The First Byzantine Church in Taibe
The blessing originally stood above the entrance of the church but it was discovered in the more modern church walls, so it had been reused as construction material at some time in the past when the building collapsed and was rebuilt. Taibe was a Christian village in the Byzantine period between the 5th to 7th centuries and later became the site of a Crusader fortress. IAA archaeologist Dr. Walid Atrash points out that while archaeologists have explored the Jezreel Valley for many years, most of their findings relate to ancient Christians, but this discovery is “the first evidence of the Byzantine church’s existence in the village of Taibe.”
The inscription.
Israel Antiquities Authority excavations in the village of et-Taiyiba in the Jezreel Valley recently unearthed an inscription dedicated to “Jesus, the Son of Mary.” The Greek inscription, engraved in stone, comes from the frame of an entrance door dating from the Byzantine period (late fifth century CE). It was discovered incorporated in secondary use in one of the walls of a magnificent building dating from the Byzantine or Early Islamic period, where the excavations uncovered two rooms containing mosaic pavements with a geometric design.
The inscription was recovered in an archaeological excavation directed by Tzachi Lang and Kojan Haku of the IAA before the construction of a road inside the village. As part of the IAAâs policy of increasing public interest in archaeology, students, volunteers and workers from the local community, participated in the excavation.
Inscription to Jesus, Dedicated by the ‘Miserable Thomas , Found in Northern Israel
A piece of the door-frame of an early church was reused in the wall of a luxury house in the late Byzantine or early Islamic period and has now been found during road work
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Greek inscription from a church reused in a family home mentions Christ born of Mary Credit: Tzachi Lang / Israel Antiquities Authority
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Jan. 21, 2021
Around 1,500 years ago, a beautiful family home was going up in the village of et-Taiyiba in the Jezreel Valley. As befitted a beautiful family home in the late Byzantine or early Islamic period in Palestine, the floors were tiled with decorative mosaics and the walls were suitably thick. And one of the walls of this manse incorporated a repurposed fragment of lintel from a local church, which bore an inscription in Greek.