn you into stone. Fortunately, she was slain by Perseus. Thereafter portraits of Medusa would be a talisman that protected from evil. Maybe that’s why Chorazin’s congregants put her in their synagogue, as a protection against evil. In any event, there she is, carved in stone, plain as day.
Medusa carved in stone at the Chorazin synagogue. Todd Bolen/bibleplaces.com
Just south of Chorazin is the justly famous ancient synagogue of Capernaum, so often associated with Jesus. (A building under the Capernaum synagogue may be the synagogue in which the gospels tell us Jesus preached [Mark 1:21; Luke 4:31–36; John 6:59].) Over the beautifully carved main entrance to the upper synagogue—the remains of which tourists marvel—are a series of wreaths that were once upheld by little naked erotes, or winged cupids associated with love and sex. I say “were” because they aren’t there any more. In the eighth century some iconoclasts dug out the offending erotes. We know that they were there, however, because the iconoclasts left the wreaths and the wings of the little figures.
Eighth-century iconoclasts defaced images of fish and fishermen in the colorful floor mosaics at a Christian basilica at Horvat Beit Loya. Read more >>
Sarcophagus featuring Leda and the Swan in Beth Shearim catacombs. Hershel Shanks
As long as we’re on the subject, let’s go to the imposing Jewish catacombs at Beth Shearim. Beth Shearim is where the Sanhedrin, the rabbinic high court, moved after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 C.E. That’s where Rabbi Judah haNasi, the compiler of the Mishnah, the first comprehensive Jewish law book, lived. Beth Shearim is famous for its underground cemetery; that’s where Jews wanted to be buried when Jerusalem was no longer available. The catacombs are filled with Jewish symbols. It also has an imposing engraved sarcophagus featuring Leda and the Swan. In Greek mythology the swan is the form that Zeus took so that he might seduce (or rape) the king’s daughter, the beautiful Leda. The Irish poet William Butler Yeats captured the moment in a sonnet:
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
The ancient sculptor of the Beth Shearim sarcophagus has caught the couple in flagrante delicto!
Lest you think that all this is confined to Judaism, let me close with a picture of Jesus—under St. Peter’s in Rome, no less—portrayed as the sun god Helios.
The sun god Helios under St. Peter’s in Rome. Scala/Art Resource, NY
What does it all mean? I confess I can’t make much sense of it. Maybe some of our readers can.
A version of this post first appeared in Bible History Daily on December 2, 2013.
Were there synagogues before the Romans destroyed the Temple, or did they develop only afterward? Find out by reading “Ancient Synagogues in Israel and the Diaspora” in Bible History Daily.
Notes:
a. See Lucille A. Roussin, “Helios in the Synagogue,” BAR March/April 2001.
Related reading in Bible History Daily
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Sure. It is called Syncretism.
Let there be light. It’s as simple as that. Goes back to the beginning, so the Jews had no problem appropriating it as a symbol of what Genesis says. Admittedly later, but consider the four horsemen of the Apocalypse as well. Four is of numerological importance in all cultures. The square, the four directions. And Moses’ staff ate all of the others. Helios is included in All That Is.
Also, let’s not forget the impact that Greek civilization had on the entire area, especially under the Selucids. It certainly did not go entirely away even after the Maccabean revolt.
It is a Jewish representation of Psalm 19:1-4 in figures that their neighbors would understand.
The Emperor Constantine, often called the first Christian emperor, was also a worshipper of Helios. The ancients just didn’t switch from polytheism to monotheism overnight — they saw nothing wrong with getting more than one god on your side at the same time.
It should be no secret that many in the Jewish nation continued to worship idols in express contradition of the Torah. Even the Major and Minor Prophets identified the practice. The Dispersion under the Assyrians and Babylonians was a direct result of God’s displeasure.
Interesting that this was happening in late antiquity; this type of thing really doesn’t fit with our perception of the Jews at the time of Christ. Hellenisation had of course been happening for centuries, but I don’t think there’s much evidence of it in a religious context before the diaspora. I suppose these worshippers were probably more concerned with culture than piety, and guess this reflects the cultural impact the Roman dispersal had on the Jews a few centuries down the line.
Genesis 49 where Jacob / Israel identifies each of his sons and gives a prophetic utterance regarding each of them, can be related to the 12 constellations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mosaic_Tribes.jpg
The Sun makes its yearly pathway against the background of these 12 constellations as is given in Psalm 19:4-6.
Yahweh – Sun with respect to each of the 12 tribes.
David Fideler: “The early Christian Gnosis did not spring up in isolation, but drew upon earlier sources. In this book, many of these sources are revealed for the first time. Special emphasis is placed on the Hellenistic doctrine of the “Solar Logos” and the early Christian symbolism which depicted Christ as the Spiritual Sun, the illumination source of order, harmony, and spiritual insight. Based on 15 years of research, this is a unique book which throws a penetrating light on the secret traditions of early Christianity. It clearly demonstrates that number is at the heart of being. Jesus Christ, Sun of God, illustrates how the Christian symbolism of the Spiritual Sun is derived from numerical symbolism of the ‘ancient divinities.'”
Ezekiel
What were “the carcasses of their kings” that had to be removed from the temple? The carcasses evidently referred to idols. Jerusalem’s rulers and her people had polluted God’s temple with idols—in effect, making them their kings?Ezekiel 43:2-4, 7, 9
Ezekiel 43:2-4:
There I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east,and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters;and the earth was illuminated by his glory. 3 What I saw was like the vision I had seen when I* came to bring the city to ruin, and it appeared to be like what I had seen near the river Che′bar; and I fell with my face to the ground.
Then the glory of Jehovah entered the temple* through the gate facing the east.
Ezekiel 43:7
He said to me:
“Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet, where I will dwell among the people of Israel forever. The house of Israel will no longer defile my holy name, they and their kings, by their spiritual prostitution and by the carcasses of their kings at their death.
Ezekiel 43:9
Now let them put their spiritual prostitution and the carcasses of their kings far away from me, and I will dwell among them forever.
http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2007562?q=Jehovah’s Word Is Alive&p=par
There is no record or existing evidence of artwork among the Christians of the first century C.E. It is only during the second and third centuries C.E. that some paintings and sculptures appear in the catacombs attributed to nominal Christians. After the union of Church and State in the fourth century, however, art began to be given a prominence that in time equaled that of the pagan religions and was often related to or in direct imitation of such religions, in both its symbolisms and its forms. Louis Réau, who held the chair of the History of Art of the Middle Ages at the Sorbonne University of France, demonstrates in his work Iconographie de l’art chrétien (Paris, 1955, Vol. I, p. 10) that such paganism has long been recognized by historians of art and that the responsibility for it is to be placed not merely on the artists but on the policies that were followed by the church itself. He points out (p. 50) that instead of really converting the pagans from their old practices and forms of worship, the church chose to respect “the ancestral customs and continue them under another name.”
Thus, it is not surprising to find the signs of the zodiac, so prominent in ancient Babylon, displayed on cathedrals such as that of Notre Dame in Paris, where they appear on the left doorway and surround Mary in the huge centrally located rose window. (Compare Isa 47:12-15.) Similarly, a guidebook to the cathedral at Auxerre, also in France, states that in the central entrance to the cathedral, “the sculptor there mixed certain pagan heroes: an Eros [Greek god of love] nude and sleeping . . . a Hercules and a Satyr [one of the Greeks’ semihuman demigods]! The register at the lower right represents the parable of the Prodigal Son.”
Similarly at the entrance of Saint Peter’s Cathedral in Rome appear not only the figure of Christ and the “Virgin” but also that of Ganymede “carried off by the eagle” to become cupbearer of Zeus, king of the gods, and “Leda [who bore Castor and Pollux] fertilized by the swan” Zeus. Commenting further on such pagan influence, Réau asks: “But what is one to say then of the Final Judgment of the Sistine Chapel, the principal chapel of the Vatican, where one sees the nude Christ of Michelangelo lance the lightning like a thundering Jupiter [the Roman father of the gods] and the Damned cross the Styx [the river over which the Greeks believed the dead were ferried] in Charon’s barque?” As he states: “An example that came from so high [that is, approved by the papacy] could not fail to be followed.”
http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200000388