The team is sure that the inscription comes from a church and not from a monastery. The discovery was reported by the Israeli Foreign Ministry with reference to the Antiquities Authority. It was performed in the Jezreel Valley, which since ancient times was the main battlefield of biblical Israel.
An inscription 1,500 years old writes in ancient Greek “Christ, born of Mary”. This was found by a team of archaeologists in an excavation in northern Israel, a text that was placed above the church door to ward off evil spirits.
The phrase was used by Christians to exorcise the evil eye, a superstition of the Greeks and Romans.
The inscription was discovered during the excavation of the ruins of a once magnificent Byzantine church, probably built during the early Islamic period. The church came to light during the mandatory excavations to cross the new road to the Jezreel Valley.
The researchers also established the identity of Theodosius mentioned in the text, who founded this church. This was one of the first Christian bishops. He was an influential person, the supreme religious leader of the Metropolitanate of Bet Shean, to which the modern village of al-Tayyib belonged.
“This is the first evidence of the existence of a Byzantine church in the village of et-Taiyiba and adds to the other findings that certify the activities of Christians in the area,” said Dr. Walid Atrash of the Antiquities Authority of Israel.
The team is sure that the inscription comes from a church and not from a monastery.
According to the researchers, artifacts from different periods were also found during the excavations. They shed new information on the long history of the settlements that existed in al-Tayyiba, as well as on their status.
