The Galilee earthquake of 363

In 363, the Emperor Julian started the restoration of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem which had been demolished by Titus in 70 AD. The project was a complete failure and was abandoned in a very early stage due to the earthquake that shook Jerusalem and nearby regions on 18-19 May 363¹. The earthquake was followed by a fire consuming the Jews rebuilding the Temple (Socrates, Sozomen, Philostorgius, Theodoret, Ammianus Marcellinus, Theophanes) and by a sign of the cross occurring during the earthquake (Gregory of Nazianzus, Theodoret, Theophanes). The appearance of a celestial sign of the cross is the third in the fourth century after those of 312 and 351.

The destruction caused by the earthquake stretched from Paneas in the north through Petra in the south, and from the coastal littoral through the Jordan Valley and beyond² Julian’s attempt to rebuild the Temple followed his anti-Christian policy and efforts to restore paganism³.

Libanius, Oration 1.134 in Libanius: Selected Works, vol.1, Translation by A.F. Norman, Cambridge, 1969:

“(We) in Antioch discovered it (the emperor’s death on 26 June 363) through  no human agency: earthquakes were the harbingers of woe, destroying the  cities of Palestine Syria either wholly or in part. We were sure by these afflictions  that  heaven  had  given  us  a  sign  of  some  great  disaster,  and,  as  we  prayed that our guess should not be right, the bitter news reached our ears  that our great Julian was being carried out in his coffin.”

Philostorgius, Church History, 7.9:

“The God-killing Jews flocked together therefore and  set to work with great joy and were excavating the foundation trench with  silver mattocks and shovels and making ready to lay the foundations, when  a terrific storm arose that buried the excavation site. All during that night  it lightened and thundered ceaselessly, until finally as day was approaching  there was an earthquake in which many perished even of those who had  stayed out of doors. And a fire that came out of the excavated foundations incinerated everyone who was there. There were also cities that collapsed,  Nicopolis, Neapolis, Eleutheropolis, Gaza, and many others. Not only that,  but the colonnade by the Jewish synagogue in Aelia, that is to say, Jerusalem,  fell down, killing many of those mentioned earlier, and fire burst forth mysteriously and incinerated a great many Jews. Darkness also fell upon these  places, while continuous earthquakes caused great damage in many cities.”

S.P. Brock, “A Letter Attributed to Cyril of Jerusalem on the Rebuilding of the Temple”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Vol. 40, No. 2 1977, p. 267-286 (some place names which are difficult to indentify have been transliterated using small capital letters):

“At the digging of the foundations of Jerusalem, which had been ruined because of the killing of the Lord, the land shook considerably, and there were great tremors in the towns round about. (…)We have written to you at length, beyond the earthquake that took place at God’s (behest). For many Christians living in these regions, as well as the majority of the Jews, also perished in that scourge – and not just in the earthquake, but also as a result of fire and in the heavy rain they had. At  the  outset,  when they  wanted to  lay  the  foundations of the  Temple  on  the  Sunday  previous  to  the  earthquake,  there  were  strong winds  and  storms, with the result that they were unable to lay the Temple's foundations  that  day. It  was on that  very night that  the great earthquake occurred, and we were all  in the  church of the  Confessors, engaged in prayer. (…)

Now they (the  Jews), wanting to imitate 43 us, were running to the  place where their synagogue usually gathered, and they  found the  synagogue  doors  closed.   They  were  greatly  amazed  at  what  had  happened  and  stood  around in silence and fear when suddenly the  synagogue doors opened of their  own accord, and out of the building there came forth fire, which licked up the  majority  of  them,  and  most  of  them  collapsed and  perished in  front  of  the  building.   The  doors then  closed  of  their  own  accord, while  the  whole  city  looked on at what was happening (…)

 And the  entire people thought that,  after these  signs which our Saviour  gave  us in His  Gospel, the  fearful (second) coming of the  day  of resurrection  had  arrived.  With  trembling of great joy  we  received something of  the  sign   of  Christ's crucifixion, and  whosoever did  not  believe  in  his  mind  found  his  clothes  openly  reprove him,  having  the  mark of  the  cross stained  on them. (…)

Now  we  should  like  to  write  down  for  you  the  names  of  the  towns  that  were overthrown: Beit Gubrin—more than half of it; part of Baishan, the  whole of Sebastia and its territory, the whole of Nicopolis and its  territory; more than half Lydda and its territory, about half of  Ascalon, the whole of Antipatris and its territory; part of Caesarea,  more  than  half  Samaria;  part  of  NSL’,  a  third  of  Paneas,  half  of  Azotus,  part of Gophna, more than half Petra (RQM); Hada, a suburb of the city  (Jerusalem)—more than half; more than half Jerusalem. And fire came forth  and consumed the teachers of the Jews. Part of Tiberias too, and its territory , more than half of Aeropolis (‘RDQLY’), the whole of Sepphoris (SWPRYN) and  its territory , `Aina d-Gader; Haifa flowed with blood for three days;  the whole of Japho (YWPY) perished, (and) part of ‘D’NWS.

This event took place on Monday at the third hour, and partly at the ninth  hour of the night. There was great loss of life here. (It was) on 19 Iyyar of the  year 674 of the kingdom of Alexander the Greek (19 May 363).“

Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History, 3.15:

“Then first came a great earthquake, fit to strike terror into the hearts of men quite ignorant of God’s dealings; and, when still they were not awed, fire running from the excavated foundations burnt up most of the diggers, and put the rest to flight. Moreover when a large number of men were sleeping at night in an adjacent building it suddenly fell down, roof and all, and crushed the whole of them. On that night and also on the following night the sign of the cross of salvation was seen brightly shining in the sky, and the very garments of the Jews were filled with crosses, not bright but black.”

Ephrem the  Syrian, Hymns against Julian 4.18 ,p. 125, The Emperor Julian: Panegyric and Polemic Par Mamertinus Claudius,Samuel N. C. Lieu

At that time terrible events were stirred up to reprove (men);

(God) proclaimed the truth to souls in the world,

in that cities were overthrown, to the reproach of paganism.

Jerusalem condemned particularly

the accursed and the crucifiers who presumptuously threatened and

even entered

in order to rebuild the desolation which they had caused by their

 sins.

Theophanes, Chronicle, p. 81-82:

"Julian of evil name, seeking to overturn God's decree, ordered the temple of the Jews to be built, and appointed a certain pagan Alypios (Alypius of Antioch, a geographer and a vicarius of Roman Britain), a zealous opponent of Christ, as overseer of the work.  After he had dug  out  even  the  hidden parts  of  the foundations  in  the  course  of excavation,   a violent wind blew  with  a  hurricane  force  and  completely destroyed the 200,000 modu  of lime that had been prepared.  As  the Jews  were  persisting  in  the undertaking,  a  fire  shot  out  and consumed them, so putting an end to their effrontery.

(…)

In these times the holy Cross was seen shining in the heavens, from Golgotha to the holy Mount of Olives, circled by a wreath of light; it was even brighter  than in the time of Constantius. Of its own accord, the sign of the Cross appeared on altar-cloths, books and church vestments as well as on clothes,  not only of Christians, but of Jews, not only in Jerusalem, but in Antioch and  other cities. Those Jews and pagans who did not believe, found their clothes covered with crosses. On some they were even black.”

Rufinus of Aquilea, The Church History, Book 10 p.41-42:

"And, behold, on the night which alone remained before the work was to begin, there was a violent earthquake, and not only were the stones for the foundations tossed far and wide, but almost all the buildings round about were leveled to the ground. The public porticoes too, in which the multitude of Jews was staying who were working on the project, tumbled to the ground, burying all the Jews inside. At daybreak, thinking it had escaped the misfortune, the remaining multitude hurried together to look for those who had been buried.

Now there was a chamber sunk down in the interior of the temple which had its entrance between the porticos that had been leveled to the ground; in it were kept some iron implements and other things necessary for the work. Out of it there suddenly burst a globe of fire which sped through the square, weaving this way and that and burning and killing the Jews who were there. This happened again and again with great frequency throughout the whole day, checking the rashness of the obstinate people with the avenging flames, while meantime all who were there were in such great fear and trembling that they were forced; however unwillingly, to abandon their plans and admit that Jesus Christ is the one True God. And so that these things would not be held to have happened by chance, on the following night the sign of the cross appeared on everyone’s clothing so clearly that even those who in their unbelief wanted to wash it off could find no way to get rid of it. Thus the Jews and the pagans in their fright abandoned both the site and the useless project."

Ammianus Marcellinus, The History, 23.1.3:

“But, though this Alypius pushed the work on with vigour, aided by the governor of the province, terrifying balls of flame kept bursting forth near the foundations of the temple, and made the place inaccessible to the workmen, some of whom were burned to death; and since in this way the element persistently repelled them, the enterprise halted.”

Agapius, Universal History, p. 125:

“During the night, a violent wind rose and destroyed all that they had built;  then a great earthquake occurred, and 22 cities were engulfed.” 

Indeed, the restoration of the Temple implied the greatest affront to Christianity. Constantine’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the growth of Jerusalem since 335 as a Christian holy site and pilgrimage center symbolized the Christian recovery of the city, which had been a Roman colony since 135. Now Julian proposed not merely to undo Constantine’s work, but, in Christian eyes, to associate his own rule with the traditional enemies of Christianity and to disprove the words of Jesus (Matthew 24.2) saying that the destruction of the Temple in 70 had demonstrated that God had abandoned the Jews. The restoration would also make possible the resumption of sacrifice on the Temple Mount, something welcome to Julian but anathema to Christians.

The Christians were exuberant when the plan proved abortive. The two earliest sources are Gregory of Nazianzus in his “Oration 5: Second Invective Against Julian”, and Ephrem the Syrian in his “Hymns against Julian”. According to Gregory, the Jews, who were full of hatred for Christianity, were incited against the Christians by Julian who gave them permission to return to Jerusalem and to restore the Temple in order to reestablish the customs, i.e. the sacrificial rituals, of their forefathers. The Jews immediately took up the restoration of their Temple. Even the women helped; they assisted with the actual building work and parted with their jewellery, either in order to help finance the project or to make special silver tools. While the work was in full swing, storms suddenly blew up and the earth began to tremble. The Jews tried to seek protection in the houses of God but, as if driven by an invisible force, their doors remained shut. Then a fire broke out from the foundations of the Temple, which caused many Jews to be burned. Subsequently, there appeared a cross of light in the sky above Jerusalem and the sign of the cross appeared on the clothes and bodies of all those present.

One of the most interesting account is to be found in a letter attributed to Cyril of Jerusalem on the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple. Claiming the authority of an eyewitness, the letter describes in vivid detail, from the perspective of the Jerusalem Christian community, the events in Jerusalem, and provides a list of at least 20 damaged cities with an indication of the degree of devastation for each one.

The event is also reported by the fifth-century church historians, i.e. Rufinus, Socrates (The Ecclesiastical History, 3.20), Sozomen (The Ecclesiastical History 5.22), Theodoret, and Philostorgius, along with John Chrysostom⁴ and Ambrose⁵ (for an overview of the sources, see Levenson 1990 and 2004).

However, as underlined by Levenson (2013), there were two traditions giving two different versions of the event. The first followed by church historians mention the Palestinian earthquake in the context of Julian’s attempt to rebuild the Temple. In these accounts they are associated with the earthquake in Jerusalem preceding the fire that finally stopped the construction, and, for some, the sighting of a meteor.

The second tradition represented by John Chrysostom, Ambrose, Ammianus and Theophanes, called the Antiochene tradition by Levenson because they used as their source the Hypothetical Arian History, does not mention an earthquake as the cause of the failure of rebuilding the Temple, but a fire shooting out suddenly from the ground and killing many of the workers. Theophanes seems to preserve the main features of the account of the attempt to rebuild the Temple. Namely, a storm initially preventing the work, afterwards a fire killing the workers, then a Cross in the sky, finally black crosses appearing on the clothes of unbelievers.

If a fire, not an earthquake, stopped the work, it is a possibility that it was Christian tradition that conflated two separate events, producing the widespread tradition that both an earthquake and a fire stopped Julian’s project. If so, the earthquake must have happened soon after the incident, as both Ephrem and Gregory, who composed the two earliest accounts, mention an earthquake in Jerusalem and a fire stopping the enterprise.

In the political and religious context of the time, for the Christian it served as the manifestation of God’s wrath against the pagan Julian. The triumphal celestial cross was a clear sign of Christian victory over the Jews. It leaves its brand-mark on the clothes and bodies of those who had witnessed the shining cross in the sky. On the other hand, the pagan Libanius interpreted the catastrophe as announcing and mourning the emperor’s death which occurred some months later (Levenson 1990 and 2004; Drijvers).

Sources

Ambraseys, Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East, 2009, p. 148-151

Cameron A., The Later Roman Empire, 1993, p.96-98

Drijvers J. W., “The Power of the Cross: Celestial Cross Appearances in the Fourth Century” in Andrew Cain and Noel Lenski, The Power of Religion in Late Antiquity ,Farnham , 2009, p. 237-248

Guidoboni, Catalogue of ancient earthquakes in the Mediterranean area up to the 10th century, 1994, p. 264-267

Greenwood D.N., “Five Latin Inscriptions from Julian’s Pagan Restoration”, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Volume 57, Issue 2, December 2014, p. 101–119

Leroy S.A.G., Marco S. “Annual-resolution palynological analyses of two earthquake events in the Dead Sea: 31 BC and AD 363 and their impact on agriculture”, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, 2006

Levenson D. B., “Julian’s Attempt to rebuild the Temple: An Inventory of Ancient and Medieval Sources”, in Harold W. et al. (eds.), Of Scribes and Scrolls. Studies on the Hebrew Bible, Intertestamental Judaism, and Christian Origins, Lanham, 1990, p. 261-279

Levenson D. B, “The Ancient and Medieval Sources for the Emperor’s Julian Attempt to Rebuild the Jerusalem Temple”, Journal for the Study of Judaism 35, 2004, p. 409-460

Levenson D. B, “The Palestinian Earthquake of May 363 in Philostorgius, the Syriac Chronicon miscellaneum, and the Letter Attributed to Cyril on the Rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple”, Journal of Late Antiquity, Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2013, p. 60-83

Reda Sbeinati M. et al, “The historical earthquakes of Syria: an analysis of large and moderate earthquakes from 1365 B.C. to 1900 A.D”, Annals of Geophysics, Vol. 48, No 3, June 2005, p. 347-435

Russell K.W, “The Earthquake of May 19, A.D. 363,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 238, 1980, p. 47–64

Russell K.W, “The earthquake chronology of Palestine and Northwest Arabia from the 2nd through the mid-8th century A.D.”, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 260, 1985, p. 37-59

Shimron A.E., Shirav M., “The Armon Hanatziv Tectonic Slide and some Archaeological Implications”, in Schwartz J. et al. (eds), New Studies on Jerusalem, Vol. 20, Ramat-Gan, 2014, p. 7-16

1.      Ambraseys suggests two successive earthquakes, six hour apart. The first shock happened at the third hour, destroying one part of the region, and the second shock, at the ninth hour of the night between Sunday and Monday, 18-19 May, destroying the rest of it.

2.      For archeological evidences, see Russell 1980 and 1985.The intense impact on the environment by the earthquake has been shown in study of Dead Sea cores revealing that cereal and olive groves were abandoned as a result of this earthquake (Leroy and Marco). Another study (Shimron and Shirav) shows that agricultural activity ended at Armon Hanatziv - a prominent mount located between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Shimon Gibson in a recent study argues that the huge stones near the Western Wall in Jerusalem were destroyed by this earthquake, not by the Romans in 70 (see Hasson N, “Archaeologist: Western Wall stones result of earthquake, not Roman demolition”, Haaretz, 4 January 2015).

3.      Historians have often assumed that Julian’s efforts to restore paganism were met with indifference at best. However, a study of Latin inscriptions shows broader support for Julian’s revival, both geographically and socially (Greenwood).

4.      Adv. Iud. 5.11 in PG 48, p. 900-901; Iud. et Gent.16 in PG 48, p. 834-835; De S. Babyla 22 in PG 50, p. 567-568; Exp. in Ps. 110.5 in PG 55, p. 285; De Laud. Pauli 4 in PG 50, p. 489; Hom. 4.1 in Matt. 1:17 in PG 57, p. 41; Hom. 41.3 in Acts 19:8 in PG 60, p. 291-292.

5.      Epist.40.12 in PL 16, p. 1105