Jan 07 2010

Etching hints Bible is older than thought – Earliest Hebrew Inscription Found

Category: Criticism — Polycarp @ 9:00 pm

Interesting…

Did the writing of the Bible begin as far back as the 10th century B.C.E., during the time of King David? That is four centuries earlier than Biblical scholars currently believe – but an inscription recently deciphered by a scholar at Haifa University indicates that for at least some books of the Bible, the answer may be yes.

The inscription, written in ink on clay, is the earliest yet found in Hebrew. It was discovered about 18 months ago in a dig at Khirbet Qeiyafa, near Emek Ha’ela. While it was quickly dated, its language remained uncertain until Prof. Gershon Galil was able to demonstrate that it was an early form of Hebrew – containing roots commonly found in Hebrew, but which are very rare in other Semitic languages

…..

English translaton of the deciphered text:

1′ you shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord].
2′ Judge the sla[ve] and the wid[ow] / Judge the orph[an]
3′ [and] the stranger. [Pl]ead for the infant / plead for the po[or and]
4′ the widow. Rehabilitate [the poor] at the hands of the king.
5′ Protect the po[or and] the slave / [supp]ort the stranger.

Etching hints Bible is older than thought – Haaretz – Israel News.

When you are done reading the article, skip on off to Dr. Cargill’s blog to read his well placed entry. Please see the comments for more links.

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11 Responses to “Etching hints Bible is older than thought – Earliest Hebrew Inscription Found”

  1. John Hobbins says:
    January 8th, 2010 12:42 am

    Joel,

    Thanks for picking up on this. However, you seem unaware that this inscription was published and discussed at length months ago. That the numerous issues in terms of reading its content have been discussed at some length online before this.

    I put up a summary post near the end of October of last year, summarizing the scholarly debate up to that time (between Misgav, Yardeni, Ahituv, and Schniedewind) provided by Aren Maeir, the foremost blogger of things archaeological in the land of Israel.
    Gershon Galil is a fine Assyriologist, and I’m sure he knows Hebrew well, but his results should at least be compared with those of some of the foremost epigraphers in the field. Since the discrepancies are not minor, You might consider providing your readers with a more comprehensive picture of the state-of-the-question.

    Here’s my link (and go back from there):
    http://ancienthebrewpoetry.typepad.com/ancient_hebrew_poetry/2009/10/misgav-maeir-yardeni-ahituv-and-schniedewind-on-the-qeiyafa-inscription.html

    For the rest, I would note that it is a waste of time to pretend that this inscription, whatever its exact contents, is not a game-changer. It is not too much to say that it sounds the death-knell of minimalism as we know it. Don’t worry, though. Minimalism will be revived in some other shape or form, not because the evidence points in that direction, but because it satisfies the intellectual needs of quite a few people.

    Are you a maximalist? If so, I would encourage you to take Rob Cargill’s reflections to heart.

    http://robertcargill.com/2010/01/07/earliest-hebrew-inscription-reported-found/

    Reply
    • Polycarp says:
      January 8th, 2010 12:53 am

      Thanks for the links, John. I saw that Dr. Cargill’s article (linked in this post) and the comment and Owen’s comment there. (I also noticed Jim West’s posting of it on the Yahoo List).

      I am a maximalist and I am waiting to see what this does to minimalism, although I suspect you are correct in that it will always return in some form.

      I think it is interesting, to say the least. As you well know, I have too many questions on Hebrew, knowing nothing of the language myself to suggest that this means anything beyond the fact that it proves, if it proves as such, that the Hebrew language can be found, and thus literacy, in the Land during the 10th century.

      My only real question, of course, is if this does prove to be Hebrew and then an older form, then does that affect the writing of the Hebrew bible in anyway? By this, I mean if the Hebrew of the 10th century is found to be an older form, then how does that relate to the doctrine of preservation, etc…

      Or, am I making to much out of it?

      Reply
  2. John Hobbins says:
    January 8th, 2010 1:15 am

    The importance of the inscription is enormous because it was found in situ in a massive fortress on the border with Philistia in an Iron Age stratum dated by pottery assemblage and C-14 dates to sometime between the time of Saul and Solomon in terms of biblical chronology. For a variety of reasons, the most plausible date for the site is to the reign of David, with now overwhelming evidence that it was an Israelite site. This despite the fact that the kingdom of David was supposed by minimalists to be basically a myth. It doesn’t look that way any longer (it never really did, but it’s amazing what can be argued on the basis of absence of evidence).

    I say that not because I am a maximalist. I am not. I’m convinced for example that David did not slay Goliath but someone else did, as in fact the Bible says elsewhere: maximalists love to overlook idsy-bitsy problems like that one.

    The whole question of the importance of a vast corpus of epigraphic Hebrew from the (mostly 8th-6th cent. BCE) has been handled masterfully by Seth Sanders in his recent book:

    http://ancienthebrewpoetry.typepad.com/ancient_hebrew_poetry/2009/12/seth-sanders-and-the-historical-uniqueness-of-the-biblical-mode-of-address-.html

    Reply
    • Polycarp says:
      January 8th, 2010 1:22 am

      Has that author, I haven’t read his book yet on the Hebrew Language, weighed in?

      Such an inscription would suggest then, that the the community had the capability of keeping recorded materials, right? Not that we can prove in anyway that they kept inspired texts.

      Reply
      • Stephen Smuts says:
        January 8th, 2010 3:36 am

        Nor do we need to! The preserved Word, which we still have today, speaks absolute volumes.

        But as far as the ostracon goes, it certainly throws a nice spoke in minimalist wheel!

        Reply
  4. Oldest Hebrew Inscription Found « Participatory Bible Study Blog says:
    January 8th, 2010 12:09 pm

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  6. Oldest Hebrew Inscription Found says:
    January 11th, 2010 3:52 am

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