Deir el-Muqalik - THEOCTISTUS

Church/Monastery name: 
Deir el-Muqalik - THEOCTISTUS
Inscription number: 
1
Selected bibliography: 
250 (ed. pr.)
172-173, 187n38, fig. 8
277-279, 281n51, no. 9, fig. 6 (ph.) (in Hebrew)
283-284, no. 1, phs. 21, 29abc, fig. 16 (ph., dr.)
124-125, no. 199, pl. 4,5 (dr.)
Abbreviation for Journals and Series
Epigraphical corpora: 

SEG 37 (1987): 1508; 45 (1995): 1958 

CIIP IV.1 (2018): 3153 (ph., drs.)

Inscription type: 
funerary
quotation
Location: 

Above the entrance to the burial complex of the monastery.

Physical description : 

A coat of thin plaster was put on the rock; a red frame was painted on the plaster. In its upper section a tabula ansata in red with the inscription (letters in red, too). In its middle part was a stone or marble plaque, now lost, “bearing an inscription or some flat or low-relief artistic rendering” Goldfus–Arubas–Alliata. The lower section has a large cross with the letters Α and Ω hanging from its arms; the cross stands on a trilobed Golgotha.

Meas.: letters 2-3 cm.

Text: 

☩ Θήκη ὁσίων πατέρων κὲ ἀδελφ[ῶν].

Κ(ύρι)ε, εἰ ἦς ὧδε, οὐκ ἂν ἀπέθανεν ὁ ἀδελφ[ός].

          ☩ Λάζαραι, δεῦρω ἔ[ξ]ω. ☩

 

(in the lower section) 

A  Ω

Translation: 

Burial place of (the) devout fathers and brothers. "Lord, if thou hadst been here, the brother had not died" (John 11:32). "Lazarus, come forth" (John 11:43). Alpha Omega.

Commentary: 

This vault seems to have been for senior ("fathers") and plain ("brothers") monks, rather than for hegumens and clerics, who were buried apart. The inscription quotes John 11:32, 43, referring to Lazarus's resurrection.

Summary: 

Painted funerary wall inscription with quotations from John, above the entrance to the burial complex of the monastery.

Contents
Definitions of building/part of building: 
tomb
Monastical titles: 
brother
Epithets of clergy/monks: 
father
most saintly (hosiotatos)
Citations from LXX / NT: 
John 11:32, 43
Epigraphical Abbreviations: 
horizontal stroke over nomen sacrum