New Deciphering of Earliest Hebrew Text!

[cyberjosh]

I have been eagerly waiting for this moment ever since the pottery shard found at Khirbet Qeiyafa which had Hebrew writing on it was discovered a little over a year ago. Now translational work is already being performed and is yielding some potentially surprising results which may have direct bearing on Biblical texts (relating to social commandments in the law - though it is not a Scriptural quotation) and socio-cultural values of the Hebrews in the 10th century BC.

Read the following article about the recent decipherment of this important text: Most ancient Hebrew biblical inscription deciphered. The news was relayed to me by the Biblical Archaeology Society/BAR from here.

See more pictures of the site of Khirbet Qeiyafa and the pottery-shard/ostracon see BAR's coverage of it here and the original "breaking news" coverage of its discovery in published in BAR in the Jan/February 2009 issue of last year (excerpted here). Feel free to leave your comments.

I personally find this exciting, and not just because of what the text says and its date but because I also just like looking at such old Hebrew alphabetical characters which came from the Proto-Canaanite script, of which the Serabit el-Khadim inscription is also an example (which I posted a thread about). I find its pictographic nature fascinating.

Enjoy!

*Update: See possible translations below.

 

[cyberjosh]

Pictures of the ostracon and the transcription/outline of the inscription:

(Credit: Courtesy of the University of Haifa)

 

[John]

Very interesting indeed

 

[cyberjosh]

See also the timeline of the journey from discovery to examination of the ostraca from the official Khirbet Qeiyafa dig website. Apparently Frank Moore Cross has also examined the ostraca and was quite excited himself!

A picture of him examining the ostraca:

 

[cyberjosh]

I also found this short publication for the 2009 activities at Khirbet Qeiyafa.

I will continue to post information as I find it and which I think is relevant and/or interesting for your (the humble correspondents') consumption and enjoyment.

 

[cyberjosh]

I tried to be somewhat reserved with the announcement of the text's 'decipherment' by not unnecessarily implying that it has already been successfully translated (as in a 'done deal') because no doubt it will bear closer study in the months (and even years) to come, but I wanted to bring to attention that there are already translations and textual reconstructions being made. I've actually found two sites so far which provided a possible translation of the text and they both have different interpretations of it (based on different letter reconstructions of faded letters). One seems to take a few of the words to be geographical references, one reading even a mention to 'Gaza'. Obviously the text must still be carefully reconstructed to get the correct reading. Nonetheless, the 10th century date (and it being Hebrew) is fixed regardless. But it is promising that there are translational attempts on it already. I will follow this with great interest as no doubt scholarly publications will begin to discuss the ostracon in the near future.

P.S. For the possible reading of 'Gath' see Aren Maeir here.

 

[cyberjosh]

Interestingly Aren Maeir says that the text is still "for the most part undeciphered" (source), meaning the reconstruction of the text is incomplete, but no doubt translational work & reconstruction is in progress. Some tentative reconstructions have been suggested.

Two possible translations (thus suggested) that I have found are below:

1 Do not do [anything bad?], and serve [personal name?]
2 ruler of [geographical name?] . . . ruler . . .
3 [geographical names?] . . .
4 [unclear] and wreak judgment on YSD king of Gath . . .
5 seren of G[aza? . . .] [unclear] . . .

See here for the source and the relevant discussion for that, although I am unsure who translated that (the blogger?).

And the other is a (more recent) version that was released/included with one version of the press release I linked to in the OP, presumably translated by Gershon Galil:

1' you shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord].
2' Judge the sla[ve] and the wid[ow] / Judge the orph[an]
3' [and] the stranger. [Pl]ead for the infant / plead for the po[or and]
4' the widow. Rehabilitate [the poor] at the hands of the king.
5' Protect the po[or and] the slave / [supp]ort the stranger.

See here for that source. Also interesting is the comment on the latter source by the author of the former source:

"I put up a summary post near the end of October of last year, summarizing the scholarly debate up to that time (between Misgav, Yardeni, Ahituv, and Schniedewind) provided by Aren Maeir, the foremost blogger of things archaeological in the land of Israel.

Gershon Galil is a fine Assyriologist, and I'm sure he knows Hebrew well, but his results should at least be compared with those of some of the foremost epigraphers in the field. Since the discrepancies are not minor, I think you owe it to your readers to provide a more comprehensive picture of the state-of-the-question.

For the rest, I would note that it is waste of time to pretend that this inscription, whatever its exact contents, is not a game-changer. It is not too much to say that it sounds the death-knell of minimalism as we know it. Don't worry, though. Minimalism will be revived in some other shape or form, not because the evidence points in that direction, but because it satisfies the intellectual needs of quite a few people."

 

[wavy]

Wow, Cross looks so frail. I hope he doesn't kill over before contributing his world-renowned expertise on the epigraphy!


Finis,
Eric

 

[cyberjosh]

Wow, Cross looks so frail. I hope he doesn't kill over before contributing his world-renowned expertise on the epigraphy!

Yeah, he is getting a tad old. I shudder to think what will happen to the field of biblical studies when all the senior/veteran scholars die (Kitchen, Cross, Dever [well kinda - he's still 'young'-ish]). They bring a certain balance that comes with experience and having seen the change in paradigms over time, and their input (on which ever side) keeps a necessary balance in the various discussions. They will be sorely missed when that time comes (much like many scholars still pay honors to their teacher: William Albright [like F.M. Cross - one of Albright's students]).

 

[cyberjosh]

I just found two short yet interesting videos on youtube shot from the site of Khirbet Qeiyafa. The first is a very useful survey of the geography of where David battles Goliath. Beats the heck out of looking at a map.
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[video=youtube;gGbX90jCzN0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGbX90jCzN0[/video]
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[video=youtube;w2xxjdd6ois]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2xxjdd6ois[/video]
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And this narrated video is also worth watching:

[video=youtube;ksOkbgZdtgw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksOkbgZdtgw&feature=related[/video]
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They spoke impeccable English. I wonder if they were just tourists? Or perhaps dig volunteers like the other guy. To judge from the channel's name they are part of IBEX, the Israel Bible Extension program. Either way, nice to know their are "normal" people knowledgeable about the site's significance.

 

[cyberjosh]

Here is a recent press release containing an interview with one of the many scholars who have now become, in some small way, connected to those involved with the investigation of what has become the current buzz of the entire Syro-Palestinian scholarly community: Scholar's Corner: A message from King David's time.

 

[cyberjosh]

A second page on the Official Khirbet Qeiyafa Excavation website about the ostracon and its study up till this year has been added here.

It ends with the very interesting statement:

The ostracon has been placed in the Israel Museum upon approval by the Israel Antiquities Authority, and is no longer in the possession of the Qeiyafa Expedition. It will be on permanent display to the public in the museum's archaeology gallery when it reopens following several years of closure for major renovations.

 

[cyberjosh]

Huh, the site of Khirbet Qeiyafa has apparently attracted a regular list of the "Who's Who" of Biblical Scholarship & Archaeology: see pictures here.

Of note are: Hershel Shanks (Editor of Biblical Archaeology Review), Baruch Halpern, Amihai Mazar, Israel Finkelstein, Aren Maeir, and (bottom right picture) William Dever.