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Mt. Gerizim. Probably 200-100 BCE, maybe 400-300 BCE. Fragment. Dedicatory.
A fragment consisting of the bottom border of a rectangular stone block, with marginal drafting on the inscribed face.
The line is engraved on the lower margin, with a mason's mark (⊥) between the first and the second words. Traces of red paint remain in the letters.
Taxonomies for IIP controlled values
...]○nyh Bl‘’ from Shechem offe[red...
The beginning of the inscription is illegible. The letters ניה[... may be the
final letters of a personal name, perhaps חנניה (Ḥananyah).
The name בלעה
(Bl‘’) as a personal name is unattested, but the form בלע (Bela‘) occurs in I
Chr. 7:6-7 and elsewhere. The form may also be a variant of בלהה (Bilhah), a
woman's name; the name proceeding it would then be that of her husband or
father. If this is indeed the case, it provides evidence for a weakening of the
guttural consonants, a development which had become quite common among Jews in
the first century CE.
The legible part of the inscription's ending appears
to consist of the beginning of the word הקרב 'offered.' The inscription probably
opened with a list of offerers, followed by the verb הקרב. This is a quite
common variant on the more usual that-which-offered formula.