Epigraphy as an ancilla to the study of the Greek Bible.
A propos of a recent anthology of inscriptions ¹

It is a curious feature of the history of research on the Greek Bible that it took so long for the significance of Greek inscriptions to be perceived and, furthermore, that this realisation began only a century ago, in the last decade of the nineteenth century. Greek and Latin literature had been quarried since J.J. Wettstein ² to illustrate – or contrast with – both the linguistic usage and the sentiments of the first Christian writers. In fact, but for the discovery of large numbers of papyri a century ago in Egypt, inscriptions may well still be standing silently in the shadowlands of Biblical studies, largely unnoticed, their potential untapped for the contextualization of intertestamental Judaism and of Christianity in the first century of its existence. As they began to be published, the papyri captured popular imagination no less than the interest of scholarly circles. For Biblical Studies their importance was immediately obvious, in several ways: to mention just three, copies of biblical texts had been found which predated in some cases the great Uncials of the fourth century; the discovery of many private letters offered interesting affinities in genre with the NT letters; and linguistic features of these non-literary texts provided similarities with elements in the NT writings. When Deissmann drew attention to the importance of the papyri, however, he also saw the equal significance of the epigraphic texts for Biblical studies ³. His work exercised a considerable influence until a reaction against his approach became evident in the 1930s ⁴. Had he completed the lexicon of the NT on which he had been working until he was diverted into other tasks by the outbreak of the First World War, perhaps his views would have retained a much longer currency. For it is apparent from his correspondence with J.H. Moulton that he was intending to draw heavily upon epigraphical evidence to illustrate NT usage ⁵. Thanks largely to Deissmann, the inscriptions "piggybacked" to prominence in NT circles on the surge of interest in the papyri. Yet among NT scholars the papyri certainly dominated the other branch of documentary texts, despite the considerably longer period for which the inscriptions had been subjected to research scrutiny. Apart from Deissmann himself and a couple of his students, the inscriptions largely went out of focus in the NT field ⁶. In the preface to the first fascicule of their Vocabulary of the Greek Testament – a preface even less read than most because it was not included in the complete, one-volume work – J.H. Moulton and G. Milligan (MM) were explicit about the difficulty of collecting epigraphic evidence ⁷. Although they built upon Deissmann"s work, and culled the non-literary papyri with gusto, they conceded that the use which they had made of the epigraphic evidence was much more limited: indeed, they confined themselves mainly to a few anthologies, such as Dittenberger"s OGIS (Orientis greci inscriptiones selectae) and SIG (Sylloge inscriptionum graecarum), together with IG (Inscriptiones graece) and a few important corpora from certain cities. Then they began on SEG (Supplementum epigraphicum graecum; vol. 1 in two fascicules, 1923-24) which pulls together the annual harvest of inscriptions presented in journals. The papyrologists, internationally co-operative and better organised from the outset ⁸, already had the first volume of SB (Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Aegypten, ed. F. Preisigke) in three parts in train before the First War (1913-15). The first two Lieferungen of WB (Wцrterbuch der griechischen Papyrusurkunden, ed. F. Preisigke) appeared in 1924, for which there has never been a true equivalent in epigraphy. The preponderance in MM of papyrus evidence over epigraphic in proportion to the relative amounts of each which had been published is reflected in that book"s subtitle, where the papyri but not the inscriptions are explicitly mentioned: Illustrated from the papyri and other non-literary sources – and by the latter they meant the inclusion of writers such as Vettius Valens and Epiktetos, not inscriptions alone. Whereas a number of collections was made quite early of papyrus texts which might interest students of the Bible ⁹, it was a very long wait until something similar was done with the inscriptions. To the best of my knowledge the trailblazer was Emilio Gabba from Milan. His contribution ¹⁰ was important not only because it was the first of its kind (if we except Deissmann"s Licht vom Osten as sui generis): it is also to be noted that Gabba was an epigrapher and ancient historian. He approached the texts from this background, rather than as a NT specialist. Gabba knew his business well, and presented succinctly his well-chosen selection of 35 texts, leaving it to users to tease out more fully points of interest for the intertestamental Jewish writings in the Apocrypha and the NT documents. The book was well received by epigraphers no less than by Biblical researchers.

Gabba"s useful volume has been long out of print; the lack has now been met more than a generation later by an anthology of 45 inscriptions which relate to some or other aspect of the Bible. Laura Boffo"s book is clearly intended to supersede that of her teacher: the very title is identical. Gabba"s presence in the new book remains strong. Not only has he provided a preface which describes her book as a new work, but his 1958 introduction is reprinted verbatim, with only a few updating additions by Boffo to the notes. This is rather disconcerting, and occasions some confusing impressions for the reader which could easily have been avoided by some judicious editing of the older introduction. The author herself is more modest in calling her contribution a re-elaboration and a revision of her former teacher"s volume. And she is right in this perspective; for, although greatly expanded in length (in part due to the addition of several inscriptions, but mainly because the scale of conception for each entry is quite different from Gabba"s spare commentaries), Boffo"s book is really a second edition of Gabba"s compendium.

The layout of each entry is as follows: bibliography, text, commentary, translation (unless the text is too fragmentary). Some of the other details could usefully have been placed in a consistent position within this arrangement. Several entries require careful searching to discover the date of the text. Unless I missed it, the most awkward instance of this is no. 15 whose date (II BC; Gabba no. 10 proposes early I BC) awaits discovery on page 330 under no. 39. It is also hard to find the editio princeps for each inscription. Sometimes this information is listed separately from the bibliography, together with other editions; at other times it is buried away in the bibliography itself; and a few times it is mentioned in a footnote or in the commentary. Details of dimensions of the stone could also have been presented in a consistent place within each entry.

Eleven inscriptions published since Gabba"s book appeared have been added to the new version, and one item (no. 35) from the 1958 book has been dropped. Even that one (two ossuary inscriptions from Jerusalem which include the name "Jesus") need not have been excised if a different orientation from Gabba"s were given to the commentary; but perhaps the confrontingly defiant title of an article by J.P. Kane ¹¹ deterred Boffo (see her Foreword, 10). The point arises for consideration, what makes an inscription appropriate for the study of the Bible? Different answers may be advanced, partly on the basis of the kind of reader who is envisaged by the author. Gabba treats this usefully in his introduction (Boffo, 18). While some inscriptions are of clear and direct relevance (e.g., no. 23, the Quirinius inscription from Syria which raises the problem of the date of the census mentioned in the Lukan birth narrative at 2, 1-3), others refer to people who are mentioned in the Bible (e.g., Antiochos IV Epiphanes, no. 11; Herod the Great, no. 17; Pontius Pilate, no. 25; Gallio the proconsul, no. 29), to civic magistracies (politarchs, no. 27), or to Jewish institutions (synagogues and proseuchai, nos. 1, 10, 12). Those sections of the Bible on which Greek and Latin inscriptions may bear are parts of the Apocrypha for the intertestamental period, and the New Testament for incipient Christianity and contemporary expressions of Judaism.

Boffo"s choice of 45 Greek and Latin inscriptions may be analysed from several vantage points. In date they range from the third quarter of III BC to AD II or III, with just under half before the turn of the era. Geographically, Syria-Palestine is strongly represented, followed closely by Greece and the Mediterranean islands. Six inscriptions come from Egypt; but it is surprising, perhaps, that only four were selected from Italy and Asia Minor, respectively as for genres, more than a quarter are dedications, followed by a good number of inscriptions on buildings, pavements, etc., as well as honorific texts and epitaphs. A sprinkling of other types of inscriptions is represented in ones and twos: royal/imperial letters, milestone, graffito, proxeny list (no. 7, the only inscription from which an extract is included), prayer (or curse) text. There is a fairly even representation of Jewish and pagan inscriptions, with no Christian ones. Eleven texts are in Latin, the remainder in Greek; but there are two bilinguals (Greek/Latin, Greek/Hebrew).

Several of the items carried across from Gabba"s book are "old chestnuts", texts which patently are of interest for those concerned with the historical and linguistic context of the biblical narratives, yet which also raise their own serious problems of interpretation. Examples of these are the Quirinius inscription (Boffo no. 23; the longest entry in the volume), the fragmentary inscription from Kypros mentioning a Q. Serg[ius – (no. 28), which has been taken rather too readily (if understandably) to refer to Sergius Paullus the governor of the island whom Barnabas and Saul encountered (Acts 13, 4-12), the Gallio inscription from Delphi (no. 29), the "keep out" notice from the Temple at Jerusalem (no. 32), the Erastus inscription from Korinth (no. 43), and the theatre inscription from Miletos mentioning Jews and Godfearers (no. 44). The Gallio inscription offers a good instance of the value of Boffo"s book. Gabba no. 22 treated it succinctly and well for what was known in the 1950s; but Boffo no. 29 is able to provide a rather improved (though still heavily restored) text thanks to the discovery and publication in 1967 by A. Plassart of several more fragments ¹². Some of the entries are rather less satisfying, however: the end of a decree about religious matters which mentions Q. Sergius (no. 28), for example, has a number of readings which may be open to some doubt when compared with the photo in Gabba (pl. 4). A critical one for the date of the text occurs in l. 9, where Boffo prints G]aiou following T.B. Mitford against Gabba"s Klaud]iou following ed. pr. and L. Robert.

The eleven new texts (seven Greek, four Latin) were first published between the years 1958 (no. 36) and 1987 (no. 5). It may be useful here to list them, with brief evaluation where appropriate.

Nos. 2 (c. 250-175 BC) and 3 (150-50 BC), both Greek, first published in 1982, are treated together and concern the Samaritan community on Delos: an excellent choice to include these. No. 3 is the only inscription of the entire anthology to be illustrated with a photo (on the book"s cover).

No. 4 (before 215/4 BC) is a dedication by a priest honouring Ptolemy IV Philopator, published in 1962. It was reused and found at Joppa in a third-century catacomb. Boffo denies that a temple is implied by the stele; but could you have a priest without some kind of cult centre? The commentary is interesting, but might have explored briefly the question of Hellenistic divine kingship as a precursor to the Imperial cult. How is the text really relevant to the study of the Bible? The text is not Jewish, and we are left to infer that it was included primarily because of the Joppa provenance, and the associations that location had for Judaism and primitive Christianity.

No. 5 is a dossier of three Greek letters including a Royal Letter from Antiochos III to Zeuxis, inscribed in Mysia in 209 BC and published in 1987. While they are of high interest in themselves, the link with the study of the Bible – which is, after all, the rationale for inclusion in the present volume – is very slight: the dossier provides the opportunity to consider anew the authenticity of the letter preserved in Josephos (Ant. 12, 148-53) from Antiochos to Zeuxis concerning the forced transfer of 2000 Jewish families to Phrygia and Lydia from Mesopotamia and Babylonia.

No. 14 (published in 1961) is a dedication dated 135-129 BC and found at Akko which was offered by a local officialto Zeus Soter on behalf of Antiochos VII and Kleopatra Thea. The date means that Antiochos" epithet kallinikos may allude to his victory over John Hyrkanos. The wording of this dedication is exactly paralleled by no. 10, in which Jews in Egypt make a dedication to Theos Hypsistos on behalf of Ptolemy VI Philometor and his wife Kleopatra. The useful discussion of the parallel in the Antiochos text to the use of euergetes in Lk. 22, 25 might have been a model for many more such comments on the language of these inscriptions relative to the study of the Bible. On the whole, Boffo has chosen to make the strength of her book lie elsewhere, in her generally clear, up-to-date and evenhanded presentation of the historical problems raised by the inscriptions.

No. 25, the well-known Pontius Pilate building inscription in Latin from Caesarea, was first published in 1961 and is probably to be dated AD 31: a sine qua non for inclusion, undoubtedly. The commentary, dealing satisfactorily with the several obvious points, seems to me, nevertheless, to be lacking somewhat in its consideration of the layout of the text, and the consequences of this for its interpretation. There was a maximum of four lines, subsequently erased on the left and in the last line. Praef]ectus in l. 3 implies that not too much has been lost after Pilate"s name in the previous line; but more than the very few letters proposed by Boffo"s edition are likely to be missing. Even though the letters are up to 7 cm. high, the text is too short to serve as a building inscription. Is it possible to establish that the text was confined to one block?

No. 26, also in Latin, was first published in 1979, and is a funerary monument from Rome for an imperial slave of Tiberius named Idumaeus, who (given his name) may have come to the city from Idumaea as a gift from Herod the Great or his sister Salome to Livia, the emperor"s mother.

No. 30, much debated since it was first published in 1966, is a fragmentary Greek inscription dated not long after AD 70 and found near Haifa. It commemorates T. Mucius Clemens, who served as Agrippa II"s army commander in the war against the Jews in AD 70. The cursus for this Roman citizen who may have been a Jew is curious. If Clemens were Jewish, and acting in a high profile capacity de facto on behalf of the Romans, then the analogy with Josephos deserves to be explored further. In an appendix (265-273) to that text Boffo prints and discusses the now lost IGLS 7.4011, likewise an incomplete text of post-70 date from Syria, which shows parallels to Clemens" career; the partly preserved name has been claimed to be that of Pliny the Elder.

No. 33 attests the provision of a mosaic for Herod"s temple in Jerusalem, the gift of a man from Rhodes. The fragmentary Greek text is possibly to be dated 18/7 BC (in any case, it must be prior to AD 70) on the basis of a highpriestly year (name lost). This slight piece, which is nevertheless of some interest, was first published in 1983.

No. 36 first appeared in the year Gabba"s book was published and is a Latin inscription dated to the early 80s AD from Urbs Salvia near Picenum in Italy, giving the cursus of L. Flavius Silva Nonius Bassus in the context of his donation (in concert with his family) of an amphitheatre and provision of spectacula at the opening. He was consul in AD 81, and governor of Judaea prior to that. Much debate has been occasioned by this text concerning the date of the siege at Masada, the length of the Jewish resistance, and whether there was indeed a mass suicide – spilling over to contemporary ideological questions (Boffo, 310). This is a particularly good choice to include, and Boffo"s commentary is very useful.

No. 38 (published in 1974) is a Latin dedication by Legio X Fretensis to mark its erection of a building at Jerusalem to honour Vespasian and Titus in AD 78/9. The erased name of the commanding officer (who at this period also acted as governor of Judaea) was probably L. Antonius Saturninus (inscribed in some abbreviated manner – R. Syme"s proposal to include a shortened form of the cognomen may be preferable to the restoration included by Boffo), whose brief revolt in 89 while legate in Germania Superior accounts for the damnatio here.

The selection of texts for an anthology will be made slightly differently by each person. It should not be inferred that the 35 texts chosen by Gabba were the only ones which merited inclusion at that time. No older published inscriptions have been re-evaluated for possible inclusion in Boffo"s book, apparently. This may be felt to be a lost opportunity. By adopting all but one of Gabba"s original choices, has the new editor felt herself somewhat confined? Not only are all the inscriptions except his last retained in the same date order, with the new items added in at the appropriate point chronologically, but in most cases Gabba"s views, and even quite a bit of almost verbatim wording are taken over. Yet there is some independence visible. A few inscriptions are edited rather differently in the light of scholarly debate over the intervening three decades. No. 16, for example, a fragmentary honorific inscription for a strategos in Egypt who may have been Jewish, is handled more cautiously by Boffo. She declines to offer a translation since there is no continuous text in which we can be confident. In contrast, Gabba no. 11 provided a translation of this inscription on the basis of the full supplements proposed by T. Reinach in his editio princeps at the turn of the century. It is the restorations which make this strategos decisively Jewish: whether it can be shown to be Jewish otherwise is open to some question. And once this doubt arises for the reader, the question inevitably arises: what justifies its inclusion in a volume of inscriptions relative to the study of the Bible? May there not be some less problematic texts qua texts to consider for inclusion?

A further instance where Boffo demonstrates her independence of her predecessor is no. 11 (= Gabba, no. 7), now lost. For this fragmentary dedication to Antiochos IV Epiphanes Boffo provides a considerable number of different restorations and a different line length, along with a detailed apparatus. In ll. 3 and 8 the way the year is read, having a kai interposed between the second and third numeral, seems odd. In the first of these lines the first numeral should be printed as " to indicate stigma (= 6), not s sigma (= 200). The reason the inscription has been included is because of the mention of the notorious profaner of the Temple. Yet this particular inscription throws no light on that event at all, so is selected merely because of the attestation of the monarch"s name. This basis for selection seems rather slight if nothing more can be made of the particular text vis-а-vis the study of the Bible; and this inscription is not the sole one in the anthology of which this observation is true.

The doubt alluded to above about the basis for selection may nag at the reader for other inscriptions where there is no problem of a fragmentary text. The sole verse inscription to be included by Boffo, no. 19, is a funerary epigram for a woman from Leontopolis in Egypt. It is interesting in its own right for a number of reasons; but why has it been included? The answer lies in the fact that Gabba apparently chose to put it into his volume (no. 14) primarily on the basis of J.-B. Frey"s article on the word prwto/tokoj in this inscription ¹³, and Boffo follows him. There are several other words in this inscription alone which also might have merited comment in relation to their use in the Greek Bible.

In contrast, no. 31 is a quite exemplary treatment of a series of terms in a Jerusalem inscription in which a man records his contribution towards the building program of a synagogue, and indicates his family"s long association with it in leadership roles and philanthropic support. This text is well known (= CIJ 2.1404), but Boffo has covered all the features of the text – titles, family, consequences for the Hellenization of Palestine – in an excellent manner.

The observation was made earlier that there are other inscriptions long known which might have merited inclusion in a new anthology possessing the focus that this one has. Examples may be noted briefly, and somewhat randomly, of texts which illustrate rather different points of connection with the Bible. Since politarchs are included, one might also reasonably expect attention to be given to certain other officials such as the asiarchs, most of the evidence for whom is epigraphic. There has been debate about them over the last fifteen years which could usefully have been evaluated in a book of this kind ¹⁴. The important Jewish inscription from Aphrodisias listing Godfearers as a recognised category in the Jewish community seems an obvious item to include ¹⁵; indeed, the problematic Miletos theatre inscription (no. 44) might have been subsumed into an entry whose focus and starting point was the Aphrodisias text. One or more of the Isis aretalogies would provide useful material, whether for an exploration of the "I am" statements in the Fourth Gospel (I.Kyme 41), or for consideration of intense personal devotion to a deity ¹⁶. The inclusion of an oracle recorded on stone, such as SEG 27.933 from Oinoanda, would be easy to justify. So, too, would be a selection of the moral maxims set up at Aп Khanoum in Afghanistan ¹⁷; other epigraphic copies are known from elsewhere. An inscription such as SIG3 985, emphasising as it does the strict moral requirements for membership of a voluntary association in Lydia in II or early I BC, has much to offer for an anthology of this kind. The same is true of confession texts ¹⁸, and sacred laws ¹⁹. IG XII 9.1179 has been suggested to show us a member of the Second Sophistic who is sympathetic towards and knowledgeable about Judaism ²⁰. The problematic (because fragmentary) dedication to the "unknown gods" found at Pergamon might be a candidate for inclusion ²¹; and the Hellenistic bilingual dedication to "God in Dan" which has come to light fairly recently is worth more than a passing thought ²². Although they may come from a later period, the quotation of biblical passages in inscriptions and the inscribing of biblical tags, whether texts carved on lintels of churches and homes or on gravestones, may be felt to be relevant to such an anthology ²³. The list could be extended, but the point is clear: in an anthology with the focus that Boffo"s possesses there is scope for a much wider variety of inscriptions to be represented.

It is easy, of course, for a reviewer to make suggestions about desirable additions, but books must have a finite length. There are several inscriptions in the present collection some of which have been noted above as less obvious choices. Were some of these to have been excluded, a more diverse anthology could have resulted. And there is a high premium on diversity in books of this kind, for it is realistic to suppose that many of those readers for whom the book is primarily intended will study no other inscriptions than these. Apart from those texts noted above with a somewhat unclear rationale for inclusion, no. 1 seems otiose given the inclusion of no. 10. As for no. 27, the politarchs are well worth retaining, but there are rather more fruitful texts featuring them which might have been selected ²⁴. J.M.S. Cowey has informed me (and generously authorised me to mention here) that he is currently preparing for publication two papyri in the Heidelberg collection which identify the same man as "politarch". Both are petitions of fifth-century date addressed to Alexander the politarch "who is at the top of the administrative organisation of the Jewish politeuma at Herakleopolis".

Diversity of selection as a desideratum makes it pertinent to mention here epigraphy"s role as an ancilla to the study of the Greek Bible. While epigraphy is a significant sub-discipline within the field of Classics, there is much for those in Biblical Studies to learn from the texts published by those specialists. But where they are presented in a forbidding manner that has the appearance of epigraphers talking only inter se, these important evidences from antiquity will rarely reach those wider readerships which may derive considerable benefit from them. Boffo"s book has the considerable merit of not being daunting for an epigraphic neophyte to use. If her volume draws such readers on to examination of further inscriptions relating to their own field of Biblical studies, it will have succeeded well in its goal. In one way, however, the provision of at least some plates of the texts, the volume"s usefulness could have been expanded.

It is a considerable service that the bibliographies to each text are so full and up-to-date; but users of the volume will soon realise that numerous items in each bibliography deal with the general issues raised by the text in question and not necessarily with the particular text at all. Likewise, the indexes are extremely full; if they are not exhaustive that is forgivable. The whole work has been proffered with great care, and the few typographical errors I noted are mostly not likely to cause confusion. In no. 23 line 8 of the Quirinius inscription, it may not easily be picked up that the final word idem should be italicised, since in this Latin text it is the non-italicised lettering which has been lost (see pl. 3 in Gabba).

So this well-presented volume should be a useful and generally reliable vade mecum for those working in Biblical Studies who are not familiar with inscriptions. Specialist epigraphers are also likely to find here useful bibliography and up-to-date surveys of how some of these texts have been understood by Biblical scholars. If this volume helps to keep each discipline aware of the other, that will be a considerable benefit. Were there to be a murmur of regret about its selection of items being too cautious in following so conscientiously its predecessor book, at least it may be appreciated that this is a mark of pietas by Boffo towards "il maestro".