Will Wiley

I've been reading some Arthur Voobus, and in a footnote he writes.

Anyone know anything about these inscriptions?

Roger Pearse

Do you have a more precise reference? I can find a couple of volumes of that series, but without a page number, a volume number, a part number, it would be quite a search!

All the best,

Roger Pearse

DCHindley

Will appears to have been reading A. Vööbus Researches on the circulation of the Peshitta in the fifth century (Baltic University: Pinneberg 1948). I'm wondering if the date he assigns to a Christian tomb inscription in the Palmyrene dialect of Aramaic [135 AD] is accepted by other experts. Vööbus' dating is mainly cited by Christian apologetic web pages.

Roger Pearse

Could we have some links to the "Christian apologetic web pages" in question, please? (frustration)

Perfectly willing to look stuff up, but, come on guys, give me something to work with!!!

Toto

Arthut Voobius had his name corrupted by wikipedia (those diacritical marks.) His period of specialty was more the 5th century.

Melchior de Vogue was one of those 19th century polymath orientalists.

I would think that a verified Christian inscription dated to 135 CE would be better known, but I don't see any mention of it on the usual sources.

DCHindley

It looks like several pages owned by Syriac Orthodox Christians that draw from a common source:

Christian Mysteries

In my opinion, websites that promote a particular kind of religious POV or history are essentially apologetic.

On the other hand, I'm not getting Google hits on this inscription dated 135 CE in any academic books or articles except for Voobus. Usually Voobus is cited for his work on 5th century inscriptions.

AD 135 is a pretty early date for a Christian tomb inscription in Palmyra.

Looking through the Nabatean tomb inscriptions in Enno Littman's Semitic Inscriptions (1914), I can only find maybe one that was dated in some way. They usually follow the pattern: "This tomb was built by XX for YY his son/daughter/wife." Considering the strong Arab influence on Palmyra I would expect the same in their tomb inscriptions.

Roger Pearse

That is Syriacist Steven Ring's site, and it gives us the reference: 'Researches on the circulation of the Peshitta in the fifth century', Vööbus, A. Publ.: Baltic University, Pinneberg 1948, p.56.

The next thing to do, of course, is access that text. I've emailed him to see if he has access to it.

But where do we get the half-reference in the OP from?

All the best,

Roger Pearse

DCHindley

Correct.

It seems Arthur Vööbus [1948] was citing Melchior de Vogue [1868] but it is not clear to me whether the date of AD 135 is Voobus' own or goes back to Vogue. Apparently, it is not always easy to read the date so opinions vary.

Let us know what you find out. I was searching the internet.

Will Wiley

No I don't unfortunately. That is the full footnote in the book DCHindley mentions.

Will Wiley

I have Voobus's book. In discussing the Diatessaron he writes, Tatian introduced the Diatessaron in Mesopotamia after the year 172 A.D. But it must be recognized that traces of Christendom reach further back *, and they go to show that in the decades before the arrival of Tatian there must have existed early Christian congregations in Osrhoene although of
jewish Christian taunt.

The reference I gave is a footnote to the above asterix. He then proceeds to further discussion of the Diatessaron.