Biblical scholarship is arguably the most fascinating and consequential historical discipline in the world—no other historical study involves such momentous and important facts, events and accounts—and a new discovery in Israel may prove the Bible has been around as long as it says it has been around:
A tablet containing the words of an ancient Hebrew curse predating the Dead Sea Scrolls has been uncovered and translated by an archaeologist from Katy. The discovery, announced Thursday, could be proof that the Bible is hundreds of years older than scholars previously thought.
Dr. Scott Stripling - director of the Archaeological Studies Institute at The Bible Seminary in Katy - led the team that discovered the small, folded lead tablet on Mount Ebal in Israel. It reads, "Cursed, cursed, cursed - cursed by the God Yahweh. You will die cursed. Cursed you will surely die. Cursed by Yahweh – cursed, cursed, cursed."
Yikes. I think it's safe to say the guy who wrote that wasn't having the best day.
(Even if he was kinda right.)
The tablet's age—if they've calculated it correctly, which is always an if—suggests a significantly broader possible timeline for the composition of the Bible's earliest books, matching the time when God told Moses that his name is "Yahweh," or "I Am That I Am."
The tablet discovered by Stripling's team was written about 1500 B.C., which would be proof that the Hebrews were writing in the same stylistic and linguistic manners in which the Bible was written.
"We now have the name ‘Yahweh', the biblical God of Israel, in an inscription dating from (Late Bronze Era II), which is earlier than many skeptics would argue that the Bible existed or that there was even the ability to write down a sacred text," Stripling said.
The artifact is at least 200 years older than any other Hebrew text in existence – and 1,350 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The revised timeline won't contradict God's Word at all—but it could provide a much more detailed account of the history of His people. Let's wait and see.
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