143
Note
on the Phoenician Inscription Melitensis Quinta *).
By Wm. Wrlgrht.
(Hierzu eioe lithograph. Tafel.)
Having written an article of some lengtb on tbe Melitensis
Quinta for the Society of Biblical Archaeology, I give here only
my reading of the inscription, with a few explanatory notes.
The slab, which is at this moment deposited by its owner
with Dr. Birch, the Keeper of the Antiquities in the British Mu¬
seum, is of white marble, about G'/g inches in length by ö^/g inches
in extreme breadth. Judging by the form of the tablet, as com¬
pared with Sard, triling. 1, Cit. 2, Carthag. 195, Massil., and Tucc.,
in all of which the length greatly exceeds the breadth, I believe
that the Due de Luynes was right in assuming the loss of a con¬
siderable portion of the stone, I should say at least half. It has
not been violently broken or smashed, but apparently cut or sawed
through, as Von Maltzan has already remarked.
At the end of line 2, after the letter tt, I can descry only a
very small apex , apparently the extreme right-hand point of a ^ .
At the end of 1, 4 there is visible part of a letter, which can
only be the right-hand limb of a n, n, or 1. At the end of 1. 6
only the apex of the letter ■) is discernible. At the end of 1. 7
we see a stroke, which can, as in 1. 4, be part only of a n, n,
or L In this line there is a clear space between the words in©
and aann. I therefore read and translate as follows: —
ttbttj niN bia oy ©nm bSD
[p]n niNi bsattni: na ©npa
nptt n-'Ni nin©3> na lanpa
[n] bN-' p ©-IN n3i3» mt« in»a-
N-' p laaNna» p Dpa'^T la ac©
I) VgU Bd. XIV , S. 649—053.
144 Wriglil, Note on the Phoenician Inscription Melitensis Quinta.
hjniBNiay p Nsn p "^bsjbsa nar
h]^ aana -laia -f^V' p oba p nba
bia
1. The people (or municipality) of Gozo made and renewed
(»'. e. rebuilt or repaired) the three
2. sanctuary of the temple of §adam-Ba'al, and the s(anc-
tuary)
3. sanctuary of the temple of 'Ashtöreth, and the sane-
tn(ary) ^
4. with the money (?) of the most worthy (?) Arts , the son
of YA'el, (the) _
5. Shafat, the son of Zybkm, the son of 'Abd-'Eshmün, the
son of Yü'e(l,)
6. sacrifice, Baal-shillekh, the son of Hannö, the son of
'Abd-'Eshmü(n),
7. Ballö, the son of Kim, the son of Yaazdr, the superin¬
tendent of the carpenters
8. the people (pr municipality) of Gozo.
Line 1. ©im bso. The same formula occurs in Carthag. 195
(Euting, Punische Steine, Taf. XIL). bia , either bja (Movers) or,
more probably, bia. — n-^N, Carthag. 195, 1. 1.
Line 4. It seems to me very unlikely that "in5>a should have
been nsed for in? n^^a in the same inscription with byaaiir n->a
and mn«» n^a. On a mere blunder of the carver we cannot think.
It may be that iny is here = Heb. Iis». Some rich citizen of
Gozo may have given a large sum to be expended in repairing
and adorning the temples, under the direction of the governing body
of the island. It seems natnral to take nsi3> , with Eioald,
in the sense of „hochwürdig", n« being =l'''=tN , and nai5> =':j':i?-
My difficulty lies in a doubt as to whether Tjl? admits of the
meaning which we attach to „personal worth". Perhaps nai3> may
have come nearer in signification to n:j1»73 and nsi^a , or to the
Chaldee and Rabbinical riNSIS, „ magistracy", „ court of justice".
The latter word, it may be objected, comes from the Greek diQx'^,
bnt of that I am by no means sure. Admitting either of these
conjectures, naiy ns might mean „the chief edile", „the superin¬
tendent of public works", or „the chief magistrate" of the island.
In Carthag. 195, for instance, we find mention made of „decem-
viri" in charge of the temples, diöipan by ©N D©Nn m©y. In
that case, the enumeration of the officials connected with the under¬
taking, which the inscription commemorates, would commence with
these words, and we should have to connect inya (meaning un¬
certain) with the preceding portion of it.
Line 5. The name opa-iT occurs in Carthag. 218, 1. 4 (Eviing,
Punische Steine, Taf. XXIV.).
Line 7. The stone has distinctly oba, not obr. At the end
of the line I read m asna la'c; compare the Pu'al in Isaiah 51. I.
Wright, Note on the Phoenician Inscription Melitensis Quinta. 145
As to the antiquity of this inscription, it must be considerable.
The character belongs to the best period of the Punic or Cartha¬
ginian type, and we shall not be far wrong, if we assign it to
about the same age as the inscription of Marseilles and Carthag.
90. Brit. Mns. = Schröders Karth. 1, that is to say, about the
middle of the third century before Christ. See Blau in Bd. XIV.,
p. 653, and Lenormant, Essai snr la Propagation de I'Alphahet
Phenicien, t. I. pp. 154—^155.
Blau and Ewald are agreed that the inscription relates to
works executed by the people of Gozo in the island of Malta.
But I really find no proof of the stone having been actually dis¬
covered in the latter island. Why may it uot have been brought
thither from Gozo? In that little island there was a temple of
Calypso-Aphrodite, mentioned by the compiler of the Etymologicum
Magnum, iv Si KavSm xal KaXvxpoig iatlv 'j4(fQoSlri]g hgov;
and the researches of the Count della Marmora and other travel¬
lers have made us acquainted with a large double temple, each por¬
tion of which comprises two courts. See Oerhard, Ueber die Kunst
der Phönicier in the Philologische und historische Abhandll. d. königl.
Akad. d. Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1846, p. 579, in particular pp.
600 — 602 and Taf. II. Is it not possible that our inscription
might be connected with extensive repairs of this building, which
was doubtless one of the principal temples in Gozo?
Bd. XXVIII.
1 3
10
146
Notizen und Correspondenzen.
Bemerkungen und Anfragen.
Von Dr. Abr. Geiger.
Der dritte Band, mit welchem Wright seine gründliche Be¬
lehrung über die im Britischen Museum befindlichen Handschriften
abgeschlossen , und über den bereits in dieser Zeitschrift durch
Nöldeke berichtet worden, bietet wiederum so reichen Stoff, dass
es auch au mannichfachen Anregungen nicht fehlen kann, sich wei¬
tere Aufklärungen zu erbitten. Und dies sowohl in Betreff des
Inhalts als der Sprache.
Wir finden in den hier verzeichneten syrischen Schriften man¬
che Beachtung der Samaritaner. So wird nicht blos über einen
von ihnen unternommenen Aufstand berichtet (S. 1059 N. 8), sie
werden auch im Leben Jakob's des Wanderers erwähnt (S. 1100''
N. 4). Ganz besonders aber erregt die Aufmerksamkeit was über
eine samaritanisch-christliche Secte in cod. 949 N. 14 angegeben
wird. Das Stück — das sich auch in einem bereits von Rosen
und Forshall verzeichneten Codex befindet — enthält die Disputa¬
tion des Priesters Paul mit dem Satan und beginnt mit den Wor¬
ten: „Er war in einer der Städte der Samaritaner, welche nach
der Landessprache Scbalom (DibüJ) genannt wird. Sie gehörten der
Secte der Herodianer an, die dem Herodes folgen , nur das
Evangelium des Marcus, die Briefe Pauli und vier Bücher Mosis
annehmeti. Sie baden gemeinsam mit ihren Frauen, Söhnen und
Töchtern." Weiss man sonst etwas über diese Secte? Sie ist
natürlich nicht mit deu altjüdischen Herodianern, d. h. den Boethu-
sen, zu identificiren, wenn sie auch von ihnen abgeleitet sein
könnte. Wenn die hier gemachten Angaben als genau anzunehmen
wären nnd noch anderweitig sich bestätigt fänden, so gäben sie
zu interessanten historischen Betrachtungen Veranlassung.
Schon früher ist von dem Mangel an Bekanntschaft der syri¬
schen Gelehrten mit dem Hebräischen gesprochen worden, und dass
nur Jakob von Edessa eine rühmliche Ausnahme macht, wenn
auch seine Spraehkenntniss immerhin eine unsichere blieb (diese
Ztschr. Bd. XXV S. 520). Wie bedeutend sein Ruf in dieser Be¬
ziehung unter den Syrern war, und wie sich sogar die Legende
