Synagogue of Edessa

PRZEGLĄD

Historia Synagogue of Edessa

Edessa, the Syriac Urhay and today's Şanlıurfa in south-eastern Turkey, lay on a ridge ringed by hills above a fertile plain, defended by a high central citadel. Jews lived there from early times. The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) notes that the old Edessan chronicle mentions at least two synagogues in the city. This entry concerns the one that the bishop Rabbula took over.

The only direct evidence is a single line of the Chronicle of Edessa, a Syriac collection of short entries on the city's history written in the second half of the sixth century by a pro-Chalcedonian author. Under the Seleucid year 723, which corresponds to 411 or 412 CE, it records: 'Rabbula became bishop in Edessa. And he built the house of Mar Stephanus, which had been formerly a house of Sabbath (synagogue) of the Jews. Now he built it by command of the king.' The 'king' is the emperor, Theodosius II.

Nothing is known of when the synagogue was built, what it looked like or how large it was. Its loss is dated by the start of Rabbula's episcopate and, according to Andrew Palmer, came before the flood of March 413. The translator Harris Cowper judged it 'probably an act of spoliation perpetrated upon the Jews'. Some scholars have doubted the reading 'Jews' altogether, a dispute described under destruction below.

LOKALIZACJA

Where it stood

Historic: Edessa (Urhay), Osrhoene, exact location unknown. Today: historic core of Şanlıurfa, Turkey; pin at Balıklıgöl (Göl Mahallesi, Eyyübiye), approximate.

Otwórz większą mapę →

Społeczność żydowska

Jews are attested at Edessa well before the fifth century, but the sources read for this entry give few firm facts about the community itself. The Jewish Encyclopedia records Christian traditions that the apostle Addai stayed at the house of a Jew named Tobias, and that an early king was saved by a Jewess named Kutbi; these are legends, not records. The Encyclopaedia Judaica notes that the Talmud calls the community Hadass, that the Roman suppression of Parthian resistance in the city also meant the subjugation of its Jews, and that the Doctrine of Addai's story of Jewish silk merchants joining the conversion of Edessa is a Christian invention. Modern scholarship cited by Wikipedia (Keser-Kayaalp and Drijvers 2018) says the city still had Jewish as well as pagan inhabitants in the early fifth century. The size of the congregation that used this synagogue, its leaders and its rabbis are unknown; no member is named in any source read.

Architektura i projekt

Nothing is known about the building's architecture. The Chronicle of Edessa calls it simply a 'house of Sabbath of the Jews', the ordinary Syriac term for a synagogue, and gives no description of its plan, size, materials, decoration or position in the city. No floor, inscription or wall belonging to it has been identified, and no ancient drawing, coin or plan of the city shows it. The Chronicle says that Rabbula 'built' the house of Mar Stephanus, which suggests that the existing building was adapted, possibly with new construction, rather than replaced on a fresh site, but the extent of any rebuilding is unknown. Palmer notes that the Life of Rabbula insists the bishop built nothing new 'in the earth' apart from a women's hospital and repairs to the nave wall of the cathedral, which agrees with the idea that the church of St Stephen was a reused building. The date of construction, the architect and the seating capacity are unknown.

Życie w synagodze

No source read describes worship, study or communal life inside this synagogue. The Syriac name used for it, 'house of Sabbath', points to its main role as the place where the Jews of Edessa gathered for Sabbath prayer and the reading of the Torah, but no detail of its rites, officials or furnishings survives. The Jewish Encyclopedia notes that the Peshitta, the Syriac translation of the Bible, was made at Edessa and shows Jewish tendencies, a sign of close contact between the city's Jews and Christians, but this is not evidence about this building. The Life of Rabbula, a Syriac panegyric written after the bishop's death in 435/436, calls the Jews 'the obstinate Israelite people' and claims that they mourned him, and it presents him as being on good terms with them; Palmer regards this portrait as unreliable. Who led the congregation, and how long the synagogue served it, is unknown.

Zniszczenie

The synagogue was not destroyed by violence as far as the sources show; it was confiscated and turned into a church. The Chronicle of Edessa records that in the Seleucid year 723 (411/412 CE), when Rabbula became bishop, he 'built the house of Mar Stephanus, which had been formerly a house of Sabbath of the Jews', and that he did so 'by command of the king', that is the emperor Theodosius II. Bishop Rabbula is therefore named as the man who carried out the conversion. Andrew Palmer places it before the flood of 18 March 413. The Oxford Cult of Saints database notes that no other source corroborates the report, but that it fits other evidence of an aggressive policy towards Jews in fifth-century Roman Syria; Palmer adds that Theodosius II's reign saw growing legal discrimination against Jews and sees no good reason to doubt it. Ludwig Hallier proposed emending 'Jews' to 'Audians', a Christian sect, and some later scholars followed him; Palmer calls this emendation far-fetched.

Los społeczności

Losing the synagogue did not end Jewish life in Edessa. The Jewish Encyclopedia notes that the Edessan chronicle mentions at least two synagogues, so the community may have kept another place of worship, although this is not stated. Jews are still recorded in the city in the seventh century: the Armenian historian Sebeos describes a Jewish delegation assembling at Edessa after the Byzantine conquest. According to Bar Hebraeus, as cited by the Jewish Encyclopedia, a mosque was built in 825 on a site where there had formerly been a synagogue; whether that was a different building is unknown. A small community lived in Urfa into modern times: the traveller Benjamin II counted 150 Jewish inhabitants in his day, and the geographer Vital Cuinet later gave 322 Jews in the city out of about 55,000 people. What happened to the congregation that lost this synagogue in 411/412 is not recorded.

Miejsce dzisiaj

The site of the synagogue, and therefore of the church of St Stephen that replaced it, has not been located. No remains attributed to either building are known, and the sources read do not say in which quarter of Edessa they stood. Edessa is today's Şanlıurfa, whose high central citadel, Şanlıurfa Castle, once defended the ancient city. The map pin for this entry is placed at Balıklıgöl, a pool in the historic core of the city; it marks the general area of the ancient city only and should not be read as the synagogue's location. Nothing on the ground today marks the building.

Pomóż zachować pamięć

Czy masz coś do przekazania?

Zdjęcia, dokumenty, historie rodzinne lub wspomnienia o tej synagodze i jej społeczności pomagają zachować jej historię.