Biblical Archaeology Review

A casemate wall consists of two parallel walls subdivided into rooms by perpendicular walls; the space between the walls can be used for storage, to garrison troops, or it can be filled with rubble to strengthen the wall in time of siege.

Unfortunately, not even the major architectural features Glueck uncovered—the Four-Room House, the casemate wall, the solid wall, the four-chambered gateway—can be identified today.

The Midrash is the homiletic exposition of the Bible in a number of rabbinic works dating from [between] approximately 400 to 1500 A.D.

The Talmud is the body of Jewish civil and religious law which, according to tradition, was transmitted orally by God to Moses at Mt. Sinai. It was codified in Palestine about 400 A.D. and in Babylonia about 500 A.D.

The Talmud is a legal commentary on the Mishnah, in two versions, Jerusalem and Babylonian, published between the fifth and seventh centuries, often embodying older material (and often not).

The Mishnah is the collection of rabbinical legal rules compiled in the first decades of the third century A.D.

For more on the Aphrodisias inscription, see “Jews and God-Fearers in the Holy City of Aphrodite” by Robert F. Tannenbaum, in this issue.

Delos, on that island in the Aegean Sea (first century B.C. to second century A.D.); Ostia, in Italy (fourth century A.D.; the earliest synagogue may be as early as the first century A.D.); Dura-Europos, in Syria (the building is second century A.D. to 256 A.D.); Sardis, in Asia Minor (second or third century A.D. to 616 A.D.); Stobi, in Macedonia (fourth century A.D.; earlier synagogues at the site date to the third century A.D. or earlier); Priene, in Asia Minor (third or fourth century A.D.).

Diaspora is the term used for Jews dispersed outside the land of Israel. The word is used for both the people and their communities.

V. Guerin, Description de la palestine—2nd part—Samarie (Paris, 1974), Chap. 26, s.v. Hirbet Kalise.