Christian funerary invocation
created: Transcription (Reynolds).
source date: Fifth to sixth centuries CE
language: ar; en; fr; de; grc; grc-Latn; el; he
availability: Creative Commons licence Attribution UK 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/) All reuse or distribution of this work must contain somewhere a link back to the URL http://inslib.kcl.ac.uk/

Bibliography

[...] no.3.1, pp. 41-46 and pl. XXIIIc, whence [...] 20.705, [...] 324470, [...], 1964.586; [...], 416.1

Θεὲ Χριϲτὲ ζοὴν δὸϲ Ϲαμφοδίονι Ϲ τῷ κτίϲτῃ τοῦ ἐργαλίου τούτου ὑπὲρ μνήμηϲ ἰδίαϲ ἐπύηϲεν

Translations

God, Christ, give life to Samphodion, the founder of this workshop. He made it as his own memorial.

Commentary

Line 1: For the formula see δὸς ζωήν in the church of the Apostles at Madeba, dated in 578-9 (available at PHI 246177), and the long discussion by M. Noth (1968) 133. Noth argues from the combination of Ζοή with ὑγιεία in a number of Syrian inscriptions that the prayer is essentially for earthly life, but more complex spiritual concept may also have been involved. See also the discussion of Ζωή and Ζάω in Kittel, Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament.

Line 4: An unusual word to describe a tomb, normally meaning a workshop ('atelier', Robert); the chamber contained an olive press which may perhaps be an original feature. See further on GVCyr 38.