TheNazareth Inscription orNazareth decree is a marble tablet inscribed inGreek with an edict from an unnamedCaesar ordering capital punishment for anyone caught disturbing graves or tombs.[1] It is dated on the basis ofepigraphy to the first half of the 1st century AD. Its provenance is unknown, but a French collector acquired the stone fromNazareth. It is now in the collections of theLouvre.[2][3]
The text is read by scholars in the context ofRoman law pertaining to exhumation and reburial, mentioned also byPliny.[4][5] The inscription is of interest to some authors for its indirect relationship toJesus of Nazareth, even though the text contains no reference to him. A 2020 study of the marble's isotopes showed that the tablet came from a quarry in the Greek island ofKos, casting much doubt on the theory that it has any relationship to Jesus, and it may instead have been inscribed as a reaction to the desecration of the grave of the Kos tyrantNikias circa 20 BCE.[6]
The marble tablet measures 24 by 15 inches, with thekoine Greek inscription appearing in fourteen lines. It was acquired in 1878 byWilhelm Fröhner (1834–1925), and sent fromNazareth to Paris. Fröhner entered the item in hismanuscript inventory with the note "Dalle de marbre envoyé de Nazareth en 1878." Though indicating that the marble was sent from Nazareth, the note does not state that it was discovered there. Nazareth was a significantantiquities market in the 1870s, as wasJerusalem,[7] and may have been "nothing more than … a shipping center" for the item.[8] Since 1925 it has been in theBibliothèque nationale, Paris, displayed in theCabinet des Médailles.
The inscription, with afacsimile, was published in 1930 byFranz Cumont,[9] who had been alerted to it byRostovtseff.[7]
The Greek used in the inscription is relatively poor.[10] Clyde E. Billington provides the following English translation:[11][12]
Edict of Caesar
It is my decision [concerning] graves and tombs—whoever has made them for the religious observances of parents, or children, or household members—that these remain undisturbed forever. But if anyone legally charges that another person has destroyed, or has in any manner extracted those who have been buried, or has moved with wicked intent those who have been buried to other places, committing a crime against them, or has moved sepulcher-sealing stones, against such a person, I order that a judicial tribunal be created, just as [is done] concerning the gods in human religious observances, even more so will it be obligatory to treat with honor those who have been entombed. You are absolutely not to allow anyone to move [those who have been entombed]. But if [someone does], I wish that [violator] to suffer capital punishment under the title of tomb-breaker.
Violatio sepulchri ('tomb violation') was a crime under Roman law, as noted byCicero (d. 43 BC). The Nazareth Inscription prescribes the death penalty for the offense.[13] A tomb at whichfuneral rites had been duly performed became alocusreligiosus, belonging to the divine rather than to the human realm.[14][13]: 144 Roman Imperial tombstones are often inscribed with a curse(defixio) against anyone who desecrates the grave.[13]: 144
Scholars have analysed the language and style of the Nazareth inscription and attempted to date it. It has been discussed in the context of tomb-robbery inantiquity.
Francis de Zulueta dates the inscription, based on the style of lettering, to between 50 B.C. and A.D. 50, but most likely around the turn of the era.[15] As the text uses the plural form "gods", Zulueta concluded it most likely came from the Hellenized district of theDecapolis. Like Zulueta, J. Spencer Kennard, Jr. noted that the reference to "Caesar" indicated that "the inscription must have been derived from somewhere inSamaria or Decapolis;Galilee was ruled by a client-prince until the reign ofClaudius".[8]: 232
It is of interest to historians of theNew Testament.[7]: 89 Some authors, citing the inscription's supposed Galilean origin, interpreted it as Imperial Rome's clear reaction to theempty tomb ofJesus[2][7]: 89 and specifically as an edict ofClaudius, who reigned AD 41-54.[16][17] If the inscription was originally set up inGalilee, it can date no earlier than 44, the year Roman rule was imposed there.[2]
A 2020 isotope study of the marble published in theJournal of Archaeological Science suggests another interpretation.[18] The scientists took a sample from the back of the tablet, and usedlaser ablation to help determine the isotope ratio of the stone.[6] According to the authors of the study, the enrichment ofcarbon 13 and depletion ofOxygen 18 may identify the source of the marble as the upper quarry in the island ofKos. The team proposed that the edict was issued byAugustus after the desecration of the tomb of the Kos tyrantNikias.[19][6]
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