Deciphered etching sheds new light on Bible's origin

Haaretz ^ | January 8, 2010 | Fadi Eyadat

[NYer]

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.

The content, Galil said, "which relates to slaves, widows and orphans," is typical of the Biblical text, but reflects ideas virtually unheard of in the surrounding cultures.

Galil said this discovery disproves the current theory, which holds that the Bible could not have been written before the 6th century B.C.E., because Hebrew writing did not exist until then.

Moreover, he added, the inscription was found in what was then a minor, outlying community - so if scribes existed even there, Hebrew writing was probably sufficiently well developed to handle a complex text like the Bible.

[bvw]

In other words you don’t know the answer and are afraid to admit to ignorance. Great way to stay stupid!

[bvw]

Why so much difficulty? Because the ‘consensus’ of the scientific Biblical Scholars and archaeologist has been like the consensus of climatologists. At first the same personality driven hubris that inspired the research and scholarship translated into all-knowing overblown pronouncements as to how the Scriptures came to be. And once the field was established and the chairs endowed and departments furnished — it was all dogmatic politically empowering assertion of ‘well established’ facts. It was fiercely protective of its ‘intellectual property’ and aggressively shut down or fenced out all competition.

As an establishment, mostly German based, it showed absolute loathing for Jewish traditions as to the provenance of the Scriptures, despite the fact that the narrative and facts per those traditions were and remain highly fidelic, unchanged over thousands of years, and have always shown exacting levels of scholarship and continuity.

These secular, Christian and Catholic scholars developed a consensus history of when the Bible was written down that put it after the Jewish exiles to Babylon. That’s a thousand years after Moses.

It is the huge inertia of the intellectual establishment of Bible Scholarship that has made it difficult to consider challenges to the orthodoxy.

[jpsb]

I am mildly offended by the use of BCE, when I see that used I tend to think I am going to be reading revisionist history. However I do not think anyone a bigot for using the term.

What I find interesting is the claim (implied) that King David court was illiterate. Writing had been around for thousands of years prior to King David so why would anyone think that the bible could only date back to 600 BC?

Interesting article thanks for posting it.

[rightwingcrazy]

“These secular, Christian and Catholic scholars developed a consensus history of when the Bible was written down that put it after the Jewish exiles to Babylon. That’s a thousand years after Moses.”

That means they’ve devoted themselves to a document they believe is fictional. The Bible itself says when it was written. Must cause them some cognitive dissonance, to say the least.

[Agamemnon]

Galil said this discovery disproves the current theory, which holds that the Bible could not have been written before the 6th century B.C.E., because Hebrew writing did not exist until then.

Current theory, they say? What intellectually masturbatory academic rot-gut do these idiots consume, anyway?

Moses lived 1500 - 1300 BC. The finger of God inscribed the 10 Commandments and gave them to Moses. What language in the 14th Century BC does one logically suppose the 10 Commandments were written in to the HEBREW PEOPLE???

So just because modern scholars haven't found alot of 10th Century Hebrew writing on clay tablets in ink, it somehow didn't exist? Are they trying to say that Solomon didn't write his Proverbs nor Moses or David their Psalms? An inscribed ancient clay staff topper has been unearthed from the 1st Temple Period, belonging to what is believed to be a relic from the destroyed 1st temple. What language do you suppose it's inscribed in? Do I have to say any more?

I laugh at the sophomoric self-important "since I didn't find it it didn't happen" philosophical approach to archaeological academia. These pompous-assed pricks are far too "intelligent" to actually be smart.

FReegards!

[the_daug]

...suspiciously P.C(politically correct) to me.

I suspect it has something to do with the Jews not recognizing their Messiah and the crusaders holding them left 1000 years after the fact accountable for Christ death

[blu]

The reference to Hebrew is interesting, but there seems to be something overlooked here. The King James or New International versions of the Bible were translated from prior languages. That doesn’t devalue the significance of the text. Why couldn’t early Biblical texts have been written in a language that preceded Hebrew? Why is it important to refer to this as an early version of Hebrew? It may have simply been an earlier language than Hebrew

Ding ding ding! We have a winner..one with a brain!

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

The article is correctly dated Tevet 24, 5770 along with teh more recent January 10, 2010 dating, but though it's an interesting article, those who consider the use of BCE a demonstration of Israeli/Jewish Christian hatred should probably skip the thread. No point in aggravating yourselves.

[RnMomof7]

The dating of this inscription puts it at less than 300 years after Moses’ death, if you accept the Biblical chronology. I’m not sure why they have so much difficulty considering that the original was written in Moses’ time, as it says it was.

Me either..

[bvw]

There are manifold cognitive dissonances going on here. But that’s life too. It’s not meant to be a ‘gimmee’, a welfare state so to speak. It takes effort, there is no retirement, no pension seekers, no retirement lifestyles, no sinecures, no vacations.

The Biblical Scholars, however created one. An establishment. Intellectual property rights and rents. Sinecures, pensions, power, franchises.

Not to say that these kind of establishments — or vacations, pensions, intellectual property land rents and nobility classes are bad things. They can be good for a time for some, but they are easily corrupted, corrupting. It’s just something to watch for, to not get too sucked into.

[SJackson]

I suspect it has something to do with the Jews not recognizing their Messiah and the crusaders holding them left 1000 years after the fact accountable for Christ death

It originated in 18th century Europe, in fact was used in the Encyclopedia Brittanica in that era. I doubt Jews were the impetus.

[SJackson]

So just because modern scholars haven't found alot of 10th Century Hebrew writing on clay tablets in ink, it somehow didn't exist?

They have now!

I love the 1st Temple artifacts being discovered too. Hopefully the palestinians won't be successful destroying more of them.

[Eleutheria5]

“Any time I see the letters BCE, I know it is coming from a Christian hating bigot. No other possible reason to use that term.”

All it means is “Before the Christian Era”. Do I hate Christianity if I simply don’t regard its dating as definitive (Before Christ), but its historical emergence as too significant to ignore? The exact birth year of the child who later became known as “Christ” is not known, merely claimed. His date of death (AD) would have had to been a decade and a half later. If you are a Christian, you take that claim as authoritative, and all power to you. If you are not, you take that claim into account because that is the way that Christians date history, and Christians are too important to ignore, while at the same time registering a modicum of skepticism. “Hatred”? Lighten up. Come on.

[Truthsearcher]

Yes, a lot of these types of biblical scholars treat it as fictional. They treat it like they treat the Illiad.

[wagglebee]

Any time I see the letters BCE, I know it is coming from a Christian hating bigot. No other possible reason to use that term.

This is a story from Haaretz which is an Israeli news agency. It is to be expected that an Israeli news agency would use BCE and CE rather than BC and AD.

[Uri’el-2012]

I’m not a scholar, however, any communication that replaces the traditional B.C. (before Christ) with B.C.E. (before current era) is suspiciously P.C(politically correct) to me.

Do you know how blasphemous and ignorant anno domini is?

It implies that YHvH was born in 0 AD.

We all know YHvH created the universe and our time and space continuum.

The fearful Day of YHvH will come at His second coming.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

[SJackson]

All it means is “Before the Christian Era”.

Historically, it likely means Common Era, an offshoot of the older Vulgar Era terminology, which doesn't change the accuracy of your post.

[RaceBannon]

Until people start checking which verse this is, they need to stop calling it scripture

Cuz I sure cant find any of this in my searches, not in this form at all. not in this order, not these verses.

[RaceBannon]

No, it is a phrase that is about 20 years old that I know, and it is COMMON ERA

people left out Christian to avoid openly offending Christians. The first places I saw it printed were Archeologist magazines

[RaceBannon]

touche, but I dont think they intended YEAR OF OUR LORD to mean that God the Father was born in year zero. :)