The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, January 5, 1931, Page 9

i % PT IM | = a = = y “MTEL DACAAR One of the almost per- fectly - preserved mosaics... found by the Zionist set- tlers. . . . It depicts the month of Hesh- van, or the autumn season, .. . The crude but intricate character of the work is well shown. OME time about the year 525 a contractor named Marianos and his son, Hanina, were given the job of laying an ornamental floor in the synagogue of a village in northern Palestine. It wasn't a very large town or a very distinguished onc; its very name is now forgotten, and neither Roman nor Jewish history contains any reference to the place. It was just another of the innumer- able Main Street towns of the world, whose inhabitants carried on their sev- eral businesses, assembled piously on the Sabbath, and in due time were gathered to their fathers, all without raising enough dust or shedding enough blood to earn a few penstrokes on parchment. Like the small-town folk of today, the people of this forgotten village were a really religious lot, and they wanted their meeting-house to be a place they could really be proud of; a place, more- over, that would instruct their children through their eyes as the Torah reader instructed them through their ears. So Marianos and his son, Hanina, were commissioned to-cover the floor of the synagogue with pictures in stone-— mosaics, we call them now, ‘They did their workmanlike kest, and were so weil satisfied with what they had wrought that they put in an inscription telling who they were and that they finished the job in the reign of the Emperor Justinus. This dated ‘signature, written in bits of colored stones, turns “out ‘to be one of the most important things about. their whole artistic effort. For this-synagogue which they thus decorated is the only building of its kind in Palestine of whose date we can be at all certain. Ruins of other and more pretentious synagogues have been found, but of then s time only. an approximate -notion has . ever been. gained. And synagogues in Palestine are obviously as important, in rebuilding ‘our -picture of the life of for-- mer times, as are churches or mosques or classic temples, all of which are the . subjects of increasingly active research. UT however much applause Mari- anos and Hanina may have had from their neighbors for their artistic efforts on the floor of the syna- gogue, the immortality they sought for their names was rel- atively short-lived. For. at some time during the troubled period of war and confusion that marked the later centuries of antiquity the village was abandoned or destroyed, and the synagogue died with it. The roof and walls fell in, and : the debris of centuries piled deep over the tesselated floor. Slee Greek and Saracen, Crusader and Turk, fought each other to the death, or made treaties and traded; all through the middle ages and modern times life ebbed and flowed through the: Plain of Esdraelon where the town had once,stood, and the forgotten stones of its houses lay as dumb and unheed- ing_as dead men’s bones. Then came the thunders of the World War, like the trumpet of resurrection: Th lad,’ long® prone beneath the hand of the Turk, stirred and shook itself. Under a new regime, a people who had possessed it ages before sent back some of its scattered sons and daughters to till the land that their fathers had known. Under the banner of the Zionist movement Jewish colonies:sprang up in many parts of the old kingdom of David and Solomon. * One of these agricultural colonies settled on almost the exact site of the long-forgotten village, in the Plain of Esdraelon. Its founders, young men and-womén from Galicia, Germany and Czechoslovakia, called their town Beth Alpha. capa aN There were “old ‘stiibs “of “walls “sticking out’ of the soi! here and there; but ruins are common in an old land like Palestine, and’ the ¢ i with the present and providing for the future to dig much into the past. The problem of water was with them, as it had been: with :their ‘arteéstors.*in ‘the: wilderness, and they abiaellone to meet it by the construction of an irrigation it 5 3 That trench brought them into direct contact with the past, whether they would or no. Wherever you go a little bencath the surface of the ground in Palestine you are very HASUUULAUCL AHN AT I UNA LACT HUA UOOUEEEOUEE ECT OMB UTTELCACUUEAUUUUCUUTA TOU OCU TAA UUU EAA TG Tell New pe colonists. were, too. busy. wrestling LA : TT TM TC By FRANK THONE likely to come face to face very suddenly with antiquity. The diggers uncovered a strip of the mosaic floor which Marianos and his son had iaid with careful fingers 14 cen- turies ago. Some of the stones were arranged to form Hebrew letters; the diggers had, without intending it, made a find of major importance, had dug up a fotgotten chapter from the past of their own people. ey made haste to notify the Hebrew University at Jerusalem, and Dr. L. Sukenik, archaeologist, came out to investigate. He arranged for careful and complete exca- vation at once, though the season was unfavorable, so that the colonists might be able to finish their irrigation ditch. When at last Dr. Sukenik’s workmen had laid the whole ruin bare, he had the ground plan of the ancient synago 2 in full, and the interesting mosaic pavement in a remarkably well-preserved condition. The building had been in some respects typical of the synagogues of that time in Palestine; in others, it introduced new features. he main portion had been divided into three naves by rows of pillars, the ground floor reserved for the men, with a gallery for the women worshippers. The three entrances customary in synagogues were at the “wrong” end of the building, however; they were on the north end instead of on the side nearest Jerusalem, which in this instance hap- pened to be the south. Furthermore, they did not cpen How Marianos & Hanina depicted the story of Abraham and Iscac in ~ mosaic stone. . . . On the right, the flames leap from the altar... . Abraham helds Isaac and a wicked-looking knife. . « » The restraining hand of the directly into the synagogue itself, but into a transverse ante- room known as a narthex, typical of early Christian church- es, but hitherto unknown in synagogues of that period. An- other departure was the erection of an apse, or projecting end, in which stood the ark which always faces toward the Temple at Jerusalem. This again is more characteristic of Christian than of Jewish places of worship. There were stone benches around three walls, where the people sat during prayers. UT the great find is the mosaic floor. This tells a colorful story of orthodox piety and faithfulness to Nee history, tempered with a cheerful eclecticism that did not refuse a bit of decoration that savored of the Greek, so long as it did not introduce the hated and dreaded worship of idols. There is also a curious contrast between the taste of the workers in selecting thei: stones and their technical skill in working out their pictures and designs. For the bits ol stone that are wrought into the figured floor are asonmbingly assorted, showing no less than 22 nuances of color. But the figures them- selves are astonishingly, childishly naive. even crude, The faces on the human figures are almost duplicates of the efforts of early American tomb- stone sculptors, and the drawing of their limbs and those Re Ibe animals is reminiscent of that in children’s sketch- ooks. “ But regardless of their lack of skill. the father and son who laid the mosaics had their Bible history straight, and they also faithfully portrayed the’ various objects used in the ancient Jewish ritual: the Ark, the Perpetual Lamp, the Shofar, or ram’s-horn trumpet, the Lulab. or palin ott ltll Mn TUTTE Pictures on Floor, Buried 1400 Years, ory of Ancient Worship Digging an irrigation ditch in Palestine, . workmen uncover perfectly preserved ; foundations of a synagogue built in 525, with mosaics of Bible history Lord appears from the clouds above, the ram is tied to a tree, and the servants wait behind with the donkey. . . . It is remarkably true to Scripture as to all details, telling the story exactly in the Biblical manner. branch, the Etrog, or citron used at the Feast of the Taber- nacles, The big job of portrayal that these two pious artisans undertook was the story of the Sacrifice of Abraham, as Where Zionist colonists, digging a ditch . . . unearthed an ancient synagogue . . . and Hebrew University scholars laid bare significant ruins on the plain of Esdraclon. told in the twenty-second chapter of the Book of Genesis. It is all shown, in primitive but graphic outline. Two serv- ants hold the donkey with the empty pretend. remain- ing behind as Abraham told them to. Farther along stands the bearded and robed patriarch before an altar on which the flames already rise high. He holds the luckless young Isaac suspended in one hand, and in the other poises a long and wicked-looking knife. Behind him, unnoticed as yet, is the ram in the thicket, which Abraham finally offered up. (Copyright, 1930. By Every Week Magazine and Science Service—Printed In U. S. A.) AUNTIE ALAA SHON TRU AP IS Dee if SUMMA uaucntonzasauu cana LALA UE The sun-chariot, pulled by four horscs. . . . This sur- prising decoration appeared in the very center of the floor. ...« It is Greek and not Hebrew at all... and must have been purely a cultural lesson in popular astronomy. Lhe Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac . . . as por- trayed by a mod- ern artis . . Below is the mo- saic representation of the same scene recentiy uncoy- ered. IHE dramatic interruption of the contemplated sacrifice by orders from on high is symbolized by a hand surrounded with rays, extended out of a cloud, with the inscription in Hebrew characters: “Lay not thine hand upon the child.” it may be that the artist-artisans omitted a full representation of the angel of the Lord who thus re- lieved Abraham from the agoniz- ing task of sacrificing his own son simply because the space was already crowded with human and animal fig- ures; but the question suggests itself, was not this omission possibly due te the reverent dread the Jews have always had of depicting the incot- porate and infinite Yhwh in any bodily form? Even when God was present only through His agent, pic- turization may have been judged an impiety. The question becomes one of some interest and importance for the un- derstanding of the synagogue of Beth: Alpha because of the great mosaic design that_occupied the center of the floor. This is not directly con- nected with the Jewish ntual at all. It is Greek; it might even be called pagan. Within a circle formed of the 12 signs of the zodiac are the four horses and the driver of the chariot of the sun. If this had been found in any building not otherwise identified, one would immediately jump at the conclusion that it was a representa- tion of the pagan sua-god Phoebus- Apollo. But here in a synagogue, sur- rounded as it is by indubitable evi- dences of the orthodox and uncor- rupted Judaism of the congregation, the sun-symbol must be taken simply for a cultural picture—one might say a lesson in astronomy assembled in stone. This interpretation is strength- ened by the’presence of winged fig- ures at the four “corners” of the circle, which appropriate mscriptions present as the spirits (djinns, if you like) of the four seasons. The presence of any human or animal figures at all in the decora- tions of a synagogue may be a puzzle to some, in view of the known strict- ness of the rule against graven im- ages. But a Jewish writer in the German scientific journal, “Die Umschau,” calls attention to the fact that these “images” are not, in the strict sense, graven. They are flat figures, and the idols against which the Mosaic legislatior: was originally aimed were carved “in the round.” So pictures of this kind might well be tolerated; just as the Orthodox Christian churches of the East forbid carved statuary but permit painted and enameled ikons, as weil as wall paintings and mosaics. IHE interdict on graven images, “the like- ness of anything that is in the heavens above, the earth beneath or in the waters that are under the earth,” has never been in- terpreted with absolute literalness, If it had been, it would have prohibited the making of images of flowers, fruit and other parts of plants; but such images were actually required 4s part of the ceremonial garments of the priests. That the iconoclastic temper of the Jewish people was somewhat modified after halt a millennium is testified by the elaborately pic- tured floor of the synagogue-at Beth Alpha. Tt is possible, too, that in this part of the coun- try, remote from Jerusalem and in more inti- mate contact with Greek culture, such modi- fication was_a little easier. Thus much, of interest to Jew and Christian alike, can be read from the ruins of this one synagogue—a village synagogue at that, and in a town so obscure that all memory of it had perished. There must be many more such places waiting for the spade of the archaeologist—in Jerusalem alone, Josephus says, there were 394 synagogues. The sya- agogues of the larger towns must have had greater distinction, whose remains will tell even more than Beth Alpha. TL A H of LUDLEA AEA AREA ECAR AGO AA HQUNUUOTAUVUNOA CHUAN OA URREGULAAEAN EU AN = ¥ i TET DWE as J