Posted on 03/24/2022 10:47:31 AM PDT by Conservat1
A rare archeological find from Mount Ebal: A small, folded 3,200-year-old lead plate sheds new light on biblical study - and was unveiled today (Thursday). Inside it - an ancient curse in ancient Hebrew script ("Proto-Canaanite"), with the God's explicit name [of the Divine]. Prof. Gershon Galil, from the University of Haifa, calls the discovery an "earthquake in biblical studies." He said, "The new find unearthed today is the earliest Hebrew inscription found so far."
An inscription was found in Hebrew from the 13th century BC Prof. Galil: "The new finding is a death blow to all biblical deniers"
An inscription in ancient Hebrew, with the explicit name, was discovered on Mount Ebal in Samaria, and dates to the 13th century BC. Prof. Gershon Galil from the University of Haifa, says that this is the oldest Hebrew inscription found so far - evidence of the use of the Hebrew language in biblical times
A rare archeological find from Mount Ebal: A small, folded 3,200-year-old lead plate sheds new light on biblical study - and was unveiled today (Thursday). Inside it - an ancient curse in ancient Hebrew script ("Proto-Canaanite"), with the name of the explicit name. Prof. Gershon Galil of the University of Haifa calls the discovery an "earthquake in biblical studies." He said, "The new find unearthed today is the earliest Hebrew inscription found so far."
Prof. Galil says that to this day, with the discovery of the inscription from the 13th century BC, the oldest inscription in Hebrew has been dated to the tenth century BC. "It was an inscription found in the ruins of Kaifa, near the Ella Valley, by Prof. Yossi Garfinkel from the Hebrew University, and I was the one who deciphered it," he says.
"The new finding is a death blow to all biblical deniers," Prof. Galil emphasizes. "Many biblical critics have argued that in the 13th century BCE, the people of Israel could not read and write, and therefore could not write the Bible. Therefore, biblical deniers have claimed that the Bible was written very late, in the Persian or Hellenistic period.
The small lead tablet, from the 13th century BC, was discovered on Mount Ebal in Samaria, known as the biblical "Curse Mountain" - and inside it was cursed:
Cursed, damn, [Arur ארור], Cursed before the Lord God... Cursed before Yahweh...
How many times can “death blow” be inserted into a short article? 6 I think.
An interesting find, but the article is somewhat hyperbolic.
PINGGG!..................
Took me half the article to figure out there was no earthquake.
More times than “Death Punch”, I guess!
Just a little bit.
Cursed, damn, [Arur ארור], Cursed before the Lord God... Cursed before Yahweh...
Arur means “Death Blow to all Biblical Deniers”.
The article is in Hebrew.
So in short what they found was a ‘game changing bombshell’?
Lol. Same here.
full translation from google:
“This is an earthquake in biblical study”: 3,200-year-old “curse” from “Curse Mountain” was exposed
An inscription in ancient Hebrew, with the explicit name, was discovered on Mount Ebal in Samaria, and dates to the 13th century BC. Prof. Gershon Galil from the University of Haifa says that this is the oldest Hebrew inscription found so far - evidence of the use of the Hebrew language in biblical times
Yitzhak Tessler, Elisha Ben Kimon | 11:35
A rare archeological find from Mount Ebal: A small, folded 3,200-year-old lead plate sheds new light on biblical study - and was unveiled today (Thursday). Inside it - an ancient curse in ancient Hebrew script (”Proto-Canaanite”), with the name of the explicit name. Prof. Gershon Galil, from the University of Haifa, calls the discovery an “earthquake in biblical studies.” He said, “The new find unearthed today is the earliest Hebrew inscription found so far.”
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View the gallery The finds discovered on Mount Ebal
The find discovered on Mount Ebal (Photo: Michael C. Luddeni)
Prof. Galil says that to this day, with the discovery of the inscription from the 13th century BC, the oldest inscription in Hebrew has been dated to the tenth century BC. “It was an inscription found at the Kiafa ruin, near the Ella Valley, by Prof. Yossi Garfinkel from the Hebrew University, and I was the one who deciphered it,” he says.
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“The new finding is a death blow to all biblical deniers,” Prof. Galil emphasizes. “Many biblical critics have argued that in the 13th century BCE, the people of Israel could not read and write, and therefore could not write the Bible. Thus the biblical deniers claimed that the Bible was written very late, in the Persian or Hellenistic period.
“High-level work”
The small lead tablet, from the 13th century BC, was discovered on Mount Ebal in Samaria, known as the biblical “Curse Mountain” - and inside it was cursed:
Damn, damn, damn,
Cursed be the Lord God.
Die - Damn,
Damn - Death will die.
Cursed be Yahweh,
Damn, damn, damn
It is not clear who wrote the ancient curse, but according to Prof. Galil, it is a high-level work: “Anyone who knows how to write a text with a chiastic reception can write everything,” he says. “At this stage, unfortunately, it is not yet possible to reveal all the information that has been revealed, as it is awaiting peer review and academic publication.
Prof. Gershon Galil
Prof. Gershon Galil (courtesy of the photographer)
Ancient reference to the God of Israel
Prof. Galil believes that the fact that the new find was actually discovered on Mount Ebal is of historically important significance. In the Book of Deuteronomy (Chapter 27), Moshe Rabbeinu commands the people to hold a special ceremony after entering the land. He will be accursed and cursed if he breaks the covenant: Cursed be the man that makeeth the graven image, or the molten image of the abomination of the LORD; And all the people answered and said, Amen.
Hikers on Mount Ebal
Joshua’s altar on Mount Ebal (Photo: Nadav Goldstein, TPS)
Below are more warnings, common to all - that they open with the word “damn”. “These are not curses,” emphasizes Prof. Galil. “The meaning of the phrase ‘cursed’ is cursed. It is a legal text that warns that whoever does not do the mitzvah on it, will be cursed. In the relationship between Israel and God, there is an informal relationship in which God declares that he loves the people, and there is a formal and legal element. Others, in every contract there are blessings as well as curses that will apply to whoever improved the agreement, and this is also described in Jeremiah II.
According to Prof. Galil, “At that time the legal contract included an object, with the same address on the outside and on the inside. When there was a dispute, they would break and see what the text was written on the inside. .
How do you know it’s a legal document of Jews?
“Because of the reference to the God of Israel. To a Canaanite man the name ‘Yahweh’ means nothing, because he does not know the God of Israel at all.”
A legal contract or a type of mascot
On April 6, 1980, a team led by Prof. Adam Zertel, an expert in archeology of the Land of Israel at the University of Haifa, discovered a ritual site on Mount Ebal. Subsequently, excavations were conducted, following which a number of scholars determined that it was the “altar of Joshua son of Nun,” the place where the solemn ceremony took place and the renewed covenant between God and the people of Israel who entered the land, after leaving Egypt and forty years of wandering in the desert. But a significant number of academics have insisted that this is a Canaanite place of worship, which has nothing to do with Judaism.
The altar of Joshua. The find was discovered by filtering the dirt from the site
The altar of Joshua. The find was discovered by filtering the soil from the site (Photo: Assaf Kemar)
The mascot was uncovered during a filtration of dirt left over from excavations previously done by Zertel. Prof. Zertel passed away in 2015, but those who continued to believe that it was the altar of Joshua Ben-Nun were members of the Associates for Biblical Research organization from Texas. In December 2019, archaeologist Dr. Scott Strippling led a team, with the aim of performing a special screening of dirt excavated in the area of ”Joshua’s Altar” by Zertel and his team, in the years 1982-1989.
The method they used was “wet sifting”, in the same way that archaeologists Yitzhak (Tzachi) Dvira and Dr. Gabriel Barkai were able to discover amazing finds as part of the Temple Mount dirt filtration project. He consulted with a number of experts, including Prof. Galil from the University of Haifa.
Yossi Dagan observes the finds alongside Dr. Scott Strippling during the excavations
Yossi Dagan observes finds alongside Dr. Scott Strippling during the excavations (Photo: Roi Hadi)
Stripping, referring to the finds as a type of amulet, explains: “These types of inscriptions are well known in the e
I remember as a child visiting the grave of a relative. I could barely understand what was going on around me. One of my aunts put some flowers on the grave and cleared the dead flowers away. There was one of these lead amulae on the grave and it had been scribbled over, hit by hail, etc, and was apparently so people could inscribe best wishes for the dead on it. It was unreadable. My aunt painstakingly cleared the little amulet by rubbing it and inscribed our relative’s name on it and “rest in peace” - there wasn’t room for much more. She did this with a bobby pin she fished out of her purse.
It isn’t that deniers need proof. They simply don’t want to believe in Jehovah and Jesus.
It is true that the written Hebrew language Moses used was basic, having only about 3,000 words aside from proper nouns and names, leaving many words to perform double-duty. But, clearly, that was enough.
How do you fold a lead plate without obscuring what was written inside? How do you unfold a lead plate in order to read what was inside?
This is big, because the writer demonstrates very clearly a familiarity with the structure of the psalms and other such poetry in the OT. And, yes, I know that most - most - of the psalms were written after the 13th century B.C. But that only makes this a bigger deal. It shows the Israelite poetry and poetic form was already existent before the time of David.
This is indeed an earthquake.
ORIGAMI.....................
I doubt I know 3000 words................
I wish they would have either said how many years ago the artifact is from or which century it came from. Those are important details that shouldn’t be left out.
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