Ancient sources The reference to such a Jewish-Christian congregation comes from the
Bordeaux Pilgrim (c.333),
Cyril of Jerusalem (348), and
Eucherius of Lyon (440), but in academia the theory originates with
Bellarmino Bagatti (1976), who considered that such a church, or
Judaeo-Christian synagogue, continued in what was presumed as the old "
Essene Quarter". Emmanuel Testa's support for Bagatti's view led to the "Bagatti-Testa school", with the thesis that a surviving Jewish-Christian community existed in Jerusalem, and that many Jewish-Christians returned from
Pella to Jerusalem after the
First Jewish-Roman War and established themselves on Mount Zion. Bagatti's theory is supported by
Bargil Pixner (May 1990
Biblical Archaeology Review), who argues that the 6th-century
Madaba Map shows two churches next to each other - the
Basilica of Hagia Sion and the "Church of the Apostles", the putative Jewish-Christian synagogue of Mount Zion.
Archaeological interpretations Connected with the Bagatti-Testa theory is the 1951 interpretation by archaeologist
Jacob Pinkerfeld of the lower layers of the Mount Zion structure known as David's Tomb. Pinkerfeld saw in them the remains of a synagogue which, he concluded, had later been used as a Jewish-Christian church. Pinkerfeld dated the remains of the alleged synagogue to the 2nd-5th century, when Jerusalem was known under the Roman name of
Aelia Capitolina. Still, the fact that the alleged Roman walls align perfectly with Byzantine structures excavated in the same area is one argument in favour of dating Pinkerfeld's walls to the Byzantine period. Another one is that the Holy Zion basilica was truly huge (it is the largest church depicted on the Madaba Map, and the architect of the
Dormition Abbey concluded from his 1899 excavations that it measured 60 by 40 metres), making it is more likely that the walls at "David's Tomb" were part of the basilica. Thirdly, the huge size of the earliest blocks from the walls, very likely recycled from
Herodian buildings, fit much better with the basilica than with a small synagogue. ==See also==