Friday, January 08, 2010

Ancient Hebrew - Ancient Nation

Here:-

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...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.

1 comment:

Hebrew Scholar said...

Those who believe the Hebrew Bible to be historically accurate will not be in the least bit surprised to learn that this inscription really does date back to the time of David, when large parts of the Hebrew Bible were written. Archaeologists should not be surprised by this either. After all the Moabite Stone dates to this period, and is written in understandable Hebrew.