I appreciate the general fairness and factuality of your reply, although for future reference you may note that Norman Golb has had no influence on my research on this or any other topic.
Russell Gm.
The reading of Shin starting col. B line 1 of 4Q448 has been proposed by M.O.
Wise, N. Golb, G. Doudna, and R. Gmirkin. A much longer list of readers read
Ayin; and a number of the latter have declared that the reading of shin
is "materially impossible" or the like. (Citations on request.) The four who
read (or once read) Shin are related in more than one way. The Eisenman &Wise
1992 book p.16 gives its first acknowledgement for "help and suggestions" to
Norman Golb; Wise was Golb's student. Doudna, I think, briefly studied at
Chicago. The latter three are otherwise influenced by Golb. Gmirkin cited
Doudna's paper. Doudna also on orion quite emphatically declared for Shin,
though a differently shaped shin than Golb's. By the way, Golb and Doudna
use "effaced" rather than "defaced"; the latter might imply intention. Golb
did not revise his 1995 book when reissued in paperback, nor correct errors:
e.g. on supposed absence of Herod the Great coins; on Pliny supposedly in
Judaea [where he never set foot], etc.--merely adding an addendum naming Y.
Hirschfeld--before the--still unpublished--Y. Magen, Y. Peleg dig. Golb (p.
262-7) dismissed the paleographic skills of Ada Yardeni in his book; soon
afterward, he changed his tune, when the "yahad" (or not) ostracon was
published. Though Wise read shin; Abegg in Wise Abegg Cook 1996 read ayin, as
had Abegg and Wacholder, and many others. Compare also Andre Caquot "...On
propose de traduire la colonne de droit 'Eveille-toi, Saint....'" (Annuaire du
College de France 1993 p. 671).
On 11 Jan 2000 G. Doudna wrote, in part:
"...I am no longer sure that reading is Shin. Perhaps it is Ayin after
all....." and "Main makes a very good argument for the 'Rise up against
Jonathan' reading." Those who wish to read the context, the long post, see:
http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/orion/archives/2000a/msg00038.html
For my part, I have looked at, over the years, many photos, b/w and color, in
various reproductions, and the original at the 1993 Library of Congress
exhibit. I read ayin.
Golb read the entire column B as a prose "rubric." R. Gmirkin did not
explicitly specify where his proposed title ends. But wherever he proposes it
to end, that would affect his claim about proposed relevance of Hebrew poetry
parallelism.
best,
Stephen Goranson
