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 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27925086 . Accessed: 22/02/2015 12:13 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Israel Exploration Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Israel Exploration Journal. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 92.241.95.11 on Sun, 22 Feb 2015 12:13:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded from 92.241.95.11 on Sun, 22 Feb 2015 12:13:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 ^?/ / ? This content downloaded from 92.241.95.11 on Sun, 22 Feb 2015 12:13:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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. This content downloaded from 92.241.95.11 on Sun, 22 Feb 2015 12:13:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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. This content downloaded from 92.241.95.11 on Sun, 22 Feb 2015 12:13:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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. This content downloaded from 92.241.95.11 on Sun, 22 Feb 2015 12:13:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 . This content downloaded from 92.241.95.11 on Sun, 22 Feb 2015 12:13:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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. This content downloaded from 92.241.95.11 on Sun, 22 Feb 2015 12:13:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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). This content downloaded from 92.241.95.11 on Sun, 22 Feb 2015 12:13:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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). This content downloaded from 92.241.95.11 on Sun, 22 Feb 2015 12:13:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions