Biblical Archaeology Review

The Hebrew word is plural, bamot, but only one high place seems to be referred to—the Tophet. The Septuagint (an early Greek translation of the Bible) and many modern translations such as John Bright’s Anchor Bible Jeremiah (p. 57) render bamot in the singular.

Hebrew is written without vowels. The second spelling indicates how the Hebrew is pronounced.

The Mishnah is the body of Jewish oral law, specifically, the collection of oral laws compiled by Rabbi Judah the Prince in the second century.

An ossuary is a rectangular box with a lid, usually hewn out of limestone, which was used as a depository for secondary burial of a deceased person’s bones.

Stanislao Loffreda, “Ceramica Ellenistico-Romana nel Sottosuolo della Sinagoga di Cafarnao,” and Virgilio C. Corbo, “Restidella Sinagoga del Primo Secolo a Cafarnao,” in Studia Hierosolymitana III (1982), pp. 273–357.

Other first-century synagogues are known from Masada, Herodium, Gamla (probably), Magdala and perhaps Chorazim. In addition, an inscription from such a synagogue has been found in Jerusalem (see Hershel Shanks, Judaism in Stone, Biblical Archaeology Society and Harper and Row: New York and Washington, 1979, pp. 17–19).

The Gospels always speak of “the” Capernaum synagogue. Perhaps this was because there was one synagogue in Capernaum or the Gospel writers knew of only one synagogue. But it is also possible they said “the” because all their attention was focused on this synagogue.

This awkward terminology to designate the two strata results from the fact that the strata as designated by the original excavators in the 1930s have since been clarified. The original excavators divided stratum IV into two phases, IVa and IVb the latter being earlier. Subsequent excavation and analysis have shown that strata Va and IVb should be combined into one stratum. As is customary, the excavators number the strata from the top down.

According to Dever: “The ‘new archaeology’ was ignored or rejected by older American archaeologists, especially by those who considered themselves exclusively ‘biblical archaeologists’; by many European historical archaeologists working in the Middle East; and, more significantly, by the Israelis (who, however, adopted some of the more practical field techniques of the newer approach)” (Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 242, p. 16.).