event · E0472
Stobi Synagogue Inscription of Polycharmos כתובת פוליכרמוס מבית הכנסת בסטובי
A marble column from Stobi in Macedonia carrying a 32-line Greek inscription (CIJ 694) in which Claudius Tiberius Polycharmos, "father of the synagogue at Stobi," records that in fulfillment of a vow he gave the lower rooms of his house, with a triclinium and tetrastoon, to be the "holy place" — while retaining ownership of the upper storey for himself and his heirs, and fixing a penalty of 250,000 denarii payable to the patriarch against anyone who alters his arrangement. Found in 1931 reused in the Christian basilica later built over the synagogue, the column is today in the National Museum of Belgrade (inv. 18/IV).
I. Who
- Hebrew
- כתובת פוליכרמוס מבית הכנסת בסטובי
- Also known as
- Polycharmos column, CIJ 694, Stobi synagogue donor inscription
- Era
- amoraim
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3910–4060 AM — the CE dates laid onto the AM scale (AM = 3760 + CE year)
- Academic
- late 2nd–3rd century CE; usually placed in the 3rd century
- Date range
- cut in the late 2nd–3rd century CE, on onomastic and epigraphic grounds
- Duration
- ≈150 years
- Precision
- approximate
Why it matters
No other document shows so exactly how a diaspora synagogue came into being. A wealthy Jew with full Roman citizen nomenclature — who says he "lived his whole life according to Judaism" — converts the ground floor of his own house into the community's holy place, keeps the upstairs for his family, spells out the legal terms, and sets a ruinous fine against anyone who tampers with them. It is the house-synagogue in the act of becoming an institution: private property, public sanctity, donor's honor, and legal protection all in one column. The fine's beneficiary — "the patriarch" — may even reach across the sea toward the Nasi in Eretz Yisrael, though the atlas records that reading as debated.
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The inscribed column was found in 1931, in the first excavations at Stobi, reused in the Christian basilica built in the 4th–5th century over the remains of the synagogue. It was moved after the excavation and is today in the National Museum of Belgrade (inv. 18/IV) — not in situ at Stobi. | archaeology | ★★★★★ |
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| The 32-line Greek text (CIJ 694; IJO I Mac1) records that Claudius Tiberius Polycharmos, also called Achyrios, "father of the synagogue at Stobi, having lived my whole life according to Judaism," gave in fulfillment of a vow the rooms of his house together with the triclinium and the tetrastoon "to the holy place," while he and his heirs retained ownership and use of the upper storey — and that whoever alters these dispositions shall pay the patriarch 250,000 denarii. | archaeology external | ★★★★★ |
|
| The inscription is the fullest surviving legal picture of a diaspora synagogue's founding — a private house converted in part to communal sanctity, with the donor's rights, the community's title, and the honorific "father of the synagogue" all documented. Whether the "patriarch" who collects the penalty is the Nasi in Eretz Yisrael or a local communal officer is debated; if the former, the column would attest the patriarchate's standing among Macedonian Jews. No biblical anchor is claimed — the connection to the mesorah is institutional, the early history of the beit knesset itself.
The patriarch clause's referent (Judaean Nasi vs. local official) is a genuine scholarly split; the atlas flags it rather than deciding.
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archaeology external | ★★★★☆ |
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