Image Details

COURTESY OF THE MASADA EXPEDITION/PHOTO BY SASHA FLIT

RED-LETTER WRITING. A red painted inscription in the cave next to the Byzantine church reads, “Lord Jesus.” Written in Palestinian Aramaic, the inscription dates approximately to the fifth–seventh centuries C.E. Although initially observed in the late 19th century, the existence of the unread inscription was forgotten for more than a century—until February 2018 when the Masada excavators rediscovered and deciphered it.