A couple of years ago I noted the discovery of the late-antique Church of the Glorious Martyr at Beit Shemesh.
The inscription does not name the martyr or even indicate a grammatical gender. There was speculation at the time that the martyr could have been Thecla, a legendary Christian woman known from the Acts of Paul and Thecla. See also here. The current article suggests that the martyr could have been one Zechariah, known from a nearby shrine.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
