Hebrew Student
Puritan Board Freshman
Hey Everyone!
For those of you who are not familiar with the significance of Kirbet Qeiyafa, there is an Associated Press story about the find here. There has been quite a long wait for the text to be published. However, there was a meeting recently in Jerusalem to discuss the Ostrocon, and it was attended by the excavator of the ancient Philistine city of Gath. He wrote two posts about it here and here. He said that all of the participants acknowledged that the text was very worn [as ink usually is after 3000 years], and thus, hard to read. However, there was discussion of the readings, and Hagai Misgav ended up giving a rough reading of the text. The text of the ostrocon as read by him is as follows:
’l t`š […] w`bd ’[t]
špț bw’lm […]’l ț
’l wb`ll
’[…]m wnqm ysd mlk g[t] p
Srn `[…] mgdrt
The important words here are špț and t`š. The reason why this is significant is because the term `šh is unique to Hebrew. Most of the other Northwest Semitic Languages use p`l. Thus, most of the scholars were willing to say that this text is Hebrew. Also, the importance of terms like špț cannot be underestimated. This means that, already in the early tenth century B.C., Israel had judges. This could cause all kinds of problems for those who believe that Israel was nothing but a small nomadic tribe in the foothills in the early tenth century BC.
As far as I have heard, there is no dwd in the inscription. Then again, who needs that when you already have the Tell Dan inscription.
God Bless,
Adam
For those of you who are not familiar with the significance of Kirbet Qeiyafa, there is an Associated Press story about the find here. There has been quite a long wait for the text to be published. However, there was a meeting recently in Jerusalem to discuss the Ostrocon, and it was attended by the excavator of the ancient Philistine city of Gath. He wrote two posts about it here and here. He said that all of the participants acknowledged that the text was very worn [as ink usually is after 3000 years], and thus, hard to read. However, there was discussion of the readings, and Hagai Misgav ended up giving a rough reading of the text. The text of the ostrocon as read by him is as follows:
’l t`š […] w`bd ’[t]
špț bw’lm […]’l ț
’l wb`ll
’[…]m wnqm ysd mlk g[t] p
Srn `[…] mgdrt
The important words here are špț and t`š. The reason why this is significant is because the term `šh is unique to Hebrew. Most of the other Northwest Semitic Languages use p`l. Thus, most of the scholars were willing to say that this text is Hebrew. Also, the importance of terms like špț cannot be underestimated. This means that, already in the early tenth century B.C., Israel had judges. This could cause all kinds of problems for those who believe that Israel was nothing but a small nomadic tribe in the foothills in the early tenth century BC.
As far as I have heard, there is no dwd in the inscription. Then again, who needs that when you already have the Tell Dan inscription.
God Bless,
Adam
