Early Christian Inscriptions of Crete
Anastasius C. Bandy
1963
Hesperia
A. NEW TEXTS 1. (P1. 64). A sepulchral plaque of white marble found in May 1959, in Kastelli Kissamou; now in the museum there. The inscription is on the top half of a stone and the letters are carefully and well cut. Height, 0.45 m.; width, 0.30 m.; thickness, 0.028 m.; height of letters, 0.015-0.03 m.; distance between lines, 0.005-0.015 m. Sookia roprvvi a 7rpeal/3vTEpa KE aPXt&cVvayw y-ro"a Ktora4/ov EV S Oa. Mvea ALKE'a. Sophia, of Gortyna, a presbytera and archisynagogissa of Kisamos
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... ) within. May the memory of the just woman be for ever. Amen. This inscription appears to be either Jewish or Judeo-Christian. If it is Jewish, it is the second that has come down to us from Crete. An inscription from Arcades is also apparently Jewish, to judge by the names 'JIc%r-o9 and 'IovSa.'1 The above inscription may be of the Roman period or very early Christian period, at a time when there was very little differentiation between Christians and Jews. The letter forms tend to date the inscription as first or second century after Christ. The adjective roprvvia implies that the deceased was either born at, or came from, Gortyna. She is called wrpEo-/vrepa and apXrwvvayvytcr-oa of Kisamos. Thus there must have been a synagogue at Kisamos, as there surely must have existed synagogues at Gortyna and other large cities of Crete. This is the only occurrence of the name Sophia in Jewish inscriptions.2 The term 1rpEcr3vrEpa implies that the deceased either was the wife of a 1TpecrftvrpoS or she received this as an honorary title, since it was often bestowed upon women. The word apXtcvvayyLcro--a implies either that her husband was, in addition, an apXtovvaaycoyo or that she received this as a second 1 M. Guarducci, Inscriptiones Creticae opera et consilio Friderici Halbherr collectae, I, Rome, 1935, p. 12, no. 17. 2 Cf. P. Frey, Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaicarum, I and II, Rome, 1936-1952. Hesperia, XXXII, 3 American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Hesperia www.jstor.org ® ANASTASIUS C. BANDY honorary title, since this also was given to women. Even children were granted the title apx-crvvaycVyo. The feminine form aPpXLcvva.ycwyurcra for the usual apXtcvvaywyo3 occurs here for the first time. The honorary title purlrTp crvvaywyoj also was bestowed upon women 8 and nrarirp crvvaycoyqj upon men.4 It is to be noted that the wives of the clerics of the Christian church were known by the titles of their husbands. IIpecr3v1-epa was used to designate the wife of a presbyteros 5 and an abbess of a convent.6 The wife of a presbyteros was also called pateressac, and from the fourth century, when the term iepevs began to be used, eptacrwra.8 Wives of bishops, deacons, and subdeacons were called episcopa,9 diaconissa, and subdiaconissa.'0 The wife of an oiKov'oo was probably called o1Kov4L-Ocr-a, although this title may also have been applied to the nun in charge of the treasury of a convent.ll Epiphanios (ca. A.D. 315-403), bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, states that the Judeo-Christians called their places of meeting not EKKX7c0-ta but o-vvaywyrj and that the heads of their communities were called wTpecr/vTepot and apXwa-vvciyoyo.'2 By the second century, however, the Judeo-Christian group disintegrated. Since they were separated from the Christians and Jews alike, they gradually drifted into one side or the other, though small Judeo-Christian communities remained in Palestine and Syria until the fourth-fifth century after Christ.13 It is of interest also to note that canon 64 of the Holy Apostles applies the word crvvaycoyrj not only to the prayer meetings of the Jews but also to those of the heretics. An inscription from Deir-Ali uses it of the Marcionites.'4
doi:10.2307/147076
fatcat:bi2m7pz3sjdflffo5ixxrq4kxe