Although excavators Meyers, Kraabel, and Strange (1976) identified two earthquake events—the Eusebius’ Martyr Quake of approximately 306 CE and the Monaxius and Plinta Quake of 419 CE—which they argued destroyed an earlier Synagogue I and then a later Synagogue II at Khirbet Shema, subsequent scholars re-examined and substantially revised this chronology. In particular, Russell (1980) reassigned the two destruction events to the northern 363 CE Cyril Quake and the 419 CE Monaxius and Plinta Quake. By contrast, Magness (1997) concluded that there was no secure evidence for the existence of a Synagogue I at the site and that the attribution of an earthquake to around 306 CE was unsupported. She argued that Synagogue II was constructed in the late 4th or early 5th century CE and further maintained that the archaeological record provided no firm evidence for either the 363 CE or the 419 CE earthquake. In her interpretation, the site was eventually abandoned when an earthquake caused the collapse of Synagogue II at some point prior to the 8th century CE.

The archaeoseismic evidence advanced by Meyers, Kraabel, and Strange (1976) for a second earthquake, identified with the 419 CE Monaxius and Plinta Quake, rests on particularly uncertain grounds. Their argument relies on a lacuna of coin evidence beginning in 408 CE and extending through roughly the final three quarters of the 5th century CE. This absence of coins was taken to indicate abandonment of the site, which was then attributed to earthquake damage associated with the 419 CE event. Magness (1997: 217–218), however, outlined several reasons for rejecting this reasoning, characterizing it as a "dangerous argument from silence".