Back የበለዓም ጽሑፍ Amharic نقش دير علا Arabic Inscripción de Deir Alla Spanish Bileamin kirja Deir Allasta Finnish Inscriptions de Deir Alla French כתובת בלעם HE Prasasti Deir Alla ID Inskrypcja z Dajr Alla Polish Надпись из Дейр-Алла Russian
| Deir Alla inscription | |
|---|---|
 Drawing of the Deir 'Alla inscription | |
| Created | c. 825 BC |
| Discovered | 1967 Balqa, Jordan |
| Present location | Amman, Amman Governorate, Jordan |
The Deir 'Alla inscription or Balaam inscription,[1] numbered KAI 312, is a famous inscription discovered during a 1967 excavation in Deir 'Alla, Jordan.[2] It is currently at the Jordan Archaeological Museum. It is written in a peculiar Northwest Semitic dialect, and has provoked much debate among scholars and had a strong impact on the study of Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions.[3][4]
The excavation revealed a multiple-chamber structure that had been destroyed by an earthquake during the Persian period, on the wall of which was written a story relating visions of Bal'am, son of Be'or, a "seer of the gods" (BL M BR B R Š ḤZH LHN), the same name as Balaam, son of Be'or, in Numbers 22–24 and in other passages of the Bible. The Deir Alla inscription's depiction of Bala'am differs from that in the Book of Numbers. Bal'am's god is associated with the goddess Šagar-we-Ishtar. Deities with such names, "Šagar-and-Ishtar" (or Aštar[5]) certainly are known to history, but quite separately. The enigmatic narrative also foregrounds the Shaddayin (שדין) who establish a council.[6] It also features the word Elohin, taken to mean "gods" in the plural rather than the Hebrew deity.
The inscriptions were on ink on plastered wall; black and red inks were used as in the plaster inscriptions at Kuntillet Ajrud. Red emphasized certain parts of the text.[7][8] The inscriptions were written with a broad nibbed pen with ink, an extremely early example.[9] The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies describes it as "the oldest example of a book in a West Semitic language written with an alphabet, and the oldest piece of Aramaic literature."[10]
- ^ Kruger, Paul Albertus (2012). "A World Turned on its Head in ancient Near Eastern Prophetic Literature: A Powerful Strategy to Depict Chaotic Scenarios". Vetus Testamentum. 62 (1): 58–76. doi:10.1163/156853311X613764. ISSN 0042-4935.
- ^ Schmidt, Brian (2002). "The Iron Age Pithoi Drawings From Horvat Teman or Kuntillet 'ajrud: Some New Proposals". Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions. 2 (1): 103. doi:10.1163/156921202762733905.
- ^ "The Dialect of the Deir Allah Inscription". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
- ^ B. Halpern, "Dialect Distribution in Canaan and the Deir Alla Inscriptions", in D.M. Golomb, ed., "Working With No Data": Semitic and Egyptian Studies Presented to Thomas O. Lambdin (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1987), pp. 119–39, in particular p. 139.
- ^ Khan, Geoffrey (2013). Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics: P-Z. Leiden Boston (Mass.): Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-17642-3.[page needed]
- ^ Thomas L. Thompson (2000). "Problems of Genre and Historicity with Palestine's Descriptions". In André Lemaire, Magne Saebo (ed.). Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, Volume 80. Brill. p. 322. ISBN 978-9004115989.
- ^ Renz, Johannes; Röllig, Wolfgang (March 2016). Handbuch der althebräischen Epigraphik (in German). Darmstadt: WBG (Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft). p. 57. ISBN 978-3-534-26789-7.
- ^ J. Hoftijzer and G. van der Kooij, Aramaic Texts from Deir 'Alla Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui 19 (Leiden) 1976.
- ^ Context of Scripture 2.27 pg II:141
- ^ Alan Millard (2006). "Authors, Books and Readers in the Ancient World". In J. W. Rogerson , Judith M. Lieu (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies. Oxford University Press. p. 554. ISBN 978-0-19-925425-5.