ACOR Lecture: "An Invocation to Jesus in a Safaitic Inscription?"

Introduction by ACOR director Pearce Paul Creasman: 0:00​-2:22​
Feature presentation by Prof. Ahmad Al-Jallad: 2:22:-33:28​.
Discussion/Q&A: 33:28-48:13​.
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“An Invocation to Jesus in a Safaitic Inscription?”
An ACOR online lecture by Dr. Ahmad Al-Jallad (Ohio State University) on February 16, 2021.
About the lecture:
The Safaitic inscriptions constitute the largest epigraphic corpus in Jordan. The term refers to the northernmost branch of the South Semitic alphabet, a sister of the Ancient South Arabian script (musnad). The inscriptions, concentrated in the Syro-Jordanian Basalt Desert (the Ḥarrah), record the lifeways of the region's inhabitants some 2,000 years ago. While the exact chronological limits of Safaitic are not known, scholars have assumed that the documentation ends around the 4th century CE, as there are no mentions of Christianity. This lecture will present a new inscription, discovered during the 2019 summer campaign of the Badia Surveys. It records an invocation to a new divinity, attested for the first time in Safaitic, that should likely be identified as Jesus. After the discussion of its reading and interpretation, I will explain the ramifications of this discovery on the history of Christianity in the region and the background of Quranic ʿysy.
Stay appraised of the latest research: acorjordan.org/mailing-list
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For further reading, visit: leidenuniv.academia.edu/Ahmad...
Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia (OCIANA): www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/online-co...
Digital Archive for the Study of Pre-Islamic Arabian Inscriptions: dasi.cnr.it/
See past ACOR content about the Black Desert: publications.acorjordan.org/t...

[@saadabdallaoui1073]

Great lecture !

[@nellylama976]

Indeed a good lecture, well researched, clear and the questions were answered brilliantly

[@byblispersephone2.094]

Fascinating !

[@fidorfsmf6349]

hi, it is possible that this description has been written after the Quran period? thanks

[@jean-pierremilelli5064]

Wonderful !

[@freeeee2111]

are these scripts taken and protected somehow?

[@stevenv6463]

Very interesting. You mentioned at 24:00 the controversial surah surah Al hala3? How do I spell that in Arabic? Maybe I misheard but I am looking for it in Arabic

[@nurisunnah2871]

Just search "2 lost surahs from quran"

[@kevinmyousfi2809]

سورة الخلع

[@Peter-xf9jy]

shouldnt we find Isa عسي then much more often, ie. in and around the cave of "Hira" ?

[@nurisunnah2871]

Why would that be so

[@kevinmyousfi2809]

It is in the bible esai , عيشو son of abraham

[@samantarmaxammadsaciid5156]

​​@kevinmyousfi2809 You meant ᶜēsaw or Ēsau ع-س-و written as عِيْسَوْ but in the ᶜArabic Bibles spelt as عِيْسُوُ ᶜiisuwu with the nominative or ᶜiisuw without any case as in Joshua 24:4, who according to Genesis 25:25-26 is the elder son of Isḥaaq or Isaac, that makes ᶜiisuw grandson of Ibraahiim or Abraham?! Otherwise, where is عيشو in the Bibles?!

[@naeem11111]

A really interesting video. Possibly controversial!

[@anwa1375]

how so?

[@naeem11111]

@@anwa1375 Isa could be a different person later on mixed in with Jesus Christ due to similar attributes.

[@dbr295]

@@naeem11111 Kamal Salibi said this back in 1985.

[@naeem11111]

@@dbr295 any sources on this?

[@dbr295]

@@naeem11111 Look for Kamal Salibi "Who Was Jesus". He makes alot of connections which I haven't seen any where else really. I found out that Tabari also mentions that Eesah predates the crucified JC, who he calls Ishu Ben Fandura. According to him he lived around 300 BCE & is buried in a hill in Hijaz somewhere. I think the Quran is pretty assertive that they got the wrong guy which is often interpreted as substitution (Judas the betrayer being crucified in his place). The elephant in the room though is the lineage of Mariam, daughter of Imran & sister of Harun.

[@kevinmyousfi2809]

Isay , or isau , is a pre existant name indeed , it is in the bible , the name of the first son abharam is Esau and it is written and pronounced in aramaic عيسو Isay is an other prononciation of that same name. And why should we go this far by supposing that those "arabs" changed the name to a prexisting one , knowing that prexisting name pre exited in the aramaic people too , but still the aramaic call him ishua not 'issou The simpliest conclusion should be that either this name was ishou' يشوع and was reversed to عيشو Or the other way around And this us a well known languastic phenomena , to reverse the word Just like eich or eith إيش ، إيث in aramaic that became شي in arabic , both of them means "existing thing" ... The exemple are many

[@amiralandalus389]

In the Quran it is mention that Allah redeemed Jesus. i.e. he took him up to heavens. So, I think may be the correct translation for Issa (عيسى) would be "the redeemed" instead of "the redeemer" as prof. Ahmed suggested. The Quran did not arabize the name of Jesus as Yassoo (يسوع) becuse it means in Arabic (to miss or to lose) which is opposite to the Islamic beliefs about Jesus.

[@stevenv6463]

Interesting argument but what form would these two words be? It doesn't look like normal Arabic.

[@amiralandalus389]

@@stevenv6463 It has been nine months since I listen to this fascinating lecture, but as I remember Dr. Ahmad mentioned that this name (Issa عيسى) came from other semitic language (I think abyssinian language) not Arabic. on the other hand, (Yassoo يسوع) is obviously Arabic. It is the Arabic name that Christian Arabs adopt for Jesus. They actually just changed the (Sh ش) sound used in the hebrew name of Jesus (Yahosho يهوشوع יְהוֹשֻׁעַ) to (S س ) sound which resulted in (Yassoo يسوع). They fabricate this name to avoid using the Islamic version of the name of Jesus, which I believe it is wrong Arabization and I explained earlier why it is wrong.

[@stevenv6463]

@@amiralandalus389 No I mean that you argue it is redeemed and redeemer but that seems like it should be مفعول وفاعل

[@amiralandalus389]

@@stevenv6463 ما شاء الله! تتكلم العربية؟! هنيئا لك ! redeemed: مفعول به redeemer: فاعل Actually I thought it should be "redeemed" not "redeemer" because this conforms with the Quranic narrative about Jesus, namely the following verse (chapter 3:55) ( إِذْ قَالَ اللَّهُ يَا عِيسَى إِنِّي مُتَوَفِّيكَ وَرَافِعُكَ إِلَيَّ وَمُطَهِّرُكَ مِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا) translation: (O Jesus, indeed I will take you and raise you to Myself and purify [i.e., free] you from those who disbelieve). However, I am not claiming that I know how Dr. Ahmad reach to this meaning of this word (i.e. عيسى).

[@stevenv6463]

@@amiralandalus389 نعم تعلمت العربية في المصر، الحمدلله. Redeemed would have to be معسي and redeemer would be عاسٍ , no?