It was unique among the many ancient synagogues that have emerged from archaeological excavations as the structure was preserved virtually intact, and it had extensive figurative wall-paintings, which came as a considerable surprise to scholars.

Before the final Persian destruction of the town in 256–257 AD, parts of the synagogue which abutted the main city wall were apparently requisitioned and filled with sand as a defensive measure.

The city was abandoned after its fall and never resettled, and the lower walls of the rooms remained buried and largely intact until excavated.

In the Syrian Civil War, the site was occupied by ISIL, and what was left of the synagogue and a number of other buildings there appear to have been destroyed,[1] possibly in 2014.

The cities of Mesopotamia had flourishing Jewish communities, whose members descended both from exiles during the time of Nebuchadnezzar II and from refugees from the Jewish–Roman wars under Vespasian and Hadrian.

The Jewish diaspora had an official representative in the Parthian and then Sasanian Empires, the exilarch, necessarily of Davidic descent.

The towns of Sura and Nehardea were home to Talmudic academies whose fame can even exceed that of Palestine's, thanks to the respective influence of Abba Arika (Rav) and Rabbi Chila.

It was originally a residential block comprising up to ten separate units (designated by the letters A to I on the map below),[a] one of which was dedicated to the needs of the Jewish community and transformed into a building of worship.

[2] With the expansions and reconstructions made necessary by its development, the synagogue ended up becoming the central nucleus and the most important building of a small Jewish quarter.

Opposing triangles on the sides of the panels are decorated with brown-lined irregular concentric shapes, with a green dot in the middle of each.

The paintings cover the walls of the main "Assembly Room", using three levels of pictures over a dado frieze of symbols in most places, reaching a height of about 7 metres.

[8] There have been scholarly debates questioning the wall paintings' influence over later Jewish and/or Christian iconography, which have been held due to the relevance of such early depictions of the biblical narrative.

"[10]: 219  This inscription firmly identifies the murals as depicting the story of Moses leading the Israelites across the Red Sea from the Book of Exodus.

Second, Moses is seen lowering his staff over the Red Sea, causing its parted waters to close and engulf the pursuing Egyptian army.

And finally, Moses is seen looking to the left at his safely absconded Israelites, holding his staff at his side, pointed downward.

[12] The synagogue paintings' portrayal of Moses and the Israelites each contain influences from the concurrent Roman military culture.

In this context, Moses' powerful stance and comparatively large size present him as the military leader of the Israelites.

His long club-like rod or staff and bearded visage have been compared to a relief of Hercules from the 2nd-century Durene temple of Zeus, built during the 114 CE Roman occupation of the city.

The artist did not follow the biblical description of the Tabernacle as a tent, but rather was inspired by Roman temples, and includes a cella, pediment and capitals of the Corinthian order.

The local Jewish population did not mind illustrating the Tabernacle based on Roman civil architecture for unknown reasons.

[16] In this particular work, Aaron is depicted standing just to the right of the door of the tent of meeting, denoted by the Greek alphabet inscription ΑΡΩΝ ("ARON").

[17] He is dressed in contemporary Persian or Sassanid style, but with the same colors mentioned in the Book of Exodus: gold, blue, and purple.

[18] Other tiles have a goat's head attached to a fishtail, which is often classified as a sea-goat;[6] others are thought to represent Capricorn and Pisces.

Mesnil also made detailed comparisons of the friezes from the Dura synagogue with those of the mithraeum, the Christian baptistery, and the temple of the Palmyrene gods.

The discovery of the synagogue helps to dispel narrow interpretations of Judaism's historical prohibition of visual images.

In the León Bible, the Hand of God bestows the benedictio latina, whereas in Dura-Europos it makes an appearance with no such manuscript.

The Dura painting shows Abraham's hand free of Isaac's hair, whereas in the León miniature, it is grasping it.