NATURE 



[May 4, 1876 



THE MOABITE QUESTION 



Die Aechiheit der Modbitischen Alterthiimer Gepriift. 

 Von Prof. E. Kautzsch und Prof. A Socin. (Strassburg, 

 1876.) 



Moabitisch oder Selimisch ? Die Frage der Moabit- 

 ischen Alterthiimer neu iititersucht. Von Adolf 

 Koch. (Stuttgart, 1876.) 



IT was perfectly natural that the discovery in 1868 of 

 the famous Moabite Stone, which created such a 

 sensation all over the civilised world, should have made 

 literary and scientific men wish to explore the dangerous 

 eastern side of the Dead Sea. Hence, when Dr. Gins- 

 burg set forth the importance of an expedition to Moabin 

 his paper before the Geographical Section of the British 

 Association (Liverpool, 1870), the Association willingly 

 granted 100/. towards the contemplated expedition, and 

 in the following year supplemented this grant by another 

 100/. But this expedition which took place in the be- 

 ginning of 1872, contributed next to nothing to our former 

 knowledge of the trans-Jordanic regions. The only thing 

 which it did effect was indirectly to encourage the de- 

 signing Arabs in their production of Moabite antiquities. 

 Travellers in Syria well know the pertinacity with 

 which they are pursued by the Arabs, who in every 

 locality offer all sorts of relics for Bakshish. Hitherto 

 these antiquities were principally confined to coins, chiefly 

 of course shekels and half-shekels, bronzes, armour}', 

 gems, wooden utensils, and pictures from the time of 

 Christ, made by eye-witnesses of the scenes described in 

 the Gospels. Since the discovery of the Sinaitic Codex 

 and the Moabite Stone, however, which fetched so high 

 a price, and which have created a perfect rage among a 

 certain class of itinerant scholars for acquiring like 

 precious relics, the finds have in a marvellous way 

 corresponded to the desires of the inquiring travellers. 

 A few months after the Tristram-Ginsburg expedition, 

 in search for antiquities and specimens of natural history 

 in Moab, was fitted out on such a pompous scale at 

 Jerusalem, where the object of the journey became at 

 once blazoned about, a number of inscribed stones were 

 discovered, among which was one recording Psalm cxvii. 

 As Herr Weser, the Chaplain to the German Consulate 

 and Colony at Jerusalem, is the principal literary and 

 scientific agent, who not only tested these Moabite anti- 

 quities on the spot, but also forwarded drawings of them 

 to Germany and finally, with Prof. Schlottmann, induced 

 the Prussian Government to purchase them and deposit 

 them in the Berlin Museum, we cannot do better than 

 give this learned Divine's own words : — "The fourth 

 stone is to me the most interesting. It contains Psalm 

 cxvii. in magnificent ancient Hebrew characters, similar 

 to those on the stone of Mesha. Who knows but that 

 this stone contains the very original from which the 

 Psalm was read and adopted into the collection of 

 Psalms." {Die Aechthetf, p. 13.) 



As the famous Moabite stone records a biblical event, 

 parallel to the one recorded in 2 Kings, iii., a discovery was 

 at once made which should completely eclipse the narrative 

 of this lapidary document, and at the same time vie with 

 the celebrated Codex Sinaiticus. Prof. Scholz, who has 

 been working for several years on the Massoretic text of 

 Jeremiah in its relation to the Greek Septuagint, was in 



Jerusalem in 1870. Of course he visited Shapira's Anti- 

 quarian establishment, and naturally enough inquired 

 after MSS. of the Hebrew Scriptures, when lo, and behold ! 

 this honest merchant showed the Professor, amongst 

 other ancient Biblical documents, a remarkable manu- 

 script of the very prophet on which Dr. Scholz was com- 

 menting. Here again we must give the words of the 

 learned German, but this time no less a person than 

 " Professor of Exegesis of the Old Testament and the 

 Biblical Oriental Languages at the University of Wurz- 

 burg.'' In his work on Jeremiah which appeared at 

 Regensburg, 1875, this learned Professor remarks:— 

 " Perhaps it is not beyond all hope that science will come 

 into possession of the text of Jeremiah which the Septua- 

 gint translated. In 1870 the author visited the book- 

 seller Shapira at Jerusalem, who showed him a manu- 

 script of Jeremiah, written very beautifully, without 

 vowels and accents, which he averred corresponded to 

 the translation of the Septuagint. When I called again, 

 afcer a few days, it was S0I4 to an Englishman. Accord- 

 ing to Herr Shapira, who declared that he possessed 

 evidence for his statement, the MS. is of about the time 

 of Christ." 



But though savans like Pastor Weser and Prof. Scholz 

 were easily deceived by the Psalm Stone and the Jere- 

 miah MS., yet it was soon found that to continue dis- 

 coveries in the department of Old Testament documents 

 was both unprofitable and hazardous for very simple 

 reasons. It is well known, even at Jerusalem, that no 

 manuscript of any portion of the Hebrew Pible prior to 

 A.E). 800 has as yet been discovered. If a MS. pretending 

 to be of even 200—800 a d. were to be forthcoming, the 

 science of palaeography is now so definite and unerring 

 that it would be detected at once. Nor could discoveries 

 of any lapidary documents which exhibited a continuous 

 narrative in any known Semitic dialect be safe, since the 

 science of language is now so exact that an attempt to 

 impose upon philology or palaeography is almost certain 

 to break down. Hence if the rage for inscriptions created 

 by the discovery of the Moabite stone, and increased by 

 the Tristram-Ginsburg Moabite expedition, which left 

 England at the beginning of January, 1872, was at all 

 to be gratified with any chance of safety and profit, 

 nothing was left to the dealers in antiquities at Jerusalem 

 but to open up new mines. This was easily done. 



Selim, who was in the service of the Due de Luynes 

 and M. de Saulcy, when these French savans travelled in 

 Moab, and who had also been employed by M. Ganneau 

 to negotiate with the Arabs at Dibon for the Moabite 

 stone, was out of employment. Such an indication of 

 Providence was too plain to be mistaken by good Shapira. 

 Accordingly Mr. Shapira employed him at a monthly 

 salary, to go to Moab in search of antiquities, and in 

 addition to his fixed pay promised him a premium on 

 every discovery. With such a temptation before him, 

 this unmitigated rascal whom Drake describes as " a 

 well-known scoundrel and forger," set out for Moab. No 

 wonder that the search conducted by such a man and 

 with such prospects, was eminently productive. In May, 

 1872, that is about a month or six weeks after the Tris- 

 tram-Ginsburg expedition returned from Moab, a few 

 specimens of pottery appeared at Mr. Shapira's depot. 

 In July the collection increased to 600 pieces, in October 



