{"id":16622,"date":"2015-01-04T18:53:37","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T01:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=16622"},"modified":"2015-01-04T22:25:12","modified_gmt":"2015-01-05T05:25:12","slug":"commemorating-a-covenant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/commemorating-a-covenant.html","title":{"rendered":"“Commemorating a Covenant”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>
The so-called \u201chigh place\u201d at Tel Gezer
(Click to enlarge.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A relatively brief article (\u201cCommemorating a Covenant\u201d) in the January\/February 2015 issue of the Biblical Archaeology Review<\/em> summarizes archaeologist William Dever\u2019s final excavation report on his field work at Tel Gezer, which he completed more than forty years ago. \u00a0(For a map showing Gezer\u2019s\u00a0location in north central Israel, see here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Such a time lag between excavation and final published report is a continuing problem in archaeology. \u00a0Analysis and writing take much longer than simple digging does.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the most striking features of the site at Gezer is what\u2019s been called the \u201chigh place.\u201d \u00a0Ten uninscribed monolithic stones, ranging between six and eleven feet in height, stand beside a massive square basin.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the original excavations at Gezer\u00a0of the Irish archaeologist R. A. S. Macalister between 1902 and 1907 (which Dever, who is famously frank, plainly considers quite incompetently done and analyzed), writers have speculated that the place was a site for human sacrifice, or a memorial to a prominent dead person, or a marker for a shrine, or a monument to some important (possibly theophanic) event.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dever argues that the Gezer \u201chigh place,\u201d which he dates to between 1650 and 1500 BC \u2014 in other words, to about five hundred years before Israel\u2019s appearance in Palestine \u2014 commemorates a a covenant or a contract between ten towns or ethnic groups.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The standing stones, he argues, were massebot<\/em> (singular\u00a0massebah<\/i>) of the same kind that the Bible mentions from later, Israelite, history. \u00a0In Deuteronomy 27:2-8, for example, a\u00a0massebah <\/i>is erected\u00a0to commemorate Moses\u2019 covenant with the Hebrew people. \u00a0In Exodus 24, Moses sets up twelve\u00a0massebot<\/em> to commemorate God\u2019s covenant with the twelve tribes of Israel.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Covenant is a very old idea. \u00a0It was central to ancient Israel as it was to the wider world in which ancient Israel lived, and covenants are absolutely central in Mormonism<\/a>. \u00a0Curiously, significant strains of the Christian tradition seem essentially to have lost the concept.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t visit Tel Gezer during the tours that we lead to Israel, but we always drive by it and point it out. \u00a0Join us!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 A relatively brief article (\u201cCommemorating a Covenant\u201d) in the January\/February 2015 issue of the Biblical Archaeology Review summarizes archaeologist William Dever\u2019s final excavation report on his field work at Tel Gezer, which he completed more than forty years ago. \u00a0(For a map showing Gezer\u2019s\u00a0location in north central Israel, see here.) \u00a0 Such a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"Commemorating a Covenant"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    A relatively brief article ("Commemorating a Covenant") in the January\/February 2015 issue of the Biblical Archaeology Review summarizes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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