The Synagogue in the Agora of Athens is an ancient former

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

, that was located in the

Ancient Agora of Athens The ancient Agora of Athens (also called the Classical Agora) is the best-known example of an ancient Greek agora, located to the northwest of the Acropolis and bounded on the south by the hill of the Areopagus and on the west by the hill kn ...

, in modern-day

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. During an excavation in the summer of 1977, a piece of

Pentelic Mount Pentelicus or Pentelikon (, or ) is a mountain in Attica, Greece, situated northeast of Athens and southwest of Marathon. Its highest point is the peak ''Pyrgari'', with an elevation of 1,109 m. The mountain is covered in large part w ...

marble apparently once part of a curvilinear frieze over a doorway or niche was discovered a few meters from the northeast corner of the

Metroon A metroon (, or ) was an ancient Greek temple dedicated to a mother goddess. They were often devoted to Cybele, Demeter, or Rhea. Athens Coordinates: The Athenian Metroon was located on the west side of the city's Agora, in the Old Bouleut ...

. The marble fragment is incised with the images of a seven-branched Menorah and a

Lulav ''Lulav'' (; he, לולב) is a closed frond of the date palm tree. It is one of the Four Species used during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The other Species are the ''hadass'' (Myrtus, myrtle), '' aravah'' (willow), and ''etrog'' (citron). Wh ...

, or palm branch. The synagogue is thought to date from the period between 267 and 396 CE.

Biblical reference

The apostle Paul is said in the

Book of Acts The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...

to have visited a synagogue in Athens. The identity of that synagogue cannot be firmly established.

References

Ancient Agora of Athens Ancient synagogues Ancient Jewish Greek history Agora Athens Synagogues in Athens {{Athens-struct-stub

Biblical reference

See also

References