'Biblical Temple' tablet found

BBC News ^ | Tuesday, 14 January, 2003, 03:41 GMT

[Walkin Man]

Tuesday, 14 January, 2003, 03:41 GMT

'Biblical Temple' tablet found

Israeli geologists say a purportedly ancient stone tablet detailing repair plans for the Jewish Temple of King Solomon is genuine, an Israeli newspaper has reported. The fragment is said to date from the period of the Jewish King Joash, who ruled the area 2,800 years ago.

If officially authenticated, the find would be the first piece of physical evidence backing up biblical texts.

It could also intensify competing claims to the site in Jerusalem's Old City, where the stone is said to have been found, which go to the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Muslim clerics have denied any Jewish historical connection with the site, revered by Jews as the location of their biblical temples.

'Biblical' instructions

The blackened stone was unearthed during renovations by Muslim authorities on a mosque compound, known to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount, according to the Ha'aretz daily.

The incomplete sandstone tablet contains an inscription in ancient Phoenician in which a king tells priests to take "holy money... to buy quarry stones and timber and copper and labour to carry out the duty with the faith".

If the work is completed well, it adds, "the Lord will protect his people with blessing".

The words closely resemble descriptions in the biblical Book of Kings II and refer to King Joash.

The first Temple, Judaism's holiest shrine, was built by King Solomon and stood for 400 years before it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC.

'Sensational' find

The tablet was examined by experts at Israel's Geological Institute.

"Our findings show that it is authentic," Ha'aretz quoted Shimon Ilani from the institute as saying.

Mr Ilani said carbon dating showed the tablet was inscribed around the 9th Century BC.

The stone was also said to have been found to contain microscopic gold flecks, which mean it may have existed in the Temple itself.

A top Israeli archaeologist, Gabriel Barkai, said that if the tablet was definitively authenticated, it would be a "sensational" discovery.

The director of the Islamic Trust that administers the mosque compound, however, denied that the tablet had been discovered there.

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[DensaMensa]

}detailing repair plans for the Jewish Temple of King Solomon

Hmmm. I could have sworn Solomon was an Israelite, not a Jew.

[what's up]

Jews first called "Jews" during Persian era...500's - 400's BC. First mentioned in Book of Esther.

Solomon was alive in the 900's BC. You are correct.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Already posted Here

But it is an interesting story, isn't it?

[Swordmaker]

Yes, Christians do... stones don't...

[Poohbah]

Do Christians believe in radio-carbon dating?

With some Christians, only if they agree with the results.

[AD from SpringBay]

I'm not an expert, but that's never stopped me before. So, as I understand it, radio carbon dating is accurate if the atmosphere is relatively constant.

Would an event like a world wide flood change the levels of carbon in buried stuff from the pre and post flood periods - sort of like the compression that occurs to objects at deep ocean depths? Or am I all wet?

I think Christians (some?) see radio carbon dating as accurate only in a post-flood sense.

[MHGinTN]

The director of the Islamic Trust that administers the mosque compound, however, denied that the tablet had been discovered there. The Allah of Islamicists rewards Moslems when they lie for Allah, or so they think. Islamicists are political totalitarians, not devout followers of God.

[general_re]

stones don't...

This isn't the first story I've seen that talked about "radiocarbon dating" of stone. Whether it's CNN, the New York Times, or the Beeb, the level of illiteracy in the mainstream media is always good for a laugh. Obviously, you can't carbon-date rock, and while there are radioisotope methods for dating rocks, that would tell you when the rock was formed, not when it was carved. So who knows what the heck they're talking about? ;)

[Joshua]

"Do Christians believe in radio-carbon dating? "

No need to. They can tell how old the stone is by cross referencing it with the bible

[Alouette]

I could have sworn Solomon was an Israelite, not a Jew.

He was a descendant of Judah.

[general_re]

Would an event like a world wide flood change the levels of carbon in buried stuff from the pre and post flood periods...

No, it shouldn't. The levels of C-14 are basically constant in the atmosphere and the (living) plants and animals around you, and within you. That's because, even though the C-14 inside of you is constantly decaying, you're continually replenishing it every time you breathe and eat. But when you die, you stop taking in new C-14, and it all eventually decays away. Since the rate of the radioactive decay for C-14 is well-known, and the levels easily measured, it's pretty easy to figure out how long you've been dead based on how much C-14 remains in your...remains ;)

The only potential monkey wrench is if the levels of C-14 in the past were significantly higher or lower than they are now. If they were higher, that would make artifacts appear younger than they actually were, and if lower, artifacts would appear older than they actually were. However, this potential source of errors has been pretty exhaustively investigated, and there's no reason to think that the levels of C-14 in the past were significantly different than what they are now.

[dennisw]

The Destruction of the Temple Mount, and the Likud Role as Accomplice (Steven Plaut)

One of the most exciting pieces of news in years is that of the remarkable archeological find, a clay tablet in ancient Hebrew from the 9th century BCE, about which the entire Jewish world is suddenly abuzz. The tablet appears to be from one of the ancient kings of Judea, describing repairs performed on the First Temple, the original Temple of Solomon, and has been declared a bona fide antiquity to be taken at face value by Israel's Geological Institute.

There is however another no less important aspect to this story. And that is that the story proves how far Israel's pusillanimous politicians are willing to go to accommodate the systematic destruction of priceless Jewish artifacts and religious objects in the name of appeasing the PLO.

The Israeli media is being very coy about where the 9th century BCE tablet came from. But it appears pretty obvious that it came from the diggings on the Temple Mount by the PLO. Ever since the beginning of the Oslo Atrocity, Israel's politicians have turned over control of the Temple Mount to the tender mercies of the PLO Terrorocracy (it was previously under the more enlightened control of Jordan). The PLO, for example, now appoints the religious leaders in the Mosques on the Temple Mount, imams who routinely call for suicide bombings and genocide of Jews with not a single act of correction by Israel.

The earth on the Temple Mount is filled with priceless artifacts and treasures, whose historic and religious and archeological value to Jews and to all mankind can only be guessed. The King's tablet found recently proves these artifacts go back at least 3000 years and probably go back further. The PLO however is devoted to perpetuating its nazi lies about how there were never any Jewish Temples of Old standing on the Temple Mount, that the Western Wall has no religious nor historic significance to the Jews and is merely a spot where Mohammed tied up his donkey.

Even worse, the PLO is devoted to systematically destroying any archeological evidence that might be at odds with its nazi ideology and its proclamations that there were never any Jewish Temples on the Temple Mount. 

In recent months, the PLO has operated wholesale "construction and renovation" operations on the Mount, right under Israel's nose, in which God knows how many priceless antiquities were systematically destroyed. The PLO claims it was renovating the "stables" area under the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Any digging on the Temple Mount should have been done painstakingly with toothbrushes by experts, but the pusillanimous defeatist politicians of Israel - from the Sharon Administration!! - allowed the PLO to bring in bulldozers and heavy earth moving machinery onto the Temple Mount!! The result is like fixing one's teeth with a jackhammer.

The entire world was outraged when the Taliban blew up ancient Buddhas in Afghanistan. But what the PLO has been doing is far worse. On the Temple Mount the earth moving has already destabilized the "South Wall", a section of the ancient Herodian Wall around the Temple's perimeter, that is now in danger of collapsing. Historically and religiously, the South Wall is comparable to the Western Wall and every bit as sacred. Other artifacts, predating the birth of the Buddha by centuries, have no doubt been completely obliterated.

But the finding of the ancient tablet from the Judean King proves something else. Evidently the tablet was uncovered when one of the bulldozers was ripping through the earth on the Temple Mount and the tablet was unearthed and simply discarded. Someone must have come across it and sold it to an antiquities dealer, probably not knowing what it was. (That is also how the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.) My guess is that because the writing is the ancient Hebrew script, very different from "modern" Hebrew (the alphabet used since the 6th century BCE), it was not recognized as Hebrew by the PLO and so was not deliberately destroyed by the savages as part of their campaign to obliterate evidence of the Jewishness of the Temple Mount. But the finding of the tablet is simply a blaring siren warning of what else has already been destroyed!

The Sharon government - like the previous governments of Labor Party lemmings - has preferred to buy a few months of avoidance of confrontations with the PLO over its destruction of antiquities by turning a blind eye. Sharon is still traumatized by the campaign of world anti-Semites and Israel's anti-Jewish Left to represent the entire past 2.5 years of Palestinian atrocities as having been caused by Sharon's "controversial" visit to the Temple Mount in September 2000. In fact, that visit was exactly as "provocative" and "controversial" as would be a visit to the Vatican by an Italian politician. But Sharon is too timid to say so.

The Labor Party has always had a coy interest in ignoring archeological evidence of the Jewishness of the Temple Mount and indeed of all of Jerusalem, because the Labor Party seeks to create a post-Jewish Israeliness. The fewer the historic ties of Israelis to their Jewishness, the better, in their opinion. Shulamit Aloni, the Madame DeFarge of Meretz, while Minister of Education went so far as to demand that some books of the Bible never be taught in Israeli schools lest they make the children too "nationalist"!!

In the case of the Likud's sitting back while some of the most important artifacts of Jewish heritage are destroyed by the PLO - the explanation is simply cowardice. The Sharon government could have prevented the destruction simply be preventing heavy machinery being moved onto the Temple Mount by the savages. In exchange for a transient make-pretend avoidance of confrontation - during which the PLO is murdering hundreds of Jews per year anyway - the Sharon government is sitting back while some of the most important artifacts of Jewish history are systematically being destroyed. In two years no one will remember the "avoidance of confrontation" Sharon thinks he is buying. But in 5000 years Jews will still be mourning the systematic destruction of their priceless heritage by Likud cowardice.

[general_re]

They can tell how old the stone is by cross referencing it with the bible

Given their druthers, everyone, including the folks who dug this thing up, would probably prefer a method of dating that was a little less circularly-reasoned than that ;)

[Dengar01]

Muslim clerics have denied any Jewish historical connection with the site, revered by Jews as the location of their biblical temples.

The muslim clerics can lie all they want. No matter what they find on the site, the Muslims will continue to lie and say that it is theirs.

[Swordmaker]

The only clue I can get from the article is that the tablet was "blackened" which may mean that it was exposed to a fire that contained carbon. Dating that unknown provenance carbon would provide no information about the age of the stone's carvings even if the carbon soot is or isn't in the carved portions... the source of the carbon might have been from wood that predated the carving.

[general_re]

Dating that unknown provenance carbon would provide no information about the age of the stone's carvings even if the carbon soot is or isn't in the carved portions... the source of the carbon might have been from wood that predated the carving.

Exactly so. It's entirely possible that someone carved the stone last week and then exposed it to charred pieces of really old wood - plenty of that stuff lying around from other archaeological sites, after all. Not that I think this is likely, but we can't really rule it out if soot is the source of the date. Presumably there is other circumstantial evidence from the dig site that will help date it accurately....

[Swordmaker]

Presumably there is other circumstantial evidence from the dig site that will help date it accurately....

Several articles put doubt on the provenance of the tablet itself... one hinting it was found on the Temple Mount, another speculating that it was dug up by a bulldozer and discarded to be found and sold to a antiquities dealer... This puts a big cloud over the "circumstantial evidence from the dig site"... too bad.