{"id":1537,"date":"2011-08-30T01:19:12","date_gmt":"2011-08-30T05:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=1537"},"modified":"2015-03-13T23:12:52","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T03:12:52","slug":"hurtado-on-nomina-sacra-and-christian-graffiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/08\/30\/hurtado-on-nomina-sacra-and-christian-graffiti\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurtado on Nomina Sacra and Christian Graffiti"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

Nomina Sacra in Early Graffiti (and a Mosaic)<\/a><\/h2>\n
larryhurtado<\/a><\/strong> | August 18, 2011 at 9:15 am | Categories: Uncategorized<\/a> | URL: http:\/\/wp.me\/pYZXr-aY<\/a><\/div>\n

(Larry Hurtado):\u00a0 In connection with my moving office I\u2019ve run across a few journal articles accidentally misplaced, and have now taken the time to catch up in reading them.\u00a0 One of these is a stimulating study of nomina sacra <\/em>(special abbreviated forms of certain key words in early Christian discourse) in graffiti, inscriptions and a mosaic, all of which are dated (with varying degrees of confidence) to the pre-Constantinian period:<\/p>\n

James R. Wicker, \u201cPre-Constantinian Nomina Sacra<\/em> in a Mosaic and Church Graffiti,\u201d Southwestern Journal of Theology<\/em> 52, no. 1 (2009): 52-72.<\/p>\n

After briefly explaining \u201cnomina sacra\u201d, mosaics, and \u201chouse churches\u201d, Wicker reviews evidence from \u201cThe House of St. Peter in Capernaum\u201d (graffiti, some of which have been dated as early as the 3rd century CE, on plaster from a domus ecclesiae<\/em> beneath remains of a 5th-century octagonal church), the \u201cPrayer Hall\u201d more recently unearthed at Megiddo (which includes a mosaic floor with a dedicatory inscription, dated by the lead archaeologist and an expert in epigraphy to the 3rd century), and the Christian structure found in Dura Europos in the early 20th century (confidently dated to the early 3rd century CE, featuring graffiti).<\/p>\n

Starting from the most securely dated evidence, Dura Europos, we have gaffiti employing nomina sacra<\/em> forms for the Greek word \u201cChristos\u201d<\/em>.\u00a0 Likewise, in graffiti dated palaeographically to the 3rd century from the Capernaum site, we have graffiti using nomina sacra<\/em> forms of the words \u201cKyrios<\/em>\u201c, \u201cIesous<\/em>\u201c, and \u201cChristos<\/em>\u201c, \u201cSoter<\/em>\u201c, and possibly \u201cTheos<\/em>\u201c.\u00a0\u00a0 Another curious feature of one graffito (#121) is what appears to be a monogram form of the Hebrew letters yod<\/em> and he<\/em> (Yah<\/em>, a known abbreviated form of the Tetragram, YHWH<\/em>), which appears twice along with the Greek letters \u201cIHC T\u201d, which may represent \u201cIesous<\/em>\u201d and the tau<\/em> referring to Jesus\u2019 cross.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m myself less confident about the \u201cprayer hall\u201d at Megiddo, as to the dating.\u00a0 On the one hand, I hesitate to take issue with Dr. Leah Di Segni (an expert epigrapher), who dates the\u00a0dedicatory inscription to the\u00a03rd century.\u00a0 On the other hand, it seems curious that there was a Christian meeting place\u00a0that apparently formed part of a Roman military struture in the 3rd century.<\/p>\n

In any case, from Dura Europos alone, it is clear that the use of nomina sacra<\/em> forms extended well beyond circles of copyists of Christian manuscripts, and that a much wider body of people would have seen these visual expressions of Christian piety.\u00a0\u00a0 Wicker is right to emphasize this.\u00a0 Moreover, the Dura Europos evidence is\u00a0almost\u00a0as early as our earliest manuscript evidence, and confirms also that the nomina sacra<\/em> practice was observed trans-locally from a very early point, e.g., evidence from Syria as well as Egypt.\u00a0 If we throw in the Capernaum evidence (Galilee), this is further confirmed.<\/p>\n

To my mind, this also further confirms the view that nomina sacra<\/em> served primarily as expressions of Christian piety, and not simply as short-hand devices.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nomina Sacra in Early Graffiti (and a Mosaic) larryhurtado | August 18, 2011 at 9:15 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http:\/\/wp.me\/pYZXr-aY (Larry Hurtado):\u00a0 In connection with my moving office I\u2019ve run across a few journal articles accidentally misplaced, and have now taken the time to catch up in reading them.\u00a0 One of these is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHurtado on Nomina Sacra and Christian Graffiti<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nomina Sacra in Early Graffiti (and a Mosaic) larryhurtado | August 18, 2011 at 9:15 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http:\/\/wp.me\/pYZXr-aY (Larry\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" 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