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New
of
the
Petra
Reading
Temple
Inscription
RICHARD N. JONES
Middle East Center
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
Line 1:
Line 2:
THE TEXT
Line 3:
41
42
RICHARD N. JONES
I
------
BASOR 275
ir~~~~~uTd~~~~~i~~~o~~~9~~~d~~~i6~~~~~~h1
~~~
~~d~~~3jp~~~~~d
~~
6
$ T3fl fl 1,S4
V>ik
a.
---
Fig. 1. Line drawing of the fragmentaryinscriptionfrom the Temple of the Winged Lions, Petra.
Line 4:
1989
43
RICHARD N. JONES
BASOR 275
_)J J__))I
l171Un l
jt
.ji,
II
11
J jr
1.5 ..il__
51)
.\.
t30^
U1
<'jldJii
t'
Jii
bl
?,r
1n
y^^ ^^"^"
I
*l'T, 111
v
>
^~
irl'l
yy'"
Fig. 2. Columns of Nabataean letters. The left-hand chart is reproduced from Hammond, Johnson, and Jones 1986:
79. A corrected chart of Nabataean letters reflecting the research in the present article appears on the right for
comparison.
1989
Line 4.
Line 1.
Line 2.
Line 3.
Line 4
DISCUSSION
This is clearly a very important inscription,
which provides the first direct evidence of the
cultic legislation that governed aspects of worship
within the Nabataean temple. It appears that freewill offerings and other revenue, received undoubtedly from religious and state taxations, and
various tithes,5 were brought to the temple and
distributed. A portion of the temple wealth was
set aside for the maintenance of the priests, apparently under the supervision of a certain official,
45
NC)TES
'I thank ProfessorFrankM. Cross,HarvardUniversity, for observationsand suggestionsof importancefor
this paper. I also thank colleaguesZbigniewT. Fiema
and Shlomo Lederman,Universityof Utah;and David
P. Wright, Brigham Young University, for reading
earlierdraftsof this paperand offeringsuggestionsfor
improvingit. Fiema, a specialistin Nabataeanarchaeology, also checked my drawing of the inscription
againstthe originalartifactin the Petra museumwhile
he was employedduring an epigraphicsurvey by the
JordanianDepartmentof Antiquitiesin July 1986. A
plastercast of the inscriptionwas the kindgift of Philip
C. Hammondin 1983duringworkon the initialreport.
2Asimilaruse of the emphaticstateto denotecoinage
can probablybe seen in the Aramaicpapyrusno. 42,
line 6, as editedby Cowley(1923:142-43).
3Inthis inscriptionthe conjunctionp functionsmuch
likef in Arabicto connectclausesindicatingcause and
effect, result, condition, etc. Elsewherein Nabataean,
46
BASOR 275
RICHARD N. JONES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cowley, A.
1923
Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C.
Oxford: Clarendon.
Fitzmyer, J. A.
The Syntax of kl, kl', in the Aramaic Texts
1957
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38: 170-84.
The Aramaic Qorban Inscription from Jebel
1959
Hallet et-Tiir and Mk 7:11/Mt 15:5. Journal
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1974
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A Wandering Aramean. Collected Aramaic
1979
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A Manual of Palestinian Aramaic Texts.
1978
Biblica et Orientalia 34. Rome: Pontifical
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La Conguinzione Semitica *pa-. Biblica 38:
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A Religio-Legal Inscription from the Atarga1986
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the American Schools of Oriental Research
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An Index and Concordance of Pre-Islamic
1971
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Jean, J., and Hoftijzer, J.
Dictionnaire des inscriptions semitiques de
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The Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden:
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