[B-Greek] Abraham's Epitaph

Mark Lightman lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Sun Nov 8 17:15:17 EST 2009


Hi, Donald,
 
I would take NILON as a proper name and
DMARMARARHN as some kind of place name,
Nilon of Dmarmararnia.  Everything else accusatives
of respect of BOHQHTI or there could be a second
imperative AGATHE from AGAQEW, "do a good
for."  AGAQEW is not in LSJ but AGAQOW is in
the LXX. 
 
LSJ lists QWMASIOS as a variant of QAUMASIOS,
so with a feminine noun supplied it could mean
"wonderfully good act."  I have no idea what to
do with WMABIS and ABLALA .
 
So I would alter yours just slightly.
 
Ἄγιε Ἀβρααμ, βοηθητι τὸν δοῦλόν 
σου Νιλον τὸν Δμαρμαρην, 
καὶ ἀγαθε μερον
καὶ ὑγιείαν καὶ ωμαδὶς καὶ 
θωμασίαν καὶ ἀβλαλα καὶ 
ἀνάστασιν
 
"Holy Abraham, help your
servant Nilon the Dmarmarian
and do good to him in respect to
his portion and his health and (?)
and a wonderful good deed and
(?) and his resurrection.
 
Of course, it's not solved until
it's all solved, but maybe someone
else can figure out the rest of it. 
 


 

Mark L


FWSFOROS MARKOS

--- On Thu, 11/5/09, Donald COBB <docobb at orange.fr> wrote:


From: Donald COBB <docobb at orange.fr>
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Abraham's Epitaph
To: "Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw at com-pair.net>, "Daniel Buck" <bucksburg at yahoo.com>, b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Thursday, November 5, 2009, 10:14 PM


The text raises a lot of questions. "Non standard" it appears to be, indeed. I would venture a slightly different division, taking into account itacisms, etc.:

Ἄγιε Ἀβρααμ, βοηθει τὸν δοῦλόν 
σου Νιλον τὸν Δμαρμαρην, 
καὶ ἀγαθημερον
καὶ ὑγιείαν καὶ ὁμαδὶς καὶ 
θωμασίαν καὶ ἀβλαβείαν καὶ 
ἀνάστασιν

AGIE ABRAAM, BOHQEI TON DOULON 
SOU NILON TON DMARMARHN, 
KAI AGAQHMERON
KAI hUGIEIAN KAI hOMADIS KAI 
QWMASIAN KAI ABLABEIAN KAI 
ANASTASIN

Questions:
- I'm taking the A at the end of ABRAAMA as a carryover of the vocative in arameen, but it's pure speculation, as I know nothing about the date of the inscription. It would, however, make sense of what comes after.
- I'm venturing that NILON is a proper name. It would make better sense if it were a verb of "giving" "granting" (DIDWMI, etc.), but what verb?
- I can't find anything in LS that corresponds to QWMASIAN and hOMADIS is only slightly satisfying.

Someone else will no doubt do better, but as Bryant said, it would be nice to have the photo.

Blessings,

Donald Cobb
Aix-en-Provence, France



> Message du 05/11/09 22:44
> De : "Bryant J. Williams III" 
> A : "Daniel Buck" , b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Copie à : 
> Objet : Re: [B-Greek] Abraham's Epitaph
> 
> 
> Dear Daniel,
> 
> It appears that the inscription did not come through as clearly as you wanted
> because of the text wrapping. Please give us the link to the photograph of the
> inscription. Also I have given a "tentative division." Some of the words are
> clear, like DOULON, KAI and ANASTASIAN. Some of the other words are a little
> tricky until I have more time to look at it.
> 
> AGIE ABRAAM ABW HQITON DOULON SOU NIL ONTON D MARMARARHN KAI AGAQE MERON
> KAI UGIAN KAI WMABIS KAI QWMASIAN KAI ABLALA KAI ANASTASIAN
> 
> En Xristwi,
> 
> Rev. Bryant J. Williams III
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Daniel Buck" 
> To: 
> Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 8:38 AM
> Subject: [B-Greek] Abraham's Epitaph
> 
> 
> Dear List,
> 
> I'm trying to get a translation of the inscription roughly located above the
> Tomb of Abraham at the Ibrahami Mosque in Hebron. It appears to be non-standard
> Greek, so this could take some discussion.
> 
> Here is a line-by-line transcription from a photograph:
> 
> AGIEABRAAMABWHQITONDOU
> LONSOUNILONTONDMARMA
> RARHNKAIAGAQEMERON
> KAIUGIANKAIWMABISKAIQW
> MASIANKAIABLALAKAIANA
> STASIAN
> 
> Daniel Buck
> 
> 
> 
> 
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