Image Details

“(We) Menahem and Yeshua, sons of the late Isai (Jesse), wood traders, as a sign of respect for a most holy place, donated this mosaic in the month of Louos (the year of) 569,” reads the Greek inscription in the synagogue’s southern aisle. This date in the Gaza calendar corresponds to 508/9 A.D. The typically Jewish names buttress the argument that the Gaza structure was a synagogue, and not a church, as an early report suggested.