The ‘remembered for good’ formula in Samaritan Aramaic and early Hybrid Samaritan Hebrew

Abstract

This article presents for the first time all literary and epigraphic Samaritan Aramaic and early Hybrid Samaritan Hebrew examples of the דכיר לטב ‘remembered for good’ formula, dating from approximately the fourth to fourteenth centuries CE. The examples are examined as to their form and function in their literary as well as material context, comparing them to the pagan and Jewish attestations of the formula from Roman and Byzantine times. While highlighting some parallel developments in the Jewish and Samaritan usages, the article demonstrates the long and diverse history of this antique and prevalent Aramaic formula in the Samaritan tradition.