Friday, July 9, 2010

The Location of the 'Great Synagogue' of Alexandria (Part Two)

I have the culmination of a series of emails exchanged with one of the true greats in modern scholarship who has written extensively on the subject of Alexandria and the location of various religious buildings in the city (I will leave his name out of the conversation because I don't think he wants to admit we speak on a regular basis). I just sent this off to the people in Alexandria to give them the only two opinions that are possible for the location of the great synagogue.

The professor emeritus explains his position as follows:

I do not think that the martyrium of St. Mark and the main Jewish synagogue of Alexandria were located in the same place. The latter would have been closer to the Via Canopica, near the ancient Gymnasium. According to Philo, there two of the five "letters" which made up Alexandria were Jewish. I surmise that they were in the east, east of Lochias, and in the west, in the area of Kibotos harbor. The latter was "Delta." The main Jewish quarter in the east would have extended from the sea southward, probably all the way down to Via Canopica. I assume that the Gymnasium was located in the Greek section, west of the main Jewish synagogue.

I do not agree with assessment as it places too much emphasis on the Gymnasium needing to be near the great synagogue (the Gymnasium was where the chariot was kept which eventually 'defiled' the synagogue). I argue the Greeks could have walked down the Via Canopica and then made a left and continued to walk to the synagogue. There is no reason for anyone claiming it had to be within a certain radius. The description in Philo does not require this at all. 

The chief arguments for locating the synagogue near the martyrium are:

(a) the description in Philo of events in Flaccus (where the synagogue is located near the sea and near the palace)

(b) the fact that Jewish synagogues were preferably located near large bodies of water. Levine writes in the Ancient Synagogue:

Of particular interest here is the explicit statement that many Jews built synagogues near bodies of water, a phenomenon we have already encountered in Egypt, Delos, and Ostia. A similar reference appears in Acts.(Acts 16:13) The reason for this practice is not entirely clear, although one obvious possibility is the need to be close to water for purification purposes, a practice already attested in the Letter of Aristeas (Letter of Aristeas 304 - 306). There may also have been other reasons for this preference, eg, the Jews' desire to distance themselves from the pagan city generally in order to avoid, or at least reduce, tensions with their neighbors stemming from their different practices and behavior, or to allow for a less ''polluted'' worship environment, far from pagan places of idolatry (p. 114)

It is worth noting that Levine assumes that the great synagogue described in Flaccus was located by the sea (see his footnotes). He also cites rabbinic texts that say that bathing in the Mediterranean rendered one ritually pure. 

(c) Christopher Haas explicitly identifies the synagogue as being at the very same place as the martyrium - "close to the shore in the eastern most sector of the city." (Alexandria in Late Antiquity: Topography and Social Conflict p. 400)

The bottom line is that the synagogue doesn't make any sense being placed on the Canopic Way. The narrative of Flaccus doesn't make any sense when the Jews gather in front of the locked synagogue and then in the next instant are by the sea. Nothing is sacrificed from the chariot incident by making the Greeks turn down one of the arteries and end up by the sea. 

Indeed Philo is likely attributing the whole incident to a bunch of crazy Greek rather than admit that the Jews were resisting an official order from Flaccus. The actions of the Jews seem less like disloyalty. Philo is always clever that way.

UPDATE FROM HARRY: For your information: The Gymnasium site has been much debated. At the end of 2009 a Greek archaeologist excavating at the Shallalat gardens (at less than 100 m from the Old Jewish cemetery) found a beautiful white marble Hellenistic statue of an athlete. This is probably Ptolemy IV or Ptolemy VII in a wrestling or pancreas competition. Jean-Yves Empereur feels that this find confirms the location of the Gymnasium. It is in fact very near to the Via Canopica. If you draw a straight line from there, going North, you reach Cape Lochias in 5 or 10 minutes.

The point is that it looks like everyone had the Gymnasium in the WRONG place so all the calculations were wrong. Cape Lochias is the narrow promontory now called Silsileh ("the Chain") that forms forms the opposite jaw of the Eastern Harbour (you've all seen it before)

UPDATE #2 New question and response from Harry. 

I asked Harry "I am looking at Google Earth. Doesn't the road from Shallat Gardens now lead directly to the Martyrium of St Mark?" I am arguing of course with Haas that the 'great synagogue' mentioned in Flaccus was also there. Harry responds.

Yes, it is the road that lead from Shallalat directly to the Chatby Beach
where the Martyrium once stood.

The point should now be obvious. The Gymnasium mentioned in Flaccus was ALREADY in the same district (the one everyone but Pearson calls 'Delta') as the synagogue where it is later placed. The Gymnasium was basically at the corner of 'the Canopic Way (the main street in Alexandria) and the artery that led to the great synagogue. 

Remember my reconstruction is based ON THE MOST RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL INFORMATION and all others - well - they're stuck in the 1950's.

I hope and pray that something of this synagogue will be found. It will literally change history. It might even destroy the testimony of Josephus. I'll mention why next post ...

Email with comments or questions.

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