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An unidentified Christian-Palestinian-Aramaic fragment in the Taylor-Schechter Collection: Isaiah 36: 16–37:41

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Christa Müller-Kessler
Affiliation:
Freie Universität Berlin

Extract

Among the Taylor-Schechter Collection in the University Library Cambridge there are still Christian-Palestinian-Aramaic (CPA) fragments which have yet to be identified. One such fragment, T-S 12.742, was published for the first time in 1900 by A. Lewis and M. Gibson, though scarcely any of the text had been read.2 Like all the other CPA fragments of earlier date, T-S 12.742 is a vellum palimpsest, and has a small part of another page attached to it (see plates). The CPA script underneath the Hebrew square letters is very faint and consists of two unheaded columns of 24 lines each on both sides of the fragment. It is one of the most difficult CPA palimpsests to decipher.

Type
Notes and Communications
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1993

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References

2 Lewis, A. S.Gibson, M. D., Palestinian Syriac Texts from Palimpsest Fragments in the Taylor-Schechter Collection (London, 1900), 42/3Google Scholar.

3 ibid., XIII, 42/3.

4 This fragment is not even mentioned in: Goshen-Gottstein, M. N., The Bible in the Syropalestinian Version, Part I: Pentateuch and Prophets (Jerusalem, 1973)Google Scholar.

5 CPA does not make any difference between the words ‘Syrians’ and ‘Assyrians’. Cf. Schultheß, F., Lexicon Syropalaestinum, (Berlin, 1903), 134aGoogle Scholar.

6 At first, I identified the fragment with 2 Kings 18:26–38. However, once more words could be read I realized that it is Isaiah because of verse 36:17 where a half-verse is missing in contrast to 2 Kings 18:32. The misleading information needs to be corrected in: Müller-Kessler, Ch., Grammatik des Christlich-Palästinisch-Aramäischen = GCPAGoogle Scholar, Teil, I: Schriftlehre, Lautlehre, Formenlehre (Hildesheim, 1991), p. 18, n. 96Google Scholar.

7 For detailed information on diacritics, dividing points and abbreviations cf. Müller-Kessler, GCPA, XV-XXIV, 29–31, 34–36, 48. [⃛] stands for an addition, but the dots do not usually represent the actual missing letters, ┌⃛┐for only partially legible letters; an unclosed bracket indicates the damaged segment of a letter. A superlinear stroke indicates a faint or doubtful letter. The symbol:. marks the end of a line or verse.

8 Müller-Kessler GCPA, 262. This verbal form was only deciphered after the publication of the grammar.

9 Lewis-Gibson, op. cit., 42, also assumed the ḥd twice.