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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Now that Akhenaten is the positive identity of the pharaoh following the 10 plagues, his worship of Aten was his way to worship Yahweh, which took on the aspects of the sun god, Ra; although, the emphasis was on what the sun did. Aten was thought of as being behind the sun. Worship of Yahweh as the sun god via “Aten” may be entirely unrelated to that expression in later Christian times, the latter suggestive of the influence of paganism. However, Revelation does link Christ to the sun as the “bright morning star.” Some claim this is a reference to Venus, however, Venus is not a star, it is a planet. Because of that, some artwork linking Jesus with the Sun might be just that and not the influence of any pagan sun god like Mithras. Jesus is represented by the sun in esoteric cosmology, just as the moon represents his wife, the church. The cosmos is linked to Christian and Jewish iconography, like the 12 zodiac houses the 12 apostles and the 12 tribes. The sun represents Christ and the moon the church, his wife. So maybe depicting Jesus as a sun god comes from Christian rather than pagan influence.
Well as has been told time and time again Israel sin is apparent not to mention that Platonism was being worked into the Jewish and Christian religions. Modern scholars overlook several facts about how they were and what they did this is part of what Plato did. Instead of giving you a mile long explanation with little facts and just hanging onto personal opinion I thought I would give you the real facts of how paganism entered both Christianity and Judaism as a whole.
I think it is interesting people over look the fact that the scriptures and history show that Jews and Christians over time tended to bring in other influences which later weaken their faith or destroy them. How many times God mentions in Old Testement of Israel’s disobedience to Him by mixing or following other Gods? Quiet a few times it shows God angry at Israel for mixing or following other gods then look at Christianity in Romans times, they willing follow the Government because it was ordered to change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday (Sunday is the pagan day of worshiping the sun god) because the emperor wanted to please his mother (or wife I forget) worship because she followed a different religion and didn’t like Christians and Jews. They wanted religions to blend together. We see it today with spirituality, and other religions wanted to become one.
Humans tend to sin and either influence or let influence happen to them.
Representation of Jesus as Sol is literal interpretation of his words: “I am a light of the world.” (John 8: 12). Theologically 100% correct, nothing odd nor heretical in that.
nu? they weren’t so frum…
Actually, it makes perfect sense. They were keeping time according to Gen 1:14-17. The signs of the seasons (Moedim) are divided by the Tequphah. When the Sun moves into the sign in the heavens we know where we are in the time of the year. The Moon divides the months and the Sun the day. The constelations the months of the year. We can go back in time and see right where the flood was, When Israel left Egypt and the Crucifixion and even the Birth of Yeshua.
Sincerely:
Duane Barkel
The worshipping of the Sun, dates back from the begining of History of Humankind, as testified in The Bible. Baal, the solar deity in Canaan; which after the 12 tribes of Israel conquered Canaan, they started to worship the Baals, Ashtoreth, and all the idols of those peoples.
To the author of this article, is it surprising to know that the Dome of the Rock (building constructed by the muslims in the place where used to be the Temple built by Salomon, and restaured by Herodes, then destroyed by the romans), has on its tip, not a crescent, but a circle, which represents the solar disc, which none other than Baal, also known by Zeus, and many other names. This is for you to know, that your eyes be opened: this building is that for which the our Lord Jesus Christ reminded us what prophet Daniel said :”So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. (Mathew 24:15).
Yes, worshipers of the Sun exist even today; they are worshipers of Satan.
It is Ezekiel’s vision that is what these represent the wheel within a wheel.
There are some connections between the three middle east religions and the Egyptian Aten worship, as Aten was a sun (disk) god, how likely would it be that the Sepphoris floor mosaic is more close to the origin while Hammath Tiberias was more Romenized version of the picture?
I echo what is said about trying to use imagery of the divine chariot as seen in Ezekiel, but I must also confess that syncretism was a common error of the Israelite religion. We see it in our Christianity too.
So why are these images there?
Syncretistic practices of a group of people that thought they were doing the right thing.
But as Paul puts in in Colossians, Jesus is the One above all other deities. They are under his glorious feet. So, “there ain’t no need” for a Medusa head” or any cherubs.