[B-Greek] Abraham's Epitaph

Donald Cobb docobb at orange.fr
Mon Nov 9 01:24:01 EST 2009


Thank you Carl and Mark for the remarks. I had not noticed θωμασίαν, 
QWMASIAN in LS, although my first intuition was also to assimilate it to 
θαῦμα / θαυμάζω, QAUMA / QAUMAZW, etc.  Should we suppose that here it 
would be somewhat of a synonym for τιμή, TIMH, i.e., being admired by 
others? An interesting point of detail: LS lists QWM- as Ionian.

What intrigues me is the place accorded to Abraham. Assuming that the 
inscription comes from somewhere around the late Second Temple period or 
slightly after (which seems reasonable, given the fact that a non 
hellenophone is writing Greek in Palestine, with apparently an aramaic 
linguistic background, cf. the--possible--aramaic vocative ABRAAMA), we 
have a Jew praying to Abraham as a kind of intercessor before God who 
can, among other blessings, (help) bequeath a share in the resurrection. 
It reminds me of what we see in the Gospels, in a much more moderate 
form, under the rubrique of "the bosom of Abraham", "father Abrahm", 
etc. (Lk 16:22-31).

One more intersting point is the glimpse this inscription would seem to 
give into the character of the Greek that could actually be spoken (and 
written) in the greco-roman period in Palestine. On one end of the 
spectrum we have Josephus, on the other, this inscription.

A very tantalizing piece datum. It would be very interesting to have 
some input coming from archeological analysis. When do we get to see the 
picture?

Donald Cobb
Aix-en-Provence, France



Carl Conrad a écrit :
>
> Some more speculation, after reading Mark Lightman's efforts.
>
> On Nov 6, 2009, at 12:14 AM, Donald COBB wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
> Pretty clearly NILON TON DMARMARHN is a personal name in apposition to 
> TON DOULON SOU -- I would agree with Mark that DMARMARHN is likely an 
> adjective indicating place of origin;  Te accusative must be object of 
> BOHQEI, despite the fact that in standard Greek BOHQEW construes with 
> a dative.. I think all the other nouns that follow are blessings that 
> Nilos prays to Abraham to assist him to have: I'm guessing that 
> AGAQHMERON will mean "good fortune," hUGIEIAN, of course, is "health." 
> KAI hOMAIDIS links the remaining blessings with the preceding: KAI 
> hOMADIS = "and together with them" or "and at the same time"; QWMASIAN 
> must be for QAUMASIAN as Mark supposed; here it must be a feminine 
> abstract noun meaning something like "admiration" or "admirability"; 
> ABLABEIA must be something like "safety" or "security from injury." 
> ANASTASIN would presumably be "resurrection." If this interpretation 
> is right -- and it is indeed guesswork, no more -- it's curious that 
> the blessings prayed for are, apart from "resurrection" all secular 
> blessings.
>
> By all means, one would like to know more about where this was found 
> and the circumstances.
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
>
>
>
>
>






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