Among the hundreds of artifacts collected by Dr. Henry J. Anderson
(1799--1875) on his travels in the eastern Mediterranean in 1847 is a
small sandstone grave stele (fis 1 & 2), now in the Brooklyn Museum (37.1827E). The
small sandstone grave stele (fig. 1), now in the Brooklyn Museum (37.1827E). The
rectangular stone (18.5 cm high × 15 cm wide × 8 cm deep) is inscribed
with nine lines of Greek, once rubricated, on a smoothed face, chipped
at lower right. The text gives the epitaph of a woman, Timothea.
@ -114,6 +114,8 @@ euphemistic verb of death, the date, and a prayer for a divine grant of
repose (with ἀναπαύω) in the "bosoms" (ἐν κόλποις and variants) of
Abraham and, usually, his successor patriarchs Isaac and Jacob.[^12]
Table 1. Greek epitaphs from northern Nubia with the same formulary as the Brooklyn Museum stele, by provenance. (Names are presented without normalization.)
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@ -205,7 +207,6 @@ Abraham and, usually, his successor patriarchs Isaac and Jacob.[^12]
Table 1. Greek epitaphs from northern Nubia with the same formulary as the Brooklyn Museum stele, by provenance. (Names are presented without normalization.)
The theological implications of this plural expansion of the "bosom"
(see further the commentary to line 8 of the edition below) remains to
@ -214,7 +215,6 @@ imagined---to judge from the famous illuminated manuscript of Gregory of
Nazianzus produced for the Byzantine emperor Basil I (fig. 4)---as
sitting in Abraham's lap.
The publication of the Brooklyn Museum epitaph, besides encouraging the
continued commemoration of Timothea---an activity that the inclusion of
a month date in the text was meant to promote---,[^21] offers a small
