Steles, Inscriptions, & Archeological Evidence

The Mesha Stele

The Mesha Stele, also known as the Moabite Stone, is a stele dated around 840 BCE containing a significant Canaanite inscription in the name of King Mesha of Moab (a kingdom located in modern Jordan). Mesha tells how Chemosh, the god of Moab, had been angry with his people and had allowed them to be subjugated to the Kingdom of Israel, but at length, Chemosh returned and assisted Mesha to throw off the yoke of Israel and restore the lands of Moab. Mesha also describes his many building projects.^[1] It is written in a variant of the Phoenician alphabet, closely related to the Paleo-Hebrew script.^[2][3]

The Tel Dan Stele

The Tel Dan inscription, or “House of David” inscription, was discovered in 1993 at the site of Tel Dan in northern Israel in an excavation directed by Israeli archaeologist Avraham Biran.

The broken and fragmentary inscription commemorates the victory of an Aramean king over his two southern neighbors: the “king of Israel” and the “king of the House of David.” In the carefully incised text written in neat Aramaic characters, the Aramean king boasts that he, under the divine guidance of the god Hadad, vanquished several thousand Israelite and Judahite horsemen and charioteers before personally dispatching both of his royal opponents. Unfortunately, the recovered fragments of the “House of David” inscription do not preserve the names of the specific kings involved in this brutal encounter, but most scholars believe the stela recounts a campaign of Hazael of Damascus in which he defeated both Jehoram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah.

The Balaam inscription from Deir ‘Alla

The link in the title is to a great article about the inscription with an English translation by B.A. Levine. The following paragraph was extracted from that article.

Even more remarkable, however, was the discovery of a painted text that contained a prophecy by Balaam, a non-Israelite prophet who is mentioned in the Biblical book of Numbers 22-24 as a servant working for the Moabite king Balak. (The site of Deir ‘Alla is, technically, on the Ammonite side of the river Jabbok.) The text refers to divine visions and signs of future destruction, in a language that is close to that of the Bible. For example, we read about the “Shaddai gods”, an expression that is close to the Biblical El Shaddai, “God Almighty”. On the other hand, the setting is not monotheistic: we read, for instance, about a gathering of a group of gods. The word elohim, which in the Bible (although plural) refers to one God, refers to more than one god in the Deir ‘Alla text.

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From OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com

Prompt – Provide a list of all archeological discoveries that support the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judea. Provide a list of sources at the end of the response.

[NOTE – The response below does not include The Balaam inscription from Deir ‘Alla.]

Here is a list of key archaeological discoveries that support the existence of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah:

• Tel Dan Stele (House of David): Found in northern Israel, this 9th-century BCE stele contains the first extrabiblical mention of the “House of David,” affirming the historical existence of King David and his dynasty.
• Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone): This 9th-century BCE Moabite artifact refers to the “House of Omri,” corroborating biblical accounts of the Omride dynasty of Israel. It also mentions victories over Israel, paralleling narratives in 2 Kings 3.
• Hezekiah’s Tunnel and Inscriptions: In Jerusalem, the Siloam Tunnel is a water conduit attributed to King Hezekiah, mentioned in 2 Kings 20:20. Recent discoveries of inscriptions further affirm Hezekiah’s reign and his construction projects.
• Lachish Reliefs: These Assyrian reliefs from the reign of Sennacherib depict the siege and conquest of Lachish, a major Judean city, as described in 2 Kings 18:13-17.
• Bullae of Biblical Figures: Seals or bullae inscribed with names of biblical figures, such as King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah, have been uncovered, providing tangible links to these individuals.

• Samaria Ostraca: These inscriptions from the 8th century BCE document administrative activities in the capital of the northern kingdom, corroborating the Bible’s description of Samaria as a major city. Article contains lists of names of the villages or districts, and others are names of the peasant farmers who paid their taxes in the form of jars of wine. Of the places mentioned on these Ostraca, Shechem is the only one that can be identified with a text occurring in the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament). In Kerm-ha-Tell, and Kerm-Yahu-‘ali, the word Kerm must mean ” the village, or vineyard,” Tell means “mound”, maybe referring to modern Tulkarm in Samaria. Six of these place names occur in the Hebrew Bible as “tribal subdivisions of Manasseh“, in Joshua 17:2. and Numbers 26:28–33: From Wikipedia.

• Ketef Hinnom Amulets: These silver scrolls, dated to the 7th century BCE, contain a priestly blessing from Numbers 6:24–26, making them the earliest known biblical texts.
  • The Ketef Hinnom scrolls, also described as Ketef Hinnom amulets, are the oldest surviving texts currently known from the Hebrew Bible, dated to c. 600 BCE.^[2] The text, written in the Paleo-Hebrew script (not the Babylonian square letters of the modern Hebrew alphabet, more familiar to most modern readers), is from the Book of Numbers in the Hebrew Bible, and has been described as “one of the most significant discoveries ever made” for biblical studies.^[3][4] The two silver scrolls were uncovered in 1979 at Ketef Hinnom, an archaeological site southwest of the Old City of Jerusalem, and were found to contain a variation of the Priestly Blessing, found in Numbers 6:24–26. The scrolls were dated paleographically to the late 7th or early 6th century BCE, placing them in the First Temple period.^[5] From Wikipedia.

• City of David Excavations: Ongoing excavations in Jerusalem reveal structures, fortifications, and artifacts from the First Temple period, including evidence of administrative activities and urban planning.

• Ophel Excavations: Discoveries in this area include the remains of monumental structures from Solomon’s era, further aligning with the biblical narrative of the united monarchy.
• Hazor and Megiddo Finds: Archaeological layers from these sites reveal destruction levels consistent with the biblical account of conquests during Joshua’s and Solomon’s times.

These discoveries, while not without scholarly debate, provide substantial evidence supporting the historical existence of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah as described in biblical and extrabiblical records.

Chat’s Sources:

1. Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology【7】.
2. United Church of God Reports【8】.
3. Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom Articles【9】【10】.
4. Searched 5 sites
   • “archaeological discoveries supporting ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah” bing.com
   • Biblical Archaeology Society — The Tel Dan Inscription: The First Historical Evidence of King David from the Bible – Biblical Archaeology Society biblicalarchaeology.org
   • ArmstrongInstitute.org — Archaeological Evidence of Kings of Israel and Judah | ArmstrongInstitute.org armstronginstitute.org
   • United Church of God — More Archaeological Finds Support the Biblical Record | United Church of God ucg.org
   • Israel Hayom — www.israelhayom.com israelhayom.com
   • The Jerusalem Post — Was proof of biblical kings of Israel, Judah deciphered in Jerusalem? – The Jerusalem Post jpost.com

End Chat GPT Response