Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. A social media post drew my attention to this article in The Sun:
AN ANCIENT mosaic with the inscription “God Jesus Christ” is being dubbed the greatest find since the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The massive discovery “confirms” Jesus’ divinity about a hundred years before the Council of Nicea – fundamentally changing our knowledge of early Christianity.
I confess that I thought that this had to be a hoax. The pictures did not reassure me. But it seems that it is not. The mosaic in question was discovered in 2005, and a preliminary publication was made in Y. Tepper, L. Di Segni, Leah, with contribution by Guy Stiebel, “A Christian Prayer Hall of the Third Century CE at Kefar ‘Othnay (Legio): Excavations at the Megiddo Prison.” Israel Antiquities Authority, (2005). This is online here.
and does indeed have such a text on it. According to this rather more sensible site, the mosaic dates to 230.
The reason that the story has appeared is that the mosaic has been lent recently to the Museum of the Bible in Washington, and material about it appears on the website here, complete with photographs of the inscriptions. These highlight various words, but not, curiously, the “God Jesus Christ” stuff.
The inscriptions mention the man who commissioned the inscription: Gaianus, also called Porphyrius, centurion, our brother, has made the mosaic at his own expense as an act of generosity. Also named is Brutius the workman who did the actual work, a woman who paid for the table in the centre of the room, and four other women.
The so-called “Akeptous inscription” is the one in which we are interested.
Προσήνικεν
Ἁκεπτοῦς
ἡ φιλόθεος
τὴν τράπε-
ζαν Θ(ε)ῷ Ἰ(ησο)ῦ Χ(ριστ)ῷ
μνημόυνον.
“The god-loving Akeptous has offered the table to God Jesus Christ as a memorial.”
This image comes from the Museum of the Bible website and highlights the word “Akeptous”.
Much more interesting is the abbreviated words on the last line but one:
…. ΘΩ ΙΥ ΧΩ
= Theō Jesou Christō
Greek inscriptions are not my thing. So I was rather grateful to find an article online by Christopher Rollston, “A Stunning Trio of Early Christian (3rd century) Inscriptions from Biblical Armageddon: ‘God Jesus Christ,’ Five Prominent Named Women, a Named Centurion, a Eucharist Table, and Two Fish” which examines in detail and transcribes exactly all the inscriptions. It is very dry, as it should be, but excellent and very useful.
I’d like to end with a linguistic query. “Ἁκεπτοῦς” looks to me like a 3rd declension genitive. My Greek is sufficiently feeble that I cannot see what the nominative would be. Would anybody like to comment on this, and the syntax of the sentence?
Some bits are clear enough:
Προσήνικεν (3rd Aorist active, it was set up) … Ἁκεπτοῦς … ἡ φιλόθεος (nominative singular feminine, the god-loving) … τὴν τράπεζαν (accusative singular feminine, direct object, “the table”) …. Θεῷ Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ (dative singular masculine, “to God Jesus Christ”) … μνημόυνον (accusative singular, the second accusative, “as a memorial”).
But can Ἁκεπτοῦς be a nominative female name?
It’s a perfectly acceptable female name in nominatve. H. Solin wrote about it (in German, AI translated):
Akkeptoûs: AE 2008, 1546 = SEG LVI 1900 (Maximianopolis in Palestine) Akeptoûs, the God-loving, from Christian times.1 Clearly a female name. Despite the spelling with one κ, it can hardly be understood as anything other than belonging to the name group Acceptus. This was a popular cognomen, though admittedly rarely attested in the Greek East (ICret IV 224). If it is to be connected to Acceptus, then we have here the first clear example of the Greek female name suffix -οῦς attached to a Latin stem. Cf. however Δομνοῦς from Emesene in Syria (IGLS 2113), and Arctos 39 (2005) 168; perhaps, however, this formation is better considered as Semitic. This suffix was quite productive in Greek naming in the Hellenistic and especially Roman periods.2 Thus, we can confidently add this remarkable case to the findings of Greco-Roman onomastic interrelations, alongside many other formations, such as the numerous male names formed from Latin stems using the Greek suffix -ᾶς.
Footnote 1: The first editor L. Di Segni dates the inscription to the 3rd century for archaeological reasons, which is questionable. I would consider a slightly later period. Doubts are also raised by Chr. Markschies, ZAC 11 (2008) 435-7. The claim by K. Hallof in Markschies 437 note 47, ‘Aceptous seems to be the regularly formed genitive of the name *Akepto (omega with acute accent), like Sappho etc.’ is to be rejected.
Footnote 2: Vgl. z. B. O. Masson, BCH 103 (1979), 367. Onomastica Graeca selecta III, Genève 2000, 155–7.
“Analecta Epigraphica”, in Arctos 45 (2011) p. 143
https://journal.fi/arctos/issue/view/5808
As to the suffix, many female names of a similar form are listed under A alone:
Ἀγασικράτους, Ἀγυφοῦς, Ἀγχαροῦς, Ἀδεριοῦς, Ἀθαβοῦς, Αἰθιοποῦς, Ἀλεξοῦς, Αμαρους, Αμμαρους, Ἀμμωνοῦς, Απλαρους, Ἀπλωνοῦς, Ἀπολλωνοῦς, Ἀπολωνοῦς, Απφαρους, Αραυους, Ἁρεντοῦς, Ἀρηνοῦς, Ἀρητοῦς, Ἁρλιλοῦς, Ἀρτεμοῦς, Ἀσκλοῦς, Ἀσπιδοῦς, Ἀφροδοῦς, Αφφαρους.
https://glg.csic.es/NombresGriegosDePersona/ListasNombres/NombresDePersona_A.html
Very interesting – thank you! I appreciate the input.
Acceptus… that’s believable. A Latin name.
Interesting idea about a somewhat later date. Also believable.
If this were a third-declension genitive, the nominative would be ‘Ἀκεπτής on the model of Θεμιστοκλής. I suppose it could mean Philotheos the wife of Akeptes. But Akeptes is not an attested Greek name, male or female, that I know of and certainly not normal name formation. More likely, especially given its provenance, ΑΚΕΠΤΟΥΣ is the nominative of a Semitic name rendered in Greek script like ΙΗΣΟΥΣ. I can’t speak to the possible Aramaic nature of the name.
More important, I think, than the JesuChrist God part of the inscriptions is the naming of so many prominent women in the site.
“…fundamentally changing our knowledge of early Christianity”—Oh, brother. Fascinating stuff regardless of the silly hyperbole!
Oh, I defer to Diego’s very insightful comment. It indeed could be Acceptus, an interesting use of the masculine for a woman’s name.
Rοger,
“Ἁκεπτοῦς” is
1. 2nd Declensiοn Nοun Accusative Plural. It cοuld be Masculine οr Feminine. .
2. 3rd Declensiοn Neuter Genitive Singular.
I’ll gο with this οne since we are dealing with a name that is mοst likely a Feminine since the next wοrd, φιλοθεος, has the Feminine article, “η (ē).”
-οῦς was a common feminine nominative ending in Macedonia. You find it in inscriptions like Μαντοῦς, Ζωσαροῦς, Τυχαροῦς. Ιt was carried over into Egypt and Syria after Alexander’s conquests where it became very productive: Ἀβδοῦς, Δομνοῦς, Μαγνοῦς, Δημαροῦς, used as a diminutive to show affection.
Greek natively has several feminine words that end with -ώς and -ώ, such as αἰδώς, ἠώς, Ἡρώ, Καλυψώ, Λητώ, Κλειώ.
Ιn some dialects, ω alternated with ου. Τhis persisted through Byzantine and Modern Greek, hence you find feminine names like Θεοφανώ/Θεοφανού, Ἀθανασώ/Ἀθανασού, and even Βαγγελιώ, Λενιώ, Κατερινιώ, pet names derived from Εὐαγγελία, Ἐλένη, and Κατερίνα, respectively.
I am but a dilettante in ancient languages but greatly appreciate this blog and the comments it sparks.
Me too! But it’s fun to work with these languages, even if we can’t do much. Very grateful to Diego for his comprehensive reply!
I’m no longer Catholic but this article from the venerable Catholic Encyclopedia is quite good and explains that the word trapeza was “the favourite term for altar among the Greek Fathers and in Greek liturgies”.
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/history-of-the-christian-altar-11085
To my eye, the artist’s rendering of the space which the Museum of the Bible refers to as a “prayer hall” suggests that the centrally placed trapeza is no mere table but rather an altar. If so then the building itself is no mere prayer hall but rather a Christian temple.
The word temple probably sounds strange to Anglophone ears. I used it here because the word church is polysemantic. Somehow that leads to arguments about whether the church is the building or the assembly. For that reason I rather like the Russian Orthodox tendency to refer to the building as a temple.
Trapeza is also polysemantic and in this case I believe it means altar.
As a lover of the history of words I’d love to link to the Oxford English Dictionary’s entry for polysemantic. On account of the paywall I can only share this bit of text from the free side of the wall:
“OED’s earliest evidence for polysemantic is from 1862, in a translation by Fitzedward Hall, oriental scholar and philologist.”
I think it could be an altar. I’ve not been able to read all the material, but I found “prayer hall” an odd term.
-οῦς was a common feminine nominative ending in Macedonia. You find it in inscriptions like Μαντοῦς, Ζωσαροῦς, Τυχαροῦς. Ιt was carried over into Egypt and Syria after Alexander’s conquests where it became very productive: Ἀβδοῦς, Δομνοῦς, Μαγνοῦς, Δημαροῦς, used as a diminutive to show affection.
Greek natively has several feminine words that end with -ώς and -ώ, such as αἰδώς, ἠώς, Ἡρώ, Καλυψώ, Λητώ, Κλειώ.
Ιn some dialects, ω alternated with ου. Τhis persisted through Byzantine and Modern Greek, hence you find feminine names like Θεοφανώ/Θεοφανού, Ἀθανασώ/Ἀθανασού, and even Βαγγελιώ, Λενιώ, Κατερινιώ, pet names derived from Εὐαγγελία, Ἐλένη, and Κατερίνα, respectively.
Also, “holy trapeza” is the current term for the altar table in Orthodox parlance.
I also found “prayer hall” to be an odd term. Yesterday I thought it might have been invented by someone at the Museum of the Bible. However, a bit of googling today — more than I care to admit — revealed that the term comes from Yotam Tepper, the Israeli archaeologist who discovered the church at Megiddo. It is no doubt also the English term used by the Israelis who facilitated the exhibit in Washington DC.
The title of the Hebrew version of Tepper’s article from 2006 about the discovery and excavation of the site at Megiddo refers to the structure as an olam tefillah Notzri (אולם תפילה נוצרי). In the English version of Tepper’s paper this expression is rendered as “Christian prayer hall” and Google Translate concurs.
The term Notzri means Nazarene and occurs in early rabbinic texts including the Talmud. Nazarene is their polite term for a Christian.
A search for אולם תפילה (prayer hall) yielded hits for synagogues and mosques, so it seems to be a generic Hebrew term for a worship space. In English, the term prayer hall appears to primarily be associated with the unfurnished space inside a mosque or public building where Muslim prayers are said. Such a space is called a musalla, thank you Wikipedia. Prayer rugs only, no tables please, and definitely no altars!
It’s unfortunate that the Museum of the Bible and therefore the press would run with a literal translation of a Hebrew expression and create the mistaken impression that early Christian churches are now to be called prayer halls. But I’m thankful to have learned about the church at Megiddo at all!
Thank you for looking into this. I was wondering about it. That’s not very good, is it.
A Greek lady called “Kat” has emailed her thoughts about the mosaic:
ΠΡΟΣΗΝΙΚΕΝ
ΑΚΕΠΤΟΥΣ-
Η ΦΙΛΟΘΕΟΣ
ΤΗΝ ΤΡΑΠΕ
ΖΑΝ ΘΕΩ ΙΗΣΟΥ ΧΡΙΣΤΩ
ΜΝΗΜΟΣΥΝΟΝ
Implied meaning :
ΠΡΟΣΗΝΙΚΕΝ (ΤΗ) ΑΚΕΠΤΟΥΣΗ ΦΙΛΟΘΕΟΣ ΤΗΝ ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑΝ (TΩ) ΘΕΩ ΙΗΣΟΥ ΧΡΙΣΤΩ ΜΝΗΜΟΣΥΝΟΝ
Comments:
The (female) name Akeptous on the second line is followed by a hyphen that links it to the letter H at far left on the third line of the inscription.
This means the woman’s full name is written here in the dative case, i.e, “to Akeptousa” (ΤΗ ΑΚΕΠΤΟΥΣΗ) while the Greek “to” (ΤΗ) is omitted, since the name itself is clearly written in the dative case. The reference to the name of God Christ is also in the dative case, hence the corresponding (ΤΩ) is also omitted.
The word “filotheos” – God-loving – refers to the person who made the offering of the “table”, in memoriam of the woman Akeptousa, possibly a relative.
Since the mosaic inscription is on the ground, the “table” (ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑΝ) most probably refers to an altar that was placed above/near it – depending on what the rest of the finds unearth – perhaps a temple.
Given that the words in Greek texts can be understood in almost any order they are written, the inscription basically says:
A GOD-LOVING PERSON (=unnamed, prefers to remain anonymous) OFFERED THE TABLE (ALTAR?) TO GOD JESUS CHRIST, AS A COMMEMORATIVE GESTURE (IN MEMORIAM) TO AKEPTOUSA.
It’s important to pay attention to the bold hyphen that points to the letter “H”.
It wasn’t put there as a random decoration, it was to confirm the spelling of the split name in the dative.
There was no hyphen joining the split word “ΤΡΑΠΕ..ΖΑΝ”, simply because it was not possible to assume the pursuant “ZAN” bit is an independent word or particle or article – only the logical continuation of the word ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑΝ.
Also female names usually have an “a” or “η” or “ις” or “ω” ending. The “ous” ending is usually found in the genitive of names ending in omega…, for example, η Ακεπτώ – της Ακεπτούς., or, η Ακεπτούσα – της Ακεπτούσης.
Here’s an indicative list (online pdf) of women’s names from ancient times, evidencing the 3 endings that I mentioned above – no “ous” ending for names in the nominative…
The reason they are calling it a prayer hall, apparently, is that it’s one room inside a Roman army building/house. But it seems to be awfully permanent in nature, given the expensive single-purpose mosaics.
Thank you. Yes… exactly.
There are permanent-ish pagan temple rooms in other Roman army houses of generals, HQ buildings of many purposes, etc., such as along Hadrian’s Wall. So maybe majority ruled, or the general, or whoever owned the house.
Suburbanbanshee, that’s probably why they’re calling it a prayer hall. I don’t mean to quibble about terminology. Prayer hall is probably a useful generic term. In English such a room, if Christian, has historically been called a chapel. But language does change, of course, and there was no need for me to forget that reason is dispassionate. It’s not Yotam Tepper’s fault that at heart I tend to say, “Que no haya novedad” (let nothing new arise).
I don’t think a hyphenated name ΑΚΕΠΤΟΥΣ-Η (for dat. ΑΚΕΠΤΟΥΣῌ) is really possible. The practice of marking split words at the end of a line with a hyphen only emerged much later (12th century?) in Greek manuscripts. The Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae has many Greek inscriptions including mosaics, with plenty of examples of split words, and I don’t think any of them has a hyphen. Much more often a dot like this one marks a division between words. Also, note that there would have been more than room enough to fit a name ΑΚΕΠΤΟΥΣΗ in the second line anyway.