Aramaic Inscriptions in the Tomb of Jason

12 Pages·2016·0.74 MB·English

by  Avigad N.

Aramaic Inscriptions in the Tomb of Jason
Author(s): N. AVIGAD
Source: Israel Exploration Journal, Vol. 17, No. 2 (1967), pp. 101-111
Published by: Israel Exploration Society
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Aramaic in the
Inscriptions
Tomb of
Jason
N. AVI GAD
Hebrew University, Jerusalem
During the clearing of theT omb of Jason in Rehov Aliasi, Jerusalem,i n
1965, by L. Y. Rahmani andM . Dothan, on behalf of the IsraelD epartment
of Antiquities, several Aramaic inscriptions, in a rather poor state, were found
on the walls of the of the tomb.T he writer was asked to
plastered porch
these and was with facsimiles
decipher inscriptions, provided photographs,
prepared shortlya fter the discoverya nd the resultso fM . Dothan's attempted
of the This material aided thew riter
readings larger inscription. greatlyd uring
the deciphering, which was based mainly on an examination of the original
inscription and on a new facsimile, published here. The main inscription has
been clarifiedt o a large extent,t houghp arts of it still remainso bscure; of the
smaller inscriptions, the contents of only one is clear, the others being faint
beyond recognitionN.e vertheless a suggestedr eadingo f the inscriptionsis g iven
here so as to present them to the scholarlyw orld in theh ope thato thersw ill
contribute to a fuller understanding of the contents.1
i. a funeral lament
This is written in charcoal on the northern wall of the
inscription plastered
to the left of the door It contains four lines of uneven
porch, opening. length,,
thef irsto f which is 2.05 m, and the last 0.95 m long; theh eight of the letters
(except the naturally long ones) is 3-9 cm; the first line is 2 m above the
floor.T he inscriptioni s inA ramaic; the script is a flowing cursive, though
without ligaturesM. any lettersh ave been lost throughf ading or peeling of the
plaster, thoughm ost can stillb e discerned (Fig. 1; Pis. 25-26).
1 I must thankP rof.Y . Kutscher ford iscussingw ith me the difficultli nguisticp roblemso f the text
and for his constructive contributions on this matter.
101
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o
o.2
0^ ).?
o.*mki^katrn 3 row?rn np ^o sy aV
TFJiF1ntaihaa.rgsn cseac.osd nrin mis pliittlieeo rna.t ion.
oiaumnrrrnfwKa.?.tn riorti aa ??oo noopap b ^ y ?rK0?^'?. W r4.D?..p ..1' n
1 ^?/ /
?
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ARAMAIC INSCRIPTIONS 103
Line 1. W&y KTp?'a powerful lament'.T his reading of the two partly indis
tinctw ords is based on theirc learer repetitioni n line 3. The word Krp again
appears in line 4, where it is clearer.
IT'S?'make'?3rd. sing. masc. imperative of get. Compare this piene spell
ing inO nkelos and the Jer.T argum on Gen. 6:4.
Tto^?'for Jason'?Thtwawis very small; the slight or no distinction between
thew aw and the is common in of this The name
yod inscriptions period. Jason
was common among hellenizing Jews as the equivalent for Joshua. Compare,
among others, Jason theH igh Priest under Antiochus Epiphanes.2T he name
of Jason's father,b eginningw ith a pe, is damaged and undecipherable.A bove
it, over the line, appears a small, three-letter word; it seems to us to read ?>
'myb rother',a nd may possibly be a commentw ritten by the scribe,d esiring to
set down his relation to the deceased.
nbw?This blessing reappears in this inscription at the end of each
sentence.
mnp l1?n an ?These words are difficult to read and our interpretation
is
only conjectural.
The opening of direct speechw ith *r has parallels among theB ar Kokhba
Letters,w here the body of a letter (after the usual salutoryb lessing) begins
with thew ord with the addition of a verb.8T he words are the
problematic
second and the last.T he formerc ould be read rrn, though this does not con
formw ith the contextT. he reading seeminglys hould be run,t o be correctedt o
rran, the yod having dropped out.
Tap?The thirdl etterr esemblesa yod, though thep ossible passive form
is out of place here. It was observed above, that waw was also written quite
small and thus it is here to be read as , 'a tomb'.T his
probably meaning
forma ppears in Syriac (with the articlem ia?).
2 At Assos on the coast of Asia Minor a Greek inscription from the second century b. c. was
found, containing a statement of payment of money by a certain Nikitas, son of Jason, the Jeru
salemite (J. B. Frey: Corpus Inscriptionum ludaicarum, II, Rome, 1952, No. 749). I must thank
Mr. R. Cohen, who brought this inscription to my attention. It should also be noted that the
name Jason occurs in a Greek inscriptiona t Beth She'arim (Catacomb 13) of the third-fourth
centuries a.d.
3 Y.Yadin: IEJ 11 (1961), p.44, doc. 8; p.45, doc. 10. See also Murabba'at 42: ... * vp JTOi
and Murabba'at 72: ... mn n (P. Benoit, J. J.M ilik, R. de Vaux: Les Grottes de Murabba'at,
Discoveries in the JudeanD esert, II, Oxford, 1961, pp. 156, 158, 173-174). Cf. also Daniel 2:25;
5:7; 6:6.
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104 . avigad
ano?This, I believe, is the proper reading of thew ord. Meaning: 'elder';
compare the use of ano in an ossuary inscription.4 As is well known, ano was
also used as an appelative for the Sages.
oto mn? The shin isw ritten over the he of the word. This was
preceeding
most likelyc aused by the scribe'sh aving initiallyf orgottent he shin, adding it
latero ver theh e for lack of space. The blessing oto mn ('be in peace') is very
common in theA ramaic letterso f Bar Kokhba found by Yadin in the Cave
of Letters in the Desert.
Judean
Line 2. This short line evidentlyc onsistedo f only two or threew ords, com
for a samekh at the end.
pletelym issing except
Line 3. pna? such'?An unknown form; inn and are known; possibly a
combination of the two.
mby arp?See above p. 103; all the letters are clear, except the faint yod.
a'?m?'the friends'.
"ft ? ?The horizontal line of the dalet is damaged, but this letter is
requiredb y the contextA. nother possible word-division is "ftali yt?, preferable
from the aspect of the structureo f the firstw ord, though the context of the
secondp roves thisd ifficulTt.h e infinitivfe orma iny?^ insteado f ly/th, is pecu
liar. Prof. Kutscher believes that this is a long infinitive as found in Biblical
Aramaic,5 and that it has future meaning here, i. e., 'will make for thee'. It ap
pears toh im that the formc ould be a normal infinitivoef the eph'al, following
the form inG alilean Aramaic (i. e. mem before the root). The eph'al of lay
in the meaning of the qal is found in Syriac. In any case, the matter remains
somewhat doubtful.
mn ?who hast been', togetherw ith (line l), is occasionally found
in Aramaic
inscriptions.6
aw?The three lettersa re clear (possibly read yod for waw). There may
be a finaln un or a he to the of thev ertical
following, according interpretation
line,w hether or not it is a continuationo f thed ownstrokeo f thek af of the line
above; however, neitherg ives an intelligiblew ord. Most likely it is no letter
4 L.A.Mayer: A Tomb in the Kedron Valley, Bull. Brit. School Archaeol, Jerusalem, 5 (1924),
p. 59, no. 1.
5 H. Bauer and P. Leander: Grammatik des Biblisch-Aram?ischen, Halle, 1927, p. 301e.
6 Cf. J. Cantineau: Le Nabat?en, Paris, 1932, p. 2.
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ARAMAIC INSCRIPTIONS 105
at all, but rather an accidental crossing of strokes. Contextually, a word meaning
worth' is called for, though the matter is not clear.
Line 4. This line is partlyd amaged and, thoughm ost of the lettersa re read
able, thec ontentsi s not sufficientlcyle ar. It can only be said that, theo nly clear
word beingw p, this line too deals with lament'.
The first word may be a personal name, a short form of mn 'Honiah'
which may have been the name of the scribe. After several faded letters, there
is seemingly the word *> great'. After this there are two clear letters; n?, fol
lowed traces of one or two narrow letters.
by
After the clear Krp appear the letters pirDM.This word may, we believe, be
interpretedas a combinationo f p^D *no r p^ where p^ is a shortf ormo f
pbncand should be translated 'like these'. Compare similar combinations, e. g.
ITO ntxp?i, etc.7
Contents the
of Inscription
The inscriptiono pensw ith an appeal to thev isitor to lamento ver thed eath of
Jason.T his appeal for lamentationa t the beginning of the inscriptioni s com
mon in Greek inscriptions and can be seen, for instance, in the inscriptions in
theG raeco-Jewish tombsa t Tell el-Yehudieh (ancient Leontopolis) in Egypt.8
After the the scribe in the second to the deceased
opening, appeals person
himself,w ho was evidentlyt he elderlyh ead of the family,o r a public figure.
He wishes him peace within the tombh e had built for himself, evidentlys till
during his lifetime. After this the scribe expresses the sorrow of Jason's friends
over the death, which feeling will express itself in lamentations. The scribe,
Honiah, finallya dds his own lamento n Jason,h is brother (see thew ord *>m
above line 1). Thus, the inscriptiomn ay tentativelyb e translated:
1. A powerful lament make for Jason, son of ... (my brother), Peace!...
Who hast built thyselfa tomb,E lder, rest inP eace!
2.... s
3. Such a powerful lamentw ill thyf riendsm ake for thee,w ho hast been ...
Peace!
4. Honiah ... great... lament like these, Peace!
7 M. Jastrow: Dictionary of the Targumim..., New York, 1950, s. v. yn , *73\ ,]*>b\
8 Frey, op. cit. (above, n. 2), Nos. 1507-1513, 1522. I owe this reference to Dr. B. Lifshitz.
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106 . avigad
Even with theg aps in thiss uggested interpretatioonf the inscription?which
isw ritten in a difficult language, and ism oreover, partially damaged?it is clear
that it is an Aramaic lamentationu sing formulaeb orrowed by the Jews from
theH ellenistic world. The Jason inscriptioni s unique in the Jewish-Aramaic
epigraphyo f theH asmonean period,w hich is poor in epigraphicm aterial. Be
sides its interestf or the language, ideas of thep eriod and its attitude towards a
monumental tomb, the inscriptioni s of exceptional interestp alaeographically.
al a e o gr ap h i c Examination
Below is a treatmento f the decisive letterso f the
paleographically inscription,
and of itsp ositionw ithin the developmento f the Jewishc ursive script( see the
chart in
comparative Fig. 2).
Alef?The formo f this letteri s them ost characteristioc f thisc ursive script.
It originates in then ormal alef, the left leg ofw hich has dropped off,a s found
in the in thef inal and on other ossuaries
Bethpage inscription( there position)
the Our is formed the two lines drawn in one
(see comparativec hart). alef by
stroke.T his later led to the found on ossuaries and in
gamma-shaped alef
documents the In these there is often a distinction
(see comparative chart).
between them edial and final formso f
alef.
to then umeral 2 is characteristioc f the cursive bet.
Bet?Similarity quite
He?The right leg jutsu pwards; the 'top' line slants down tom eet it,w hile
the left leg begins close to the corner and slants down to the left.T hus, it is
similar to a reversed K.
Waw?Once it is several times it short.
long; appears
head is to the
Zayin?The emphasized right.
Het?The line the two is the lettera like
joining legs oblique, giving shape
an N, though another form also appears.
Kaf?Appears twice; once thev ertical strokeh as an innerb end. If thisf orm
is not incidental, then itm ay be comparedw ith the kaf reminiscento f the
numeral 3 which discerned in theN ash of the second
Albright Papyrus
b. c.9
century
Lamed?The lamed is a simplev ertical line,o ccasionally leaning to the left,
to joinu p with the following lettera, definitec haracteristiocf the cursive script.
9 Cf. .A vigad: The Paleographyo f theD ead Sea Scrolls and Related Documents, ScriptaH i eroso
lymitana4 (1958), col.V .
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Kefar
Bebayu Murabba'at
(134 A.D.) 18 (35/6 a.D.) Ossuaries Bethpage Jason
3
>XL SX*
A
7)7(7\
\
( 1)1 in
r
! f
t?
an
(
I ? 'm
m** J
II
(\l VU
Uj
ir
?\
D O 0
V
My
D
?*
il
j IT
77
TP
SS)
^
*>|cv
?h hin
Fig. 2. Comparative charto f alphabets.
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108 . avigad
Mem?The closedm em is used here both finallya ndm edially. This is found
in many inscriptions and documents of this period.
Samekh?The samekh in the cursive scriptw as generally closed, as here in
lines 1 and 2. However, if the reading ?? in the last line is correct, this repre
sents a type of open samekh used in documents of the third-second centuries b.c.
A close to the form of our letter is found in the Ecclesiastes Scroll
parallel
ascribed to the middle of the second century b. c.10
Shin?The semi-cursive shin differs from line to line.
Taw?The cursive taw has a formed continuous without rais
loop by script,
ing the pen. This form first appears in the second century b. c. Nash Papyrus
and continues to be used in documentso f theB ar Kokhba
period.
The tombo f Jason is ascribed on the basis of the archaeological data (see the
Excavation above to the time of Alexander i. e. about
Report p. 94) Janneus,
theb eginningo f thef irstc enturyb .c Itw as evidentlyd estroyeda t the starto f
Herod's reign. It is reasonable to assume that the original owner of the tomb
was to whom the was devoted in the corridor of the
Jason, larger inscription
tomb; thus the inscriptions hould also be ascribed to the same period. If so
this is the oldest written in a cursive found so far.
inscription Jewish script11
As a close in time and mention should be made of the 'Listo f
parallel style,
Workers' incised on the lid of an ossuary from the Bethpage cave near Jeru
salem, usually ascribed to the first century b.c. on palaeographical grounds (see
the Similar cursive is found on various ossuaries
comparative chart). script
ascribed to theH erodian with the of dated
generally period. Only discovery
documents in theD ead Sea regionw as itp ossible to define the period of the
cursive more
script exactly.
The oldest documentw ritten in cursive is from the of Tiberius
reign (begin
ning of thef irstc enturya . d.) .T he fragmentso f thisd ocumentw ere found in
Qumr?n cave 4 and are as yet unpublished.12 An Aramaic contract from the
xeigno fN ero bearing thed ate a.d. 55/56 found inWadiM urabbaat, isw ritten
in a cursive here for the first time there the fluid
developed script;13 appears
i? Ibid., col. VI.
11 The term 'Jewish script' instead of 'square script' or 'Assyrian script' was instituted by F. M. Cross
in his basic and importants tudy:T he Development of the Jewish Scripts,T he Bible and Ancient
Near East, Essays in honor of W. F. Albright, G. E. Wright ed., New York, 1961, pp. 133-202.
12 Ibid., p. 181. 13 See the comparative chart (from Benoit
et al., op. cit. [above, . 3], Murabba'at No. 18, Fig. 24, Pl. XXIX).
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aramaic inscriptions 109
scriptr ichw ith ligaturesA. n ostracon found atM asada evidentlyd ates to just
before the fall of the fortress in a. d. 73.14 Many other ostraca written in a
developed cursive script have now been recovered during the recent excavations
at Masada.15 The discoveries inW adi Murabba'at and Nahal Hever furnished
many documents, in Aramaic and Hebrew, from the second century a.d.,
written in a cursive.16
flowing
A comparisonb etween the scripto f theJ ason inscriptionf romt heHasmonean
period, and theH erodian script,a nd down to the cursiveo f theB ar Kokhba pe
riod, indicatesa great similaritya mong them,a nd even actual identityo f form
in the crucial letters, such as , ,b , ? and ruT he major difference between the
Jason inscriptionan d the later,p enned documents is the absence of ligatures in
the former. A few letters (p, tf) have not yet taken on their true cursive character.
The fills a certain which existed in the schemeo f deve
Jason inscription gap
lopmento f the Jewish cursive script in the firstc enturyb . c, the first indica
tions of which lie in the semi-cursive of the second century b. c.
ii. inscriptions indicating a date
This two-line is written on the eastern wall of the
inscription plastered porch.
The small letters( height 4 mm) are penned in black ink in an elegant scribe's
hand (Pl. 27A). The firstl ine, 3 cm long, reads:
On the2 6th
of
After the lamed,w hich isw rittenw ith a veryp leasing stroke,t he scribeb roke
off and left the line as it is.T his was evidentlyb rought about by an error in
the date, for in the second line the scribe starteda gain,w riting:
14 M. Avi-Yonah, .A vigad, Y.Aharoni, I. Dunayewsky and S. Gutman: The Archaeological Survey
ofM asada, 1955-1956,I E] 7 (1957), PI. 16c.
" Y.Yadin: Masada, London, 1966, pp.95, 190, 191, 201.
16 Cf. Benoit et al. op. cit. (above, . 3), Murabba'at Nos. 19, 26, 27, 30; Yadin, op. cit. (above,
. 3), Pl. 22c. For the last column of the comparative chart of alphabets (Fig. 2), see Avigad,
op. cit. (above, n.9), col.X XXII (afterR B 61 [1954], Pl. IV).
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