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<\/a>The super-secret Latter-day Saint temple at Fort Knox, Kentucky
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A very worthwhile essay from two of my favorite commentators at the Deseret News,<\/em> Jacob Hess and Hal Boyd:\u00a0 \u201cPerspective: What\u2019s behind American media\u2019s unhealthy fixation on \u2018Mormons, Inc.\u2019?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The oldest currently known copy of a biblical text is to be found on what are commonly called the \u201cHinnom Scrolls.\u201d\u00a0 Discovered in 1979-80 during excavations led by Gabriel Barkay, of Tel Aviv University, in a series of burial caves located not far to the southwest of the Old City of Jerusalem at Ketef Hinnom \u2014 hence the name \u2014 these scrolls are actually two silver amulets.\u00a0 They have been dated to the seventh century B.C., which is to say to just before or during the lifetime of the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi.\u00a0 When they were unrolled and translated, they proved to contain the famous \u201cpriestly benediction\u201d from Numbers 6:24-26:\u00a0 \u201cThe Lord bless thee, and keep thee:The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.\u201d<\/p>\n It is generally accepted that the Ketef Hinnom scrolls contain the oldest written portion of scripture that has ever been found thus far, several centuries older even than the Dead Sea Scrolls.\u00a0 They are also recognized as containing the oldest extrabiblical reference to YHWH \u2014 that is, to Yahweh or Jehovah.\u00a0 (That fact is obscured in the King James rendering cited just above, so here is another translation:\u00a0 \u201cMay Yahweh bless you and keep you; may Yahweh cause his face to shine upon you and grant you peace.\u201d)<\/p>\n Given their early date, the Hinnom Scrolls provide evidence strongly suggesting that at least a portion of the books of Moses may not have been written during the exilic or postexilic period of Israelite history, as some scholars have contended.\u00a0 It is also significant, from a specifically Latter-day Saint point of view, that the oldest extant biblical text is written on, well, metal.\u00a0 It seems that the Book of Mormon\u2019s claim to have been written on metal plates may not be so outlandish, after all.<\/p>\n But now a new<\/em> development may have occurred that is worth reporting:\u00a0 A tiny ancient lead tablet that may contain an even earlier<\/em> proto-Hebraic inscription was announced to the news media more than a year ago.\u00a0 Here\u2019s an account of the press conference announcing it that was kindly called to my attention slightly over a year ago by my friend Noel Reynolds:\u00a0 \u201cResearchers decipher oldest known Hebrew inscription on \u2018cursed\u2019 tablet: Mt. Ebal discovery aligns with biblical texts in Deuteronomy, Joshua \u2022 \u2018Post\u2019 photographer Sellem\u2019s photos help decode wording\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 (A video recording of the actual press conference is accessible for free online: \u201cOldest Known Proto-Hebrew Inscription From Mount Ebal Discovered by ABR Researchers\u201d<\/a>)<\/p>\n Now, Professor Reynolds has alerted me within just the past couple of days to the fact that the promised peer-reviewed journal report of the discovery has appeared: \u00a0Scott Stripling<\/a>,\u00a0Gershon Galil<\/a>,\u00a0Ivana Kumpova<\/a>,\u00a0Jaroslav Valach<\/a>,\u00a0Pieter Gert van der Veen<\/a>, and Daniel Vavrik<\/a>, \u201c\u201cYou are Cursed by the God YHW:\u201d an early Hebrew inscription from Mt. Ebal,\u201d Heritage Science<\/em> 11: 105 (2023).<\/a>\u00a0 Here is the summary of the article that is prefaced to it:<\/p>\n In December 2019, an expedition on Mt. Ebal to examine the discarded material from Adam Zertal\u2019s 1982\u20131989 excavation yielded a small, folded lead tablet. The east dump pile, from which the object emerged, contained the discarded matrix from two structures that he interpreted as altars dated to the Late Bronze Age II and Iron Age I. The earlier and smaller round altar lay underneath the geometric center of the later and larger rectangular altar. The tablet could not be opened without damaging it. A team of scientists performed X-ray tomographic measurements with different scanning parameters. The tomographically reconstructed data were subjected to advanced processing to reveal the hidden text. Epigraphic analysis of the tomographic data revealed a formulaic curse written in a proto-alphabetic script likely dating to Late Bronze Age II. The inscription falls within the literary genre of Chiastic Parallelism and predates any previously known Hebrew inscription in Israel by at least 200\u00a0years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n There is a full range of responses from epigraphers. Christopher Rollston, a leading authority on ancient Hebrew inscriptions, says he can see no clear example of a Hebrew letter. Others accept the proposed 23-word reading. If the proposed interpretation is correct, the tablet upsets or corrects current scholarly theories, pushing the invention of Hebrew writing back another 200 years or so. There are several other potentially\u00a0 major implications for the archaeology, history, and religion of Israel.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Some people have been very enthusiastic \u2014 and understandably so, if one accepts the discoverers\u2019 conclusions about the lead tablet \u2014 regarding this find.\u00a0 For instance, here\u2019s a link that James Jordan sent to me all the way from a rural area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo:\u00a0 \u201cResearchers Use X-Ray on Item Found at Biblical Site, Make Incredible Discovery That Could Connect to 1 Specific Verse\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n If this archaeological artifact is authentic, and if it really contains the proto-Hebraic inscription that is claimed for it, we once again have writing on metal.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting, too, that the inscription that its supporters have discerned on the small metallic plate is chiastic<\/em>.\u00a0 (Again, it\u2019s difficult for a Latter-day Saint not to be reminded of the Book of Mormon in this regard.)<\/p>\n As Professor Reynolds observes, though, responses to the interpretation of the find given by its discoverers have not, umm, been universally positive.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a link that he also supplied, from The Times of Israel<\/em>:\u00a0 \u201cAcademic article on controversial 3,200-year-old \u2018curse tablet\u2019 fails to sway experts: Year after team hails bombshell discovery of oldest Hebrew writing in Israel, details of the find hit a peer-reviewed journal. But some academics don\u2019t see any inscription at all\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n