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Herod's temple wall painting

Located on the western wall of the synagogue, just left of the Torah niche, is a mural depicting the courtyard of Herod's Temple. In this particular work, Aaron is depicted standing just to the right of the temple door in the inner court of the temple surrounded by fellow priests. He is denoted by the inscription (Apwn) which translates to Aron in the English alphabet. Aaron's anachronistic appearance symbolizes the priesthood being passed down by his descendants.^[1]

To the bottom left, there is a young priest leading a heifer. based upon the trajectory of the priest and the geography of the city of Jerusalem, where Herod's temple was located, it is presumed that he is leading the heifer up the Mount of Olives in order to sacrifice it for the atonement of the sin of the people. The low masonry wall depicted in the mural allowed the priest in charge of the sacrifice to look into the temple itself, which was much taller, while performing the sacrifice itself.^[1]

Just above the temple door, we see what appears to be a star but is actually in fact the lamp of queen Helene of Adiabene. The lamp caught and reflected the rays of the sun by way of its superior polish^[1]. The lamp shone so much that in Bar-Kokhba coins, which depicted the courtyard of the same temple, the lamp is depicted as a star. The rays reflected off of the lantern are depicted as lines radiating from the lamp on the three borders of the temple's pediment.^[1]

The two animals just to the left of Aaron, a bull and a ram, are atonement sacrifices for Aaron to be made on Yom Kippur.^[1]

Relationship to early Christian art and late Jewish art

The synagogue of Dura-Europos offers negligible influence on later Christian and Jewish artwork^[2]. The time that the Dura-Europos synagogue was active was not long as it was buried as part of the Roman defense against Sasanian troops in 256 A.D. ^[3]The Dura-Europos Synagogue remains the earliest example of Judeo-Christian artwork available for study.^[2] It contains not only Hellenistic and Roman influences, but Sasanian as well.^[4] The layout of the paintings suggest that they were inspired by a copybook with examples and formulae.^[4] While there are similarities to other works of antiquity, The differences between each work bear too much difference in order for one to be considered influential. There have been attempts to link these works, but they have proven largely unsuccessful. The Leon Bible, as an example, which was written ca. 960, had in common with Dura-Europos the scene of the sacrifice of Isaac. However, the Leon Bible showed key differences. Their position in the Leon Bible shows them facing the viewer, whereas Dura Europos they are not. In the Leon Bible, the Hand of God bestows the benedictio latina, whereas in Dura-Europos it makes an appearance with no such manuscript. The Dura painting shows Abraham's hand free of Isaac's hair, whereas in The Leon miniature, it is grasping it. Finally, in the Dura painting, Abraham is using knife as opposed to the sword he uses in the Leon Bible.^[3]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e RENOV, I.; Avi-Yonah, M. (1970). "A View of Herod's Temple from Nicanor's Gate in a Mural Panel of the Dura-Europos Synagogue". Israel Exploration Journal. 20 (1/2): 67–74.
^ ^a ^b Elsner, Jaś; Elsner, Jas (2003). "Archaeologies and Agendas: Reflections on Late Ancient Jewish Art and Early Christian Art". The Journal of Roman Studies. 93: 114. doi:10.2307/3184641. ISSN 0075-4358.
^ ^a ^b Gutmann, Joseph (1988). "The Dura Europos Synagogue Paintings and Their Influence on Later Christian and Jewish Art". Artibus et Historiae. 9 (17): 25. doi:10.2307/1483314. ISSN 0391-9064.
^ ^a ^b Rachel, Hachlili, (1998). Ancient jewish art and archaeology in the diaspora. Brill. ISBN 9004108785. OCLC 470279305.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[:0-1] RENOV, I.; Avi-Yonah, M. (1970). "A View of Herod's Temple from Nicanor's Gate in a Mural Panel of the Dura-Europos Synagogue". Israel Exploration Journal. 20 (1/2): 67–74.

[:2-2] Elsner, Jaś; Elsner, Jas (2003). "Archaeologies and Agendas: Reflections on Late Ancient Jewish Art and Early Christian Art". The Journal of Roman Studies. 93: 114. doi:10.2307/3184641. ISSN 0075-4358.

[:1-3] Gutmann, Joseph (1988). "The Dura Europos Synagogue Paintings and Their Influence on Later Christian and Jewish Art". Artibus et Historiae. 9 (17): 25. doi:10.2307/1483314. ISSN 0391-9064.

[:3-4] Rachel, Hachlili, (1998). Ancient jewish art and archaeology in the diaspora. Brill. ISBN 9004108785. OCLC 470279305.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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