reynolds-the-quran-in-its-historical-context-2

106 Robert G. HoylandThough classed among their Hebrew inscriptions, Jaussen and Savignac doobserve that the words are "barely incised," "difficult to read," and "veryformed," so the reading is by no means sure. Hopkins, in his recent review, points··to "a certain Nabataean appearance" oftJle letters, and joins Naja in arguing thatthere is no good reason to see this as a Jewish text.JSHeb 7Place: al-UiaType: GraffitoDate: c. 2nd century BC 40Script/Lang: Nabataean Aramaic/Aramaic or ArabicBib!.: Euting 1885, p. 13; CIS 2.121; Hopkins 2007/8The Jews of the Hijaz in the Qur 'an 107"One God who helps, Valerius son of Antigonus, strategos, third indiction". theos Y18 ho boethOn oualerios antigounou strategos r indikt)wants to say that the author of this text was a Jew because around the textdrawing of palm branches, which he thinks could symbolize menorahs,three letters of uncertain significance, one of which looks like the Hebrewdalet, and also because the expression eis theos ho boethon is "rather rare inP~IPot;n,". None of these arguments is particularly cogent, and the phrase eisho boethOn is actually quite widespread (especially in its shorter form eisand is now attested near the Wadi Hajjaj with the publication of I.E.Me•im11ris and K.l. Kritikakou-Nikolatopoulou, Inscriptions fi·om Palaestina1 a: Ghar es-Saji, Athens: National Hellenic Research Foundation, 2005,Text: "AI-Nafiyu son of 'Abdu" ( 'lnpyw bnlbr 'bdw)Jaussen and Savignac listed this among their Hebrew inscriptions, though they did ·note that only the initial aliph "belonged very clearly to the Hebrew alphabet," and • ·so mused that it might be better "to set this graffito among the Aramaic graffiti of .•which the script was quite close to the Hebrew square script/' and this view hasgenerally been favoured by subsequent writers. 41 As regards the language of thescript, the al- at the beginning of the first word, assuming it is correctly read, inevitablyrecalls the definite article of Arabic, and on this and other grounds the personnamed has been designated as an "Aramaized Arab.'>4 2 The form bn for "son"would support this, though could also reflect Hebrew usage and may not be correctlyread in any case. 43 But of course, it is risky to infer too much just from a name.Noja 1979, XVPlace: Wadi Hajjaj, E. SinaiType: GraffitoDate: c. 4th to 5th century CEScript/Lang: GreekBib!.: Negev 1977, 62-6740 Thus K. Beyer and A. Livingstone, "Die neuesten aramiiischen Inschriften aus Taima," ZDMG137, 1987,290, though it is difficult to be certain with such a short text.41 And this had already been the opinion of Euting 1885, p. 13; most recently see Hopkins 2007/8, •.who gives further bibliography.42 This was suggested as likely by F.M. Cross, "An Aramaic Inscription from Daskyleion,'' Bulletinof the American School for Oriental Research 184, 1966, 9 n. 17, a propos the name 'lnp; R.Degen, "Die aramiiischen Inschriften aus Taimii' und Umgebung,'' Neue Ephemerisfiir SemitischeEpigraphik 2, 1974, 97, endorses his interpretation and adds: "that also holds good for '!npywbr 'bdw."43 Euting, CIS and Degen prefer to read Aramaic br.Wadi"Umm Sideira (E. Sinai)Type: Graffito.Date: c. 2nd to 4th centuries CE·Script/Lang.: Nabataean Aramaic. ·B. Rothenberg, Tagliyot Sinay, Tel Aviv: Masadah, 1958, 189 and pl. 92;jdem, God's Wilderness. Discoveries in Sinai, London: Nelson, 1961, 181 and84; idem, "Survey", 23 (site 312); R. Wenning, Die Nabatiier: Denkmiiler und.Ge,sclzicJ!zte:· Eine Bestandesaufnahme des archiiologischen Befundes, Freiburg:::vandlen110e