Studies in Early Jewish Epigraphy (Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Antiken Judentums und des Urchristentums, 21)

ARBEITEN ZUR GESCHICHTE DES ANTIKEN JUDENTUMS UND DES URCHRISTENTUMS HERAUSGEGEBEN VON Martin Hengel (Tiibingen), Peter Schafer (Berlin), Pieter W. van der Horst (Utrecht), Martin Goodman (Oxford), Daniel R. Schwartz (Jerusalem)

XXI

STUDIES IN EARLY JEWISH EPIGRAPHY EDITED

BY

JAN WILLEM VAN HENTEN AND

PIETER WILLEM VAN DER HORST

LEIDEN

·

EJ. BRJLL

NEW YORK

1994

·

KOLN

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

Die Deutsche Bibliothek- CIP-Einheitsaufnahrne Studies

in

early Jewish epigraphy

I ed. by Jan Willem van

Henten and Pieter W. van der Horst.- Leiden; New York; Koln : Brill, 1 994

(Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antik.enjudentums und des Urchristentums ; 21)

ISBN 9G-04-09916-6 NE: Henten, Jan Willem van [Hrsg.]; GT

ISSN ISBN

©

0169-734X 90 04 09916 6

Copyright 1994 by EJ. Brill, LeU/en, The Netherlands

All rights reserved. No part qf this publication ml!)' be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval .rystem, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by EJ. Brill provided that the appropriate foes are paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center, 27 Congress Street, Salem A1A 01970, USA. Fees are subject to change. PRINTED

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CONTENTS Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . .. .. .. . Abbreviations. .........................................................................

vii ix

Introduction by the editors ...................................................

1

WILLIAM HoRBtrRY

Jewish Inscriptions and Jewish Literature in Egypt, with Special Reference to Ecclesiasticus ......................

9

jAN WILLEM VAN HENTEN

A Jewish Epitaph in a Literary Text: 4 Mace 1 7:8-10 .......

44

J OHAN H. M. STRUBBE Curses Against Violation of the Grave in Jewish Epitaphs from Asia Minor...............................................................

70

P IETER W. VAN DER HoRST

Jewish Poetical Tomb Inscriptions .....................................

129

ALICE j. BIJ DE VAATE

Alphabet-Inscriptions from J�wish Graves .......................

148

DAVID Nov

The Jewish Communities of Leontopolis and Venosa.. . .

162

GERT LirDERITZ,

What is the Politeuma?. . ... .. . . . . ..... . . .. . .. . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. .. ... . . . . . .... .. .. .

183

TESSA RAJAK

Inscription and Context: Reading the Jewish Catacombs of Rome ..........................................................

226

GERARD MussiES

Jewish Personal Names in Some Non-Literary Sources ................................................................................

242

Index of passages.................................................................... I Inscriptions, ostraca and papyri. . . ............................ ll Bible.............................................................................. m Ancient writings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

277 277 283 285

PREFACE The present volume contains nine papers read at a conference on ancient Jewish epigraphy organized by members of the Faculty of Theology at Utrecht University. The editors, who were the conveners of the symposium, are grateful to Professor Martin Hengel for agreeing to publish this volume in the series AGAJU. They also wish to thank Mrs. Gonni Runia-Deenick who skil­ fully refashioned all the manuscripts into camera ready copy. They further owe thanks to Dr Peter Staples for correcting the English of the contributions by the Dutch participants. The style of references and abbreviations used in this volu �e is by and large that of the Society of Biblical Literature Membership Directory and Handbook, Decatur 1 992, 209-226. An exception is our use of CIJ (instead of CII) for J.-B. Frey's Corpus Inscriptionum ]udai­ carum (2 vols.; Rome: 1 936-1952; reprint of vol. 1 with a Prolego­ menon by B. Lifshitz; New York: 1 975) ; the reason for our preference is given in note 1 to the editors' Introduction to this volume. Abbreviations not listed in the SBL Handbook are found either in Liddell-Scott:Jones or are provided by the contributors. A list of additional abbreviations is given after this Preface for the convenience of the reader (the most extensive and reliable list of abbreviations used in the study of ancient epigraphy can be found in the excellent Guide de l'epigraphiste, eds. F. Berard, D. Feissel, P. Petitmengin & M. Seve, Paris: 1989) . The volume offers no bibliography since several of the authors provide one for their specific topic. Moreover, a select but recent bibliography can be found in P. W. van der Horst, Ancient Jewish Epitaphs (Kampen: 1 991 ) 161-1 70. An index locorum covers non­ literary sources, Bible, and other ancient writings. The editors

ABBREVIATIONS BS

Beth She' earim I-III. (eds. B. Mazar, M. Schwabe, B. Lifshitz & N. Avigad) CdE Chronique d' Egypte CEG Carmina Epigraphica Graeca CJZC Corpus jiidischer Zeugnisse aus der Cyrenaika ( ed. G. L uderitz) CPJ Corpus Papyrorum Judaic arum I-III (eds. V. Tcheri­ kover, A. Fuks & M. Stern) Dom. Flev. Gli scavi del Dominus Flevit I (eds. B. Bagatti & ]. T. M ilik) GV Griechische Vers-Inschriften I (ed. W. Peek) ICI Inscriptiones christianae Italiae septimo saeculo antiquiores ( ed. M. Buonocore) IGC Recueil des inscriptions grecques chretiennes d'Asie Mineure I (ed. H. Gregoire) IGLS Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie ( eds. L. ] alabert et al.) IGUR Inscriptiones Graecae Urbis Romae ( ed. L. Moretti) IOSPE Inscriptiones antiquae orae septentrionalis Ponti Euxini Graecae et Latinae ( ed. B. Latyschev) JIGRE Jewish Inscriptions of Graeco-Roman Egypt ( eds. W. Horbury & D. Noy) N RSV New Revised Standard Version O.Tait Greek Ostraca in the Bodleyan Library at Oxford (eds. J. G. Tait & Cl. Preaux) P.Apoll. Papyrus grecs d'Apollonos Ano (ed. R. Remondon) P GM Papyri Graecae Magicae ( ed. K. Preisendanz) REB Revised English Bible Regional Epigraphic Catalogues of Asia Minor I-II RE CAM ( ed. S. Mitchell) SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum ( eds. ]. ]. E. Hondius et al.) TSAJ Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum

INTRODUCTION PIETER W. VAN DER HORST AND jAN WILLEM VAN HENTEN

The study of ancient Jewish epigraphy has received quite a series of new impulses of late. Although the old collection of epigraphi­ cal material by Jean-Baptiste Frey1 is still indispensible, as our main tool it is now gradually being replaced by new and better editions of parts of the corpus of Jewish inscriptions. It is well known that right from the appearance of its first volume in 1936, CIJ was regarded as very deficient by the specialist epigraphists, 2 even though it could not be doubted that Frey's work was a major step forward as compared to earlier, partial collections from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries which covered only one country or city or site. 3 Frey was criticized not only for being sloppy in his presentation of the evidence but also for having overlooked quite a number of inscriptions. On the other hand'he had included some which do not belong in his edition. Many of these defects were remedied in the 1 975 reprint of the first volume (which covers Europe) by Baruch Lifshitz, who wrote a very extensive Prolegomenon, in which he proposed a considerable number of corrections and additions.4 But, unfortunately, Lifshitz died before he could start working on Frey's vol. II, which covers

1 J.-B. Frey, Corpus Inscriptionum Judaicarum. Recueil des inscriptions juives qui vont du life siecle avant jesus-Christ au VIle siecle de notre ere (2 vols.; Rome:

Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana, 1936-1 952) . The first volume was reprinted in 1 975 (New York: Ktav) with an extensive Prolegomenon con­ taining many additions and corrections by B. Lifshitz. This work will be referred to as CIJ; the often used abbreviation Gil should be avoided since it also stands for Coryus Inscriptionum lranicarum. 2 L. Robert, "Un corpus des inscription juives, " REf 1 0 1 ( 1 937) 73-86, reprinted in his Hellenica III (Paris: 1 946) 90-1 08, and Bulletin Epigraphique Ill (1952-1958), Paris 1 974, no. 24 (pp. 1 0 1-1 04) . A. Ferrua, "Addenda et corri­ genda al CIJ," Epigraphica 3 ( 1 94 1 ) 30-46. 3 The only scholar before Frey who aimed at a more or less comprehen­ sive collection was J. Oehler, "Epigraphische Beitrage zur Geschichte des Judentums," MGRJ 53 ( 1909) 292-302; 443-452; 525-538. 4 In an appendix to his book The Jews of Ancient Rome (Philadelphia: 1 960) H. ]. Leon reprinted all Jewish inscriptions from Rome with many correc­ tions and additions (most of which were accepted by Lifshitz in the reprint of CIJ vol. 1).

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Asia - including Palestine - and Egypt, but not the rest of North Africa, and is still more deficient than vol. I. It is therefore to be welcomed that recent work is focusing especially on the areas that Frey's second volume did and did not cover. The Cambridge Divinity Faculty Jewish Inscriptions Pro­ ject recently yielded its first produce : William Horbury & David Noy (eds.) , jewish Inscriptions of Graeco-Roman Egypt. With an Index of the Jewish Inscriptions of Egypt and Cyrenaica (Cambridge UK, Cambridge University Press, 1992; xxiv + 378 pp., 32 plates) . This magnificent volume comprises all the epigraphical data from the Egyptian diaspora. Even though these had been re-edited by D. M. Lewis in an appendix to vol. III of the Corpus Papyrorum judaicarum in 1 964,5 they were in need of a new edition in which work of the past three decades (especially by the very productive brothers Bernand) would be taken into account. The volume is much more than just a re-edition of the Egyptian inscriptions from Frey (or Lewis) . It contains several new inscriptions and also an extensive commentary and exhaustive bibliography to each item. Further it is good news that Asia Minor is now being taken care of by staff-members of the Tiibinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients p roj e c t . 6 As to the evidence from Roman North Africa, Y. le Bohec published a comprehensive survey of all Jewish inscrip­ tions in that area in 1981 .7 And the Cyrenaica material has been dealt with two years later when G. Liideritz published his excellent Corpus judischer Zeugnisse aus der Cyrenaica.B Asia Minor is still most urgently in need of a new treatment, but the Tiibingen project is promising on this point; and also the full publication of the Jewish inscriptions from Sardis by ]. H. Kroll has been announced. 9 The Cambridge project is now focusing on a new 5 V. A. Tcherikover, A. Fuks and M. Stern, Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum ( 3 vols.; Cambridge Mass.: 1 957-1964) vol. III, pp. 1 38-1 66. 6 A good example of the very useful publications from this project is F. Hiittenmeister & G. Reeg, Die antiken Synagogen in Israel ( 2 vols.; Wiesbaden : 1977) ; see also footnote 8. 7 Y. le Bohec, "Inscriptions juives et judaisantes de l'Mrique Romaine," Antiquites Africaines 17 ( 1 98 1 ) 165-207. 8 Wiesbaden 1 983; this volume appeared as one of the Beihefte of the Tiibinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients. For a minor supplement see P. W. van der Horst, '"Lord, help the Rabbi' . The Interpretation of SEG XXXI 1 578b", in Idem, Essays on the Jewish World of Early Christianity ( N o v u m Testamentum e t Orbis Antiquus 14; Fribourg - Gottingen: 1 990) 1 82-1 86. 9 ]. H. Kroll, "The Greek Inscriptions," The Synagogue at Sardis. Archaeo-

INTRODUCTION

3

edition of the evidence from Western Europe. As for ancient Palestine, we have the three volumes on the Beth She' arim cata­ combs by Mazar, Schwabe, Lifshitz, and Avigad. 1o The Masada documents are in the process of being published now. l l For other places in Hellenistic and Roman Palestine, especially Jerusalem, there is a whole series of recent articles with publications of new inscriptions in various journals (see especially the Israel Explo­ ration journal and Revue Biblique) . L. Y. Rahmani did resean:;h into Jewish ossuary inscriptions from ancient Palestine and hopefully the catalogue of these ossuaries will soon be published. 12 Evidently the accessibility of the epigraphic evidence of ancient Jewry has been increased considerably over the last decades, especially in the areas from Frey's second volume. In addition to that, an intro­ duction to the field was published recently, which offers a status quaestionis, a sketch of the main problem areas and bibliographical aids for nonspecialists.13 Biblical and Judaic scholars have often neglected Jewish inscriptions in the past, but in the last two decades there seem� to be a growing awaren�ss of the importance of these non-literary sources. Several scholars have made great efforts to attract a wider audience for non-literary Jewish and Early Christian texts. The Australian scholar Greg Horsley is an outstanding example of this trend and it is certainly partly due to his important series New Documents1 4 that the interest of Biblical scholars for documentary texts has been renewed. Other stimuli are the history of the Jews logical Exploration of Sardis Report (Cambridge Mass.; forthcoming) . 10 B. Mazar, Beth She'arim I: Catacombs 1-4 (Jerusalem: 1 973) ; M. Schwabe - B. Lifshitz, Beth She 'arim II: The Greek Inscriptions (Jerusalem: 1 97 4) ; N . Avi9:ad, Beth SJ;e'arim III: Catacombs 12-23 (Jerusalem: 1976) . 1 Y. Yadin & ]. Naveh, Masada I: The Aramaic and Hebrew Inscriptions (Jerusalem: 1 989) ; H. M. Cotton & J. Geiger, Masada II: The Latin and Greek Documents (Jerusalem: 1989) . 1 2 See M. Hengel, The 'Hellenization' of Judaea in the First Century After Christ (London: 1989) 9-1 0. 1 3 P. W. van der Horst, Ancient Jewish Epitaphs. An introductory survey of a millennium ofJewish funerary epig;raphy (300 BCE - 700 CE) (Kampen: 1 991 ) . See also L. H. Kant, 'jewish Inscriptions in Greek and Latin, " A NRW II 20.2 (Berlin - New York: 1987) 671-7 1 3. 1 4 G . H. R . Horsley, New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity (5 volumes; Macquarie University: 1981-1 989) . The series is now being continued by S. R. Llewelyn in collaboration with R. A. Kearsley in vol. 6 ( 1 992) . See now also P. W. van der Horst, "Das Neue Testament und die jiidische Grabinschriften aus hellenistisch-romischer Zeit," BZ NF 36 ( 1 992) 1 61 - 1 78.

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in Asia Minor by Paul Trebilco, with a synthesis of the epigraphi­ cal evidence,15 and the recent publication of the spectacular Jew­ ish inscription (s) of Aphrodisias by Joyce Reynolds and Robert Tannenbaum. 16 The mention of a large group of 'Godfearers' in the inscription as a distinct category alongside Jews and prose­ lytes has rekindled the debate on the status of the Godfearers, on the relation of these epigraphical 8EOO"E�E1s to the New Testament o�OlJIJ.EVOl and crE�OIJ.EVOl, and on the question of whether or not this designation was a terminus technicus. This find has brought home to many a New Testament scholar the importance of non­ literary sources for the study of early Christian and early Jewish religion. 17 This satisfying development was one of the motives for members of the Department of New Testament and Early Jewish Studies at the Theological Faculty of Utrecht University to organize a small scale symposium on Jewish epigraphy in antiquity. The con­ ference took place on May 1 8-19, 1992. The organizers were happy to have as lecturers also distinguished collaborators of the Jewish Inscriptions Project in Cambridge and of the Tiibinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients: William Horbury, David Noy, Gerd Liideritz, and Hanswulf Bloedhorn. Their papers are to be found in the present volume (except Bloedhorn's) , together with five papers read by Dutch participants. Some of the conference papers by Dutch scholars were of too introductory or general a nature to jus­ tify publication in this volume, e.g. a general survey of epigraphic sources by the Leiden epigraphist H. W. Pleket, and a paper on numerical structures in inscriptions by ]. Smit Sibinga. Tessa Rajak, who chaired some sessions of the conference, kindly accepted our invitation to contribute to the volume. Several important aspects of the material under discussion are 15

1991 ) .

P. Trebilco, Jewish Communities in Asia Minor (SNTSMS 69; Cambridge:

1 6 Jews and Godfearers at Aphrodisias. Greek Inscriptions with Commentary

(Cambridge: 1 987) . 1 7 See also L. H. Feldman, "Proselytes and 'Sympathizers' in the Light of the New Inscription from Aphrodisias, " REJ 1 48 ( 1 989) 265-305; S. J. D . Cohen, "Crossing the Boundary and Becoming a Jew," HTR 8 2 ( 1 989) 1 3-33. Very useful is the recent survey by Fergus Millar in E. Schiirer, A History of the Jewish People in the Age ofJesus Christ (rev. ed. by G. Vermes, F. Millar and M. Goodman) III 1 (Edinburgh: 1986) 150-176.

INTRODUCTION

5

highlighted in the papers presented in this volume. The connec­ tion between documentary and literary texts is being explored in some of the contributions. Others offer a discussion of a collection of related inscriptions like curse inscriptions or metrical epitaphs, or focus on aspects of the history of Jewish communities in the diaspora. Inevitably there is now and then some overlap in the papers (for example in those of Horbury and Van der Horst) , but it seemed to the editors that the small degree in which this was the case could not justify requiring the speakers/writers to avoid it at all costs. William Horbury (University of Cambridge, UK) opens the volume with a contribution in which he compares Jewish in­ scriptions from Egypt with Jewish literature from the same· area and period, especially the book of Sirach, Ecclesiasticus. After presenting a nuanced and balanced picture of the linguistic situation of the Jews in Egypt, he discusses epigraphic themes in Ecclesiasticus with special attention to the contact and divergence in the genres of encomium, lamentation and consolation, a,nd concludes inter multa alia that both the epitaphs and Ecclesiasticus verge on the 'nihilism' of the Epicurean or rather Sadducean view of death. Jan Willem van Henten (University of Utrecht) presents an elaborate discussion of all aspects of the beautiful literary epitaph in the 1 7th chapter of 4 Maccabees. It turns out to show some resemblance to real Jewish tomb inscriptions but also to have several points of contacts with formulae in pagan and Christian epitaphs from Asia Minor and with conceptions found in Greek traditions about heroes who liberated their country or city from tyranny. Some of the data discussed would seem to corroborate the old suggestion by Norden that the book originated in Asia Minor. Johan Strubbe (University of Leiden) , the author of a com­ prehensive work on the pagan epitaphs from Asia Minor with curses against tomb violation, now brings his learning to bear on Jewish curse epitaphs from the same area. Apart from some very useful methodological remarks concerning the identification of such curses as Jewish, his contribution is especially valuable for its rich documentation, chief of which is the appendix containing an exhaustive catalogue of all Jewish curse epitaphs from Asia Minor (texts, translations and bibliography) .

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Pieter W. van der Horst (University of Utrecht) deals with the 1 8 or 1 9 metrical epitaphs of Jewish origin, 1 2 of which are from Leontopolis in Egypt. Mter a brief overview of the material he situates the genre in its ancient context (there are many thou­ sands of pagan and Christian instances) and discusses some of the poems in more detail. The striking absence of expectations concerning afterlife in most of these epitaphs is highlighted, as are the many features derived from Greek poetry. In an appendix the Greek (and in one case Latin) texts of all extant Jewish metri­ cal epitaphs is presented. Alice J. Bij de Vaate (Utrecht/Amsterdam) discusses the enig­ matic alphabetic inscriptions in a number of Jewish graves. These alphabets (or parts of them) certainly were no epitaphs. By means of a comparison with quite a number of other alphabet inscriptions from the ancient world and with some literary data she comes to the tentative conclusion that we most probably have to do here with a kind of epigraphical . apotropaic magic: the inscriptions were to function as a means to protect the grave against any form of evil. David Nay (University of Reading/University of Cambridge) presents an overview of the material from both Leontopolis (Egypt) and Venosa (Italy) , the two diaspora cities with the largest corpus of evidence after Rome. He draws attention to such peculiarities as the relatively high number of epitaphs in verse, the frequent use of the epithets pasiphilos and mikros, the use of the word hos before age indications, the tendency to mention death in childbirth, the· lack of records of people aged over 50 at Leontopolis, and the proliferation of titles indicating both leading positions in the civic structure and places of honour in the Jewish community at the much later Venosa. Useful tables with indications of ages at death are included. Gert Liideritz (Tiibingen) presents us with a wide-ranging study of TTOAl TEUIJ.a. He discusses quite a number of instances, both literary and epigraphical, of this term in order to determine what exactly the Jewish politeuma in Cyrenaica might have been, a much debated question . Mter a thorough analysis of the most relevant sources he concludes that most probably it did not consist of the complete Jewish population of the city concerned, but rather functioned as a kind of �ouA.-rl, an aristocratic governing body of the Jewish community.

INTRODUCTION

7

Tessa Rajak (University of Reading) deals with the context of epitaphs, which is very important for the interpretation of the inscriptions. She focuses on the Jewish epitaphs of Rome, because their context is lost to a large extent, and examines some major unanswered questions in this area. The spatial context in which the inscriptions were located and the meaning of the symbols depicted with the texts are discussed, as well as problems like the differing types of Jewish milieu, the social standing of the Jews, the organization of the catacombs, the religious exclusivity in the burial milieu and Jewish symbols as statements of identity. She concludes that progress might still be made via the original records of discovery and excavation, and via comparative study with non:J ewish material. , Gerard Mussies (University of Utrecht) extensively discusses non-literary evidence for Jewish onomastics in the Graeco­ Roman world. He deals especially with the various types of Greek names adopted by Jews and subdivides them into four different categories; his treatment of the (pagan) theophoric elements ,in several names is particularly helpful. Interesting is also his dis­ cussion of the various ways in which Hebrew names were adapted to Greek declensions and of the systems to form hypo­ coristic names. As a by-product of his study of the new onomastic evidence in the Aphrodisias inscription, Mussies presents some acute observations on the much debated opening lines, and he also decisively refutes some of the arguments currently used to determine the gender ofJael, the 1TpocrTciTI1S of the community, in this inscription. The editors express the hope that the contributions in this volume will stimulate the study of early Jewish epigraphy and incite further investigations into this fascinating field of research. Utrecht,June 1993

JEWISH INSCRIPTIONS AND JEWISH LITERATURE IN EGYPT, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ECCLESIASTICUS WILLIAM HORBURY

What light do Jewish inscriptions and literature in Egypt throw on one another? The question was noticed by P. M. Fraser, who confronted all Ptolemaic Greek literature, including Jewish works, with the contemporary inscriptions.1 Since his monu­ mental book this question seems not to have been pursued. In the case of Graeco-Roman Egypt, however, it is strongly suggeste � by the fortunate preservation of a body of inscriptions and a body of literature from the same time and place. Outside the Holy Land itself, Jewish inscriptions usually abound just when and where definitely assignable Jewish literature is lacking. Egypt fared better. Moreover, in Egypt as elsewhere most Jewish inscriptions are epitaphs, and epitaphs form the class of inscriptions which stands closest to literature; but in Egypt the resemblances between Jewish epitaphs and Jewish literature are even stronger than might have been expected. The literature is often epitaphic in theme, and the surviving epitaphs are unusually often of some literary pretension. Like other inscriptions, however, they con­ tinue to be of high value as documents of communal life. Comparison is therefore encouraged by shared place and time, and by contacts in style and subject-matter. Here it is asked how the inscriptions (especially epitaphs) accepted by Jewish patrons in Egypt, on the one hand, and the contemporary Jewish litera­ ture in Egypt, on the other, can be mutually illuminating. Are the aspects of the Jewish community reflected in the inscriptions also reflected in the literature? To judge by the inscriptions, how repre­ sentative is the literature which survives? Can each contribute to the interpretation of the other? The discussion of these questions here will be in three parts: (i) introductory, to point out the literature and inscriptions in view; (ii) general, on language and style; and (iii) particular, on themes in the inscriptions and in one selected book, Ecclesiasticus. 1 P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria (3 vols., Oxford: 1 972) , for example in a contrast ( 1 .282-4, 286) between the differing Jewish attitudes suggested by the proseuche dedications and by the Third Sibylline book.

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(i) Introduction The literature current among the Jews in Egypt is rich in epitaphic material, as noted already. To this day their books do much to supply the needs of commemoration and consolation in universities, colleges and schools. Benefactors are commemo­ rated with Ecclesiasticus 44 ( "Let us now praise famous men") , departed teachers with a lesson from Wisdom 3 ("The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God") or 7 ( "I myself also am a mortal man, like to all") , and consolation for the untimely death of pupils can be sought in a lesson from Wisdom 4 ( "Youth that is soon perfected shall condemn the many years and old age of the unrighteous") . These famous passages by no means exhaust the material, which also includes Ecclesiasticus on death and mourn­ ing, discussed below. The literature here in view for comparison with the inscrip­ tions consists of books likely to have been translated or written in Ptolemaic and early Roman Egypt. These include, first and fore­ most, the LXX Pentateuch, followed by most of the Prophets and Hagiographa, III Maccabees, the Wisdom of Solomon and the Greek Ecclesiasticus. These Greek books are probably all Ptole­ maic, but for III Maccabees and Wisdom an early Roman date is also possible . Outside the biblical and apocryphal corpus, from Ptolemaic times there are the Letter of Aristeas, the Third Sibyl­ line book, Aristobulus the exegete, and a diverse group of biblical expansions and paraphrases (on Genesis, Joseph and Asenath; on. Exodus, ]annes and Jambres, Artapanus, and the iambic Exagoge of Ezekiel Tragicus) ; and from the early Roman period, Philo, the Prayer of Joseph, the Fifth Sibylline, and perhaps the Christian Epistle of Barnabas. Jews in Egypt will certainly have read other Jewish books as well, not to speak of gentile literature; but the books named can reasonably be considered as Egyptian Greek literature of the Jews and, later, of the Christians. From this litera­ ture one of the wisdom-books, Ecclesiasticus, is singled out for attention here. The Greek version of the book, as its preface shows, was made specifically for circulation in Ptolemaic Egypt. Jewish inscriptions and especially epitaphs from Egypt chal­ lenge comparison with contemporary literature to an unusual de­ gree, as again was noted above. The vocabulary of the short prose epitaphs which pre�ominate is of course intertwined, here as else-

JEWISH INSCRIPTIONS AND JEWISH LITERATURE IN EGYPT

11

where, with the literary vocabulary of character and status; but among Jewish inscriptions from the ancient world those of Egypt are unique for their proportion of metrical epitaphs of some length. (See Professor P. W. van der Horst's contribution to this volume.) To be more precise, out of about 1 35 Jewish inscriptions sur­ viving from Graeco-Roman Egypt, 1 14 are epitaphs, all in Greek apart from five in Aramaic or Hebrew. 2 No less than fourteen of these epitaphs - about 1 3% - are Greek funerary poems; the contrasting proportions are two out of 2 1 8 Greek inscriptions at Beth She'arim-(1 % ) , two or three - from Larissa in Thessaly, from Lorium, near Rome,3 and from Rome itself - out of all other Jewish Greek inscriptions, and one or two, both from Rome, out of all known Jewish Latin epitaphs from antiquity (still smaller proportions) . The Greek poem from the city of Rome [ 141 ] should in fact provisionally be considered with the Egyptian material, for it is the epitaph of a native of Egypt, Theodosia, who was probably also Jewish. 4 Further discoveries may of course change th�se totals, but the number of known inscriptions is sufficiently large to make the high proportion of verse inscriptions in Egypt remarkable . This phenomenon is perhaps mainly explained by the relative­ ly early date of the whole body of Egyptian Jewish inscriptions. Most come from before the end of Trajan's reign, and a good number are definitely earlier in the Roman period, or Ptolemaic. Among the fourteen metrical epitaphs, one is very probably Ptole­ maic, of 1 1 7 B.C. [30= C-!J1490] ; the latest possible date for another is 5 B.C. [33=C..lf 1 510] ; two others have probable dates in the first century B.C. (49 B.C. [ 1 1 4= Cij 1 489] , 21 B.C. [32=Cij 1 509] ) ; another is definitely from the reign of Augustus, of A.D. 8 [ 40=C-!J 2 Numbers in square brackets below refer to entries in William Horbury & David Noy, jewish Inscriptions of Graeco-Roman Egypt (Cambridge: 1992) ; the total given above includes one inscription not in that collection, the prose epitaph of Joseph, probably from Tell el-Yehoudieh, published by P. J. Sijpe­ ste n, "Inscriptions from Egypt," Chronique d'Egypte 65 ( 1 990) 1 22-5 ( 1 22-3) . GIL xi 3758, reprinted and discussed by J. Reynolds & R. Tannenbaum, jews and Godfearers at Aphrodisias (Cambridge: 1987) 3 1 . 4 For bibliography see [ 1 41 ] ; the epitaph can conveniently b e seen also in G. Kaibel, Epigrammata Graeca ex lapidibus conlecta (Berlin: 1 878) , no.566 or G. H. R. Horsley, New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity, iv (Macquarie University: 1 987) , no.1 14.

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1 539] . The others are all probably from before the Jewish revolt of 1 15-8. This dating means that the metrical inscriptions come from a time when the epigram was still a popular verse form, not least in Egypt. Local fashion is indeed likely to form a second element in explanation of their numbers in Egypt. The great majority come from the settlement of Onias at Leontopolis [27-40] , but examples were found at two other sites in the Delta, Schedia near Alexandria [23] ,5 and Demerdash on the outskirts of ancient Heliopolis [ 1 14] ; the Roman epitaph of the Egyptian Theodosia is probably another example. When this distribution is viewed together with the popularity of metrical epitaphs among non:Jews in Egypt, readily seen from E. Bernand's collection of metrical in­ scriptions, the metrical epitaphs seem likely to represent a general rather than exceptional Jewish usage in Egypt. Jewish patronage need not imply Jewish authorship of the funerary poems, but it certainly does not exclude it, and there is no reason why Jews in Egypt, where Greek metrical verse by Jews flourished ( see below) , should not have been epigrammatists and composers of Greek epitaphs. The closely-related arts of lamentation and fune­ ral oration were highly esteemed later on in rabbinic circles in Judaea, Galilee, and the eastern and western diaspora. 6 (ii) Language and Style

When the books are confronted by contemporary inscriptions, the question of language is immediately raised. The Ptolemaic epi-. taphs include two in Aramaic, from Alexandria [3-4, CIJ 1 424-5] . From the Roman period there are three Hebrew epitaphs, not earlier than the second century, and in two cases probably a good 5 E. Bern and, Inscriptions metriques de l 'Egypte pico-romaine (Paris: 1 969) , no.37; not in CIJ. 6 Much material, mainly relating to the second century A.D. onwards, is collected and quoted by J. Hamburger, Real-Encyclopadie fur Bibel und Talmud, ii (Leipzig: 1 883) , 679-685, s. "Leichenrede"; in the name of Bar Kappara (late second-century Galilee) is the saying 11ElOil:> 111::::1.:::> c:>n ( b. Mo'ed Qa.t. 25a) . Tubal-Cain's sister Naamah was said to have been expert in songs and laments (Targum Ps.-Jonathan on Gen 4:22) . From the later west, perhaps in the early sixth century, is the Venosa epitaph of Faustina, for whom "dixerunt 6pr1 vous duo apostuli et duo rebbites" ( CIJ 61 1 ; the Greek word appears in Roman transliteration in the inscription) . From the earlier period of the Greek epigrams from Egypt considered here is the Aramaic apophthegm addressed to a skull, attributed to Hillel ( m. 'A bot 2:7) ; in spirit and subject-matter it is close to Greek epigram.

JEWISH INSCRIPTIONS AND JEWISH LITERATURE IN EGYPT

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deal later [ 1 1 8-9= CIJ 1 533-4, 1 33=CIJ 1536] . Two probably late Roman synagogue dedications from Alexandria are in Greek, but conclude with r::li'?tD in Hebrew characters [ 1 5= CIJ 1 438, 1 7= CIJ 1 437] . These seven are far outnumbered by wholly Greek inscrip­ tions, as just noted, but they suggest that some Egyptian Jews knew Aramaic under the Ptolemies, and Hebrew in the later Roman empire. Accordingly, the Greek literature indicated above would not fully represent the linguistic range of the Jewish community in Egypt. Is this conclusion justified? Jews in Ptolemaic Egypt did not commonly understand Hebrew, as the preface of Ecclesiasticus shows particularly clearly, and Ben Sira' s grandson chose to translate into Greek, not Aramaic. Nevertheless, there are ·con­ firmations of the use of Aramaic and Hebrew. First, on Aramaic, there is a good deal to support C. C. Torrey's argument that the Aramaic Jewish vernacular of Persian Egypt continued to be spoken by some Jews in Graeco-Roman Egypt.7 This was allowed, without specific reference to Torrey, by, V. Tcherikover, who urged that during the second century B.C. Aramaic was replaced among Egyptian Jews by Greek as the language of literature and documents, but is unlikely to have disappeared completely.s The two Aramaic epitaphs, even con­ sidered on their own, are likely to indicate some currency of the spoken language; for Aramaic, a vernacular without strong sacred associations for Jews in antiquity, is unlikely to have been used where it was not understood. The place particularly concerned in this instance is Alexandria itself, as noted already; the ·epitaphs were found in situ in a hypogaeum ascribed to the early Ptole­ maic period at lbrahimiya, on the eastern outskirts of the city. Besides these epitaphs, however, other Jewish Aramaic writings ascribed to the same period are papyri and ostraca from Upper Egypt which include Greek names. Further, Jewish Aramaic epitaphs from Edfu (Apollinopolis Magna) have been published since Torrey wrote; these are ascribed to the Persian period, but might be later.9 Definitely from a later time -A.D. 38, in fact - is 7

C. C. Torrey, Aramaic Graf f iti on Coins of Demanhur (New York: 1937) 4-6. V. Tcherikover in V. Tcherikover, A. Fuks & M. Stern ( edd. ) , Corpus Pa yrorum Judaicarum (hereafter CP]), i ( 1957) 30-31 . W. Kornfeld, 'Jiidisch-aramaische Grabinschriften aus Edfu," A nzeiger der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wien, Philosophische-historische Klasse, 1 1 0 (1973) 123-37. 8

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the Aramaic word McipLv- recorded by Philo as uttered by gentiles in mockery of the Jewish acclamation of Agrippa I in Alexandria (Philo, Flacc. 39) . Philo 's description implies a disclaimer of any Aramaic knowledge, but this is perhaps rather like southern English disclaimers of any knowledge of the language they speak in Yorkshire, or, nearer his own time and place, the care taken in the Letter of Aristeas to maintain that Judaean Jews use He brew rather than Aramaic ( 1 1 ) , or the distaste for Aramaic expressed in a saying ascribed to R. Judah the Prince ( b. So.ta 49b) ; but although Philo only says that the mob used the Syrian language because Agrippa was a Syrian king, one may guess that part of the point of their insult was to mimic the use of Aramaic by some Jews, a linguistic trait which gave a handle to the wide­ spread description of Jews as Syrians - itself by no means a polite description in Alexandria and Egypt. To return to Torrey's argument, he emphasized that Aramaic among Egyptian Jews might explain - other explanations can of course be envisaged ­ a striking description in the Acts of the Apostles; the tribune Claudius Lysias who saves Paul's life by taking him into custody in the temple court at Jerusalem is represented as assuming that the man known as 'the Egyptian' , who stirred up unrest in Judaea, will not know Greek (Acts 2 1 :37-8) . Lastly, going beyond Torrey, some minimal awareness of Aramaic in the Diaspora of the Greeks, not in Egypt itself but further west, in Corinth, seems to be suggested by Paul's own use of the phrase Maranatha, without translation, in I Corinthians 1 6:22. Paul was writing in Greek, . probably in A.D. 54, for a largely gentile Christian community which was, nevertheless, informed by Jewish literature and cul­ ture, and had also been taught by the Alexandrian Jew Apollos; and he assumes that this Aramaic phrase at least needs no explanation. Of course it is possible that Maranatha, here used by Paul to reinforce a solemn curse, was a standard phrase of Christian prayer, originating in Jerusalem or Antioch; but that consideration does not affect the point that at least a little Aramaic was evidently acceptable in a Greek-speaking community with Jewish associations and a link with Alexandria. By analogy, some Aramaic among the mainly Greek-speaking Egyptian Jews can be envisaged without difficulty. What can be suggested as the communal background of Egyptian Jewish Aramaic in the Graeco-Roman period? In early

JEWISH INSCRIPTIONS AND JEWISH LITERATURE IN EGYPT

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Ptolemaic times, the Aramaic of the Persian period no doubt continued to be widely used for a generation - the generation to which the Ibrahimiya epitaphs and the papyri and ostraca from upper Egypt are ascribed. Mter that, however, Aramaic would be principally the language of new Jewish immigrants from Judaea, Syria and the east, a language spoken by parents but probably not by their children. In the second century B.C. such immigrants appeared in large numbers in the reign of Ptolemy Philometor, notably in the settlement of Onias, and Fraser puts the con­ solidation of the Alexandrian Jewish community in his reign. Later still such immigration will have continued, as is suggested by Claudius's letter to Alexandria of 41 , in which the Jews are forbidden to bring into the city other Jews from Egypt or from Syria. l0 Visits for trade or other purposes will have brought other Aramaic-speaking Jews to Egypt for a time. Ben Sira's grandson tells us of his move to Egypt without giving the reason . Commer­ cial reasons are exemplified in the grand manner in the Tobiad narrative of the tax-farmer Joseph and his son Hyrcanus in Egypt (Josephus, Ant. xii 1 54-236) . Political refugees are relatively well documented. Onias's flight from Judaea to Egypt when the Judaean government was hostile repeats a theme which will have been familiar in life as well as literature; it is met in the Hebrew Bible in the narratives ofJeroboam (I Kings 1 1 :40, 1 2:2, expanded in LXX III Kingdoms 1 2 :24 c-f, on his marriage in Egypt) and Jeremiah (Jer 41 : 1 7:Jer 44) , and it recurs in the New Testament and the Talmud (Matt 2 : 1 3-23, b. Sanh. 107b, on the Herodian and Hasmonaean periods, respectively) . An early Roman instance in life is the attempt of Sicarii to find refuge in Alexandria, the Delta and Upper Egypt during the suppression of revolt in Judaea in the early 70's (Josephus, JW. vii 409-2 1 ) , the incident which led to the demolition of the temple of Onias. Furthermore, both immigra­ tion and temporary residence by Jews from Aramaic-speaking regions took place against the background of a numerous Syrian population in Egypt, who themselves can be expected to have used Aramaic as well as Greek.l l It was probably always possible to hear some Aramaic spoken by Jews in Egypt. l O dTTo };up( as,; AtyuTTTou KaTaTT>..lovTas ' I ou8a(ous, Letter of Claudius, lines 95-6 in CPJ ii, no. l53, p.41 . 1 1 The evidence is summarized by V. Tcherikover in CPJ i ( 1957) 4-5.

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With this conclusion on the Ptolemaic and early Roman period in mind, three later pieces of evidence for Aramaic in Egypt can be noted. In a Greek column-dedication of the later Roman empire, probably from Alexandria, the donor's father bears the Aramaic name Abbiba [ 1 9=Clj 1 446] . Further, from the fourth or fifth century comes the Berlin papyrus of the Aramaic poem 'Ezel Mosheh preserved in the Fragment Targum. on Exod. xiv, showing Egyptian familiarity with synagogal poetry which has been transmitted in the Targums, and in a Cologne papyrus from the year 4 1 7 there is the Antinoe marriage contract in Aramaic and Greek. I 2 From elsewhere in the western diaspora, at this later period, are two bilingual Neapolitan Jewish inscriptions of the fifth or sixth century, in Latin with short Aramaic formu­ lae . 13 These confirm that Aramaic was current among some Jews in the west, and underline the likelihood that it was used in Egypt. To look back now over the whole Greek and Roman period, it may be said provisionally that Aramaic was general among Egyptian Jews in the earliest Ptolemaic times; under the Ptolemies Greek became the norm after a generation, but some Aramaic continued to be spoken, particularly by recent immi­ grants from Judaea, Syria and the east; in the later Roman empire it probably once again became more widespread. This first conclusion bears on literary problems. For example, the Aramaic-speaking presence provides a possible setting for the Aramaic form of the early chapters of the Wisdom of Solomon which is conjectured by F. Zimmermann . Again, the agree­ ments between Septuagint and Targum may have as part of their background an Egypt in which - as in Judaea -both Greek and Aramaic biblical translations were current. The main point here, 12 Y. Yahalom, '"Ezel Moshe ' - according to the Berlin Papyrus," Tarbiz 47 ( 1 978) 173-84 [Hebrew] ; P. Col. Inv. 5853, ed. C. Sirat, P. Caudelier, M. Dukan & M. Friedmann, La Ketouba de Cologne (Papyrologica Coloniensia XII, Opladen : 1 986) . The new aspect given by the Aramaic marriage con­ tract to the question of the use of Semitic languages in the diaspora is pointed out by F. Millar, "The Jews of the Graeco-Roman Diaspora between Paga­ nism and Christianity, A.D. 3 1 2-438, " in J. Lieu, ]. North & T. Rajak (edd. ) , The jews among Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire (London: 1 992) 97-1 23 (99) . 13 Nos. 2 and 4 in E. Serrao, "Nuove iscrizioni da un sepolcreto giudaico di Napoli," Puteoli 1 2- 1 3 ( 1 988-9) 1 03-1 17 (she notes Aramaic influence on no.2, but the formulae in both 2 and 4 are Aramaic rather than Hebrew) ; I owe my knowledge of this publication to Dr D. E. Noy.

JEWISH INSCRIPTIONS AND JEWISH LITERATURE IN EGYPT

17

however, is that the surviving Greek literature of Egyptian Jews is not fully representative of Jewish speech, which in Ptolemaic and early Roman Egypt also embraced Aramaic . Secondly, is there confirmation of the knowledge of Hebrew which was suggested by the five inscriptions from the later Roman empire? The survival of Hebrew as a vernacular seems to be ruled out by the translation of the book of Ben Sira into Greek, and by the deep respect for the LXX expressed in the Letter of Aristeas, Philo, and the festival of the Septuagint; but at least a limited Ptolemaic currency for Hebrew in biblical reading and prayer is suggested by the Nash Papyrus of the Decalogue and the Shema< . The habit of writing the Tetragram in Hebrew characters in Greek biblical texts, attested in Egypt about the end of the· Ptole­ maic period by the divine names in Hebrew square characters in the Greek Genesis and Deuteronomy texts of Papyrus Fuad 266, would cohere with this view to suggest at least a small Hebrew­ educated public. 14 Lastly, the movement towards revision of Greek texts into closer accord with Hebrew exemplars is likely to, be already reflected in the condemnation of revisions in the Letter of Aristeas 310-1 1 ; and the Letter (30 and 38) possibly also attests for Egypt a custom of public reading of the Law in Hebrew before its translati o n . l 5 It is perhaps just worth noting also that Philo, admittedly in a flight of rhetoric, envisages the possibility not only of Jews learning Greek, but also of Greeks learning the lan­ guage of the Bible ( V. M. ii 40) ; behind the passage, is there knowledge of cases in which Greek-speaking Jews learned He­ brew? 16 At any rate, on the basis of the papyri just mentioned, and the allusion to revisions in the Letter of Aristeas, a small-scale knowledge of Hebrew in connection with the Bible and prayer can be assumed in Ptolemaic and early Roman Egypt; like the 14 The writing of the Tetragram in this MS. is described and discussed by F. Dunand, Papyrus g;recs bibliques (Papyrus F. Inv. 266): Volumina de la Genese et du Deuteronome (Introduction) (Cairo: 1966) , 39-55; the papyrus may come from the Fayum, a centre of Jewish settlement which has yielded inscrip­ tions including a proseuche dedication from Crocodilopolis [ 1 1 7=CPJ 1532a] . 15 ' E�palKOLS" ypcijl.J.Lau yap ava rrT6A.tv, aAA.a Km cipxt� rrav8'fv.4l €8vudJ EcrTEET' €v ao<J>lq. 8tcrcrwv yap TE T6rrwv rroA.tTapxwv auTbs rrELj.l.W , n1v &!J.epfJ 8arravrw e-eav(xms xaptatv . miVTa 8€ crot, ElTEotX' ooa TOt, t/Juxfl, rrp'tv E:KeUJE-s ' Kat TEKVWV ayaewv aiJeOIJ.EV yevei]. clAACI aU, 6> rrapo&1Ta, l8Wv aya8ou TacpOV av8p0s OV TE KaTEu<J>rl!J.WV TOLa cppc]aas li:rrt8t · ya1av EXOLS EAacppav e'Ls TOV arraVTa xp6vov.

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When he had already accomplished a span of fifty-three years, the all-subduer himself carried him off to Hades. 0 sandy earth, how notable a body you cover: that which had the soul , of Abramos, most fortunate of men. For he was not without honour in the city, but was crowned in his wisdom with a communal magistracy over all the people. "For you were honoured by holding a city magistracy in two places, fulfilling the double expense with gracious liberality. Until you hid yourself in the grave all things that befitted you were yours, dear soul, and we, a family of good children, increase them. " "But you, passer-by, beholding the grave of a good man, depart with these favourable words for him: ' May you find the earth light upon you for all time' . "

"Good man" here (line 1 1 ) suggests first o f all that Abramos showed the generosity befitting his station, as was emphasized earlier in the epitaph (line 8) ; his soul (line 4) manifested its quality in his bounties, and had this piece been in prose he might have been accorded a 'goodness of soul', aya86Tl1S l/Juxfls, recalling Ben Sira's praise of Phinehas (Dr ]. W. van Henten draws attention also to the comparable IV Mace. 14:20 (cf. 15 :28; 1 8:20) , in which the mother of the seven sons is "of like soul with Abra­ ham", 'A�pad � o �6 tJ;uxov ) . The 'good' children, similarly, are setting up his stone with generous filial piety (line 1 0) . This interpretation of d.ya86s as 'generous' is of course in full accord with the usage of the word in Ecclesiasticus, and this sense of

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d ya66s recurs in Jewish and early Christian Greek as reflecte � in the New Testament. Thus the generous vineyard-owner in Matt 20: 1 5 is dya66s , and the wealthy and charitable Joseph of Arima­ thaea and Barnabas are both described in Luke-Acts as d vit p d ya66s, although in the last two cases something is added from the more distinctively Jewish or Christian vocabulary (Luke 23:50; Acts 1 1 :24) . The characteristically Greek farewell to the liberal Abramos can also be seen, however, in the light of the contrast with aj.lapTwA.6s in Ecclesiasticus, to be open to a further and more biblical understanding when read by a Jewish passer-by. Abra­ mos would then be 'good' not simply· as a benefactor, but also in a sense verging on 'righteous' , as contrasted with 'sinner' ; compare again Joseph of Arimathaea, fully described as dvT) p dyaeos Kat 8( KaLOS (Luke 23:50) . Once again, however, the biblical contexts evoked, especially in wisdom passages like Ps 37, would probably not be far removed in theme from the primary interest of the epitaph in benefaction. In any case the passer-by, whether Jew or Greek, is left at the end not with Abramos's personal name, but with the deceased as the exemplar of a social virtue - an effect of such epithets whether in literature or on stone. The section consisting of chapters 38-41 : 1 3 in Ecclesiasticus has many contacts with the inscriptions. It deals first with the physi­ cian, sickn·ess, funeral rites and mourning, then with the work of the scribe and of various craftsmen, then with the wise man and (in a hymn) the underlying goodness and justice of God's works, then with the fear of death and with the social virtues, and lastly with death, children, and a good name. The virtues commended include good faith and generosity, as u(crns and xcipLs respective­ ly may be rendered in Sir 40: 1 2 & 1 7. I H crTLS in the sense of reliability which it has by contrast with venality in Sir 40: 1 2 is a civic virtue suitable to a magistrate, as is xd pLS, associated with EAET)j.lOO'lJVT) in Sir 40: 1 7 (as in 1 7:22) and therefore to be rendered 'generosity' ; compare the use of xdpLS in the plural to describe bounties by a Jewish office-holder in the epitaph of Abramos, who held office in two places, 'ri]v &IJ.Epii Bam1vrJV €eawas xaptow ,

"fulfilling the double expense with gracious liberality" [39= CPJ 1530a, 1.8] .

( In the English biblical versions at Sir 40: 1 7, therefore, 'bounti-

JEWISH INSCRIPTIONS AND JEWISH LITERATURE IN EGYPT

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fulness' (AV) or 'bounty' (RV) seem preferable to 'kindness' (NRSV, REB) ; the later renderings are probably influenced by iOn in the Hebrew text, but the second half-line in the Hebrew clearly refers to almsgiving, 2 5 and this is probably the specific 'kindness' intended in the first half.) These qualities of rr(crTLS and xcipLS are the virtues ascribed to the young Somoelos in another Leontopolis metrical epitaph [ 29= C(J 145 1 ] : ct BE eE-A.ELs, yvwvat Bwaaat TTOOOll TTLaTLS' if3E XclpLS', Ka't. TTW;' TTpaLVEcrTE OL (WVTES a8EA<j>OL, K(al) TTELV qm· o(u8EtS) a8avaTOS

"Rejoice, brethren who are alive, and drink together; no-one is immortal ". 42

40 The letter of Epicurus to Menoeceus, against the fear of death and for recognition of pleasure as the highest good, includes a complaint that some in ignorance or opposition wrongly identify this pleasure with luxurious living (Diogenes Laertius x 1 24-6, 1 29, 1 32) . 41 For a Greek metrical epitaph from Cos in which the departed says TIEL VE , �A.€ ms- TO TE AOS' see A. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East (E.T. London: 1 9 1 0) , 295-6, with photograph; G. Kaibel, Epigrammata graeca ex lapi­ dibus conlecta (Berlin: 1 878) , nos. 261 , 362, 480a, 439 are cited by C. Larcher, Le livre de la Sagesse, i (Paris: 1983) , 228, to illustrate Wis 2:6. 42 The text follows Puech, "Inscriptions funeraires, " 492-4. Ou BE!. s-

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This may relate to memorial dinners held at the tomb (E. Puech, as cited in the previous footnote) , but that would not remove its Epicurean overtones. Horaia' s stress on the universality of death therefore offers some analogy to the consolatory argument of Sir 38:22, 41 :3-4, in addition to the similarly partial analogies found in other epitaphs, but her final injunction as a whole implies counsel closer to the more Epicurean comfort of Sir 14: 1 1-19, a passage itself comparable with the Judaean Greek inscription of the tomb ofJason. In sum, therefore, the Egyptian epitaphs fail to correspond fully to the more theological line of consolation developed in Ecclesias­ ticus. Sometimes, indeed, as in the epitaphs of Jesus son of Phameis and Demas quoted in the previous section, compositions of some length offer no consolation at all; this is true also of the elaborate double epigram [ 1 41 ] , commemorating the daughter of an Egyptian and probably Jewish family in Rome with an invective against Charon. On the other hand, as seen in the present section, some material in the epitaphs can be compared at least in part with the theological consolation of Ecclesiasticus, and some passages point also to other kinds of consolation; rest in the grave is an opening and closing theme in the epitaphs of Abra­ mos and Arsinoe daughter of Theodosius, Horaia hints at advice to e�oy life (both topics are met in Ecclesiasticus) , and Rachelis and the other Arsinoe express hopes of immortality (absent from Ecclesiasticus) . In form, however, there is a closer correspon­ dence. Ecclesiasticus and the relevant inscriptions have contacts in vocabulary, and almost all of the epitaphs in question put their words of consolation into the mouth of the deceased, just as happens with the grim but salutary aphorism of Sir 38:22. The marked resemblance between Ecclesiasticus and many of the inscriptions on this theme which emerges, despite these diffe­ rences, is in the presupposition that death is bitterly lamentable for its finality. This correspondence between many of the epitaphs and Eccle­ siasticus on death as the end has been mentioned already; but it d. 8dvaTOS becomes popular as part of an address to the departed in Jewish epitaphs from Beth She ' arim and Rome, gaining associations different from those which it has when addressed to the survivors (L. H . Kant, 'Jewish Inscriptions in Greek and Latin," ANRW ii.20.2 ( 1 987) 671-7 1 3 (680 & n.34) ) .

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deserves separate notice in its bearing on the description of Judaism in this period. In Ecclesiasticus, following earlier biblical tradition, there is no pleasure, no praise of God, no life in Hades ( 1 4: 1 2 (quoted above) , 1 7:27; 41 :4) . This position receives some qualification from the importance in Ecclesiasticus of national hopes, as at 2:7-9, cited above, and from Ben Sira's view of death as 'rest' (dvchraucrts ) , also noted above (22:1 1 ; 38: 1 6) ; but the main emphasis is on the. finality of death . Similarly, immortality figures expressly in only two of the epitaphs. The concept of rest is implied in occurr�nces of the widespread wish that the earth should lie lightly on the dead; but the theme of death as departure to the shadows is far more prominent, and in the nature of the widely-used imagery of Hades the thought of departure · is continuous with the harsher thought of death as captivity. So, in epitaphs quoted above, Demas left the city, and the haunts and friendship of men, Arsinoe daughter of Theodosius went child­ less to the house of Hades, the all-subduer snatched Abramos away to Hades, Hades himself, as in the myth of Proserpine,, snatched away a bride whose name is lost, and Jesus son of Phameis suddenly passed to the deep place of the ages (Els J.lUXOV atwvwv) , to dwell in darkness. (The "deep places (J.luxot) of Hades" are mentioned in the Wisdom of Solomon ( 1 7: 1 3 ( 1 4) ) and Philo (e.g. Heres 45) , and the Essenes hold that base souls are punished in a J.!UXOS, according to Josephus (f. W ii 1 55) .) As noted already, the epitaphs do not necessarily express the full mind of the Jewish community on death, but they show that a mainly mournful and often mythological commemoration could regularly be accepted as suitable, even though it seemed to leave the departed, by contrast with the affirmations of the Wisdom of Solomon, in the dominion or palace of Hades (q8ou �aaL\Etov, Wis 1 : 1 4) . In Ecclesiasticus Hades is scarcely described; it is the negation of life, and references to it are descriptive mainly through echoes of earlier biblical passages on Hades. By contrast, in the epitaphs the Greek legends of Hades are primary, although for the most part Hades is not personified (the exception is [ 3 1 = C.lj 1 508] , alluding to Hades and Proserpine) . Does this content suggest that the epitaphs were remote from Jewish feeling? Mythological allusions were de rigueur in funerary epigrams, but the hold of the myths of Hades on Jewish as well as gentile imagination should not be underestimated. It appears in Wisdom and Philo, as cited

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in the previous paragraph, but it was not restricted to the diaspora; it can also be seen in Josephus, for example on Essene views of the after-life (f. W ii 1 55-6) , and will have formed part of the back­ grotlnd of the practice of placing a coin in the mouth of the departed, in accord with the Greek custom of providing Charon's fare, now attested in Jewish burials in Jerusalem.43 Egyptian Jewish patrons are likely to have appreciated the mythological elements in the epitaphs. On the subject of Hades there was in any case a considerable overlap between biblical and Greek con­ ceptions, recognized in earlier discussion of the epitaphs. 44 This overlap was both signalled and encouraged by the use of Greek q 8T}S' to render Hebrew ,,�tv , in the LXX Pentateuch and other biblical and post-biblical writings, including Ecclesiasticus in the passages just cited, among others. It could extend to the personi­ fication of Hades (lsa 5:14 LXX, cf. Wis 1 : 14) . The accord between the epitaphs and Ecclesiasticus in their main emphasis is therefore not lessened by the contrast between the mythology of the epitaphs and the biblical reserve of Eccle­ siasticus. Both verge on what has been called the 'nihilism' of Epicurean views of death, a characteristic discerned in some Latin epitaphs of this period against a Greek and Roman literary back­ ground which includes the verse of Lucretius and Horace.45 Opinions on death which can broadly be called Sadducaic seem therefore to have been influential among Jews in Egypt as well as Judaea, where the inscriptions of the tomb of Jason come close to Ecclesiasticus. With the Egyptian epitaphs in view it seems · natural that the grandson's translation of Ben Sira for circulation in Egypt preserved the strong statements of the original on this subject. The polemical tone of the argument for immortality in Wis 1 -3 can accordingly be seen to have a possible setting in inner-Jewish as well as Jewish-gentile controversy; the two in­ scriptions expressing hope of an after-life will represent circles in which this argument might be acceptable, but these inscriptions 43

Z. Greenhut, "The "Caiaphas" Tomb in North Talpiyot, Jerusalem, "

'A tiqot 2 1 ( 1 992) 63-71 (70-7 1 ) . As noted i n the text above, Charon figures in

[ 1 4 1 ] (n.4, above) . 4 4 P . W. van der Horst, Ancient Jewish Epitaphs (Kampen: 1 99 1 ) ; Horbury & Noy, Egypt, xxiii-xxiv. 45 C. Pietri, "Grabinschrift II (lateinisch) ," RA G xii ( 1 983) cols. 5 1 4-90 (544-6) .

JEWISH INSCRIPTIONS AND JEWISH LITERATURE IN EGYPT

41

are much outnumbered by those in which the departed is in Hades, and there is fierce lamentation but little or no consolation. Jewish patronage of these epitaphs also suggests that more weight should be given to Josephus's description of the Sadducees in terms recalling the Epicureans.46 His philosophical accounts of the Jewish sects need not simply arise from his special wish to use philosophical terms, perhaps for the benefit of gentile readers;47 probably they also reflect the way in which many Jews themselves viewed' their schools of thought, finding, as Josephus did, a resemblance between the Epicurean and the Sadducaic views of death. All these points underline the need to allow for exceptions, both in Judaea and in Egypt, when the prevalence of hopes for an afterlife among Jews in the first century B�C. is affirmed. 48 The inscriptions together with the Greek as well as the Hebrew Ecclesiasticus suggest the wide and long-term influence of opinions about death which were characteristic of the Sad­ ducees, and the convergence of these epigraphic and literary sources is of particular note in the absence of clear first-ha,n d evidence for Sadducaic customs and convictions. To conclude, attention to three shared themes has suggested that Ecclesiasticus as translated for Egyptian Jews, and the inscribed epitaphs of Egyptian Jews, throw light on one another in various ways. The metrical inscriptions in particular show up the book as 'barbaric' in style, and as a markedly Jewish book despite its Greek dress. On the other hand, in content and presuppositions Ecclesiasticus and the epitaphs are remarkably close. In two verses (38: 1 7, 22) the context provided by the inscriptions has confirmed or suggested that the Greek is a better guide to the original than the surviving Hebrew, and in another ( 40: 1 7) that the sense of the Hebrew is best given by the Greek. The epitaphs rather than other inscriptions such as proseuche dedications have been in view, but the dedications too, in their respect for the royal 46 Hart, Ecclesiasticus, 280; an example which he does not specify is Ant. xviii 1 6, on the mortality of the soul, cited above in connection with Lucretius. 47 This view is exemplified in A. E. Cowley, "Sadducees," Encyclopaedia Biblica iv (London: 1 907) cols. 4234-40 (4238) and E. P. Sanders, judaism: Practice and Belief, 63 B.C.- 66 C.E. (London: 1 992) 301 , 303. 48 Sanders, Judaism, 298-303 allows for the Sadducaic position, but does not mention Epicurean influence on gentiles at this period; educated Jews are likely to have been affected by it.

42

W.

HORBURY

house, would be found to accord with the outlook of Ecclesiasticus (e .g. 38:2; 39:4) . Here, then, inscriptions and literature seem to attest the same set of Jewish attitudes, applauding social virtues, lamenting death, and starting consolation - when it is offered ­ from a recognition of death's universality and finality. This con­ clusion balances the contrast pointed out by P. M. Fraser (n. l above) between the attitudes implied by the dedications on the one hand, and the Third Sibylline on the other. The inscriptions suggest that apocalyptic oracles on resurrection or immortality are likely to have encountered reserve in sections of the Jewish community during the late Ptolemaic and early Roman periods, although they also show that hopes for an after-life had some influence; and they help to explain, as noted already, the pole­ mical tone of Wisdom's argument for immortality. At the same time the comparison of Egyptian inscriptions with a book trans­ lated for Egypt but written in Judaea has drawn attention to the links between Egypt and Judaea, notably in the shared attestation of a Sadducaic position on death. To recapitulate, some of the main conclusions reached in this paper as a whole on the literature vis-a-vis the inscriptions are tabulated below. (i) The inscriptions confirm the importance of Greek among Jews in Egypt, but show that the surviving Greek literature of these Jews does not fully represent their languages and culture; Ara­ maic speech will have been important among them, and some restricted knowledge of Hebrew in connection with bible-study is likely, as papyri confirm. This point is of interest for the inter­ relationship of the Targums and the LXX, and for the possible circulation of Hebrew biblical texts outside Judaea. (ii) In the light of the metrical inscriptions, the 'barbaric' style of the usual Greek translations of Hebrew verse sticks out like a sore thumb. The adoption of this mode of translation might correspond to a Jewish attitude like that later struck by Tatian and other early Christians, on the surpassing merit of the 'barbarian' scriptures and philosophy. (iii) The large number of literary and poetic inscriptions suggests the likelihood that formerly there will have been more Greek books by Jews than now survive.

JEWISH INSCRIPTIONS AND JEWISH LITERATURE IN EGYPT

43

(iv) The values expressed in Greek terms in the encomia of the Egyptian Jewish epitaphs are not remote from the thought of the Judaean Jew Ben Sira in his development of the biblical Wisdom tradition; epithets overlap only occasionally, but general presuppo­ sitions seem closely similar. (v) On lamentation, the inscriptions are close to Ecclesiasticus in both content and J anguage. The book accordingly contri�?utes to their elucidation, confirming, for example, that they are unlikely to reflect the practice of cremation . Conversely, the great empha­ sis in the inscriptions on the duty of lamentation, also accepted as a duty in Ecclesiasticus, helps to explain Ben Sira' s characteristic advocacy of moderate mourning. More broadly, the a ccord between book and inscriptions on lamentation reflects common feeling on the subject between diaspora and homeland, and between Jews and their gentile neighbours. (vi) Consolation is much less important in the epitaphs than' in Ecclesiasticus, and may not figure at all even in relatively ambitious compositions. On the other hand, the epitaphs present some contact with Ben Sira's arguments, and in two cases attest a consolation which he does not propound, hope for an after-life. The epitaphs do not necessarily fully express Jewish views ori death, but they show that predominantly mythological and mournful inscriptions were . regularly thought suitable , even though they seemed to leave the departed in Hades. Here again Egyptian Jews seem close to Judaeans, as Ecclesiasticus and the tomb of Jason suggest; the greater mythological content of the inscriptions does not lessen this concord, given some familiarity with Greek myth among Judaean Jews, and the overlap between biblical and Hellenic conceptions of Hades. (vii) The agreement on the finality of death between the majority of the inscriptions and the Greek Ecclesiasticus, and between the Greek and the Hebrew Ecclesiasticus, suggests that a broadly Sadducaic position on death was influential among Jews in both Egypt and Judaea in the late Ptolemaic and early Roman periods.

A JEWISH EPITAPH IN A LITERARY TEXT: 4 MACC 1 7:8-1 0 ]AN WILLEM VAN H ENTEN

The reader of 4 Mace 1 7:9f. may for a moment be surprised to find an epitaph in a writing full of pagan and Jewish literary motifs and all kinds of rhetorical devices. I The first line of the passage really looks at first glance like the beginning of a funeral inscription: "Here lie buried an aged priest, an old woman and her seven sons . . . ". At a second glance, these verses appear to belong to one of the images the author uses in chapter 1 7 to enhance the glory of the Maccabean martyrs. The phenomenon of a passage marked in a certain way as an inscription but transmitted as part of a literary text is not unusual in ancient literature. The famous epigram in commemoration of the Spartan victims of Thermopylae attributed to Simonides is found in the Histories of Herodotus (7.228) and in a Latin version in Cicero' s Tusculanae disputationes ( 1 . 1 01 ) . I t is also transmitted i n the Antho­ logia Palatina ( 7.249) . 2 Well known Jewish examples of ' docu­ ments' in literature are for instance the political decrees in historical writings like the Book of Ezra in the Hebrew Bible ( 1 :24; 6:3-5, 6-1 2; 7 : 1 2-26) , 1 Maccabees (8:23-32; 1 2:6-1 8, 20-23) and Josephus. These decrees are intriguing, because scholars are faced with the problem of whether they are authentic or not. In the case . of Ezra, related non-literary sources have been transmitted (lines 30-32 of the Babylonian Cyrus Cylinder) , but the discrepancies between them and the decree of Cyrus in Ezra could be a reason to doubt the authenticity of the decree in Ezra.3 Be this as it may, it '· 1 I would like to thank Ms A. J. Bij de vaate, Dr J. H. M. Strubbe, Dr G. Mussies and Prof. P. W. van der Horst for their very useful advice. 2 W. Peek, Grieehisehe Vers-Insehriften (Berlin: 1 955) no. 4: "'0 �E1v', ci:yy€>-AELv AaKE8aqJ.ov(ots- on Tij8E Kd1J.E8a To1s- KE(vwv piJIJ.aat TTEL861J.EVot. ( "Stranger, bear this message to the Spartans, that we lie here obedient to their laws") Cicero, Tuse. disp. 1 . 1 0 1 :

Die, hospes, Spartae nos te hie vidisse iaeentis, Dum sanetis patriae legibus obsequimur.

3 See for example R. J. van der Spek, "Cyrus de Pers in Assyrisch perspectief. Een vergelijking tussen de Assyrische en Perzische politiek ten opzichte van onderworpen volken," Tijdsehrift voor gesehiedenis 96 ( 1 983) 2f.,

A JEWISH EPITAPH IN A LITERARY TEXT: 4 MACC 1 7 :8- 1 0

45

seems interesting to investigate 'documentary texts' embedded in a literary context and deal with some obvious questions in this connection : Do we find in these texts the same formulae and procedures as in related non-literary sources? Does the formal structure correspond to some of these sources? Is the vocabulary somehow special in relation to the literary context and similar to that of inscriptions or papyri? What exactly is the connection between the ' docur:nent' and the literary work in which it is em­ bedded? The epitaph in 4 Mace 1 7:9f. is clearly fictitious, as can be seen from the immediate context. Nevertheless, it is useful to study this passage in the light of the questions just mentioned and to elaborate the correspondences to Jewish and non:Jewish in­ scriptions. Mfinity with non-literary sources could tell us more about its meaning and the historical context of the work, and' the possibility that some Jewish epitaphs might ultimately have a literary parallel in the epitaph of 4 Mace 1 7:9f. cannot be excluded beforehand. 1 . Text, translation and some introductory comments 4 Maccabees is a discourse on the autonomy of reason and at the same time a eulogy on the Maccabean martyrs ( cf. 1 : 1 with 1 :2, 1 0) : 1 The work probably dates from about 100 CE and originates 22f. A. Kuhrt, "The Cyrus Cylinder and Achaemenid Imperial Policy," ]SOT 25 ( 1 983) 83-97. P. Ackroyd, "Problems i n the Handling o f Biblical and Related Sources in the Achaemenid Period, " Achaemenid History III, Method and Theory ( eds. A. Kuhrt & H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg; Leiden: 1 988) 33-54. Concerning 1 Mace 8 and 12 and Josephus J.-D. Gauger, Beitriige zur judischen

Apologetik. Untersuchungen zur Authentizitiit von Urkunden bei Flavius Josephus und im I. Makkabiierbuch (Bonner Biblische Beitdige 49; Koln/Bonn: 1 977) .

Some scholars deny the historicity of the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Arta­ xerxes in Ezra also because of the very close connections with the context of the narrative in Ezra. J. C. H. Lebram, "Die Traditionsgeschichte der Esra­ gestalt und die Frage nach dem historischen Esra," A chaemenid History I, Sources, Structures and Synthesis (ed. H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg; Leiden: 1 987) 1 03-1 38 . Cf. U. Kellermann, Nehemia. Quellen, Uberlieferung und:. Geschichte (BZAW 1 02; Berlin: 1 967) . W. Th. In der Smitten, Esra, Quellen, Uberlieferung und Geschichte (Studia Semitica Neerlandica 15; Assen: 1 973) . See for a concise summary of various opinions L. L. Grabbe, judaism from Cyrus to Hadrian ( 2 vols. ; Minneapolis: 1 992) 2.32-36. 4 See further on 4 Maccabees C. L. W. Grimm, ''Viertes Buch der Macca­ baer," Kurzgefa.fltes exegetisches Handbuch zu den Apokryphen des Alten Testamentes (6 vols. ; eds. 0 . F. Fritzsche & C. L. W. Grimm; Leipzig: 1 85 1 -1 860) 4.283370. J. Freudenthal, Die Flavius Josephus beigelegte Schrift Uber die Herrschaft der

Vernunft (IV Makkabiierbuch), eine Predigt aus dem ersten nachchristlichen

46

J·

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VAN HENTEN

from Antioch in Syria or a city in Asia Minor.5 The martyrology in 4 Maccabees is focussed on the ideal way of life. Neither an actual struggle for liberation nor the institutions of a Jewish nation ultimately matter to the author. The martyrs defeat the tyrant in a moral and spiritual sense by their perseverance (inroiJ.OVrl ) until death: "they became responsible for the downfall of the tyranny jahrhundert (Breslau: 1 869) . A. DeiBmann, "Das vierte Makkabaerbuch," Die Apokryphen und Pseudepig;raphen des Alten Testaments ( 2 vols.; ed. E . Kautzsch; Tiibingen: 1 900) 2 . 1 49-1 77. E. Norden, Die antike Kunstprosa. Vom VI. jahr­ hundert v. Chr. his in die Zeit der Renaissance ( 2 vols. ; Leipzig/Berlin: 1 9 1 53) 1 .4 1 6-420 . A. Dupont-Sommer, Le guatrieme livre des, Maccabees. Introduction, traduction et notes (Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes 274; Paris: 1 939) . E. Bickerman, "The Date of Fourth Maccabees," Louis Ginzberg jubilee Volume, English Section (New York: 1 945) 1 05-1 1 2; reprinted in Studies in jewish and Christian History (3 vols. ; AGJU 9; Leiden: 1 976-1 986) 1 .275-281 . 0 . Perler, "Das vierte Makkabaerbuch, Ignatius von Antiochien und die altesten Martyrerberichte ," Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana 25 ( 1949) 47-72. M. Hadas, The Third and Fourth Books of Maccabees. Edited and translated (New York: 1 953) . R. Renehan, "The Greek Philosophic Background of Fourth Macca­ bees," Rheinisches Museum fur Philologie 1 1 5 ( 1 972) 223-238. J. C. H. Lebram, "Die literarische Form des vierten Makkabaerbuches, " VC 28 ( 1 974) 8 1-96. A. O 'Hagan, "The Martyr in the Fourth Book of Maccabees," Studii Biblici Franciscani Liber Annuus 24 ( 1 974) 94-1 20. U. Breitenstein, Beobachtungen zu Sprache, Stil und Gedankeng;ut des Vierten Makkabiierbuchs (Basel/Stuttgart: 1 976) . P. L. Redditt, "The Concept of Nomos in Fourth Maccabees," CBQ 45 ( 1 983) 249-270. H . Anderson, "4 Maccabees (First Century A.D . ) . A New Trans­ lation and Introduction," The Old Testament Pseudepig;rapha (2 vols. ; ed. J. H. Charlesworth; London: 1 985) 2.531-564. J. W. van Henten, De joodse marte­

laren als g;rondleggers van een nieuwe orde. Een studie uitgaande van 2 en

4

Makk.

( Diss. Leiden: 1 986) 1 78-225. H.:J. Klauck, "Hellenistische Rhetorik im Diasporajudentum. Das Exordium des Vierten Makkabaerbuches ( 4 Makk. 1 . 1-12) , " NTS 35 ( 1 989) 451-465. Idem, "4. Makkabaerbuch," jildische Schriften aus hellenistisch-romischer Zeit 111/6 (eds. W. G. Kiimmel & H. Lichtenberger; Giitersloh: 1 989) 645-763. B. Heininger, "Der bose Antiochus: eine Studie zur Erzahltechnik des 4. Makkabaerbuchs, " BZ 33 ( 1 989) 43-59. R. Weber, "Eusebeia und Logismos. Zum philosophischen Hintergrund von 4. Makka­ baer, " ]Sf 22 ( 1 99 1 ) 2 1 2-234. R. Darling Young, "The 'Woman with the Soul of Abraham ' . Traditions about the Mother of the Maccabean Martyrs, "

"Women Like This ": New Perspectives on Jewish Women in the Greco-Roman World

( SBLEJL 1 ; ed. A.:J. Levine; Atlanta: 1 99 1 ) 67-81 . 5 J . W. van Henten, "Datierung und Herkunft des Vierten Makkabaer­ buches, " Tradition and Re-interpretation in Jewish and Early Christian Literature. Essays in Honour of Jiirgen C. H. Lebram (SPB 36; eds. J. W. van Henten, H. J. de Jonge et al. ; Leiden: 1 986) 1 36-149. Klauck, "4. Makkabaerbuch" (see footnote 4) 668f. J. N . Bremmer, "The Atonement in the Interaction of Greeks, Jews, and Christians," Sacred History and Sacred Texts in Early Judaism. A Symposium in Honour of A. S. van der Woude (eds. J. N. Bremmer & F. Garcia Martinez; Kampen: 1992) 75-93, esp. pp. 87f. D . A. Campbell, The Rhetoric of Righteousness in Romans 3. 21-26 QSNTSup 65; Sheffield: 1 992) 2 1 9-228 (p. 228: "definitely after 1 35 CE, and possibly up to a century later") .

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47

which beset our nation, overcoming the tyrant by their fortitude so that through them our fatherland was purified" ( 1 : 1 1 ) . 6 The motives which the martyrs bring forward to justify their decision to die rather than submit to the tyrant are, among other things, their piety and loyalty to the Jewish law (e.g. 9: 1 , 29; 1 6 : 1 6) . The author clearly used 2 Maccabees as a source for his description of the martyrdom and its context (3:20-4:26) . As in 2 Maccabees, this con text is determined by the threat to the Jewish people by Antiochus IV, which the Lord allows to take place because of the sins of the people (3:2 1 ; 4: 1 6-21 ) . As jiirgen Lebram rightly stated, the literary form of 4 Maccabees resembles to a great extent the Athenian funeral orations of the classical and early Hellenistic period. These orations were originally delivered at the tomb 6f the soldiers who fell for Athens, but that does not mean that 4 Macca­ bees was also delivered at the tomb of the martyrs in Antioch or somewhere else. There are at least two instances of an ETTL Tciqnos A.oyos , which were not given as a speech, and 4 Maccabees too seems to be a literary work.7 The epitaph is found in ch. 1 7, wh)ch contains mainly an enumeratio of the glorious acts of the martyrs. It can be considered as fictitious, if only for its introduction, which points to a hypothetical epitaph. Text: 8 Kat yap aeLOv �v Kat Err' auTOU TOU EiTl Ta(ou avaypci�aL Kat TauTa Tots cim) ToD E 8vous ds J.LVd av A.Ey6 J1EVa (17:8, introduction) 'EvTauea y£pwv LEpdJs Kat yuvi] yEpma Kat E-rrTa rra'l8Es €yKEKft 8EuvTm 8ta Tupcivvou �(av 9 TTJV 'E�pa(wv rroA.tTdav KaTaA.Dam 8EAOVTOS', o't Kat EeEBLKllaav TO 'YEVOS' I O Els 8EOV aopWVTES' Kat Jl.EXPL 8avciTou TclS' �aacivous VrrOJl.ELVaVTES' . ( 1 7:9-10, epitaph)

6 7

Translation Anderson (see footnote 4) , slightly altered. Plato, Men. Lysias, Or. 2. Other funeral orations: Thucydides 2 .34-46, Demosthenes, Or. 60, Hypereides, Or. 6, and fragments from Gorgias (see for the text H. Diels & W. Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker griechisch und deutsch ( 3 vols; Berlin: 1951-1956) 2.284-286. See Lebram (see footnote 4) . Van Henten (see footnote 4) 1 79-1 85. Klauck, "4. Makkabaerbuch" (see footnote 4) 660-662 and 75 1 . In general: N. Loraux, L 'invention d 'A thenes. Histoire de l 'oraison funebre dans la "cite classique" (Civilisations et Societes 65; Paris: 1 98 1 ) . Concerning the literary character of 4 Mace, see Lebram, esp. p. 83. 8 According to A. Rahlfs, Septuaginta. ld est Vetus Testamentum Graece iuxta LXX interpretes (2 vols.; Stuttgart: 1 935) 1 . 1 1 82. 9 Codex � * reads 8u1 Tvpavvov. 10 Cod. A and V read l 8vos .

48

J. W. VAN HENTEN

"It would in fact be appropriate to engrave on that place near their tomb, 1 1 as a memorial to those members of our nation 1 2 (or: "as a remembrance for the members of the people") , the following words: ' Here lie buried an aged priest, an old (or: "respectable") woman (or: "a woman who was an elder") and her seven sons, through the violence of a tyrant bent on destroying the polity (or: "political body" or "way of life") of the Hebrews. They vindicated their people, 1 3 staying faithful to God 1 4 and enduring torments even unto death."'

It is not too difficult to summarize the meaning of this passage in outline. In the context of the praise of the martyrs, the text alludes to a commemoration of the violent and glorious death of these nine Jews who did not surrender to the tyrant Antiochus IV. The introductory formula in 4 Mace 1 7:8 clearly refers to an epitaph, as is indicated by the phrases civaypa�aL Kat TaDTa ... Els j..Lvdav A.Ey6j..LE Va ("engrave/inscribe these words . . . as a memorial") and E-n ' auTou TOU ETILTa(ou (see below) . The persons mentioned in the epitaph are of course the Maccabean martyrs: the ninety years old Eleazar and the anonymous mother and her seven sons ( cf. 2 Mace 6: 1 8-7:42) , who are the key persons in 4 Maccabees. The priesthood of Eleazar ( 1 7:9) , who was a scribe according to 2 Mace 6: 1 8, is mentioned in other passages in 4 Maccabees too (5:4, 35; 7: 1 1 f.) . Before making a closer comparison of 4 Mace 1 7:8-1 0 with the vocabulary of Jewish epitaphs, some details of these phrases require further commentary. The words E-n' auTou Tou ETILTa(ou ( 1 7:8) are problematical. Dupont-Sommer reads with recension q and codex 46 E-n ' auTou Tou Taou 1 5 and some scholars seem to translate the text on the basis of Taou instead of ETILTa(ou. However, ETILTa(ou should be 1 1 DeiBmann ( see footnote 4) 1 73: " . . .auf eben dieses Grabgemalde" (E-mni<j>tos as adjective, supplemented by TT(va� ) . Anderson (see footnote 4) 562: "upon their tomb itself'. Klauck, "4. Makkabaerbuch" (see footnote 4) 75 1 : "auf dem Grabmal selbst". 12 Anderson (see footnote 4) 562. 13 Anderson I.e. "race". 1 4 Anderson I.e. "looking unto God". 1 5 Dupont-Sommer ( see footnote 4) 68, followed by E. Bammel, "Zum jiidischen Martyrerkult," TLZ 78 ( 1 953) 1 1 9-1 26; reprinted in Idem, judaica. Kleine Schriften I (WUNT 37; Tiibingen: 1 986) 79-85, esp . p. 83 footnote 43. 'Em Td<j>tos can be used as a noun, with the meaning 'funeral oration' (Aris­ toteles, Rhet. 141 5b; Dio Cassius 55.2.2; 57.20.3; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, De Dem. 23. 1 0; 44. 3; Josephus, Ant. 1 7 § 1 77; Lucianus, Alex. 60; Plutarchus, Vitae dec. orat. 9 [Mor. 849F] ) or 'memorial game' (often in inscriptions, for instance IG 112 . 1 1 006 11. 22f.; 1 0 1 1 11. 9f.; 1 029 1. 1 3; IG V. 1 660 1. 4) .

A JEWISH EPITAPH IN A LITERARY TEXT: 4 MACC 1 7 :8- 1 0

49

considered as the preferred reading, 1 6 and cannot be taken simply as referring to the grave itself.17 The first meaning of ElTLTaLos (as an adjective) is that it indicates something at or over a grave .I 8 The context of 1 7:8 shows that we can assume this meaning here too, because the verse continues 1 7:7, where the author considers the idea that he could "portray the story of the piety of the mother on something" ( E-ul TLVOS (wypaflcraL Tl)v Tfls dmE�Elas crou l crTop(av) . In 1 7:7 .this place is not specified, but E-u' aiJTou Tou ElTLTa(ou in 1 7:8 follows on ElTL TLVOS in 1 7:7, which means that both verses should be connected with a hypothetical situation near the burial place . A funeral oration (ETIL TaLOS A6yos ) 19 in com­ memoration of the fallen was usually delivered at the tomb and this was the obvious place for an epitaph too. 2o The orators of the funeral orations do not refer, however, to an inscription on or near the grave as a remembrance of the respectful deeds of the deceased, but point to the grave at the beginning of their speech to attract the attention of the audience. Lysias writes for instance: "If I would consider the possibility , to make clear to you, who are present at this grave (til uap6VTES ElTL T,:l and i1:>,:J? p •,:) ,;,r ( "blessings are showered on the righteous . . . The righteous are remembered in blessings") . See Van der Horst (see footnote 23) 37f. for the correspondences between the vocabulary in the Greek epitaphs with versions of LXX and Aquila of Prov 1 0:7. See concerning funerary formulae also the forthcoming dissertation by Ms A. J. Bij de Vaate (Diss. Amsterdam) .

f

52

J· W. VAN HENTEN

versions of their martyrdom ( b. Cit 57b; Midr. Lam. Rab. 1 :1 6) and in Christian traditions.30 But maybe we should not pay too much attention to this detail, because the deceased were known from the literary context of the epitaph. The first part of the vocabulary of 4 Mace 1 7:9-1 0 is not unusual in comparison to Jewish epitaphs. The name 'E�pa.lm for Jews occurs in different spellings ( 'E �p€os ,31 At�p€os,32 'E�pa1os ) .33 Its meaning should not be equated with that of 'I ou8a1m . According to M . Hengel and other scholars 'E�pa'Los would indicate in the diaspora Jews who came from Palestine or who had special ties with their homeland.34 Van der Horst suggests that the word was also used in combination with auvaywyfl (auvaywyfl 'E�patwv) to distinguish a Jewish community from other religious or ethnic groups .35 This could find some support from literary sources, where 'E �pa'Los sometimes seems to be used to emphasize the otherness of Jews, especially in the context of a direct confronta­ tion with non:Jews. The 'epitomist' of 2 Maccabees usually refers to (ot ) 'I ou8a1oL ,36 but in the passages on martyrdom suddenly switches to ot 'E�pa'Lm . In 2 Mace 7:31 the youngest boy says to the king: "And you, King Antiochus, who have devised all kinds of harm for the Hebrews, you will not escape God's hand" (cf. 1 1 : 1 3 and 1 5: 37) . I n the chapters o n martyrdom i n 4 Mace 5-1 8, ol 'I ou8a1m is used only once (5:7) , and ot 'E�pa'Lm several times in 3 0 See R. Doran, "The Martyr: a Synoptic View of the Mother and Her Seven Sons," Ideal Figures in Ancient Judaism. Profiles and Paradigms (SBLSCS 1 2; J. J. Collins & G. W. E. Nickelsburg eds.; Chico: 1980) 1 89-22 1 . Van Henten (see footnote 4) 237f. G. Sternberger, "The Maccabees in Rabbinic Tradition," The Scriptures and the Scrolls. Studies in Honour of A. S. van der Woude on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday (eds. F. Garcia Martinez, A. Hilhorst & C . Labuschagne; Leiden: 1 992) 193-203. 31 CIJ 291 , 3 1 7, 354, 502, 535, 750b, 784, 793. 32 CIJ 370, 5 1 0. 33 CIJ 379, 505, 754. Cf. 718. 34 Cf. CI] 370 MaKE86vLs o Al�p€os KEcrapdJS Tfis IlaA.EcrTtVTJS ( "Make­ donis the Hebrew from Caesarea in Palestine ") . See further M. Hengel, "Zwischen Jesus und Paulus," ZTK 72 ( 1 975) 1 51-206, esp. p. 1 69 and footnotes 99 and 1 02 . J. Z. Smith, "Fences and Neighbors: Some Contours of Early Judaism, " Approaches to Ancient Judaism II (BJS 9; ed. W. S. Green; Chico: 1 980) 1-25, esp. pp. 1 8f. P. J. Tomson, "The Names Israel and Jew in Ancient Judaism and in the New Testament," Bijdragen 47 ( 1 986) 1 20-140 and 266-289. Van der Horst (see footnote 23) 70. 35 Van der Horst (see footnote 23) 87f. 36 See for instance 2 Mace 3:32; 4: 1 1 , 35f.; 5:25; 6: 1 , 8; 8 : 1 0; 9: 1 8; 1 0:8, 1 2 , 1 4f., 24, 29.

·

A JEWISH EPITAPH IN A LITERARY TEXT: 4 MACC 1 7 :8- 1 0

53

the context of the torturing of the martyrs (8:2; 9:6, 1 8; sing. in 5 : 2 ) . 37 Probably this usage is connected with notions of the exclusiveness of the Jewish people, such as its long history, its own law and wisdom and its covenant with the Lord ( cf. 2 Mace 7:31; 1 1 :1 3) .

References to women38 and priests39 are found frequently in Jewish inscriptions, but a priest and a woman together do not occur in Jewish epit.aphs, not to mention the exact combination of a priest and a woman with her seven children. The noun yf. pwv and the adjective yEpaL(:\ou f"TI(KAfT)v ' Acr?]acf> [}..a]ou ' I ouBa(wv lv � (K]T)8EU8(1l]crovTa(t] auTo( . . . ( "the coffin and the burial-ground under it, with the base and the burial-place around it belong to Aurelia Glykones, the daughter of Ammianus, and her husband Marcus Aurelius Alexander, the son of Theophilus, by surname Asaf, of the people of the Jews, in which [coffin] they will be buried") . Similar phrases in no. 775 ll. 1-3; 777 11. 1-3; 778 ll. 1-3; 779 ll. 1-4 and 780 ll. 1-5. See concerning :\a6s as designation of a Jewish community in a city Judeich (see footnote 46) 97. L. Robert, "Inscriptions d'Asie Mineure au Musee de Leyde, " Hellenica 1 1-1 2 ( 1 960) 214-262, esp. pp. 259-262. Trebilco (see footnote 39) 257 footnote 1 6. 48 See on the Jews at Hierapolis Judeich (see footnote 46) 46. A. T. Kraa­ bel, Judaism in Western Asia Minor under the Roman Empire with a Preliminary Study of the Jewish Community at Sardis, Lydia (Diss. Harvard; Cambridge, Mass. : 1 968) 1 25-1 35. E. Schiirer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (1 75 B. C. - A.D. 135). A New English Version Revised and Edited by G. Vermes, F. Millar & M. Goodman (3 vols. ; Edinburgh: 1 973-1 987) 3/ 1 .27f., 1 06. According to Millar o. c. p. 28 CIJ 779 and 780 "may perhaps be Jewish". Trebilco (see footnote 39) 30, 17lf., 1 78f., 1 99, 23lf. , 257 and 261 . 49 On KaTotK( a see Kraabel (see footnote 48) 1 30-1 34. Trebilco (see footnote 39) 1 7 1 . 5 0 'ApxE'lov means i n the plural especially 'archives' or 'public records' , while the singular could among other things also mean 'residency o f the magistrates' , see LSJ 251 s.v. 1, 1-2. At the end of CIJ 776 the plural is used.

56

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W. VAN HENTEN

First the names of the owner of the place and her51 or his spouse are given, who will be buried there in the future with their children (absent in no. 776) .5 2 Then a sentence follows which expresses that anyone who would bury someone else at this place had to pay a severe penalty to the Jewish community.53 So an important purpose of these epitaphs is the protection of the burial place and the coffin against violation by others. The inscriptions end with the reference to a copy in the (Jewish) archive. The formula Ti aopos Kat 6 TTEpl auTI)v T6TTOS' ... EV � K118Eu81laETaL auTI) Kat 6 UV'll P auTilS'IauTOS' Kat Ti yuVJ1 aUTOU .. . Kat Tel TE"KVa auTwv illustrates besides other correspondences that formulae and patterns of composition in epitaphs can be specific for a certain region. The regional definition of certain formulae seems to be confirmed by non:Jewish epitaphs with KT)8Ei)(u and E'YKT)8Euw (see below) , which puts the phrase 'EvTauSa E'YKEKTJ8EUVTaL . . . in 4 Mace 1 7:9 in a specific light. There could be some connection between 4 Mace 1 7: 9- 1 0 and the Jewish epitaphs from Hierapolis and Eumeneia in Phrygia. Unfortunately the vocabulary in the remaining part of the fictitious epitaph shows no affinity at all with phrases in Jewish inscriptions. Nevertheless, one other detail of the epitaph deserves our attention in this paragraph. The fact that a political reason is given for the death of the deceased (8La Tupdvvou �(av TT,v 'E�pa(wv TIOALTdav KaTaAuaaL 8EAOVTOS') is peculiar in the light of Jewish epitaphs. It belongs more to the domain of honorary inscriptions, which could in some cases be funerary inscriptions all the same. People were often honoured for their political merit, as appears from many pagan inscriptions. In a decree from Attaleia (Pamphylia) of the imperial period for instance, Lucius Calpurnius Longus was honoured by the people of his home town, According to Millar (see footnote 48) 27, both instances refer to the same archive. Cf. Clj 778 sing. and 779 plur. and see Kraabel (see footnote 48) 127. 51 Women are the owners in nos. 775 and 776, see Kraemer ( see footnote 38) 194f. Trebilco (see footnote 39) 1 12 with footnote 44. 5 2 Cf. Clj 777 and 780 and the inscription from Eumeneia (see footnote

46) .

53 This is evident in nos. 775 (with a second penalty for the claimant) and 776. According to no. 778 a penalty of 500 denarii had to be paid to the most holy treasury; in no. 779 three fines are mentioned, one of 2500 denarii for the most holy treasury, one of 500 denarii for the most holy gerousia and one of 300 for the informer. In the case of the related Eumeneia-inscription a curse should hold back violators.

A JEWISH EPITAPH IN A LITERARY TEXT: 4 MACC 1 7 :8- 1 0

57

because of its gratitude to him: 6 8flj.!OS ETElj.!TJO"EV AEiJKLOV KaA.­ rrovpvwv A6yyov, ui.ov MapKOU KaA.rroupvtou 'Poucf>au, TOV miTpW­ vos Tfls rr6A.Ews YJj.l.WV, EuxapLaT(as E VEKa . 54 There are some in­

stances of Jewish honorary inscriptions ( CIJ 73lf, 738, 766 and 1450 JIGRE 1 29, ]/GRE 18 IGRR 1 07755 and Liideritz nos. 70-71 from Berenice) . 56 CIJ 731f from Samos dates from the second half of the third century CE and informs the reader that the elders and the Jews of the synagogue of Samos honoured an elder, whose name is only partfally transmitted. 57 According to CIJ 738 from Phocaea (Ionia) �nd probably dating from the third century CE a woman Tation was given the privilege of the rrpoE8pta (i.e. having a seat of honour in the synagogue) and of a golden crown: =

=

Tation, daughter of Straton, son of E (m) pedon, having erected the assembly hall and the enclosure of the open courtyard with her own funds, gave them as a gift to the Jews. The synagogue of the Jews honoured Tation ( E[ TE4J.TJ ]crEV ) , daughter of Straton, son of E (m) pedon, with a golden crown and the privilege of sitting in the seat of honour. 58

54 E. Bosch & S. Atlan, "Antalya Kitabeleri," Belleten 1 1 ( 1 947) 87-1 25 no. 1 1 . Cf. also no. 12 and for other honorary inscriptions for instance P. Herrmann , Ergebnisse einer Reise in Nordostlydien (Denkschriften der Aka­ demie der Wissenschaften in Wien 80; Vienna: 1 962 ) nos. 7-1 4 (Saittai and Silandos, second/third century CE) . F. W. Danker, Benefactor: Epigraphic Study of a Graeco-Roman and New Testament Semantic Field (St. Louis, Missouri: 1 982) . According to Robert, ''T AXE l ON," Hellenica 1 1-12 ( 1 960) 20 formulae with TLjlciw or T( jlTJjla in honorary inscriptions from Phrygia and Lydia could also be connected with the giving of a gratuity. 55 See the commentary by Horbury & Noy (see footnote 39) 26-30. 56 See Lifshitz (see footnote 25) . G. Liideritz, Corpus judischer Zeugnisse aus der Cyrenaika (Beihefte zum Tiibinger Atlas des vorderen Orients Reihe B 53; Wiesbaden: 1 983) 1 48-1 55. See also SEC 32 809 and 8 1 0 , two Samaritan inscriptions from Delos. First edition by P. Bruneau, "'Les Israelites de Delos' et Ia juiverie delienne," Bulletin de correspondance hellenique 1 06 ( 1 982) 465-504. 57 [- - K ] at ol 1TpE<J�UTEpoL Kat - - I [- - Tw] v 'I ou8a(wv Tfls KaTci [�cijlov?] I [- -cru] vaywyfls ETLjlTJcrav AP - - I [- - 1TpEcr�u] TEpov... See for commentary Lifshitz "Prolegomenon " ( Clj2 ) 90 and G. Dunst, "Eine jiidische Inschrift aus Samos," Klio 52 ( 1 970) 73-78, who also gives a tentative reconstruction of the complete text. See also BE 1 971 508 and F. Millar (see footnote 48) 72 (read [ C-!J ] 731f in stead of [ C..!J ] 731e) . 58 CI] 738: Tcinov �TpciTwvos Tou 'Ev-I TI€8wvos Tov ol Kov Kat TOV TIE-l p(�oA.ov Tou ima(8pou KaTacrKEU- 1 cicracra EK Tw [v l8] ( wv l E-xap(craTo T [ots 'l o] u8al.OLs. l 'H auvayw'Y'l E [TELjlTJ ] crEv TWV 'l ou8aU wv Td.nov � [TpciT] wvos TOU 'EVTIE-1 8wvos xpucr4) O"TEcpcivc.v l Kat 1TpOE8p(q. . Translation Trebilco (see footnote 39) , who discusses this inscription on pp. 1 1 Of. See Lifshitz (see footnote 25) 21f.

58

J. W. VAN HENTEN

The going hand in hand of remembrance and political honours appears from one of the metrical epitaphs from Leontopolis ( CIJ 1 530A JIGRE 39 11. 5-8) : =

For he (Abramos) was not without honour in the city, but wore the wreath of magistracy for the whole people in his wisdom, For you were honoured with the leadership of two places, generously performing a double duty.59

It is striking that the verb Tljl.UW, which is part of the customary formulations in honorary inscriptions (see the pagan inscription just mentioned, Cij 73 1f l. 3; 738 l. 6; 766 1. 1 1 ; SEC 32 8 1 0 l. 3; cf. CIJ 1 530A l. 7) , occurs somewhat further in 4 Mace 1 7 at the beginning of the famous passage on the effective meaning of the death of the martyrs in 1 7: 20-22, which can easily be read as a continuation of the epitaph in verses 9-1 0.60 The passage indicates the honours the martyrs deserve: their vindication by God in connection with a reference to Deut 33:3 in 1 7: 1 9 ( 'All the holy ones are under your hands' ) , and the honour of their glorious and saving death. The first part reads: "And these (the martyrs) were sanctified by God61 and not only honoured with this distinction

(Kat otJTm ovv ciyLaa8€vTES 8u1 Sd>V TETLJ.1llVTal, ou j.l.6vov TUVTlJ Tij TLJ.1ij ) , but also by the fact that through them our enemies did

not take possession of our people, and the tyrant was punished and our fatherland purified ( 1 7:20f. ) . "6 2 As a matter of fact even the intermediate part between the epitaph and 1 7 : 1 9-22 which is veiled in athletic metaphorical language ( 1 7 : 1 1-18) is connected with honorary inscriptions by the symbol of the crown of victory or glory (aTE cpavos ) . In 4 Mace 1 7: 1 5 it is said: "piety won the 59 OUK a:yE-pacJTOS £cpu 'YelP ava TIT6ALV, aAM Kat apxiJ ·

Tiav8'1lJ..L4l €9vuws ETTLTpE­ �W, f) b �Lacr..o v. 'Ev8a8E I KEKll8EUTE Aup. l Mdvvos crTpanwTT)s l lrrrrds crayLTTapLS I 8paKwvapLS e-e ocpLK [(] I ou TOU Aaj..L1TpOTaToul TJ 'YE1J.6vos KacrTp(o [u] l KwvcrTaVTos · l <Js liv 8' E1TLTT)8Eu-l O'EL �TEpos, EO'TE au-1 [TQ rrpos TOV 8E6v?] . See further the new edition and commentary by L. Robert, Noms indigenes dans l 'Asie Mineure greco-romaine (Paris: 1 963) 361-363. Cf. another epitaph from Hierapolis: Judeich (see footnote 46) no. 278 [ Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics 1 . 1 1 6 no. 20] 11. 1-2: [E-ved8E 'Arro>..] AWVLOS (8ts) EuTuxous Mo>..u�a EVKEKT18EUTaL aUTOS, KT)8Eu81lcrETaL 8€ Kat l [Tel TEKVa au] TOU 'Arro>..Awvts Kat 'ArroAAWVLOS" d>..Acp 8€ E�ECJTaL ou8EvL Also an epitaph from Teos, see BCH 46 ( 1 922) 343f. no. 35. .

=

64

J· W. VAN HENTEN

E- v8auTa , the perfectum of E 'YKT18E1JW and an indication of the

deceased persons shows affinity with formulae in epitaphs from Asia Minor. Besides the Jewish parallels from Phrygia there are non:Jewish formulae which correspond to 4 Mace 1 7:9 (with EYKT18EiK.u or Kll8ElJW + E-v; E-v80.8E and KT�8EiJW perf.) 78 and are attested in Ionia, Galatia, Lycaonia, Lycia and Phrygia. Possibly these connections in the sphere of vocabulary are not really a coinci­ dence . 79 They could be an indication that 4 Maccabees originates from Asia Minor, if they would match with other evidence. The peculiarity that the fictitious epitaph mentions a political reason for the death of the martyrs ( 4 Mace 1 7:9) can be con­ nected with pagan conceptions, which in some cases are ex­ pressed in particular on inscriptions. The martyrs died because of the attempt of Antiochus IV to destroy the politeia of the Hebrews. The key words used in this connection are Tupavvos, 1TOAL TELa and KaTaA.uw. These phrases and a related context of the abolition of a political system by a tyrant appear in pagan literary sources. 80 But if we replace 1TOALTda by related words such as v61J.OL , 8i11J.OS (in the sense of rule by the people) or 8ll1J.OKpaT(a we find this vocabu­ lary also in non-literary pagan sources, such as Athenian decrees against tyranny and decrees with a treaty of alliance of Athens with other states. An inscription found at Athens near the agora contains a law concerning the overthrow of democracy, proposed by Eucrates two years after the battle of Chaeronea (338 BCE) . It is stated in this inscription among other things that the hands of the murderer of a person who intended to found a tyranny would be. clean: E-av ns ETiavacrTilL T6'>L 8fl1J.WL E1TL Tupavvl8L T1 TI)v Tupawl8a

cruvKaTacrTfl<Jll L T1 TOV 8i11J.OV Tov 'A8Tivalwv T1 TI)v 8ll1J.OK:paT(av TI)v 'A8flVll<JLV KaTaA.u<JllL, os dv Tov TouTwv TL TioflaavTa U1TOKTELVlll oaws E<JTW ( "If anyone rise up against the Demos for tyranny or

join in establishing the tyranny or overthrow the Demos of the Athenians or the democracy in Athens, whoever kills him who

78 The PHI disk gives one instance of €vTauea plus €yKT)8EiJw, but the text is not certain: . . rpaTI [Tos Kat €yw EvKE-] I KT)8EiJ!lE8a, € [vTauea €yKT)8Euef\-] I vaL . . , BCH 46 ( 1 922) 337f. no. 25 (Teos, Ionia) . 79 None of the eight inscriptions with KTI8E u w etc. from outside Asia Minor on the PHI disk has either the compositum E'YKTI8Euw or the com­ bination of KTI8Euw and the preposition €v. 8 0 Plato, Leg. 9 864d; !socrates, Pan. 1 48; Polybius 2.47.3; Dionysius of Halicarnassus 7.8.3; Pausanias 7.27.7; Libanius, Declam. 20. 1 4; Progymn. 7.4.1 . .

.

A JEWISH EPITAPH IN A LITERARY TEXT: 4 MACC 1 7 :8- 1 0

65

does any of these things shall be blameless"; trans!. Meritt) .8 1 This law had several predecessors, such as the laws of Draco and the decree of Demophantos (41 0-409 B.C. ) , which also contain phrases such as TupavvEw and KUTUAUW Ti)v 8TUlOKpaT(av. 8 2 The terminology is also found in the oration in which Lycurgus accused Leocrates. 83 This oration is connected with the Athenian funeral orations for the victims of war, because Lycurgus wanted to show that Leocr�tes, who fled from Athens after the battle of Chaeronea, was just the opposite of the famous national heroes, who died for the'ir country (cf. 83-1 01 ) .84 The related phrases in the Athenian laws against tyranny could imply that li 'E�pa(wv TTOAL TELa has a constitutional meaning, which in the context of 4 Maccabees comes close to 6 TTaTp(os VOIJ.OS ( ' the ancestral consti­ tution ' ) , which was identical to the law revealed by God in ancient times to Moses (cf. 4 Mace 3:20; 4: 19, 23; 5 : 1 6; 8:7 and 1 8:5; also 2 Mace 8: 1 7) .8 5 Other relevant pagan material concerns the liberation of a polis (or other state) from tyranny or the rescue of a state from a sevt;:re threat to its existence from outsiders or insiders. This liberation was sometimes commemorated during so-called �wTT1 pta-feasts. Amongst the most famous were the �WTTlPLU of Delphi during which the deliverance of the sanctuary from the threat of the Gauls in 279 BCE by Apollo Pythios, Zeus Eleutherios and of course some mortals was commemorated. They were organized on a bigger, pan-hellenic, scale by the Aetolians since about 250 8 1 B. D. Meritt, "Greek Inscriptions, " Hesperia 21 ( 1 952) 340-380 no. 5 11. 7-1 1 . See the commentary on pp. 357-359. Also C. Mosse, La fin de la democratie atheniene. Aspects sociaux et politiques du declin de la Cite grecque au IVe siecle avant J-C. (Paris: 1 962) 282 n. 3. 8 2 Andocides 1 . 96-98. See M. Ostwald, "The Athenian Legislation against Tyranny and Subversion, " TAPA 86 ( 1 955) 1 03-1 28. 83 Contra Leocr. 1 24-1 27: reference to the decree of Demophantos. See further E. Berneker, "Hochverrat und Landesverrat im griechischen Recht," Eos 48 ( 1 956) [ Symbolae Taubenschlag I] 1 05-1 3 7. 84 KaTaMw with TOV Bfj!J.OV as object occurs for instance in the decree on a treaty of alliance of Athens with Arcadia, Achaia, Elis and Phleius from 362 / 1 BCE ( IG 1 1 2 1 1 2 11. 26, 30-32) , see H. Bengtson, Die Vertriige der griechisch-romischen Welt von 700 his 338 v. Chr. (Die Staatsvertrage des Altertums 2; Munich-Berlin: 1962) 250-252. See for further references SEG 29 90. Also IG 11 2 236 fragm. a 11. 1 1-1 3; 687 11. 14-1�. 8 5 See H. G. Kippenberg, "Die jiidischen Uberlieferungen als rrd.Tptot v6jlot ," Die Restauration der Cotter. Antike Religion und Neo-Paganismus (R. Faber & R. Schlesier; Wiirzburg: 1 986) 45-60. =

66

J · W. VAN HENTEN

BCE. The decree with the institution of the �wTf}pta of Priene (297 BCE) commemorates the divine rescue from the tyranny of Hieron (ll. 1 1 and 20) , the abolishment of his tyranny and the return to liberty and autonomy of the polis (ll. 1 4f. , 1 7, 25) . 86 The removal of tyranny in Eretria in 308 BCE and the turning back to the laws of the ancestors and to democracy was recalled during a procession for Dionysus. 87 Of course the train of thought and the conceptual universe of 4 Maccabees differs from the content and purpose of these inscrip­ tions. But the meaning of the Jewish martyrs for the Jewish people can be understood as analogous to liberators of these poleis from tyranny. This appears from a short description by Plutarch of the deeds of Aratus of Sicyon, one of the most glorious liberators in the ancient world. Aratus participated in the rescue of several states. In his biography Plutarch mentions that the citizens of his home town Sicyon sacrificed to him once a year, on the day on which he liberated the city from the tyranny of Nicocles. These sacrifices were called hWT1l pLa .88 In his Precepts of Statecraft ( Mor. 804E-F) Plutarch writes: "In this way Aratus arrived at fame , beginning his public life with the destruction o f the tyrant Nicocles (ounu napflA.8Ev Els 86eav '"ApaTos, cipxi}v TIOLllcra!J.Evos noA.tTdas Ti}v NtKoKA.E-ous Tou Tupavvou KaTaA.ucrtv) ".89 Probably noA.t TELa means in this phrase 'political career' and not ' consti­ tution' or some related idea and it is the liberator who overcomes the tyrant and not the other way around, as one would think with regard to 4 Mace 1 7 :9-1 0 at first sight. But the vocabulary concerning the establishment of a tyranny or its abolishment is, of course, very much related as the above mentioned Athenian legislation against tyranny and Lycurgus's Contra Leocratem show. As a matter of fact, Plutarch ' s remark concerning Aratus corresponds very well to the appraisal of the Maccabean martyrs

86 F. Hiller von Gaertringen, Inschriften von Priene (Berlin: 1 906) no. 1 1 . Cf. L . Robert, "Hellenica," Revue de philologie 70 ( 1 944) 5-56, esp. pp. 5-9; re�rinted in Opera minora selecta (7 vols.; Amsterdam: 1 969-1990) 3 . 1 371-1 375. 7 W. Dittenberger (ed.) , Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum (Leipzig: 3 1 9 1 51924) no. 323. See for discussions of this text A.-F. Jaccottet, "Le lierre de la liberte , " ZPE 80 ( 1 990) 1 50-1 56. N. Lewis, "The 'Ivy of Liberation' Inscrip­ tion," Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies 31 ( 1 990) 1 97-202. 88 Plutarch, Arat. 53.3f. See FGrH 23 1 . B. Niese, "Aratos (2) , " PW 2.383390. 89 Transl. H. N. Fowler (Loeb) . ,

A JEWISH EPITAPH IN A LITERARY TEXT: 4 MACC 1 7 :8- 1 0

67

in 4 Mace. This appears for instance from the summary of their deeds in 4 Mace 1 : 1 1 , which is related to 1 7:9 in content and phrases: a'lTLOL KaTEO"Tllcrav TOU KaTaX.u8flvaL n1v KaTa Tou €8vous Tupavv( 8a ( "they became responsible for the downfall of the tyranny") . 9°

4. Conclusion In the line of the conventions of ancient rhetoric, the author of 4 Maccabees combines several topoi in his enumeration of the merits of the martyrs.91 The seven boys are the pillars of the house that endured the earthquake of the tortures of the tyrant and the mother its roof ( 1 7:3) . In 1 7:5 she and her sons are compared to the moon and the stars, probably a hint at their afterlife. The fictitious epitaph is situated between the reference to a picture in 1 7:7 and the athletic metaphor in 1 7 : 1 1-1 8. The content of the epitaph is in line with the train of thought in the rest of the book,9 2 and its vocabulary overlaps with that of other passages. The epithet yEpaui is also used for the mother in 8:3 and 1 6: 1 and Antiochus IV' is stereotypically depicted as a tyrant in 4 Maccabees. His defeat by the martyrs is hinted at several times ( 1 : 1 1 ; 8:2; 9:30; 1 6 : 1 4; 1 7:21 and 1 8:5; with the verb KaTaX.uw also at 8 : 1 5; 1 1 :24f. and 1 7:2) , and the perseverance of the martyrs is stressed repeatedly (particular­ ly in phrases with VlTOJ.LEVw/imoJ.LOVTJ ) ,93 Nevertheless, the epitaph in 4 Mace 17:8-10 also resembles authentic Jewish epitaphs. The comparison with non-literary Jewish epitaphs shows that the first part of v. 9 with the formula 'EvTavea . . . E'YKEKll8EuvTaL , which is virtually without parallels from literary sources, can be connected with Jewish funerary inscriptions from Phrygia, where K118Euw occurs in combination with the preposition €v .94 The assumption that this terminology could be specific to a certain region seems to be confirmed by 90 See further Van Henten (see footnote 4) 219-224. 91 Cf. J. Martin, Antike Rhetorik. Technik und Methode (Handbuch der Alter­

tumswissenschaft 2/3; Miinchen: 1 974) 147-166. 9 2 Cf. the same categories of persons in 4 Mace 4:9: priests, women and c hildre n . 93 Cf. 4 Mace 1 6: 1 concerning the mother: imEIJ.ELVas Tas IJ.EXPL 6avchou �aacivous . See also 9:6. 94 On the Jewish communities in Phrygia see Kraabel (see footnote 48) 61-154 and Trebilco (see footnote 39) 5f., 85-1 03.

68

J · W. VAN HENTEN

non:Jewish evidence. However, one should not prejudge that the formula in 4 Mace 1 7:9 corresponds to phrases in Phrygian in­ scriptions only. The Jewish epitaphs from Hierapolis and Eume­ neia share phrases and conventions with non:Jewish epitaphs not only from Phrygia but also from other regions in Asia Minor. As a matter of fact, phrases with E'YK118EtJW or Kll8dJw and the preposi­ tion E-v appear in non:Jewish inscriptions from Ionia, Galatia, Lycaonia, Lycia and Phrygia. The greatest similarity to the for­ mula in 4 Mace 1 7:9 occurs in Christian epitaphs from Galatia, Lycaonia and Phrygia (beginning with €v8ci8E KEKi}8EuTaL etc., see above) . The compositum E'YK118Euw occurs several times in inscrip­ tions from Teos (Ionia) and very often in epitaphs from Olympus in Lycia.95 This evidence could point to Asia Minor as the place of origin of 4 Macc.96 In that case there would be a second literary Jewish writing from ancient Asia Minor, besides the Jewish substratum of the first two books of the Sibylline Oracles originat­ ing from Phrygia. 97 Another indication of a possible provenance from Asia Minor is the geographical information in 4 Mace 3:204:26 in comparison to the parallel material in 2 Mace 3:1-6: 1 1 , which unmistakably shows a shift in the direction of Asia Minor. In 4 Mace 4:2 Cilicia is added as one of the areas of the strategia of Apollonius and some details concerning the Seleucid kings are not congruent with the information in 2 Maccabees and could reflect a much later situation, during which the Seleucids hardly left the northern part of Syria and the South-east of Asia Minor ( particularly Cilicia) .98 However, these deviations from 2 Maccabees do not necessarily imply Asia Minor as place of origin and are also quite congruent with a provenance from Antioch.99 Therefore it may be safe to wait for further arguments and conclude at this moment that there are indications that 4 Maccabees could originate from some city in Asia Minor, but that Antioch in Syria as place of origin cannot be excluded. 95 See footnotes 73 and 75. 96 So already Norden (see footnote 4) 41 9f. , who points to the Asianic

style and suggests a city from Asia Minor as place of origin. 97 J. Geffcken, Komposition und Entstehungszeit der Oracula Sibyllina (TU NS 8 . 1 ; Leipzig: 1 902) 50. J. J. Collins, "Sibylline Oracles. A New Translation and Introduction," in Charlesworth (see footnote 4) 1 .332. 98 See further Van Henten (see footnote 5) 146-1 49. Campbell (see foot­ note 5) . 99 Cf. Klauck, "4. Makkabaerbuch" (see footnote 4) 666f.

,

A JEWISH EPITAPH IN A LITERARY TEXT: 4 MACC 1 7 :8- 1 0

69

Against the background of the pagan sources which were dis­ cussed in connection with the cause of the death of the martyrs, Eleazar and his companions somehow seem to be depicted as the glorious saviours of the Jewish nation from the tyranny of Antio­ chus IV. The pagan parallels1 00 show at the same time that the martyrs acted in a way which was very different from the deeds of non:Jewish liberators. They did not start a war of liberation, but simply refused to obey the tyrant and "endured the tortures unto death" ( 1 7 : 1 0; cf. f: 1 1 ; 9:6; 1 6: 1 ) , like Socrates and other philoso­ phers, who also �tood up to tyrants. The terminology in 4 Mace 1 : 1 1 and 1 7 :9, which can be related to Aratus of Sicyon and probably other liberators from tyranny, shows that the death of the martyrs had a political and patriotic significance. These hine persons, nota bene an old priest, a woman and her seven sons, did not fight, but nevertheless prevented the tyranny which would have ended the ancient Jewish way of life according to the law of the Lord. They were not even soldiers, but they defeated the great king of the Greeks. The triumphant martyrs show in an exem­ plary way that faithfulness to the Lord and His law should be seen as the basic principle of the life of Jews. Their death was exem­ plary and a token of the strength of the Jewish people at the same time, and they were deservedly commemorated as heroes of this people. They were evidence that the Jews had their own glorious heroes, who could measure up to the pagan liberators from tyranny or other illustrious persons who sacrificed their lives for their people.1 0 1

1 00 References from Asia Minor to tyrannies and their abolishment are frequent, see for instance F. Hiller von Gaertringen (see footnote 86) nos. 1 1 , 37f. H . Engelmann & R . Merkelbach, Die Inschriften von Erythrai und Klazomenai (2 vols.; IGSK 1-2; Bonn: 1972-1973) 503. BE 1950 1 83. BE 1 973 95. In general H. Berve, Die Tyrannis bei den Griechen (2 vols.; Darmstadt: 1 967) . C. Mosse, La tyrannie dans la Grece antique (Paris: 1 969) . J. Labarbe, "L'apparition de la notion de tyrannie dans la Grece archaique, " L 'antiquite classi?ue 40 ( 1 97 1 ) 471-504. 1 0 See further Van Henten (see footnote 4) and "The Martyrs as Heroes of the Christian People. Some Remarks on the Continuity between Jewish and Christian Martyrology, with Pagan Analogies" (forthcoming) .

CURSES AGAINST VIOLATION OF THE GRAVE IN JEWISH EPITAPHS OF ASIA MINOR JoHAN H. M. STRUBBE A small number of Jewish epitaphs contain a curse against viola­ tors of the grave. P. W. van der Horst has devoted a small chapter to these funerary maledictions in his recent book on Ancient Jewish Epitaphs. ! The subject deserves a lengthier treatment, because it raises several difficulties. First of all, it is very hard to distinguish between Jewish and non:Jewish curses because the use of male­ dictions to deter violators was common among pagans, Christians and Jews, who all used identical formulas. Secondly, there is the problem of the interpretation of the curses: it is not always exactly clear what the writers of the curses had in mind. Thirdly, there are some general problems: the background of the interdiction to violate the grave in Jewish circles, the relations between pagans and Jews, and the respect of the pagan Greeks for the Jewish curses. I will discuss several of these problems in this contribution which is limited to Asia Minor, where curses against violators of the grave were most common. I offer a collection of all funerary curses which may have been set up by Anatolian Jews ( the inscriptions are edited in the Catalogue at the end of this paper) , and I discuss carefully the Jewish or non:J ewish character of the texts. I will pay special attention to the question whether the fune.:. rary maledictions prove that the general population of the Anato­ lian cities had knowledge of the Jewish Law, reverence for the Jewish God and respect for the Jewish tradition. On this point I do not fully agree with P. Trebilco, who has drawn far-reaching posi­ tive conclusions in his book on Jewish Communities in Asia Minor. 2

1 . The background of the interdiction to violate the grave. Curses against eventual violators of graves are frequently found in the pagan epitaphs of Asia Minor.3 Violation could consist of two 1

P. W. van der Horst, Ancient Jewish Epitaphs (Kampen: 1 99 1 ) 54-60. P. Trebilco, Jewish Communities in Asia Minor (Cambridge: 1 99 1 ) . 3 ] . Strubbe, Lampas 16, 1983, 248-274; idem, in Magika Hiera. Ancient Greek magic and religion (edd. C. A. Faraone & D. Obbink; Oxford: 1 99 1 ) 33-59. I know of some 365 items.

2

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different acts, first offences against the grave monument itself; second, infringements of the property rights of the owner. Examples of the former are the destruction or damaging of the grave, the pillage of the tomb, the erasure of the inscription. Examples of the latter are the burial of the corpse of a stranger who does not belong to the family; the opening of the grave (for that same purpose) ; the throwing out of the bones; the alienation of the monument. I hold that all these offences were committed mainly by the poor and d�stitute, who had not the means to build a grave for their own departed relatives. Consequently they put the corpse in the grave of another family or dismantled an existing tomb to build a new one. The same acts of violation are found in the interdictions of the Jewish epitaphs. The interdiction to bury an unauthorized person is found most frequently (Catalogue Nos. 2-4, 5?, 6-1 2) ; the interdiction to damage the monument is rather rare (Catalogue Nos. 1 , 10, 1 2-13) . The use of interdictions by Jews is not surprising: the idea of death as a sleep, of the dead sleeping in the grave until resurrection, of the tomb as an "eternal home" was widespread among the Jews. In the Greek epitaphs of the Jewish necropolis at Beth She'arim one finds similar interdictions to open the grave, to remove the deceased.4 In these texts and in other epitaphs written in Aramaic, the interdiction is sanctioned with a threat or with a curse. So it is not quite i-ight, I think, to say that the Jews of Asia Minor have adopted the practice of using grave curses from their gentile environment. 5 But of course they may have been influenced by their pagan neighbours, just as they took over local funerary terms and formulas, shapes and decorations of the tomb stones. The wish to protect the grave from being damaged, and the bones from being disturbed, may have been much stronger if the Jews believed in a bodily resurrection of the dead, as some 4 Van der Horst, Ancient Jewish Epitaphs, 59-60; see also a Hebrew epitaph from Jerusalem, cited by idem, 1 53-1 54 No. X. J. S. Creaghan, Violatio Sepul­ cri. An Epigraphical Study (Doct. Diss., microfilm; Princeton: 1 95 1 ) 8 1 argues that there is no interdiction of grave robbery in the Pentateuch, but that Eusebius (Praep. Evang. 8.7.7) reports such a regulation as part of the Mosaic Law: Jl'h Ehlx:a.c; Jl'h JlVllJlV 7tpro'to1tuAEt'trov (the neighbourhood of the inhabi­ tants of [the quarter near] the first city gate) on condition they bedeck the grave of his wife, Aurelia, with roses ( po�iaat) each year. 8 This is the well-known Roman ceremony of the rosalia, in 6 Van der Horst,

Ancient Jewish Epitaphs, 1 1 5-122. Van der Horst, Ancient Jewish Epitaphs, 1 1 4-1 26, 1 37-1 39; idem, Het Nieuwe Testament en de Joodse wafinscripties uit de Hellenistisch-Romeinse tijd (Utrecht: 1 99 1 ) 1 9-22; Kant, ANRW II. 20. 2, 702-706; S. D . Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah (Philadelphia: 1 987) 91-92. 8 W. M. Ramsay, Revue des Etudes Grecques 2, 1 889, 23-26 No. 2; idem, The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia /. 2. West and West-Central Phrygia (Oxford: 1 897; repr. New York: 1975) Nos. 455-457 (cf. L. Robert, Hellenica XI-XII, Paris 1 960, 409-41 2 , who discusses its Jewish character; A. R. R. Sheppard, A natolian Studies 29, 1 979, 1 75; Trebilco, Jewish Communities, 78-81 No. 6. 1 ) ; see also A. Th. Kraabel, Judaism in Western Asia Minor under the Roman Empire (Th. D . thesis; Harvard Univ., Cambridge Mass.: 1 968) 1 09-1 14. The text i s from Susuz; 3rd cent. AD. The inscription is probably Jewish because of the proper name Math (i) os, which is Semitic rather than indigenous. The argument that the writer uses the threat [£cr}tat a:\>'to'i� 1tpo[ � 't�]v OtKc:xtocr-6[VTtV] 'tOU 8Eou in case the neighbours do not bedeck the tomb with roses each year, is not decisive: the phrase may be Jewish or Christian. Robert and Trebilco adduced as a third argument the fact that we have only one Christian inscription from Akmonia; for this argument, see notes 6 1 , 9 1 . Trebilco added a fourth speculative argument: in the 3rd cent. AD a society ( the 7tpOO't01t'OAE'i-ta.t) which was legally able to own and inherit land, was much

7

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which not only the tomb was decorated with roses but also a banquet was held at the tomb and a sacrifice was offered. The sacrifice is not mentioned in the inscription; so scholars have emphasised that it did not take place. I would like to note that the inscription very generally speaks of po8il;etv , it does not specify certain parts of the ceremony to be performed or not. I think it possible that the rosalia here included a banquet together with an offering of food fo.r the deceased (presumably not a sacrifice because most Jews probably did not worship their dead) . If such ideas were not e'Xceptional, they may have contributed to the practice of the curses.9 Before discussing the funerary curses, it may be noticed that the Anatolian Jews, just like their pagan neighbours, also used other means to deter eventual violators, such as fines. For ex­ ample, there are some epitaphs from Nikomedeia in Bithynia in which the desecrator is threatened with a fine to be paid to the synagogue . I O 2 . The problem of the "children 's children " curse. Many authors assume that the curse ( dO'[t] , "If someone will damage (the tomb) , the gods 9f the Greeks and of the Persians will pay him back with blood 'and deaths, (to) his children's children". 2 3 1 3. Near OsmanK.alfalar (near the Sogiit Golii; Pisidia) , probably 3rd cent. AD: 'Eav n� e1ttXtp�crEt 11 'tft uKi� 11 'tip xiovt 11 'trov cruvyev£rov eKf3aA.TI I 11 AKE'ta� 11 &A.A.o� I n�, 't�O't Ka'ta 'to7tov I Jltcr[O]ro'tft *

EOV ("the living God") .42 There is no way to decide whether these threats were written by Jews or Christians; apart from Nos. 1 and 2, none of these contains any clear indication of Jewish origin. All inscriptions of the catalogue date from the Roman Imperial period, probably not before the 2nd century AD. I will first discuss the reasons why each inscription is generally accepted as Jewish. Two inscriptions from Nikomedeia in Bithynia threaten the violator of the grave with the final judgment. No. 1 is certainly Jewish because the violator is also threatened with a fine payable to the synagogue. The curse warns the wrongdoer that he will have to reckon with the judgment (of the Lord) . No. 2, the epitaph of Aur. Kyrion and his wife Aur. Ioulias, is certainly Jewish 41 I have not included in the catalogue the inscription CIJ II, No. 773 from Apameia in Phrygia, which contains the Eumeneian formula ecrta.t a.utip n po� t[ov] E>e6v , "He will have to reckon with the God". This text is considered Jewish because of the name of the owner of the grave, Aelius Pancharios (also named Zotikos) . Ramsay has observed that the name Pancharios occurs elsewhere only in a Jewish inscription in Rome ( Cities and Bishoprics I. 2, ad No. 385, referring to GIG Jv, No. 9904; now CIJ I, No. 509) . This argument is weak, though the name is now attested in two more Jewish inscriptions from Rome, CIJ I, Nos. 48 and 106. 42 See Kant, ANRW II. 20. 2, 686 with note 95; Robert, Hellenica XI-XII, 400, 408-409. Kraabel, judaism, 65-66 argued that the variation npo� 'tflV XEtpa. tou E>eou , which is on record in one inscription from Apameia in Phrygia (Buckler & Calder, MAMA VI, No. 231 , dated towards AD 250) is Jewish rather than Christian. His argument is that the phrase "the hand of God" is rare in the NT and the Apostolic Fathers, but exceedingly common in the OT and rabbinic literature (in the NT only three texts with similar expres­ sions refer to judgment, and even there the precise phrase xdp tou E>eou does not appear) ; the image of the divine hand is also frequent in Jewish art. But the OT was also a Christian book (see below) , so the curse may be Jewish as well as Christian (cf. also Trebilco, Jewish Communities, 219 note 95) .

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because of the concluding formula euA.oy{a 7t&crtv , "Blessing for all".43 Here it is said that the violator will undergo the judgment (of the Lord and will have to reckon) with the God. Belief in the post-mortal chastisement of the wrongdoer is an idea the Jews shared with several ancient people. It was thought that retribution would be meted out by the Lord after the advent of His kingdom.44 The threat of the final judgment is not found in other cities of Asia Minor, but it occurs at Beth She 'arim.45 Van der Horst has rightly observed that belief in a judgment and in posthumous punishment is expressed in Jewish epitaphs only in the context of tomb-violation . In pagan curses against violators of the grave, punishment in the afterlife is also attested. The idea of punish­ ment after death apparently arose in a natural way in the context of the protection of life after death. The kind of chastisement was, of course, well suited to punish an unknown desecrator.46 The curse of No . 3 from Apameia on the Maiandros in Phrygia has the character of a warning: "(the violator) knows the law ,of the Jews". This sentence proves Jewish ownership of the tomb. Since the discovery of Nos. 7 and 9 in nearby Akmonia, the law of the Jews is interpreted by all scholars as Deuteronomy, the threat referring to the section of curses in chapters 27-29 (see be­ low) .47 But I think it is not excluded that the law refers to the penal code of the Jews, which meted out the scourge as a punishment for offences (see the discussion of No. 4) . I will return to the Apa­ meian text when I discuss the relations between Jews and Greeks. In Phrygian Eumeneia, the malediction of No. 4 warns the violator that he will receive an eternal scourge from the immortal 43 44 45

See Robert, Hellenica XI-XII, 394-398. Bickerman, The Jews in the Greek Age, 274-275. M. Schwabe & B. Lifshitz, Beth She'arim II. The Greek Inscriptions Oerusalem: 1974) No. 162; cf. van der Horst, Ancient Jewish Epitaphs, 60, 1 1 9120: 0 ena.vytAUJ.lEVO� sronOtllO"E tOU� VEKpou�. a:\no� KptVE, "He who has promised to bring back to life the dead, will Himself judge him". 46 Van der Horst, Ancient Jewish Epitaphs, 125; J. Strubbe, Lampas 16, 1983,

267.

47 Cf. two Jewish adjurations: Ka.ta tilv ocr{a.v, "In accordance with the holy (commandment) " at Beth She' arim (Schwabe & Lifshitz, Beth She'arim II, No. 1 34) ; per licem quem Dominus dedit ludeis, "By the law which God has given to the Jews" from Catane on Sicily ( Clj I, No. 650) , see van der Horst, Ancient Jewish Epitaphs, 57, 59.

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God. 48 L. Robert, in 1 960, was the first to consider this inscription Jewish. He pointed out that a9avato� 9e6� ( "the immortal God") is said of the God of the Jews and of the God of the Christians and even of pagan gods; the use of o E>e6� makes the latter possibility rather improbable, according to Robert even impossible. Robert further emphasised that the inscription does not contain any of the usual Christian formulas, so he preferred to consider the owner of the grave, Aur. Gemellos, a Jew. B. Lifshitz objected that none of the (nine) names in the inscription is Jewish, and that a9avato�, though being an epithet of the God of Israel, is not found in the Septuagint. The first objection has no value since most Jews in Phrygia bore Greek names; the second objection is beside the point: what is relevant is the use of the epithet in the first centuries AD, which is firmly attested.49 One consideration may plead against the Jewish character of the curse: there are no certain signs of Judaism in Eumeneia, but there was an extensive Chris­ tian presence.50 This observation however is not sufficient to con­ sider the curse Christian. Robert further suggested that the eternal scourge might be the eschatological transposition of a reality of the Jewish community life, the punishment of scourging. It is well-known that several offences were punished with 39 strokes, administered in the synagogue, on different parts of the body. The fact that in Chris­ tian writings scourging appears rarely, generally as an action of persecutors, as was observed by Trebilco, might be an additional

48 I have translated the Greek word J.UX<J'tt� as "scourge". According to B. Lifshitz RB 72, 1965, 536-537 it should be translated as "fleau, peine" (punish­ ment, suffering) ; this is indeed one of the meanings of the word, also in the LXX (see C. Schneider, TWNT IV s.v. r.uicrn�, 524-525) . S. P. Ntantes,

'Ant:rA:1JnK'a{ eK'cppaat:r� t:i� ra� 'EM1JVlK'a� imropf3{ov� naA.awxpranavrK'a� imypacpa�

(Athens: 1 983) 99 interprets the curse as the wish for an everlasting disease of the body (in 2 Mace 9: 1 1 , Antiochos Epiphanes is described as being tortured with pain every moment, a 8eia J.Uicrn�) . 49 See Robert, Hellenica XI-XII, 437; J. Bonsirven, Le judai'sme palestinien au temps de jesus-Christ. Sa thiologie I (Paris: 1934) 1 40-1 41 , 1 60; Kant, ANRW II. 20. 2, 686 note 95, 699. 5 0 See F. Millar, in The History of the Jewish People III. 1, 32. The two in­ scriptions published by Robert, Hellenica XI-XII, 414-435 are Christian texts which apparently show Jewish influence (isopsephy, angelology) ; for CIJ II, No. 761 , see note 19. Christianity at Eumeneia is illustrated many times by the so-called Eumeneian formula, ecrtat autij} 1tpo� tov 8eov with its variations.

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argument in favour of the Jewish character of the text.5I I would like to add that in Jewish thought one of the forms of physical torture in Gehenna (for disbelievers) is being scourged with fire.5 2 Lifshitz rejected the interpretation of Robert on the basis of the observation that the punishment with the scourge does not occur in the Septuagint. This is not only irrelevant - relevant here again is the practice of scourging in the first centuries AD, which is well attested53 - but also mistaken, as can be proved from Deut 25:2-3. As to the origin of the curse, flogging was not only a Jewish punishme h t, but was also practiced by pagan Roman justice. Maan� or flagellum was a kind of torture reserved for slaves, but in later antiquity free persons of lower status were not exempt from it (see below) .54 In the Eumeneian curse the punishment is extended to eternity; the idea of eternal chastisement is common to Jews, Christians and pagans. 55 Several funerary maledictions, which may be Jewish, have been found in the Phrygian city of Akmonia and its territory. An important Jewish community lived in the town, being firmly attested since about the middle of the 1st cent. AD . The inscrip­ tions Nos. 5 and 6, which date to the 3rd cent. AD (probably to the second half of it) , use the same malediction, the sickle of curse which will enter into the house of the wrongdoer and will leave no one behind. Let us start with the discussion of No. 5 . The malediction is taken from the Septuagint version of Zech 5:2-4. The Septuagint was a Jewish as well as a Christian book (see below) ; consequently the malediction on its own does not prove Jewish ownership. The malediction with the sickle of curse is 5 1 Trebilco, Jewish Communities, 77-78. Trebilco, following Kraabel, Judaism, 69, also observed that Gemellos and his father were city-councillors

and members of · the gerousia; at that early date (3rd cent. AD) Jews were more likely to be in these positions than Christians. At Sardeis there were Jewish city-councillors even before AD 2 1 2 , see ]. Strubbe, Lampas 22, 1 989, 193. 5 2 Bonsirven, Le judaisme I, 537, referring to Midr. Tanhuma (B. ed. Buber)

pi�ude 3.

See J. Juster, Les juifs dans l'Empire romain II (Paris: 1 9 1 4) 1 61-1 62; Robert, Hellenica XI-XII, 439 with notes 1-2; Trebilco, Jewish Communities, 7778. For example Matt 1 0 : 1 7; the tractate m. Mak. 54 G. Fougeres, Dictionnaire des Antiquites grecques et romaines II s.v. Flagel­ lum, 1 1 54-1 155; Th. Mommsen, Romisches Strafrecht (Leipzig: 1 899; repr. Graz: 1955) 983-984. 55 In Jewish context for disbelievers, see Bonsirven, Le judaisme /, 5 38.

88 .

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preceded by the threat EO''tat atl'tpaaeu;, 84-154.

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The OT-passage with the curses of Deuteronomy is too extended to be cited here. The maledictions are directed against those who do not obey the commands of the Lord. The first part (27: 1 5- end) announces that the people will be cursed if they do not obey the commands of the Lord. The second part (28: 1-14) contains the blessings which will come as the result of obedience to the Law. The third part ( 28 : 1 6- end) contains the curses for infidelity to the Law. Chapter 29 ( 1 8- end) is a description of the evils that have befallen the people when the covenant has been broken. It is inte testing to note that the writers of the inscriptions used the curses for other purposes than stated in Deuteronomy, that is, for the protection of their graves ( cf. the curse of the sickle) . Trebilco has argued that the Jews were acting in accordance with the intent of Deut 30:7, where it is said that, when the people have returned to . Yahweh, one of the blessings He will bestow on them is the transference of the curses "to your enemies, to those who hate you, to those who have persecuted you". The Akmonian writers, obedient to the Lord, were asking Him to apply the cur&es to their enemies, that is, to the violators of their graves. 64 I doubt this very much. Those who violated the graves were not neces­ sarily enemies or persecutors of the Jews; they did not desecrate the graves out of hate for the Jews, but usually because of poverty, as I have argued above. No. 9 does not explicitly mention Deuteronomy, but only refers to "curses that are written". That the written curses are those of Deuteronomy is beyond doubt because the wording of No. 9 is very similar to that of No. 8: OO'E avyEypaJ!JlEVCXt tO'tV versus oaat datv yEypaJ!JlEVat. The wording of the two inscriptions is almost identical with the text of Deuteronomy itself, for example 29: 1 9 or 26: 7tUO'Clt ai apat 'tTl� Ota9ft1C11 � au-rfl� ai YE'YPCXJlJlEVat EV -rip �t�A.{cp -rou-rcp. The writer of No. 9, T. Flavius Alexandros, has added some specifications concerning the area of the malediction: curses will befall the wrongdoer on his eye-sight and on his whole body and on his children and on his life. Curses regarding the body are mentioned at several places in Deut 28 (vss. 2 1 , 22, 27, 28, 35, 6061 ) . A curse on the eye-sight (o paat�) in 28:28: "May the Lord 6 4 66-68, against Kraabel, judaism, 8 1 -82, who assumed that the Jews attributed a general potency, and even a magical power to the Deuteronomy curses.

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smite you with madness, blindness (ao paai�) and astonishment of mind". A curse on the whole body (oA.ov 'tO a&J.ta) is uttered in 28:35: ''The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head ( U7tO 1xvoue6v.94 But this argument is specula­ tive, because it is quite possible that our documentation is incom­ plete. The fact that no Jewish inscriptions are known at Laodikeia may even be used as an argument to treat No. 1 3 as Jewish. ·.

My conclusion on the religious background of the curse inscrip­ tions is as follows. I consider as certainly Jewish the two texts at Nikomedeia in Bithynia (Nos. 1-2) ; the curse of the Law at Apameia (No. 3) ; the two curses with the sickle, and the curse of the wrath of the God at Akmonia (Nos. 5, 6, 1 2) . The inscription 92 A (pagan) parallel is offered by the epitaph of G. Hostilius Agathopous from Nikaia, who died at Rome, and protected his tomb with a curse (L. Moretti, Inscriptiones Graecae Urbis Romae II. 2, Roma 1973, No. 837; L. Robert, CRAIBL 1 978, 270-275 [= OMS V, 726-731 ] ) . For Phrygians at Rome, see Th. Drew-Bear & Chr. Naour, ANRW II 1 8. 3 (Berlin - New York: 1 990) 1 9951997. 93 It is interesting to note that in No. 12 one finds the name Euelpiste; in No. 6, which in my opinion is certainly Jewish, one finds the name Euelpistos. 94 See J. Strubbe, in Magika Riera, 35. But there was a synagogue at nearby Ikonion, see Millar, in The History of the jewish People III. 1, 34.

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from Eumeneia with the curse of the scourge (No. 4) has a good chance of being Jewish. As to the other inscriptions: Nos. 7-8-9 (from Akmonia) and No. 1 3 (from near Laodikeia) may be Jewish or Christian. I prefer to consider the former group Jewish, the latter text Christian. Nos. 1 0-1 1 from Akmonia with the curse of the iron broom are probably pagan; for the time being there are no good reasons to consider them Jewish. 4 . The relations between Jews and Greeks in the Anatolian cities. It is one of the recurrent themes in the book of Trebilco that the general population of the Anatolian cities (Apameia, Akmonia) had some knowledge of the Jewish Law and a great respect for the Jewish tradition, especially for the Book Deuteronomy and per­ haps even for the God whose curses are written in the Book. 95 This theory is based among other things on the assumption that pagans, reading one of the Jewish curses discussed above, would acknowledge the validity of the Jewish Law and would be de­ terred thereby from their sacrilegious work. If not, the curse made no sense. I will not challenge this thesis, but I would like to make some critical remarks. I wonder whether it was thought necessary that the reader understood the curse. Those who desecrated the graves were presumably poor and destitute people for the most part, as I have argued above . I can imagine that many of these people were illiterate and could not even read the curse. But of course every­ body knew that violation of the grave was forbidden. Perhaps the sight of a long inscription sufficed to deter an eventual violator? The writers of the curses believed that the punishment would come down automatically by the power of the written word. Whether the wrongdoer understood these penalties or not, was not important for the fulfilment of the curse. So I think that the curses tell more about the people who wrote them, than about the people who read them. But let us assume that the curses were read and understood by a number of pagans. The question whether the Greeks respected the Jews and the Jewish Law, depends on the question whether the curses ad­ dressed the Greeks, in other words whether pagans and Jews 95 Trebilco, Jewish Communities, 67-68, 83, 100.

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were buried in the same cemetery. W. H. Buckler and W. M. Calder argued that in Akmonia, as in Rome and elsewhere in the West, the Jewish community had its own cemetery. Trebilco, on the other hand, emphasised that there is no evidence to suggest that the inscriptions containing the grave curses were from 'Jewish cemeteries". But at the same time he had to admit the / evidence of an inscription from Tlos in Lycia (in south Asia Minor) from the e:p.d of the 1 st cent. AD in which a certain Ptolemaios, son of I.:eukios, built a burial place (il pcpov ) for all the Jews of the city.9f> There are also other indications of 'Jewish cemeteries". At Nikomedeia in Bithynia three Jewish inscrip­ tions were discovered in the modern city quarter of Turgut. This fact led Robert to the assumption that there was a group of Jewish graves near that quarter.97 At Akmonia the Jews apparently dwelled together. The inscription mentio � g the rosalia, which I have discussed at the beginning, tells that tools were given by the Jew Aur. Aristeas to the inhabitants of a quarter of the city near one of the gates. Robert has argued that these inhabitants wer:e probably co-religionists of Aristeas and that the quarter probably was a Jewish quarter. Now we know that the tombs were always aligned along the roads leaving the city from the gates. So it would be natural for the Jews of the Jewish quarter of Akmonia to bury their dead along the same road. Consequently the possibility that a tomb in that area would be disturbed by a Jew may be greater than by a pagan . So it would make sense to address especially Jews in the curses. The situation of Akmonia may have existed in other cities too, because Jews often voluntarily dwelled together, as is attested for example at Sardeis. 98 Of course it cannot be stated that the Jews buried their dead in 'Jewish cemeteries" in all Anatolian cities. There is evidence that in some cities the Jewish graves were not separated from the pagan 96 Buckler & Calder, MAMA VI, ad No. 3 1 6 (for Jewish cemeteries in the West, see Juster, Les ]uifs I, 479 note 1 ) ; Trebilco, Jewish Communities, 227 note 7 1 . The inscription from Tlos is CIJ II, No. 757; E. Kalinka, TAM II. 2 (Wien: 1930) No. 612 (LL. 5-6: rocru: a:oto etvat navtrov t&v 'Iouoairov; probably near the end of the 1 st cent. AD) . 97 J. & L. Robert, Revue des Etudes Grecques 89, 1976, 558 No. 684. 98 For Sardeis, see Josephus, Ant 14 §261 : the people and the council of the city decided to set apart for the Jews a place to build (a synagogue ?) and to inhabit (t07tOV -- d� OtKOOOJ!l<XV K<Xt OtlCTl<JtV <XUtrov); second half of the 1st cent. BC. . .

102

J. H. M. STRUBBE

ones. At Korykos in Cilicia, for example, Jewish tombs are found amidst pagan (and Christian) tombs, and the same was also observed at Hierapolis in Phrygia.99 The situation was apparently not identical in all cities. But nonetheless it is striking that in Nikomedeia and in Akmonia, where explicitly Jewish curses have been found, there are indications of the existence of separate '1 ewish cemeteries". If this is correct, the Jewish curses in these cities do not necessarily imply a general knowledge and reve­ rence for the Jewish tradition and Law among the pagans, because the maledictions did not primarily address them. In the city of Apameia, the situation may have been the same. The curse "he knows the law of the Jews", seems to address especially the Jews (certainly if it referred to the penal law of the Jews which was of course not valid for non:Jews) . In my opinion this is the most obvious interpretation; I very much doubt whether the curse addressed the pagans and implied knowledge of the curses of Deuteronomy on the part of the pagan reader. Ioo There is also another fact, which has not been observed so far and which may be important. It is the fact that several of our inscrip­ tions combine a curse and a fine. Nos. 6, 8 and 9 (from Akmonia) have a fine to the treasury (cf. No. 14) , No. 1 (from Nikomedeia) has a fine to the synagogue; No. 5 is broken at the end. That makes (at least) 4 texts out of the 10 that are certainly or very probably Jewish. This is a very high percentage. In some parts of Asia Minor the combination of a curse and a fine was frequent: in Lycia, Pamphylia, Pisidia or at Aphrodisias, but not in Bithynia, Lydia, Phrygia. For example, in Phrygia I know of circa 1 40 epitaphs containing a malediction; only 7 or 8 epitaphs combine 99 J. Keil & A. Wilhelm, MAMA III (Manchester: 1 93 1 ) 1 2 1 ; cf. 18 for Seleukeia on the Kalykadnos; Humann, Cichorius etc., Alt. Hierapolis, Nos. 69, 212 ( CIJ II, Nos. 776, 775) . 1 00 Van der Horst, Ancient Jewish Epitaphs, 57 argues that the fact that the law is so explicitly identified as the law "of the Jews" might indicate that the writer had non:Jews in mind. But if the Jewish writer would not have specified the law, it could have been mistaken even by his co-religionists as referring to the VOJ.W� tUJl�ropux{a� (the law against grave robbery) of the city; for that law, see J. Strubbe, in Magika Riera, 48 note 9. Compare the warning in an epitaph from Kyrene: 4> fl� avflKEV, flll tt[va � J.LOU Aup. 'louA.taOt · Kat �ouAoJ.Lat J.LE-ra -ro EJ.LE -re9fl­ vat J.LTlOEva £-re­ pov -reSflvat ei J.lll 'tEKVOV J.LOU · o� o£ &v 1tapa -ra1na n 1totfl­ cret, E�1l KptcrtV 1tpo� -rov 8e6v. EuA.oyta 1tftcr[tv].

Ligatures: L. 7 ME, L. 10 HN . L . 13: "CCXU"Ca. 1tOt� -, Robert; rightly corrected by Doerner, as can be seen on the ph. L. 14: ESH , £9.1 or £Q1 ( e�Et ), Robert, 398. =

1 06

See notes 19, 70.

108

J. H. M. STRUBBE

"I, Aur ( elius) Kyrion, have made the grave, while alive, for myself and for my wife Aur (elia) Ioulias. And I want that no one else will be placed (in it) , after I will have been deposited, except my child. Whoever will do something against these (prescrip­ tions) , he will undergo the judgment ( and he will have to reckon) with the God. Blessing for all." According to L. Robert ( op. cit. , 408) the curse is a strange combination of two curse formulas, E�Et Kptcnv ("he will undergo the judgment") and E�Et 1tpo� -rov E>e6v ( "he will have to reckon with the God") . I0 7 3. Apameia on the Maiandros Dinar. Description and letter-forms not recorded; the division of the lines is not indicated. Mter AD 2 1 2 . Ed. : W . M. Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics I. 2, No. 399 his (copy of D. G. Hogarth) with commentary (cf. idem, The Expository Times 26, 1 91 4/ 1 5, 1 72 No. IX, and Bearing Recent Discovery, 364-365 No. IX: translation and commentary; J. -B. Frey, CIJ II, No. 774 with translation; cf. P. W. van der Horst, Ancient Jewish Epitaphs, 57: translation of the curse formula and commentary; P. Trebilco, Jewish Communities, 99-101 with translation and commentary) . See A. Th. Kraabel, judaism, 1 24 for the curse. Au p. ' Pouq>O� 'IouA.uxvou w e1tO{[Tt Jl]Ou Aup. Tanavn . i� 0 E'tEpO� ou -re9n . d OE 'tt� e1tt'tT\0EUCJt, -rov VOJlOV otOev [-r]&v EiouOErov.

"I, Aur(elius) Rouphos, son of Ioulianos, son of Ioulianos, have made the heroon for myself and for my wife Aur(elia) Tatiane. No one else may be put in it. But if someone will bury (another corpse here) , he knows the law of the Jews."

107 Van der Horst, Ancient Jewish Epitaphs, 1 2 5 translates: "he will under­ go judgment before God".

CURSES AGAINST VIOLATION OF THE GRAVE

109

4. Eumeneia I�ekli, in the "large Khan"; now in the depot of antiquities at Denizli. Marble homos with mouldings above and below; dim. unknown. The upper moulding consists of a row of palmettes, an egg-and­ dart moulding and a bead-and-reel moulding. Letters: H. not recorded; the letters of L. 5 are somewhat larger than the rest; LL. 2-4 and 6-9 are very densely written. Ligatures; alpha with broken cross-bar and elongated right leg, plain epsilon, square sigma, rounded omega, upsilon with cross-bar. Mter AD 212. Ed. : ]. Franz, GIG III, No. 3891 with a majuscle copy on the basis of an edition by V. Arundell and a copy of A. Delaborde; W. ]. Hamilton, Researches II, 470 No. 353 (majuscle copy) ; cf. G. Perrot, RArch 1 876, 281-282: reading of L. 6 on the basis of a copy of Choisy; W. M. Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics I. 2, No. 361 with commentary (cf. S. P. Ntantes, 'A netA1J-rt7(a{ e7(cppaaet�, 99, who cites LL 1 9-22) ; L. Robert, Hellenica XI-XII, 436-439 (ph.) wfth ample commentary. See B . Lifshitz, RB 72, 1 965, 536-537; A. Th. Kraabel, Judaism, 68-69; A. R. R. Sheppard, Anatolian Studies 29, 1979, 1 75 with translation of LL. 1 7-22; P. W. van der Horst, AncientJewish Epitaphs, 58 note 72; P. Trebilco, Jewish Communities, 77-78, who all comment on the curse. See ]. Strubbe, Lampas 22, 1989, 193 for a discussion of this Jewish magistrate in the city. On the upper moulding vac "Epproa8E. vac On the shaft 4

8

Aup. fEJ.lEAAo� MTJva BouAEu't'h [�] 'tOt� yAUKU'tcX'tOt� yovEUatV AUpTJAtot� MTJV� w 'tOU tAt1t7tOU BouAEu'tn, yEpa{�, Kat 'Amp{� 'Ap't& 'tU nha EK 'tiDV i8irov · d� o 7tpoEKi18EuaEv 't[ov] a8EA<pov iAt1t1tOV Kat 'tllV 7ta'tpav KuptA.A.av Kat 'tllV £�a8£AtA:rrrrt Kat Et 'ttvt £'t£pcp �&v cruvxropftcret · o� 0 ' &v E7ttXEtpft­ cret E'tepov E7tEt­ crevevKetv, ATt'JfE'tat 1tapa 'tou &Sa­ va'tou 8eou J.Lacr­ 'tetya airovwv.

Ligatures: L. 2 ME, MHN, L. 4 HN . L. 1 : EPPQE>E (Arundell; omitted by Delaborde) , £ppro(cr)9E, Franz; [£p]procr9e, Ramsay; [£pp]rocr9E , Robert L. 2 : fENEAAOE, Arundell (who often copied E instead of l:) ; fEMEAAOl: , Delaborde; f EJlEAAo� , Franz; poul..eu-rll � , Robert, but the stone seems to be broken immediately after the eta. L. 4: NillllOY, Delaborde. L. 6: APTATAL1IA, not transcribed by Franz but by Perrot; EKT-- , ElC 't[&v] , Franz; EKT[.] , Hamilton. L. 7: I�IQNNEIE, UHrov · d� , Franz; ll P Ol: E K , Arundell; llPOEK­ HAEYLEN [ . . ], Hamilton; extr. ['tov] , Franz. L. 8: extr. KA : : : : : , Delaborde; KAI [ . . ], Hamilton. L. 1 1 : [ Jl]OU, Robert; on the ph. one sees a vertical basta, but there seems insufficient space for a m:u. L. 14: AYTOl: , Hamilton. L. 17/8: XEIPHil:EI, -XEtp�lcr(n) , Franz. L. 19: -EVEYKEtV , Robert incorrectly as can be seen on the ph.; AH'I'E , Hamilton. L. 21: omitted by Arundell. L. 22: TEITAAIQNIQN, Arundell.

"Greetings. Aur (elius) Gemellos, son of Menas, member of the city-council (has made this grave) for his very sweet parents Aur(elius) Menas, son of Menas, son of Philippos, member of the city-council and member of the group of elders, and Aur( elia) Apphion, daughter of Artas; (it is) his own property (made) out of his own money. He has already buried in it his brother Philippos and his aunt Kyrilla and his cousin german Ju (lia) Paula. His foster-sister, Philete, will also be buried in it, and (others too) , if he will grant the permission to someone else while alive. But the man who will attempt to place another (corpse) in it, will receive eternal scourge from the immortal God."

CURSES AGAINST VIOLATION OF THE GRAVE

111

5. Akmonia Venice (ca. 7 km. north of Ahat) . A description of the monument is not available. Letters: no information available; the division of the lines is unknown . Probably in the 2nd half of the 3rd cent. AD (on account of the formula Ecr't &vu ��t 'to KU8E'tOV 11 J.l.OVOV EUV cruv �TI 'tOt] ou· 5. T,vtKa [yap] KW [IJ.]wv TTaTayo [s TTp] bs E-11a1s 8[ ........ ] ii [IJ.EA]AEv IJ.EATTLV m;t [Tp]o[s] �llQV [1J.]EAa8P, [ov] 7. Ws- poo [o] v [E-] v KJlTTWL [v] OTLaLV 8poaE pa1m TE811A6s [al ]cpvL8'LWS' IJ.E Xa�f3w}v 4lXET' 'LWv '�81] [S' ] 9. '(�Q [aL, �E1]VE, 8' EyW Er�4l[V KlKAOUS TE'J..Eaaaa ?] . =

CPJ 1 509 (Leontopolis) JIGRE 32 1 . 'Opatas Tacpos otrros, oomTT6pE · 8aKpua AE [i�E] . :N [L]�QAclOU [8uy]aTllp, 11 KUTcl TTclVT [a UTU]xfp, 3. TpE1 [S' &K] Qfus TTAip"aa' ET [E-wv. T] pELS' W8 [E TT] cl.pEcriJ.EV, 0 avf)p Kal · [il Suya]TllP Kal 11� [TT ]ETTVpWKUV E-yw. ............ ] E-aTLV (TpLT1J), ElTa 8 [€ TTEIJ.TT]TlJ 5. ElpfJVll SuyaTllp , fl ya11os ouK E8691l. 7. [ K] ayw 8-f} r, aKAllpos, avEucppaVTos IJ.ETa ToUTous E-�8oll'fl Tou Xotax W8 ' E-TE-811v imo rflv. 9. ciAA' UTTEXELS', til �ELVE, aact>Gls Tel aTTaVTa TTap' illlWV ayyE"AAELV TTnaw Tou SavaTou To Taxos. 1 1 . (ETous) L ', Xotax C. =

.

CPJ 1 5 1 0 (Leontopolis) JIGRE 33 1 . 'ApaLVOllS' Tacpos otrros, o80LTTOpE · KAUOOOV ETTLUTUS' -nlv KaTa TTavTa aTuxflv, 8oo1J.opov, alv611opov. 3. 6pcpavLKT} AEt811v yap E-yw{L} IJ.ELKpa TTEp E-oooa llll{L}Tp6s· ETTEL 8E- 11' a�E1TL TTaTf]p, W&1vL 8E Mo1pa =

JEWISH POETICAL TOMB INSCRIPTIONS

npwToT6Kou 11-E TEKvou npos Tf.A.os �YE �lou. 7. Kal j.1ELKpov j.1EV £yw{L} T ' EA.axov KUKAOV, aA.A.a xapLS j.10L nA.ElaTT) (L) £nf.v8T)LaEv KaAA.oauVT}{L} npanl8wv. 9. Kat Taos £v K6A.nms KpVnTEL To £11-ov 8f.11-as ol'rros ayvoTpaf.s, tJ;ux.Tl 8 ' ELS oolous ETTETE. 1 1 . 'ApaLv611s ETTLK1l8nos (ETOUS) KE ', MEXELp w.

CPJ 151 1 (Leontopolis) ]IGRE 34 1 . Elj.1EL £yw 'I �aoDs, b qiJ.(EvW8) Lll '· ·

SEC VIII 469 (Schedia) 1. Ila18a IJ.E �w