Evidence ID
E04526Saint Name
Sergios, soldier and martyr of Rusafa : S00023Saint Name in Source
ΣέργιςType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)Evidence not before
500Evidence not after
600Activity not before
500Activity not after
600Place of Evidence - Region
Palestine with Sinai
Palestine with Sinai
Palestine with Sinai
Syria with PhoeniciaPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Caesarea Philippi
Paneas
Rafid
QuneitraPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Caesarea Philippi
Caesarea Maritima
Καισάρεια
Kaisareia
Caesarea
Kayseri
Turris Stratonis
Paneas
Caesarea Maritima
Καισάρεια
Kaisareia
Caesarea
Kayseri
Turris Stratonis
Rafid
Caesarea Maritima
Καισάρεια
Kaisareia
Caesarea
Kayseri
Turris Stratonis
Quneitra
Thabbora
ThabboraCult activities - Places
Cult building - unspecifiedCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocationSource
The inscription is carved on a basalt lintel over the doorway of Building 59 at Rafid, an ancient stone structure accommodating two rooms. Dimensions of the stone: H. 0.29 m; W. 1.28 m. The inscription flanks a carving of a 'horned' cross.
First recorded during surveys organised by the Israel Antiquities Authority at Rafid between 1968 and 1970. Published with a photograph by Robert Gregg and Dan Urman in 1996, who offered an imperfect transcription. The stone was revisited, and a new reading is given, by Dan Urman in his monograph on the village of Rafid, published posthumously in 2006, and edited by Shimon Dar, Moshe Hartal, and Etan Ayalon, advised by Leah Di Segni regarding Greek inscriptions. The book is likewise based on the evidence gathered during the 1968-1970.Discussion
The second part of the inscription is scarcely legible. Therefore, Gregg and Urman in the first edition suspended judgement on its contents. They tentatively suggested that the right-hand half of the text might contain names: possibly Κουρι, Κύρις or Κύρες, which they considered variant forms of the name Κύρος, Kyr/Cyr, and Σερηυ. In his second edition of this inscription Urman suggests, however, that although the occurrence of these names is still possible, it is much more likely that the inscription records an invocation of the God of Saint Sergios. The saint may be named κύριος/'lord', which is a counterpart of the popular Syriac/Aramaic epithet of saints ܡܪܝ / mār, sometimes replacing the usual epithet ἅγιος/'holy'.
Based on this interpretation, Urman adds that the building may have belonged to an ecclesiastical or monastic complex dedicated to Sergios, or was a house whose owners invoked the God of Sergios for their protection. Although this is not impossible, we must note that this is still a tentative supposition, as the spelling of the inscription is poor, and the epithet κύριος was rarely given to saints in Greek inscriptions.
Dating: There is no way to precisely date the inscription. The majority of inscriptions in the region come, however, from the early 6th c. when it was the heartland of a Ghassanid/Jafnid settlement.Bibliography
Edition:
Urman, D., Dar, S., Hartal, M., Ayalon, E., Rafid on the Golan. A Profile of a Late Roman and Byzantine Village (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2006), 147-148.
Gregg, R., Urman, D., Jews, Pagans, and Christians in the Golan Heights: Greek and Other Inscriptions of the Roman and Byzantine Eras (Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1996), no. 123.
Reference works:
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 46, 1985; 56, 1874.
