Saturday, December 20, 2014

Bonus 37 - Tel Dan Stele

Tel Dan inscription. כתובת תל דן in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem
Public Domain. Photo by Yoav Dothan
With the discovery of the Tel Dan stele in 1993,1.   the extreme minimalist view of Ussishkin and others was challenged, since the phrase “house of David”2.  (Heb. bytdwd) was identified as part of the inscription. 3. 

While this inscription was widely debated, Grabbe maintains that “it is now widely regarded (a) as genuine and (b) as referring to the Davidic dynasty and the Aramaic kingdom of Damascus.”4.  Anson Rainey has commented that “[Philip] Davies and his ‘deconstructionists’ [Thomas L. Thompson] can safely be ignored by everyone seriously interested in Biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies.” 5.

Footnotes
  • 1. While this inscription was widely debated, Grabbe maintains that “it is now widely regarded (a) as genuine and (b) as referring to the Davidic dynasty and the Aramaic kingdom of Damascus.” Lester L. Grabbe, Ahab Agonistes: The Rise and Fall of the Omri Dynasty (New York, N.Y.: Continuum International, 2007), 333.
  • 2. Kitchen also points out the possible mention of the “highland/heights of David” in the Sheshonq Relief. Kenneth A. Kitchen, “A Possible Mention of David in the Late Tenth Century BCE, and Deity *Dod as Dead as the Dodo,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, no. 76 (1997): 39–41.
  • 3. Anson Rainey has commented that “[Philip] Davies and his ‘deconstructionists’ [Thomas L. Thompson] can safely be ignored by everyone seriously interested in Biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies.” Anson F. Rainey, “The ‘House of David’ and the House of the Deconstructionists,” Biblical Archaeology Review 20, no. 6 (1994): 47; Avraham Biran and Joseph Naveh, “An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan,” Israel Exploration Journal 43, no. 2/3 (1993): 81–98; “The Tel Dan Inscription: A New Fragment,” Israel Exploration Journal 45, no. 1 (January 1, 1995): 1–18; Millard, Alan R. “The Tell Dan Stele.” In The Context of Scripture: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World, edited by William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger. Leiden: Brill Academic, 2002: 2:161–62; George Athas, The Tel Dan Inscription: A Reappraisal and a New Introduction, JSOTSup 360 (New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury, 2006); Hallvard Hagelia, Tel Dan Inscription: A Critical Investigation of Recent Research on Its Palaeography & Philology, Studia Semitica Upsaliensia 22 (Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet, 2006).
  • 4. Lester L. Grabbe, Ahab Agonistes. The Rise and Fall of the Omri Dynasty (New York, NY: Continuum International, 2007), 333.
  • 5. Anson F. Rainey, “The ‘House of David’ and the House of the Deconstructionists,” Biblical Archaeology Review 20, no. 6 (1994): 47.
For Further Study
  • Tel Dan Bibliography
  • Athas, George. The Tel Dan Inscription: A Reappraisal and a New Interpretation. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005.
  • Biran, Avraham; Naveh, Joseph. “An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan.” Israel Exploration Journal 43, no. 2/3 (1993): 81-98.
  • Biran, Avraham; Naveh, Joseph.“The Tel Dan Inscription: A New Fragment,” Israel Exploration Journal 45, no. 1 (January 1, 1995): 1–18
  • Hagelia, Hallvard .Tel Dan Inscription: A Critical Investigation of Recent Research on Its Palaeography & Philology, Studia Semitica Upsaliensia 22 (Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet, 2006).
  • Millard, Alan R. “The Tell Dan Stele.” In The Context of Scripture: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World, edited by William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger. Leiden: Brill Academic, 2002: 2:161–62.
  • Price, Randall. “King David: Mythical Figure or Famous Monarch?” in Stones Cry Out: What Archaeology Reveals about the truth of the Bible. Eugene, Orig.: Harvest House Publishers, 1997, 161-174. 
  • Rainey, Anson F. “The ‘House of David’ and the House of the Deconstructionists,” Biblical Archaeology Review 20, no. 6 (1994): 47.
  • Suriano, Matthew J., “The Apology of Hazael: A Literary and Historical Analysis of the Tel Dan Inscription,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 66, no. 3 (2007): 163–76. 
     
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