Ancient Hebrew Inscription from c 1000 BC Jan 14
News last week out of Israel of the deciphering of an inscription from 1000 BC. If so, it is the oldest piece of Hebrew writing we have. Details can be found at this site:
http://www.physorg.com/news182101034.html
News last week out of Israel of the deciphering of an inscription from 1000 BC. If so, it is the oldest piece of Hebrew writing we have. Details can be found at this site:
http://www.physorg.com/news182101034.html
Its language and concern for those on the fringe of society echo things we hear in the Pentateuch. This may be the best external evidence we have of the ancient age of this portion of text.
Here is the story from the Jerusalem Post:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1262339428603&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
2 Comments
Brett Williamss
Implications of this ancient Hebrew find
Dr. Bock,
I have two questions regarding this discovery.
1. Could you list for us what YOU consider to be the most important implications of this ancient Hebrew artifact. (I emphasized YOU only because I am looking for implications other than the ones mentioned in the articles you directed us to.)
2. Can you explain the use of almanah (widow) in this text. I don’t know Hebrew but it looks very close to almah, the word used by Isaiah in reference to the ‘virgin.’ I think of a widow being somewhat older. What is the relationship between almah (virgin, young woman, a woman inexperienced in sexual relations) and almanah (widow), if any?
Brett
bock
Implications dlb
Brett:
1) Implications: The find, if authentic, pushes back our concrete knowledge of writing in Hebrew to a very early date. It also shows the social concerns like those in the Pentateuch in one area goes back this far. This may not seem like much, but for those who doubted these kinds of possibilities in this early period, it is significant.
2) I am not aware of any direct connection between the words. In fact the "A" for almah is a different radical (Consonant) than the one for widow (ayin versus aleph). The closest one can get conceptually is a possible Arabic root for widow that means "without a man" but the distance in terms of language and the danger of root fallacy point to not making much of this, especially given that Almah has not such roots.
dlb