Local archaeologist helps discover, identify ancient tablet

By George Slaughter, News Editor
Posted 3/31/22

A Katy archaeologist is part of a team that helped to discover and identify a “curse tablet” that is centuries older than any known Hebrew inscription from ancient Israel.

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Local archaeologist helps discover, identify ancient tablet

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A Katy archaeologist is part of a team that helped to discover and identify a “curse tablet” that is centuries older than any known Hebrew inscription from ancient Israel.

Scott Stripling, Archaeological Studies Institute director at The Bible Seminary in Katy, worked with four scientists from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic to discover the text at Mt. Ebal, which about 100 miles north of Jerusalem.

Pieter Gert van der Veen of Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz and Gershon Galil of the University of Haifa are epigraphers who specialize in deciphering ancient texts. They were also part of the team.

In the Bible, following the Battle of Ai around 1400 B.C., Joshua built a temple to the Lord on Mt. Ebal. More recently, the archaeologists found the temple site and the altar, and it was there that they found and confirmed the curse tablet.

The translated curse text reads:

Cursed, cursed, cursed – cursed by the God YHW.
You will die cursed.
Cursed you will surely die.
Cursed by YHW – cursed, cursed, cursed.

“YHW” is for “Yahweh,” a form of the Hebrew name for God that is used in the Bible.

Stripling said the curse, along with the blessing, were parts of covenants made in those days.

“That’s how you made a covenant in the Bronze Age,” Stripling said. (The Bronze Age ran from about 3300-1200 B.C.) “You bind yourself with an oath. If I keep the terms of the covenant, I receive the blessings, and if not, I receive the curses. You cannot have a covenant without blessings and curses.”

Stripling said the date of the tablet is consistent with other archaeological findings and synchronizes with biblical dates. The date of the table is consistent with the approximate dates of the writing of the Pentateuch, which Jews call the Torah. The Pentateuch and Torah different terms, but both refer to the first five books of the Old Testament. Those books are the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Stripling said some scholars have questioned whether there was some sort of alphabet that people could read and understand in those days. The tablet’s existence implies that there were both.

“That’s one of the big implications,” Stripling said. “Jesus said that Moses wrote the Torah.”

Stripling said the tablet was discovered in 2019 and archaeologists had hoped to both complete testing and announce the findings sooner. However, the pandemic slowed things down and the needed research took longer to finish.

He said a peer-reviewed article detailing the finding was in preparation and is expected to be out within the next few months.

“We’re trying to finish that up, hopefully, by the end of summer,” Stripling said in an interview. “It’s just a tedious process of researching. We’re going back to our objects from the excavation to make sure we didn’t miss anything that was relevant. We’re consulting with other specialists.”

The excitement of the archaeological discovery aside, Stripling said the discovery means a person can trust the Bible.

“All the stuff that throws at you, I can trust the promises in the Bible because it’s a trusted historical document,” Stripling said.

The Bible Seminary, curse tablet, archaeology