Ancient Hebrew writing found

[aron]

The following was found on the internet news this morning:

Scientists have discovered the earliest known Hebrew writing - an inscription dating from the 10th century B.C., during the period of King David's reign.

"It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research," said Gershon Galil, a professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, who deciphered the ancient text.

The ancient text is written in ink on a trapezoid-shaped piece of pottery about 6 inches by 6.5 inches (15 cm by 16.5 cm). It appears to be a social statement about how people should treat slaves, widows and orphans. In English, it reads (by numbered line):

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.

The content, which has some missing letters, is similar to some Biblical scriptures, such as Isaiah 1:17, Psalms 72:3, and Exodus 23:3, but does not appear to be copied from any Biblical text.

This strikes me as quite progressive. Moreso than all of our "high peak theology"... it is akin to Jesus telling His followers to turn the other cheek, or to yield their tunic as well as the cloak.

If you consider this writing in the context of social mores circa 1,000 B.C., with human rights at the stage they were at that time, it is really astonishing, this document.

It reaffirms to me that it is a profound thing to be connected to God. It is much deeper than belief systems or theologies.

[YP0534]

The following was found on the internet news this morning:

Scientists have discovered the earliest known Hebrew writing - an inscription dating from the 10th century B.C., during the period of King David's reign.

"It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research," said Gershon Galil, a professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, who deciphered the ancient text.

and yet I read this article just last week:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jn7SektqTP6AQTUvQ66v1oqnhhdA

Who built the pyramids? Slaves, as Hollywood's version would have it? Jewish slaves, as an Israeli prime minister famously remarked?

Neither, say Egyptian archaeologists, who on Monday presented further evidence to reinforce what they and other experts have long maintained: The Great Pyramids were built by free men - paid labourers who worked out of reverence for the pharaohs and were rewarded with burial near the ancient monuments, in graves discovered last week.

The latest findings come from a dozen skeletons in newly discovered pits more than 4,000 years old, perfectly preserved by dry desert sand, along with jars that had once contained beer and bread to feed the dead in the afterlife.

...

Archaeologists, Jewish and other, generally agree that the Jewish role is a myth.

"No Jews built the pyramids because Jews didn't exist at the period when the pyramids were built," said Amihai Mazar, professor at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "If the Hebrews built anything, then it was the city of Ramses as mentioned in Exodus," said Mazar.

[aron]

I don't think the skeletons found were of slaves. They were of freemen, who were likely overseers of slaves. Somebody has to serve as intermediary between the Pharoah and the slave laborer.

Secondly, the Bible record doesn't say the Israelites built the pyramids. It says they built the cities of pharoah (Exodus 1:11). Hollywood's version is irrelevant.

Anyway, that archeological finding doesn't change my impressions any. Cheap labor is cheap labor, and the cheapest labor is slave labor. I would be surprised to find the Egyptians so enlightened as to override this simple economic fact. I would be delighted to find it to be the case, because the long history of human suffering might not have been so harsh.

[YP0534]

I was mostly interested at the competing date claims, to tell truth...

[aron]

I was mostly interested at the competing date claims, to tell truth...

I don't understand. My news snippet says the earliest extant Hebrew writing was from approximately 1,000 BC. Your news snippet says the Egyptian pyramids were built earlier than 2,000 BC. How do these stories overlap at all, and thus compete?

[YP0534]

I don't understand. My news snippet says the earliest extant Hebrew writing was from approximately 1,000 BC. Your news snippet says the Egyptian pyramids were built earlier than 2,000 BC. How do these stories overlap at all, and thus compete?

uh

bad math?

:idea:

nevermind.....