Hyrcania excavation yields a 6th-century Greek Psalms quote

GREEK EPIGRAPHY: Byzantine Greek Inscription Of Psalms 86 Found In Hyrcania: Unearthing Ancient Faith. A rare inscription paraphrasing part of Psalm 86 in the Greek used in the New Testament has been unearthed by a team of Hebrew University archaeologists working at the Hyrcania Fortress, a Second Temple-era structure situated atop a forbidding hilltop in the Judean Desert, about 17 kilometres southeast of Jerusalem. (Greek City Times).

A community of Byzantine Christian monks founded in the 5th century CE is likely responsible for the adapted Psalm 86 inscription. Dr. Avner Ecker of Bar-Ilan University, who helped decipher the inscription, noted that the writing contains small grammatical errors, indicating that “the priest was not a native Greek speaker, but likely someone from the region who was raised speaking a Semitic language.”

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The article reports that an additional Psalms quote, also written on stone, has been discovered at the site. The latter "is still awaiting analysis."

Last June I noted that an excavation was beginning at Hyrcania.

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