{"id":8144,"date":"2024-12-10T05:28:01","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T11:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/?p=8144"},"modified":"2025-01-07T08:24:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T14:24:02","slug":"steles-and-inscriptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/steles-and-inscriptions\/","title":{"rendered":"Steles, Inscriptions, & Archeological Evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The Mesha Stele<\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n
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The Mesha Stele, AKA the Moabite Stone c.840 BCE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Mesha Stele<\/strong>, also known as the Moabite Stone<\/strong>, is a stele<\/a> dated around 840 BCE containing a significant Canaanite inscription<\/a> in the name of King Mesha<\/a> of Moab<\/a> (a kingdom located in modern Jordan<\/a>). Mesha tells how Chemosh<\/a>, the god of Moab, had been angry with his people and had allowed them to be subjugated to the Kingdom of Israel<\/a>, 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]<\/a><\/sup> It is written in a variant of the Phoenician alphabet<\/a>, closely related to the Paleo-Hebrew script<\/a>.[2]<\/a>[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tel Dan Stele<\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n
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The fragmentary Tel Dan stela, containing the Tel Dan inscription provided the first historical evidence of King David from the Bible. Photo: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem\/Israel Antiquities Authority (photograph by Meidad Suchowolski).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Tel Dan inscription, or \u201cHouse of David\u201d<\/a> inscription, was discovered in 1993 at the site of Tel Dan<\/a> in northern Israel in an excavation directed by Israeli archaeologist Avraham Biran.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broken and fragmentary inscription commemorates the victory of an Aramean king over his two southern neighbors: the \u201cking of Israel\u201d and the \u201cking of the House of David.\u201d In the carefully incised text written in neat Aramaic<\/a> 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 \u201cHouse of David\u201d 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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Balaam inscription from Deir \u2018Alla<\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n
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Deir ‘Alla Inscription dated to c. 800 BCE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a> king Balak. (The site of Deir ‘Alla is, technically, on the Ammonite<\/a> 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<\/a>. For example, we read about the “Shaddai gods”, an expression that is close to the Biblical El Shaddai<\/strong>, “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<\/strong>, which in the Bible (although plural) refers to one God, refers to more than one god in the Deir ‘Alla text.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT<\/em> [Large language model]. https:\/\/chatgpt.com<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[NOTE – The response below does not include The Balaam inscription from Deir \u2018Alla<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a list of key archaeological discoveries that support the existence of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah:<\/p>\n\n\n\n