ABSTRACT
The period between the fourth and the seventh centuries c.e. witnessed the progressively greater institutionalization of Jewish and Christian identities in the Near East. During this time, churches and synagogues were built en masse in cities and villages across Roman Palestine, Syria, and Arabia. The formation of group identities and the construction of monumental religious buildings were not unrelated developments. Locally, Jewish and Christian communities were centered on synagogues and churches. The buildings, their architecture, artwork, and epigraphy visually embodied and publicly proclaimed the symbolic identities of their congregations. The chapter explores some of the ways in which Christian and Jewish communities were symbolically constructed through the medium of synagogues and churches.
