E05029: Greek inscription commemorating the construction of a church (hieron, naos), just possibly dedicated to the Apostle *Paul (S00008). Found at Amida, Roman province of Mesopotamia. Dated probably 437/438.
online resource
posted on 2018-02-09, 00:00authored bypnowakowski
The spelling of the text, as presented by George Percy Badger in his drawing, is very poor. It is, however, not certain if this was the fault of the author of the inscription, or if Badger himself was unable to read the text correctly, as he says that the face of the stone was weathered and scarcely legible. Below we present the text as restored by Adolf Kirchhoff in the CIG (which was the basis for a newer edition by Antonio Felle), with remarks by Otto Puchstein who later revisited the stone. For the original text, see the drawings attached.
1. ἐπ<ὶ Ο>ὐ<λπ>ια<ν>οῦ Kirchhoff, Felle, rejected by Lucas || 6. να(ὸς?) Παύλου ἀ(ποσ)τό(λου) ἔτου[ς] θμ<ψ>΄ + Badger, Kirchhof, Felle, διὰ Παύλου λατό(μου) ἔτους θμυ΄ (or θμψ΄) + Puchstein, Lucas
'Under the deacon Ulpianos was built (this) shrine (hieron) from the contributions of men whose names are in the book of life. Church (naos) of the Apostle Paul. In the year 749. +'
According to Otto Puchstein the last line reads: 'Through the stonecutter Paulos. In the year 449 (or 749). +' If this reading is correct, the inscription has no links to the Apostle Paul.
Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Amida
Edessa
Edessa
Ἔδεσσα
Edessa
Cult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)
Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Bequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
Merchants and artisans
Other lay individuals/ people
Source
Stone block with a carving of a tabula ansata. The last line is below the frame. There is no published description.
Found at Diyarbakır, ancient Amida, near the north gate of the city. First recorded by George Percy Badger, and published in 1852 in a drawing with no transcription. A heavily restored transcription was offered by Adolf Kirchhoff in the fourth volume of the Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum. The stone was revisited in the 1880s by Otto Puchstein who gives an entirely different reading of the last line, crucial for our project. In the 1890s the stone was revisited by Max Freiherr von Oppenheim, and republished with the aid of Hans Lucas in 1905. In 2006 the inscription was included by Antonio Felle in his collection of epigraphs containing biblical quotations.
Discussion
The inscription commemorates the construction of a sanctuary, probably termed hieron, by a deacon (the reading of his name in line 1 is, however, very doubtful), using the contributions of unnamed benefactors. It has attracted the attention of scholars because of the faithful quotation of a passage from the Epistle to the Philippians (4:3) in lines 4-5: 'whose names are in the book of life.'
Based on an imperfect drawing by George Percy Badger and probably suggested by the occurrence of the Pauline quotation, Adolf Kirchhoff argued for a restoration and interpretation of the text as referring to a church (naos) of the Apostle Paul. Otto Puchstein who saw the text offers, however, a very different reading. He believed that the last line records the name of the stonemason who built the shrine or just incised the inscription. This is a very plausible interpretation, also because the passage is placed outside the frame, a place where we can often find names of artisans. The name of the patron saint would have been mentioned in a much more prominent position.
Dating: The inscription is dated by an era year. As the face is weathered, the year was read as 449 or 749 by different editors. If the second reading is correct, the date is computed according to the Seleucid era and corresponds to AD 437-438.
Bibliography
Edition:
Felle, A.E., Biblia epigraphica. La sacra scrittura nella documentazione epigrafica dell'«Orbis christianus antiquus» (III-VIII secolo) (Bari: Edipuglia, 2006), no. 155.
Lucas, H., "Griechische und lateinische Inschriften aus Syrien, Mesopotamien und Kleinasien", Byzantinische Zeitschrift 14 (1905), 62, no. 99 (from a copy by von Oppenheim). Max von Oppenheim
Humann, K., Puchstein, O., Reisen in Kleinasien und Nordsyrien (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1890), 402, note 1 (line 6).
Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, no. 8653.
Badger, G.P., The Nestorians and Their Rituals: with the narrative of a mission to Mesopotamia and Coordistan in 1842-44, and of a late visit to those countries in 1850, vol. 1 (London: Joseph Masters, 1852), 39.
Further reading:
Deissmann 1905, 477.
Deissmann, A., Licht vom Osten. Das Neue Testament und die neuentdeckten Texte der hellenistisch-römischen Welt (Tübingen: 1908/1923), 337, no. 99.
Jalabert, L., "Citations bibliques dans l'épigraphie grecque", DACL, vol. 3 (1914), no. 145.