723 lines
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723 lines
37 KiB
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---
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title: "'In the Bosoms of Abraham': A Christian Epitaph from Nubia in the
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Brooklyn Museum"
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authors: ["zellmannmichael.md"]
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abstract: First edition of a Christian epitaph in Greek of a woman, Timothea, brought by Henry J. Anderson to the United States in 1848 and now in the Brooklyn Museum. Analysis of the form and text of the monument allows its epigraphic context to be reconstructed, as part of a dispersed funerary assemblage of northern Nubia, including a distinctive textual formula wishing the deceased repose in the “bosoms of Abraham.”
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keywords: ["Christian Nubia", "epigraphy", "epitaph", "Greek", "Brooklyn Museum", "Henry J. Anderson", "Abraham", "Timothea"]
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---
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# Introduction: From Nubia to Brooklyn [^1]
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Among the hundreds of artifacts collected by Dr. Henry J. Anderson
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(1799--1875) on his travels in the eastern Mediterranean in 1847 is a
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small sandstone grave stele (fig. 1), now in the Brooklyn Museum (37.1827E). The
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rectangular stone (18.5 cm high × 15 cm wide × 8 cm deep) is inscribed
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with nine lines of Greek, once rubricated, on a smoothed face, chipped
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at lower right. The text gives the epitaph of a woman, Timothea.
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**~~Figure 1. Epitaph of Timothea. Brooklyn Museum accession 37.1827E; ex-New-York Historical Society O.127An. Photography: the author.~~**
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The
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findspot is not recorded, but the dating of her death by an Egyptian
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month (3 Phaōphi \[1 October\]) points towards Egypt, where Anderson is
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known to have acquired other antiquities, or a nearby region within
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range of its cultural transmission, as the material and form of the
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monument and the formulary of the text, discussed in detail below, point
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to Egypt's southern neighbor Nubia in the early medieval period.
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Comparable stelae are generally assigned to a range between the seventh
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and ninth centuries CE, and in the absence of an objective date, the
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same range must be considered for the Brooklyn epitaph.[^2]
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Anderson, professor of mathematics and astronomy at Columbia College
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(appointed 1825), had served as geologist to the United States Dead Sea
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Expedition, the occasion for his eastern travels.[^3] Along with nearly
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400 other objects, mostly from Egypt---including a mummy, whose public
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unwrapping was the occasion for lectures delivered by Anderson at the
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New-York Historical Society in December 1864 (fig. 2), reported in major
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newspapers at the time---,[^4] the stone was donated by Anderson's sons
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E. Ellery and Edward H. Anderson to the Society in 1877.[^5]
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**~~Figure 2. New-York Historical Society Lecture on Egypt, 1864: Concluding Lecture by Prof. Henry J. Anderson. Poster. New-York Historical Society Pictorial Archives, RG-5, Series IV, 2NW, Range 12A, Bay B, Drawer 10, F:1. Photography ©New-York Historical Society (http://nyhistory.org).~~**
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There the
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stele received the inventory number O.127An, reflected in a
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label still attached to its back (fig. 3). It may be among the "Four
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Stones with Greek inscriptions" mentioned in an unnumbered inventory of
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the Anderson gift printed in 1915.[^6]
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**~~Figure 3. Epitaph of Timothea, back side. Photography: the author.~~**
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Anderson himself never published an account of how he came into
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possession of this stele or any other antiquities from Egypt or its
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vicinity. Other sources, however, firmly establish a visit in late 1847
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and early 1848, apparently on the heels of his work for the Dead Sea
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Expedition. One is epigraphic: a graffito in his name with that date has
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been recorded in the temple of Amenophis III at Elkab. Another traveler,
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William Henry Adams Hyett, also recalled meeting an "American boat"
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carrying Anderson at Qasr Ibrim on 7 January, on whose "bump of
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destructiveness" he trained a phrenological gaze.
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> On Friday evening we reached Ibreem. As an American boat was there on
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> return, we stopped and lionized the ruins with its occupants, a Mr.
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> Anderson and son, one of Yankee Doodle's most respectable scions, an
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> intelligent gentleman of forty-five, or thereabouts, rather of the
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> scientific turn; the bump of destructiveness strongly developed, I
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> should fancy, from the huge hammer his dragoman carried, and with
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> which he mercilessly chopped away at old stones, pillars, cornices,
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> &c.[^7]
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The "son," apparently E. Ellery Anderson (1833--1903), later a prominent
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lawyer and reformist whose political appointments included New York City
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School Commissioner, left graffiti of his own on ancient monuments in
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the same year, establishing that the party visited further Nubian sites
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at Abu Simbel and the temple of Kumma.[^8]
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The probable Nubian provenance of the stele may also be compared to that
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of the "Skull and piece of a Skull from Nubia" and "Fragments of Temple
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of Thothmes III. and Aboo Simbel (*sic*)" in the same inventory.[^9] The
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five Greek and Coptic funerary stelae from northern Nubia in the
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collection of the British antiquarian William John Bankes (1786--1855),
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acquired during his travels in Egypt and Nubia in 1815--1819, provide
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both parallels for the monumental form and text of the Brooklyn Museum
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stele and a general parallel for how the epitaph of Timothea may have
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reached the United States, though in the case of the new stele, the
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visit of Anderson was too late for any direct involvement of the
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diplomat Henry Salt (1780--1827) in the acquisition, as in the case of
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Bankes,[^10] and the account of Hyett supports first-hand collecting
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activity, whether by the dragoman's hammer or subtler instruments. In
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1937 the stele, along with a larger lot, was loaned to the Brooklyn
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Museum and subsequently purchased outright in 1948.
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# Epigraphic Context
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The formula with which this epitaph opens, ἔνθα κατάκειται "Here lies,"
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can be found in Greek epitaphs across the ancient world. When the focus
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is narrowed to Egypt and its vicinity, the presence of this opening is
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generally restricted to northern Nubia, most often Talmis (Kalabsha) or
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Taphis (Tafa), sites of extensive cemeteries from which antiquities were
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removed in the nineteenth century.[^11] No fewer than 56 epitaphs on
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sandstone stelae (Table 1), not yet systematically collected, can be
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assigned with certainty or high probability to northern Nubia, with a
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comparable sequence of formulae beginning in ἔνθα κατάκειται, followed
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by ὁ μακάριος or ἡ μακαρία "the blessed" and the name of the deceased, a
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euphemistic verb of death, the date, and a prayer for a divine grant of
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repose (with ἀναπαύω) in the "bosoms" (ἐν κόλποις and variants) of
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Abraham and, usually, his successor patriarchs Isaac and Jacob.[^12]
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<br/>
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|:---|:---|
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| **Talmis** | |
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| *Epitaph of* | *References* |
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| Abraam | *I.Chr. Egypte* 623 (*SB* V 8720; *I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 54) (*DBMNT* 482) |
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| Akkendarpe | *I.Chr. Egypte* 622 (*SB* V 8736; *I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 53) (*DBMNT* 481) |
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| Manna | *SEG* LII 1817 (*I.Chr. Egypte* 652; *SB* III 6089; V 8737; *I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 47) (*DBMNT* 495) |
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| P..thia | *SB* I 1600 (*I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 44) (*DBMNT* 539) |
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| Samsōn | *I.Chr. Egypte* 624 (*SB* V 8722; *I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 55) (*DBMNT* 483) |
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| Thisauria | *I.Chr. Egypte* 625 (*SB* V 8721; *I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 48) (*DBMNT* 484) |
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|**Talmis?**| |
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| *Epitaph of* | *References* |
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| Edra | *SEG* LXV 2010 (*DBMNT* 3075) |
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| Epephanios | *SEG* XLIX 2348 (LXIII 1712) (*DBMNT* 566) |
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| Georgios | *SEG* LXVII 1472 (*DBMNT* 4398) |
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| **Taphis (Ginari)**[^13] | |
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| *Epitaph of* | *References* |
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| Aarōn | Firth 486\[a\] (*DBMNT* 429) |
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| Abraham | Firth 486\[b\], with Ochała, "Nubica onomastica," pp. 152--4 (*DBMNT* 450) |
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| Agathe | Firth 841 (*DBMNT* 440) |
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| Akousta | Firth 437 (*DBMNT* 427)[^14] |
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| Amantōse | *SEG* LIV 1774 (*I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 59; Firth s.n., p. 50) (*DBMNT* 449) |
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| Anna | Firth 269 (*DBMNT* 416) |
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| Archippas | Firth 483 (*DBMNT* 428) |
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| Arōn | Firth 374 (*DBMNT* 424) |
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| Aroumi[^15] | *SEG* XLIII 1178 (Firth 807; *I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 49) (*DBMNT* 436) |
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| Axios | *SEG* XLIII 1179 (Firth 230; *I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 56) (*DBMNT* 542) |
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| Chrisantē[^16] | Firth 372 (*DBMNT* 423) |
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| Christina | Firth 804 (*DBMNT* 435) |
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| Christophoros | Firth 246 (*DBMNT* 412) |
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| Erna | Firth 323 (*DBMNT* 421) |
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| Eustephanou | Firth 124 (*DBMNT* 409) |
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| Gennatios | Firth 281 (*DBMNT* 419) |
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| Ichilos | Firth 208, with Ochała, "Nubica onomastica," pp. 149--50 (*DBMNT* 411) |
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| Iōanna | Firth 259/261 (*DBMNT* 415) |
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| Iōannēs | Firth 651 (*DBMNT* 432)[^17] |
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| Iōseph | Firth 193 (*DBMNT* 410) |
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| Longinos | Firth 486\[c\] (*DBMNT* 624) |
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| Maria | Firth s.n. (p. 50) (*DBMNT* 446) |
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| Mariam | Firth 802 (*DBMNT* 434) |
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| Marou | Firth 397 (*DBMNT* 425) |
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| Martha | Firth 95 (Łajtar, "Epitaphs," pp. 58--9 no. 2) (*DBMNT* 406) |
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| Merchani | Firth 838 (*DBMNT* 437) |
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| Merchō | Firth 325 (*DBMNT* 422) |
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| Mōuseou | Firth 122 (Łajtar, "Epitaphs," pp. 59--60 no. 3) (*DBMNT* 407) |
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| Mp(e)r(e)rhote[^18] | Firth s.n. (p. 50), with Ochała, "Nubica onomastica," pp. 152--4 (*DBMNT* 445) |
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| Pelagia | Firth 434 (*DBMNT* 426) |
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| Petrōinia | Firth s.n. (p. 50) (*DBMNT* 444) |
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| Seuēros | Firth 907, with Ochała, "Nubica onomastica," pp. 151--2 (*DBMNT* 442) |
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| Siōn | Firth 249, with Ochała, "Nubica onomastica," pp. 150--1 (*DBMNT* 413) |
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| Sophia | Firth 270 (*DBMNT* 418) |
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| Staurophania | Firth s.n. (p. 50) (*DBMNT* 447) |
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| Taria | Firth s.n. (p. 50) (*DBMNT* 448) |
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| Theognōsta | Firth 840 (*DBMNT* 439) |
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| \[..\]nasilei[^19] | Firth 412 (*DBMNT* 623) |
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| **Taphis?** ||
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| *Epitaph of* | *References* |
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| Protōkia | *SEG* LXV 2011 (*DBMNT* 3074) |
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| **Pselchis?** | |
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| *Epitaph of* | *References* |
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| Athanasios | *I.Chr. Egypte* 629 (*I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 45) (*DBMNT* 487) |
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| **Northern Nubia (unknown site)** | |
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| *Epitaph of* | *References* |
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| Anna | *I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 50 (*DBMNT* 541) |
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| Aulōse | *I.Chr. Egypte* 654 (*SB* V 8738; *I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 52; *I.Egypte Nubie Louvre* 113) (*DBMNT* 401)|
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| Elisabet | *I.Chr. Egypte* 660 (*I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 58) (*DBMNT* 498) |
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| Maria | *I.Chr. Egypte* 655 (*SB* V 8739; *I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 51; *I.Egypte Nubie Louvre* 111) (*DBMNT* 402) |
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| Petros | *I.Chr. Egypte* 649 (*SB* V 8734; *I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 46) (*DBMNT* 493) |
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| Theotōtē | *I.Chr. Egypte* 805 (*I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 57) (*DBMNT* 505) |
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| \[\...\][^20] | Liddel, "Greek Inscriptions," pp. 97--8 no. B.2 |
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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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<br/>
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The theological implications of this plural expansion of the "bosom"
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(see further the commentary to line 8 of the edition below) remains to
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be explained. After the seminal passage of Luke 16, the deceased was
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imagined--to judge from the famous illuminated manuscript of Gregory of
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Nazianzus produced for the Byzantine emperor Basil I (fig. 4)--as
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sitting in Abraham's lap.
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**~~Figure 4. Illuminated copy of Gregory of Nazianzus, scene of Dives and Lazarus. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, grec 510, fol. 149r. Source: gallica.bnf.fr.~~**
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<br/>
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The publication of the Brooklyn Museum epitaph, besides encouraging the
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continued commemoration of Timothea--an activity that the inclusion of
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a month date in the text was meant to promote--, [^21] offers a small
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step towards the reconstitution of a dispersed funerary assemblage of
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early Christian Nubia. The general cohesion of material and (Greek)
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textual forms across major northern Nubian sites, substantially unique
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to this area in turn, casts a sidelight on inextricable nexus of the
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Greek language and Nubian Christianity, and the negotiation of a
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distinctive local variety of both, in the early medieval period. The
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monuments, and the names that they continue to make live, are precious
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testaments to society in cities like Talmis and Taphis, later ruled from
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elsewhere (Primis, Pakhoras) but retaining a position as urban
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centers. [^22]
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# Edition
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Epitaph of Timothea
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18.5 cm (h) × 15 cm (w) × 8 cm (d)
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Brooklyn Museum, accession 37.1827E
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Seventh--ninth centuries CE
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Northern Nubia
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*Text*
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| | \+ ἔνθα κατάκε̣ι- |
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| | ται ἡ μακαρία |
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| | Τιμοθέα· ἐτε- |
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| | λεύτησεν |
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| 5 | μη(νὶ) Φαῶφι : γ |
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| | ἰνδ(ικτιῶνος) ιε : ἀνα- |
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| | παύσῃ αὐτὴ(ν) |
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| | ὁ θ(εὸ)ς εἰς κόλποις |
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| | Ἀβραὰμ ϥ̣\[θ\] |
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3 τιμ̅ο̅θε̅α stone \|\| 5 μη stone \|\| 6 ϊνδ<sub>/</sub> ϊε stone \| ανα stone \|\| 7
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αυτη̅ stone \|\| 8 θϲ̅ stone, which is pitted above the preceding
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*omikron* (probably a chance mark, not a diacritic) \| κολποιϲ stone;
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read ἐν κόλποις or εἰς κόλπους
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*Translation*
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Here lies the blessed Timothea. She met her end on the 3rd of the month
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of Phaophi of the 15th indiction. May God give her rest in the bosoms of
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Abraham, 99 (=amen).
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*Commentary*
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3 Τιμοθέα (τιμ̅ο̅θε̅α on the stone). Overlining of personal names is
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occasionally found in epitaphs: Nikea (Νικεα, an apparent nominative in
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what should be the genitive of a female name) in *I.Chr. Egypte* 627
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from northern Nubia (Talmis), and Deidō (in the genitive Δειδους) in
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*I.Chr. Egypte* 525 from southern Egypt (Hermonthis?). Neither of these
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instances could have been conflated with a *nomen sacrum*, which might
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otherwise have influenced the scribal practice here (cf. θϲ̅ for θ(εό)ς
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in 8 below), that is, overlining θε̅ as if θ(ε)έ, then extending the
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overline to the left.
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This is the first instance of the name Timothea in published texts from
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Christian Nubia (so the *DBMNT*). Only three individuals listed under
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this name in the *Trismegistos Names* database (*TM Nam* 25628) are
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acceptable parallels: *SB* I 5854 (Alexandria, undated \[early
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Ptolemaic, to judge from letterforms in ed.pr., fig. 3\]); *C.Étiq.Mom.*
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749 (*T.Mom.Louvre* 322), third or fourth century CE; and *P.Flor.* I
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150 + *P.Louvre* III 193 i 2, 3, 6, 7, etc. (Κλαυδία Ἑρμητάριον ἡ καὶ
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Τιμοθέα), 269 CE. (The form in Cruz-Uribe, *Graffiti,* p. 46 no. 67
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\[Hibis; undated, but probably Hellenistic to judge from the drawing\],
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read Τιμοθηι and rendered "to Timothea," is probably rather the male
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name Τιμοθῆς̣.) Foraboschi, *Onomasticon*, p. 318, adds one instance from
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seventh-century Egypt (*P.Got.* 14.10).
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3--4 ἐτελεύτησεν. So far nearly all other parallels for this formulary
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from northern Nubia use either ἐτελε(ι)ώθη or ἐκοιμήθη (cf. Tibiletti
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Bruno, "Epigrafi funerarie cristiane della Nubia," p. 513), a coherence
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that led Junker ("Die christlichen Grabsteine Nubiens," p. 139) to the
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conclusion that ἐτελεύτησεν is entirely lacking in Nubia except at Bigeh
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(for him, not a true exception) and characteristic instead of southern
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Egypt (see also Tudor, *Christian Funerary Stelae*, Appendix, Table A,
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III.3.1.5). The situation is complicated by a closer examination,
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including texts published in the interim. In addition to the epitaph
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from Bigeh (C. M. Firth ap. Reisner, *Archaeological Survey of Nubia*,
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p. 104 no. 8, line 6, with an improved text by Monneret de Villard, *La
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Nubia medioevale*, p. 14, correcting the erroneous attribution to Ginari
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of the photograph printed in *Archaeological Survey of Nubia,* plate 51,
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no. 3), ἐτελεύτησεν does appear in some Nubian epitaphs (Adam Łajtar is
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thanked for the following references): those of no lesser personages
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than King David (of Alodia/Alwa or a united Nubian kingdom including
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also Makuria and Nobadia) from Soba (*I.Khartoum Greek* 79, line 19),
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and Joseph, bishop of Aswan, who died and was buried in Dongola (*SEG*
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LXI 1543, line 29); as well as that of a woman Tikete (?) from Kalabsha,
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which was later brought to Cairo (Monneret de Villard, *Nubia
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medioevale*, p. 41, lines 3--4: read Τικετη ἐτελεύτησεν in place of τικε
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τη ετελευτηϲ εν); and likely a sandstone funerary cross from Ghazali
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(*I.Khartoum Greek* 45: \[ἐ\]τελεύ̣\[τησεν\] probably to be restored in
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line 5 with the editor \[accepted also in *I.Ghazali* 210\]).
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Corruptions, in ancient or modern copying, could also be suspected in
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two cases from Taphis (Ginari): of επη (sic: ἐ⟨τελευτ⟩ή⟨σεν⟩?) in the
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corresponding place in Firth 124, and of the confused
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sequence ΤΕ\[.\]ΝΑΝ\[.\]ΙΔΕΘ in *SEG* LIV 1774, which might conceal an
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error (probably of copying by the editor rather than execution by the
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ancient stonecutter) for ⟨ἐ⟩τε⟨λεύτησεν⟩. The spelling ἐτελευώθη in
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*I.Chr. Egypte* 622 (*SB* V 8736; *I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 53) (Talmis)
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may represent conflation of the more common ἐτελειώθη with a variant
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ἐτελεύτησεν.
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5--6. For the use of Egyptian months and indictions in Nubia, see
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Ochała, *Chronological Systems*, pp. 221--4 and 99--124, respectively;
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writings and attestations of the month Phaōphi are listed at pp. 226 and
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256--9, respectively. The presence of an indiction-year in the formulary
|
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is an indication of possible provenance from the Ginari cemetery at
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Taphis (cf. the following n.), but the substitution of τελευτάω (see
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3--4n. above) complicates this assignment.
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6--7 ἀναπαύσῃ. The use of the subjunctive rather than imperative
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(ἀνάπαυσον) could be another sign (cf. the previous n.) of provenance
|
||
from Taphis (van der Vliet and Worp, "Four North-Nubian Funerary
|
||
Stelae," p. 32); for prayer-formulae requesting rest for the deceased,
|
||
see in general Tudor, *Christian Funerary Stelae*, pp. 152--6.
|
||
|
||
8 εἰς κόλποις. References to the figure of the bosom of Abraham (Luke
|
||
16:22--3) are collected by Staerk, "Abrahams Schoß"; for interpretative
|
||
questions, see recently Yoder, "In the Bosom of Abraham," esp. 17--19,
|
||
and for the form εἰς κόλποις in place of εἰς κόλπους (or ἐν κόλποις),
|
||
Tibiletti Bruno, "Epigrafi funerarie cristiane della Nubia," p. 513 (six
|
||
instances)
|
||
|
||
So far only *I.Chr. Egypte* 622 (*SB* V 8736; *I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno*
|
||
53) with εἰς κόλιπον Ἀβραάμ could be considered a secure parallel for
|
||
the omission of Isaac and Jacob, but with a singular "bosom" rather than
|
||
the plural as here; cf. *I.Chr. Egypte* 627 (*SB* V 8724; *I.Nubia
|
||
Tibiletti Bruno* 60), which ends εἰς κόλπον Ἀβραά̣μ \[ \] and seems
|
||
unlikely to have continued with more than ἀμήν or a final cross; Firth
|
||
270, in which the stone ends (it is unclear whether due to damage or
|
||
not) with ἐν κόλποις Ἀβραάμ but the editor restores \[κ(αὶ) Ἰσαὰκ κ(αὶ)
|
||
Ἰακώβ\] in a following line; and *I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 59, lines
|
||
9--10, ἀναπαύσῃ σε ἐν Ἀβραμιαίοις "may (God) give you rest in the
|
||
(bosoms?) of Abraham." Perhaps a form of the same derived adjective
|
||
Ἀβρααμιαῖος "of Abraham" is to be read where [Firth]{.smallcaps} copied
|
||
αναπαυση ο θ(εος) εν αβρααμ ια . . . . . . in an unnumbered epitaph from
|
||
"debris" at Ginari (p. 50); compare the nexus Ἀβραμίοις κόλποις in the
|
||
grave epigram *MAMA* VII 587, line6, and Ἀβραμί\[οι\]ς ἐ⟨ν⟩ κόλποις in
|
||
the epitaph *I.Mus. Catania* 187, lines 2--3. The substitution of
|
||
another body part, for a presumably metonymic effect, is also found:
|
||
ἀπεβίωσεν ὁ μακάριος ἐν βραχὺς (for βραχίοσιν) Ἀβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ
|
||
Ἰακώβ "the blessed (deceased) departed life in the arms of Abraham and
|
||
Isaac and Jacob (*SB* III 6133, Hermonthis?).
|
||
|
||
Lefebvre (*I.Chr. Egypte*, p. xxx), considered the expression of hope
|
||
for the rest of the deceased in the bosoms of the three patriarchs to
|
||
have been "créée par les chrétiens d'Égypte," which should also be
|
||
understood to include those of northern Nubia. (It is far from limited
|
||
to inscriptions of the formula-type to which the Brooklyn Museum epitaph
|
||
belongs: in addition to the texts gathered by Lefebvre, note, e.g., an
|
||
unpublished epitaph on a "small Coptic stele" in a private house in the
|
||
modern village of Tafa \[ancient Taphis\] mentioned by Weigall,
|
||
*Antiquities of Lower Nubia*, p. 64, with a drawing in pl. 27, which
|
||
shows that the text, in fact in Greek, belongs to a distinct
|
||
formula-type beginning ὑπὲρ {ε}μνήμ̣(ης) (καὶ) ἀνα̣πα̣\[ύ\]σεως and
|
||
eventually calling on God to give the deceased, a woman \[Ε̣ντρει?\],
|
||
rest ἐν κ\[όλ\]π\[οι\]ς Ἀβραὰμ (καὶ) Ἰσα\[ὰκ (καὶ)\] Ἰακώ̣\[β\].) The
|
||
appearance of the same motif in Christian prayers for those near death,
|
||
asking for their repose in Paradise, with a wider late ancient
|
||
circulation including Syriac (Mateos, "Prières syriennes," pp. 276--7
|
||
no. 5), complicates this thesis of creation. It was also incorporated in
|
||
the Christian funerary liturgy in the so-called ὁ θεὸς τῶν πνευμάτων
|
||
prayer ("God of spirits"), not exclusively in Nubia (*contra* Brakmann,
|
||
"Defunctus adhuc loquitur," pp. 302, 305--10) but reflected particularly
|
||
in epitaphs there; see in general Ruggieri, "Preghiera funebre."
|
||
Reference to Abraham alone in this respect is reflected already in
|
||
Augustine, *Confessions* 9.3.6, of a deceased friend: "Now he lives in
|
||
the bosom of Abraham. Whatever it is that is meant by that bosom, that
|
||
is where my Nebridius lives" (*nunc ille vivit in sinu Abraham. quidquid
|
||
illud est quod illo significatur sinu, ibi Nebridius meus vivit*).
|
||
|
||
An interchangeability of singular κόλπος and plural κόλποι is
|
||
established early, with the Gospel background of this motif: in Luke
|
||
16:23 Lazarus is seen in the plural "bosoms" (ἐν τοῖς κόλποις) of
|
||
Abraham, though at the first appearance of Lazarus in the previous verse
|
||
he is carried "to the bosom" (εἰς τὸν κόλπον) of the patriarch. The
|
||
plural, in reference to Abraham alone, continued in patristic literature
|
||
(e.g. Gregory of Nyssa, *Funerary Oration on the Bishop Meletios*
|
||
\[Spira, *Gregory Nysseni opera*, p. 452\], ὁ μὲν ἐν τοῖς κόλποις τοῦ
|
||
Ἀβραὰμ ἀναπαύεται \["He rests in the bosoms of Abraham"\]; Epiphanius,
|
||
*Panarion* 2:468, τὸν μὲν ἐν κόλποις Ἀβραὰμ δεικνὺς ἀναπαύεσθαι
|
||
\["Showing that he rests in the bosoms of Abraham"\]; John Chrysostom,
|
||
*On the Blessed Abraham* 3 \[PG 50:746\], τὸν Ἀβραὰμ μιμήσασθαι ἵνα
|
||
ξενισθῶμεν ἐν τοῖς τούτου κόλποις \["To emulate Abraham, so that we may
|
||
be received in his bosoms"\]). Although, as noted, the plural κόλποι
|
||
"bosoms" of Abraham alone is so far unique to the Brooklyn Museum stele
|
||
in funerary epigraphy, the converse, a singular, collective κόλπος
|
||
"bosom" of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, may be observed in three epitaphs
|
||
from Taphis (Ginari) (Firth 208, 323, 412).
|
||
|
||
9 ϥ\[θ\]. The cypher stands by isopsephism, with a form of *qoppa*
|
||
resembling Coptic *fai*, for ἀμήν, which it occasionally replaces as the
|
||
end of the formula (e.g. Firth 95, 208, 230, where either *qoppa* or the
|
||
same *fai* has been misread as Greek *gamma*; Liddel, "New Greek
|
||
Inscriptions," pp. 97--8 no. B.2 \[with 7n.\]). Junker, "Die
|
||
christlichen Grabsteine Nubiens," p. 128, considered this replacement
|
||
exclusive to Ginari, but it is now found in three epitaphs from Ghazali
|
||
(*I.Ghazali* 78, 120, 153). In *SEG* LXV 2010, from an unknown site
|
||
probably in northern Nubia, it appears alongside ἀμήν in the
|
||
corresponding place.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bibliography
|
||
|
||
Abbreviations
|
||
|
||
*C.Étiq.Mom.* = Bernard Boyaval, *Corpus des étiquettes de momies
|
||
grecques*. Publications de l'Université de Lille III. Villeneuve-d'Ascq:
|
||
Université de Lille III, 1976.
|
||
|
||
*DBMNT* = Grzegorz Ochała (ed.), *Database of Medieval Nubian Texts*
|
||
(Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 2011-- ) http://www.dbmnt.uw.edu.pl.
|
||
|
||
Firth = Cecil M. Firth, "Appendix II: Catalogue of the Greek Gravestones
|
||
of the Christian Period from Ginari, Cemetery 55," in *The
|
||
Archaeological Survey of Nubia: Report for 1908--1909* (Cairo: Ministry
|
||
of Finance, Egypt, Survey Department, 1912), vol. 1, pp. 45--50 (cited
|
||
by grave number).
|
||
|
||
*GrEpiAbbr.* = A. Chaniotis et al., "Liste des abréviations des éditions
|
||
et ouvrages de référence pour l'épigraphie grecque alphabétique"
|
||
https://www.aiegl.org/grepiabbr.html.
|
||
|
||
*I.Chr. Egypte* = Gustave Lefebvre, *Recueil des inscriptions
|
||
grecques-chrétiennes d'Égypte*. Cairo: Institut français d'archéologie
|
||
orientale, 1907.
|
||
|
||
*I.Egypte Nubie Louvre* = Étienne Bernand, *Inscriptions grecques
|
||
d'Égypte et de Nubie au Musée du Louvre*. Paris: CNRS, 1992.
|
||
|
||
*I.Khartoum Greek* = Adam Łajtar, *Catalogue of the Greek Inscriptions
|
||
in the Sudan National Museum at Khartoum (I. Khartoum Greek)*.
|
||
Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta 122. Leuven: Peeters, 2003.
|
||
|
||
*I.Mus. Catania* = Kalle Korhonen, *Le iscrizioni del Museo Civico di
|
||
Catania: Storia delle collezioni, cultura epigrafica, edizione*.
|
||
Commentationes humanarum litterarum 121. Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum
|
||
Fennica, 2004.
|
||
|
||
*I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* = Maria Grazia Tibiletti Bruno, *Iscrizioni
|
||
nubiane con riferimento alla nota « Di alcune cratteristiche epigrafi
|
||
funerarie cristiane della Nubia » pubblicata dall'Istituto lombardo -
|
||
Accademia di scienze e lettere*. Pavia: Successori Fusi, 1964.
|
||
|
||
*MAMA* VII = William M. Calder, *Monuments from Eastern Phrygia*.
|
||
Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua 7. Manchester: Manchester University
|
||
Press, 1956.
|
||
|
||
*P.Flor.* I = Girolamo Vitelli, *Documenti pubblici e privati dell'età
|
||
romana e bizantina*. Papiri greco-egizii, Papiri Fiorentini 1.
|
||
Supplementi Filologico-Storici ai Monumenti Antichi. Milan: Ulrico
|
||
Hoepli, 1906.
|
||
|
||
PG = Jacques-Paul Migne (ed.), Patrologia cursus completus, Series
|
||
Graeca. Paris: J.-P. Migne, 1857--1866.
|
||
|
||
*P.Got.* = Hjalmar Frisk, *Papyrus grecs de la Bibliothèque municipale
|
||
de Gothembourg*. Göteborgs Högskolas Årsskrift 35.1. Gothenburg:
|
||
Elanders, 1929.
|
||
|
||
*P.Louvre* III = Andrea Jördens et al., *Griechische
|
||
Papyri aus der Sammlung des Louvre (P. Louvre III)*. Papyrologische
|
||
Texte und Abhandlungen 47. Bonn 2022.
|
||
|
||
*SB* = Friedrich Preisigke et al., *Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus
|
||
Aegypten*. Various places and publishers, 1915-- .
|
||
|
||
*SEG* = Jacobus J. E. Hondius et al. (eds.), *Supplementum Epigraphicum
|
||
Graecum*. Leiden: Brill, 1923-- .
|
||
|
||
*TM* = *Trismegistos: An Interdisciplinary Portal of the Ancient World*
|
||
https://www.trismegistos.org
|
||
|
||
*T.Mom.Louvre* = François Baratte and Bernard Boyaval, "Catalogue des
|
||
étiquettes de momies du Musée du Louvre," *Cahiers de Recherches de
|
||
l'Institut de Papyrologie et d'Égyptologie de Lille* 2--6 (1975--1981).
|
||
|
||
References
|
||
|
||
Brakmann, Heinzgerd, "Defunctus adhuc loquitur: Gottesdienst und
|
||
Gebetsliteratur der untergegangenen Kirche in Nubien." *Archiv für
|
||
Liturgiewissenschaft* 48 (2006): pp. 283--333.
|
||
|
||
*Catalogue of the Egyptian Antiquities of the New-York Historical
|
||
Society*. New York: Brooklyn Museum, 1915.
|
||
|
||
Cruz-Uribe, Eugene. *The Graffiti from the Temple Precinct*. Hibis
|
||
Temple Project 3. San Antonio: Van Siclen Books, 2008.
|
||
|
||
De Keersmaecker, Roger O. *The Temples of Semna and Kumma*. Travellers'
|
||
Graffiti from Egypt and the Sudan 2. Antwerp: Roger O. De Keersmaecker,
|
||
2003.
|
||
|
||
De Keersmaecker, Roger O. *Elkab: Temple of Amenophis III*. Travellers'
|
||
Graffiti from Egypt and the Sudan 8. Antwerp: Roger O. De Keersmaecker,
|
||
2010.
|
||
|
||
De Keersmaecker, Roger O. *The Temples of Abu Simbel*. Travellers'
|
||
Graffiti from Egypt and the Sudan, Additional Volume. Antwerp: Roger O.
|
||
De Keersmaecker, 2012.
|
||
|
||
Fischer, David Hackett. *Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in
|
||
America*. America, a Cultural History 1. New York: Oxford University
|
||
Press, 1989.
|
||
|
||
Foraboschi, Daniele. *Onomasticon alterum papyrologicum: Supplemento al
|
||
Namenbuch di F. Preisigke*. Testi e documenti per lo studio
|
||
dell'antichità 16, Serie papirologica 2. Milan: Istituto editoriale
|
||
Cisalpino, 1971.
|
||
|
||
Hyett, William Henry Adams. *Journal of a Visit to the Nile and Holy
|
||
Land, in 1847--48*. London: George Woodfall and Son, 1851.
|
||
|
||
Junker, Hermann. "Die christlichen Grabsteine Nubiens." *Zeitschrift für
|
||
ägyptische Sprache* 60 (1925): pp. 111--52.
|
||
|
||
Łajtar, Adam. "Three Greek Christian Epitaphs from Lower Nubia in the
|
||
Collection of the Archaeological Museum in Cracow." *Materiały
|
||
Archeologiczne* 27 (1994): pp. 55--61.
|
||
|
||
Liddel, Peter. "New Greek Inscriptions in UK Collections Part I:
|
||
Unpublished Ancient Greek Inscriptions from Museums in Aberdeen, Bristol
|
||
and Edinburgh." *Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik* 223 (2022):
|
||
pp. 93--105.
|
||
|
||
Lynch, William F. (ed.). *Official Report of the United States'
|
||
Expedition to Explore the Dead Sea and the River Jordan*. Baltimore:
|
||
John Murphy, 1852.
|
||
|
||
Mateos, J. "Prières syriennes d'absolution du VIIe--XIe siècles."
|
||
*Orientalia Christiana Periodica* 35 (1968): pp. 252--80.
|
||
|
||
Monneret de Villard, Ugo. *La Nubia medioevale*, vol. 1. Cairo: Institut
|
||
français d'archéologie orientale, 1935.
|
||
|
||
Ochała, Grzegorz. *Chronological Systems of Christian Nubia.* Journal of
|
||
Juristic Papyrology Supplement 16. Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 2011.
|
||
|
||
Ochała, Grzegorz. "Nubica onomastica miscellanea III: Notes on and
|
||
Corrections to Personal Names Found in Christian Nubian Written
|
||
Sources." *Journal of Juristic Papyrology* 48 (2018): pp. 141--84.
|
||
|
||
Reisner, George A. *Archaeological Survey of Nubia, Report for
|
||
1907--1908*. Cairo: Ministry of Finance, Egypt, Survey Department, 1919.
|
||
|
||
Ruggieri, Vincenzo. "La preghiera funebre ὁ θεὸς τῶν πνευμάτων καὶ πάσης
|
||
σαρκός: la cristologia e i suoi elementi strutturali." *Orientalia
|
||
Christiana Periodica* 87 (2021): pp. 129--59.
|
||
|
||
Spira, Andreas. *Gregorii Nysseni opera*, vol. 9.1. Leiden: Brill, 1967.
|
||
|
||
Staerk, Willy. "Abrahams Schoß." In *Reallexikon für Antike und
|
||
Christentum*, vol. 1, edited by Theodor Klauser, cols. 27--8. Stuttgart:
|
||
Hiersemann, 1950.
|
||
|
||
Tibiletti Bruno, Maria G. "Di alcune caratteristiche epigrafi funerarie
|
||
cristiane della Nubia." *Rendiconti, Istituto Lombardo, Accademia di
|
||
Scienze e Lettere, Classe di Lettere, Scienze morali e storiche* 97
|
||
(1963): pp. 491--538.
|
||
|
||
Tudor, Bianca. *Christian Funerary Stelae of the Byzantine and Arab
|
||
periods from Egypt*. Marburg: Tectum, 2011.
|
||
|
||
Van der Vliet, Jacques. "Gleanings from Christian Northern Nubia."
|
||
*Journal of Juristic Papyrology* 32 (2002): pp. 175--94.
|
||
|
||
Van der Vliet, Jacques. "'What Is Man?': The Nubian Tradition of Coptic
|
||
Funerary Inscriptions." In *Nubian Voices: Studies in Christian Nubian
|
||
Culture*, edited by Adam Łajtar and Jacques van der Vliet, Journal of
|
||
Juristic Papyrology Supplement 15, pp. 171--224. Warsaw: Raphael
|
||
Taubenschlag Foundation, 2011.
|
||
|
||
Van der Vliet, Jacques, and Klaas A. Worp, "Four North-Nubian Funerary
|
||
Stelae from the Bankes Collection." In *Nubian Voices* II: *New Texts
|
||
and Studies on Christian Nubian Culture*, edited by Adam Łajtar,
|
||
Grzegorz Ochała, and Jacques van der Vliet, Journal of Juristic
|
||
Papyrology Supplement 27, pp. 27--44. Warsaw: Raphael Taubenschlag
|
||
Foundation, 2015.
|
||
|
||
Van der Vliet, Jacques, and Klaas A. Worp, "A Fifth Nubian Funerary
|
||
Stela from the Bankes Collection: An Addendum to 'CIEN' 3, 26--9."
|
||
*Journal of Juristic Papyrology* 47 (2017): pp. 251--4.
|
||
|
||
Weigall, Arthur E. P. A *Report on the Antiquities of Lower Nubia (the
|
||
First Cataract to the Sudan Frontier) and Their Condition in 1906--07*.
|
||
Oxford: University Press, 1907.
|
||
|
||
Yoder, Keith L. "In the Bosom of Abraham: The Name and Role of Poor
|
||
Lazarus in Luke 16:19--31." *Novum Testamentum* 62 (2020): pp. 2--24.
|
||
|
||
[^1]: I thank Katya Barbash and Kathy Zurek-Doule for their help
|
||
and hospitality during my visit to consult the stone (19 December
|
||
2022), Eleanor Gillers for assistance with archival material in the
|
||
New-York Historical Society, Adam Łajtar for epigraphic and Julia Hamilton for photographic advice, respectively, and
|
||
an anonymous reader of *Dotawo* for criticisms of this article. All
|
||
remaining errors are my own.
|
||
|
||
[^2]: A rare instance of an internally dated inscription of this type
|
||
(with an expanded formulary) belongs to 699 CE: *I.Chr. Egypte* 661
|
||
(*I.Nubia Tibiletti Bruno* 43). (Abbreviations for epigraphic
|
||
sources follow *GrEpiAbbr.* where relevant.) The letterforms of the
|
||
Brooklyn epitaph are broadly comparable, as is the lettering of the
|
||
parallel text (see further below) edited by Van der Vliet and Worp,
|
||
"Four North-Nubian Funerary Stelae," pp. 32--3 no. 2 (*SEG* LXV
|
||
2010), tentatively assigned to the same century.
|
||
|
||
[^3]: He contributed a report, "Geological Reconnaisance of Part of the
|
||
Holy Land," on explorations from Beirut south to the Dead Sea,
|
||
including its eastern shores (in Lynch \[ed.\],
|
||
*Official Report*, pp. 75--206); see also his obituary in the *New
|
||
York Times*, 18 January 1876, p. 8.
|
||
|
||
[^4]: *New York Times*, 15 December 1864; *New York Commercial
|
||
Advertiser* and *New York Evening Post*, 16 December 1864.
|
||
|
||
[^5]: Information from copies of correspondence related to the donation
|
||
kept in the Brooklyn Museum archives; Kathy Zurek-Doule is thanked
|
||
for this reference.
|
||
|
||
[^6]: *Catalogue of the Egyptian Antiquities*, p. 74.
|
||
|
||
[^7]: Graffito: De Keersmaecker, *Elkab*, p. 20 (with further
|
||
bibliographical information on Anderson at pp. 21--2); Hyett,
|
||
*Journal*, p. 33.
|
||
|
||
[^8]: See De Keersmaecker, *Temples of Abu Simbel*, p. 75, and *Temples
|
||
of Semna and Kumma*, p. 61 (with further biographical information at
|
||
pp. 62--6), respectively; the obituary in the *New York Times*, 25
|
||
February 1903, p. 2, also mentions travels in Egypt and Nubia in
|
||
1847 and 1848.
|
||
|
||
[^9]: *Catalogue of the Egyptian Antiquities*, p. 75.
|
||
|
||
[^10]: For the texts, and the proposed connection to Salt, see van der
|
||
Vliet and Worp, "Four North-Nubian Funerary Stelae," pp. 27--9, and
|
||
"Fifth Nubian Funerary Stela."
|
||
|
||
[^11]: Junker, "Die christlichen Grabsteine Nubiens," pp. 114, 125--7
|
||
(see also pp. 122--3 on physical form); van der Vliet, "Gleanings,"
|
||
pp. 180--3.
|
||
|
||
[^12]: See in general Tibiletti Bruno, "Epigrafi funerarie cristiane
|
||
della Nubia," pp. 513--15.
|
||
|
||
[^13]: Not included here is the fragmentary *SEG* LXV 2009 (*DBMNT*
|
||
1482), an epitaph of a man whose name, or whose patronym, was read
|
||
as Iatouros, but the text is very uncertain, and the opening ἔνθα
|
||
κατάκειται is entirely restored.
|
||
|
||
[^14]: The request for repose is omitted.
|
||
|
||
[^15]: The word *ara* following her name is probably an Egyptian title
|
||
from "the domain of local law or finance": van der Vliet,
|
||
"Gleanings," pp. 176--8 \[*SEG* LII 1816\].
|
||
|
||
[^16]: Firth read χρισαν̅τη; the overline in a Nubian
|
||
context would be expected to represent /i/, but a misreading (or
|
||
misprinting) of χρισανθη (Chrisanthē; cf. Χρυσάνθη) is also
|
||
possible. An anonymous reader of *Dotawo* is thanked for these
|
||
observations.
|
||
|
||
[^17]: The request for repose is omitted.
|
||
|
||
[^18]: Ochała, to whom this reading is owed, doubts that the sequence is
|
||
a name, but, although not precisely paralleled, it fits well as a
|
||
"hortatory" name (for the category, see, e.g., Fischer, *Albion's
|
||
Seed*, pp. 94--7) in Coptic, "Fear-not," drawn from the words of the
|
||
angel to Mary in Luke 1:30 (in the Sahidic version, ⲙⲡⲣⲣϩⲟⲧⲉ ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ).
|
||
|
||
[^19]: The formulary (ἡ μακαρία) indicates that the deceased was a
|
||
woman.
|
||
|
||
[^20]: The name is lost, but the formulary (α̣ὐ̣τοῖς for αὐτῆς) indicates
|
||
that the deceased was a woman. The stone, now in the Bristol Museum
|
||
and Art Gallery, was accessioned in a group that included artifacts
|
||
from Elephantine and Dakkeh(?). The first editor writes of a
|
||
"(modern) inscription, lightly incised, 'ΚΑΛΒ'": could Kal(a)b(sha)
|
||
(Talmis) have been meant?
|
||
|
||
[^21]: For this function of the month date, see van der Vliet, "'What is
|
||
Man,'" pp. 195--7. The stelae of the Ginari cemetery were originally
|
||
affixed to the outer, western end of the tombs, in some cases
|
||
accompanied by niches for the placement of commemorative lamps:
|
||
[Firth]{.smallcaps} p. 40; Łajtar, "Epitaphs," p. 58.
|
||
|
||
[^22]: Cf. van der Vliet, "Gleanings," p. 175. |