The Samaritan Update
Further information on the Marble Inscription.
Clive Farahar and Sophie Dupre, the owners of the marble inscription,
featured in the last Samaritan Update have graciously e-mailed me a copy of
the article of Alfred C. Fryer. He read the following before the Clifton
Antiquarian Club (27th November 1895, Vol iii. pp. 149-150). Any
one interested in purchasing the marble inscription may contact Clive Farahar
and Sophie Dupre at
Farahar_Dupre@compuserve.com or visit their web site at
http://www.farahardupre.co.uk/
An Enscribed Stone From Shechem.
------------
By Alfred C. Fryer, Ph. D.
This marble slab was the dedication stone formerly placed over the doorway of an ancient Samaritan synagogue at Shechem. The doorway (as is common in such buildings) was recessed under an arch, so that the stone was protected from the action of the weather. The ancient synagogue had fallen into the ruins and was not rebuilt, and the stone was sold by the officers of the Samaritan church to the chief Rabbi of the Dutch Jews, and for him it eventually passed into the hands of my father (the late Alfred Fryer, of Wilmslow), who purchased it in the East in the year 1870, and had it sent to England.
The inscription consists of two portions. The first portion occupies the upper three lines and the center portion of the fourth line, and is in the ancient Samaritan character of the fourth line, and is in the ancient Samaritan character, which was the old Hebrew. The square-headed Hebrew, which is now in use, was brought back from Babylon after the captivity. It is believed that this inscription was cut when the synagogue was originally built, probably some years before the Christian Era. The words are read from right to left. The uppermost line a general inscription “In the name (of) God Almighty.” The second and third lines appear to be a paraphrase of part of the blessing which Jacob pronounced on Joseph on his death-bed: “- the God of thy fathers shall bless thee; and the Almighty shall bless thee.” The text in the Book of Genesis is:- “Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee, and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under.” (Genesis xlix, 25). The central part of the fourth line is occupied by the word “Amen.”
It would appear that, at a much later date, the unoccupied portions of the stone were utilized for another inscription, in Arabic. This might refer to extensive repairs, or a rebuilding of the synagogue, or to some other building in the town. It is no uncommon thing to find the Arab conquerors carving their inscriptions on ancient tablets. The Arabic inscription is translated thus:-
“The building of the house which was built in the fifth month of the year 1193.”
The fifth month of the Mohammedan year was Gioumadi or Jomada I, and of course the date of the year is in the Mohammedan computation, dating from Hegira, or “Flight of the Prophet,” the day on which Mohammed entered Medina after his flight from Mecca, Friday the 16th of July, AD., 622.
It is interesting to think that perchance the eyes of our Saviour Jesus Christ may have rested on this stone.
Dr. Friedrich Niessen discovered a fragment
of the
Samaritan Chronicle
In The Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection
The Taylor-Schechter
Genizah Collection consists of 140,000 fragments of ancient Hebrew and Jewish
documents and literature. The fragments now stored in the Cambridge University
Library were a gift from Dr Solomon Schechter in 1898. He had obtained the
collection from the Genizah (depositary) of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old
Cairo a couple years prior. A student by the name of Taylor helped subsidize
the cost of examining the fragments.
Research Assistant Dr.
Friedrich Niessen of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit wrote, “Until
now, no version of a Samaritan chronicle has been discovered in Judaeo-Arabic-
and, indeed, one could hardly have expected to make such a discovery among the
Genizah fragments.”
The fragment (T-S NS
188.20) is interesting to compare with ‘The Samaritan Chronicle or The Book of
Joshua, the son of Nun,’ by Oliver Turnull Crane, 1890 (hosted in our
archives), chapter XXIX.
A Comparison of the two English Translations
|
Taylor-Schechter Genizah fragment
NS 188.20 stored in the
Cambridge University Library |
‘The Samaritan
Chronicle or The Book of Joshua, the son of Nun,’
by Oliver
Turnull Crane, 1890
Chapter XXIX.
An Account of
the Reply sent to the Giants. |
|
``[You will not be able to escape] to another place, but you will die here
by the deadly sword, or by slaughter, or by the flame of fire, or by being
wiped out. I do not boast to you as you have boasted [to me]. I do not
say, as you have said: `Heroes will march with me.' |
“ye shall not
get away from me, nor depart from it, nor flee unto another place, but
there destroyed by the slaughter of the sword and put to death by
strangling and burned with fire and annihilated in vengeance; it shall not
be unto you, O deluded ones, as ye now boast it shall. And I do not say as
ye say,” |
|
``The numbers are not imaginary: marching with me will be 600,000 men who
destroyed Greater Egypt and ate the sacrifice of the Passover; who saw
with their own eyes the ten plagues afflicting their enemies, and crossed
the sea on the dry land; and travelled through the wilderness without a
guide, the pillar of
cloud sheltering them from the heat...'' |
“that they
will march with me six hundred thousand men who did wage war with Greater
Misr (Egypt), and did eat the sacrifices of the Passover, and around whom
the angels kept guard, and who crossed the sea in dryness and journeyed
through the wilderness without any guide, the pillar of fire sheltered
them from the cold by night and the pillar of cloud sheltering them from
the heat by day,…” |
The Taylor-Schechter Genizah
fragment NS 188.20 article by Dr. Friedrich Niessen can be found at the
following web-site:
http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/TaylorSchechter/GF/40/#samaritan. Read his full
story!
The Samaritan Update will hopefully be ONLINE SOON.
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at our Web Site. Stop by our Website!
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The Journey to the bottom of Jacob’s Well
Continued.
From
The Pages of
The Recovery of Jerusalem A Narrative of Exploration and Discovery in the City
and the Holy Land
Book By Capt. Wilson, R.E. Warren, R.E.,
ETC, ETC, ETC.
Part II.
The Survey of Palestine by Lieutenant Anderson,
R.E.
D. Appleton & Company, New York, 1871.
Some men were set to work to clear the
mouth of the well, which was being rapidly covered up. A chamber had been
excavated to the depth of 10 feet, and in the floor of the chamber was the
mouth of the well, like the mouth of a bottle, and just wide enough to admit a
man’s body. We lowered a candle down the well and found the air perfectly
good, and, after the usual amount of noise and talking among the workmen and
idolers, I was lashed with a good rope round the waist and a loop for my feet,
and lowered through the mouth of the well by some trusty Arabs directed by my
friend Mr. Falcher, the Protestant missionary. The sensation was novel and
disagreeable. The numerous knots in the rope continued to tighten and creak,
and after having passed through the narrow mouth I found myself suspended in a
cylindrical chamber, in shape and proportion not unlike that of the barrel of
a gun. The twisting rope caused me to revolve as I was being
(page 363)
lowered, which produced giddiness, and there was the additional unpleasantness
of vibrating from side to side, and touching the sides of the well. I suddenly
heard the people from the top shouting to tell me that I had reached the
bottom, so when I began to move I found myself lying on my back at the bottom
of the well; looking up at the mouth, the opening seemed like a star. It was
fortunate I had been securely lashed to the rope, as I had fainted during the
operation of lowering. The well is 75 feet deep, 7 feet 6 inches diameter, and
is lined throughout with rough masonry, as it is dug in alluvial soil. The
bottom of the well was perfectly dry at this time of the year (the month of
May), and covered with loose stones. There was a little pitcher lying at the
bottom unbroken, and this was an evidence of there being water in the well at
some seasons, as the pitcher would have been broken had it fallen upon the
stones. It is probable that the well was very much deeper in ancient times,
for in ten years it had decreased 10 feet in depth. Every one visiting the
well throws stones down for the satisfaction of hearing them strike the
bottom, and in this way, as well as from the debris of the ruined
church built over the well during the fourth century, it has become filled up
to probably more than a half its original depth. I was drawn up without
mishap, but was bumped about sadly from side to side in consequence of the
Arabs pulling me up by jerks, and at the same time the rope and its burden
revolved. My kind friend and host the German missionary was glad to see me up
again, and remarked, “Now I had fear for you, lest the rope did break.”
The mouth of the well is close to the high-road from Jerusalem to Galilee.
The gardens in the vale of Shechem were looking very beautiful at this
time (May 1st). The fig-trees, the latest of all, were in full
leaf, and the people commenced to reap in the plain of this day. It was high
time too, for the young locust were commencing their ravages, and the people
seemed really roused to exertion at this critical time.
While we were breaking up our camp and preparing to
(page 364)
start, the lepers of the town gathered round the camp, making their piteous
appeals for money. These unfortunate people, both men and women, were
ordinarily found sitting on the heaps outside the town wall, close to the
wayside. They were most distressing specimens of humanity; most of them
without hands, some with no teeth or hair, and shunned by every one….
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Samaritan Interactive CD: -ROM from Nes Multimedia Production Ltd. The CD
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and literature. There is even an interactive quiz that can test your
knowledge. The Samaritan Singers reform (Osher sings with them on this cd-rom)
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Other items: A Samaritan Cook book in Hebrew, The CD of the Samaritan
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