ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to do three things. As we start to examine churches we need to see how the archaeology and documents differ from the study of synagogues. Secondly the aim is to examine the Dedication services. Documents which provide evidence for these have been preserved among Christians, but no ancient evidence survives among Jews. This is of course the case among many ancient documents on other topics. The Jewish ones are lacking, but the Christian ones have survived. The opposite is in fact the case for next topic. Jewish archaeology of the first three centuries after the Herodian period is now rich, and from the whole of this period synagogues have been discovered. The remains of churches are very rare. The third question we must examine is the cross church and its lighting.
