Inscription indicates Kingdom of Israel existed in the 10th century BCE

Jerusalem Post ^ | Jan 8, 2010 | SHALHEVET ZOHAR

[BenKenobi]

BC - Before Christ

AD - Anno Domini (Year of our Lord).

I hate the new terms. Don’t use them.

[VietVet]

The Kingdom of Isreal and Judea was not the only Hebrew speaking nation in the late Bronze Age. Moab was Hebrew speaking also, and Hebrew speaking nomads were attacking Egyptian allies in Caanan as early as the time of Ankenaten.

So the existance of an inscription in Hebrew, dating to 1000 BC, per se, proves nothing about the dates of either the Kingdom of Isreal or the Torah.

VietVet

[reaganaut]

Due to the secular nature of academia, you can easily get labeled and discounted regardless of the quality of your work. In certain circles, and with certain scholars, BC/AD is professional suicide.

Professionally, if I am speaking to other academics, I use BCE/CE (Before Christian Era/Christian Era).

If I am speaking/writing to a group of Christians, or in personal correspondence, I automatically use BC/AD.

It doesn’t bother me personally anymore, but I do understand exactly why some people get upset.

[bogusname]

“So the existance of an inscription in Hebrew, dating to 1000 BC, per se, proves nothing about the dates of either the Kingdom of Isreal or the Torah.”

Based on the facts you have your doubt is somewhat justified. However there is another article from the Israel National News at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135432

From that article- “Galil also noted that the inscription was discovered in a provincial Judean town”

Also the things written on this artifact closely parallel the Hebrew Scriptures- “This text is a social statement, relating to slaves, widows and orphans. It uses verbs that were characteristic of Hebrew, such as “asah” (did) and “avad” (worked), which were rarely used in other regional languages. Particular words that appear in the text, such as “almana” (widow) are specific to Hebrew and are written differently in other local languages. The content itself was also unfamiliar to all the cultures in the region besides the Hebrew society: The present inscription provides social elements similar to those found in the Biblical prophecies and very different from prophecies written by other cultures postulating glorification of the gods and taking care of their physical needs”

[BenKenobi]

I am in that profession and I spit at claims of ‘professional suicide’.

It’s complete and worthless trash. If it was good enough to be used for thousands of years, it’s good enough for me. What are they going to do, take away my credentials?

[aruanan]

Don’t get me wrong, I think the so-called experts who think the scriptures are from centuries LATER are wrong, but I do not see how this inscription automatically proves the scriptures were written centuries earlier than those so-called experts believe.

If they have a way of reliably dating this inscription and it shows characteristics that others claim through literary/linguistic analysis originated centuries later and showed up in scripture, then that would be evidence that the scriptures easily could have been written much earlier, though not that they must have been written much earlier.

[reaganaut]

lol. I like the way you think. What area are you in?

If you are tenured you can get by with more. For the younger scholars (like me), I would rather “play it safe” for now. If I were teaching at a private school then I would probably not be as rigid.

I was taught to always speak to my audience, and I consider that part of it. Peer reviews in controversial areas can be violent enough without adding distractions to it.

[BenKenobi]

I’m probably younger than you and I’m not tenured. I live in Canada, but I’m looking at relocating so frankly I’m not really caring about ‘professional suicide’.

I just do my job, make sure my students do well and that they know what they ought to know. I don’t have time to cater to bullshit.

I try to keep politics out of it whenever possible. I teach history, so sometimes it’s not, but I try to be fair and balanced and stick to the facts. Is it true that George Bush is the worst president in the United States? No, that’s simply opinion. Is it true that President Clinton considers Bush to be the worst president in the US? Yes. What can we tell about that statement?

(ie, is Bush really the worst president because Clinton says it’s so?), that sort of thing.

My method seems to work well so far. I focus on the fundamentals and on motivation. I try to show everyone that if they work their ass off they are going to get good grade and they are going to feel like they’ve actually learned something...

[reaganaut]

Good to hear. We need more professors/instructors/teachers like you.

There was a US History professor I worked with that was a very loud Anarchist. His classes were free for all’s and I had several students complain to me that all he did was talk politics, not history.

I am a Medievalist (minor area Ancient History) so I can easily avoid modern US politics. :)

[BenKenobi]

I would prefer to do medieval history. Where abouts do you teach? I love that sort of stuff.

No, I just do the basics, Canadian history that sort of thing. My area of focus has been history of science and British history.

[reaganaut]

You have freepmail. :)

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 1/08/2010. Thanks bogusname.

[af_vet_1981]

But if it still annoys you, read BCE as Before Christian Era and CE as Christian Era. That way Christians and Nonchristians can both translate the abbreviations to their own satisfaction.

What a charitable accomodation; well done.