Between WWN, Sun, and Earth

Opposing Voices II

[Ebal’s Plea, twenty-two of thirty]

The last post sets up our story’s tension. Stripling alleges that his artifact challenges scholarly world history. Haughwout counters that he has disproved such.

Henceforth, Stripling’s positions, Haughwout suggests, qualify in effect only for grocery aisle tabloid offerings of the latest Big Foot and Freddie Mercury sightings.

He figuratively contends that he has rendered Stripling’s arguments unfit for further serious scholarly or public consideration.

With Haughwout a sizable contingent of authors and professional commentators seem to agree.

This a quick online search confirms. Google “Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet”. There you soon encounter offerings such as these:

• “New Studies Debunk Controversial Biblical ‘Curse Tablet’ from Mt. Ebal”;¹
• “New academic articles heap fresh doubt on Mount Ebal ‘curse tablet’ interpretation;”²
• “Academic article on controversial 3,200 year-old ‘curse tablet fails to sway experts;”³
• “Hook, Line, and Sinker: Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet Debunked?;”⁴
• “Don’t Be Fooled by the Mount Ebal Curse Tablet.” ⁵
• “The Mt. Ebal “inscription” is actually a Folding Lead Clasp.”⁶

Delve deeper into these and you encounter statements from scholarly professionals like these:

• “This article is basically a text-book case of the Rorschach Test, and the authors of this article have projected upon a piece of lead the things they want it to say.” So advises Prof. Christopher Rollston, an expert in Northwest Semitic languages and the chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at George Washington University⁷;
• “The images made it clear that there are no discernible letters on this piece of crumpled lead,” said Rollston. “And again, the authors’ drawing of the letters bears no real similarity to what is present in the images;”⁸
• “One big nothingburger”, says Dr. Robert Cargill, as cited previously, a Bible scholar and professor at the University of Iowa.⁹

Articles and opinions pro and con are, of course, appropriate. The scholarly process thrives on such.

The scholarly world, however, should also desire to make an appropriate and wise decision on this matter

The question is whether such really operates here given the following factors:

• A fully excavated altar site could yield other evidence regarding Stripling’s claims; and
• There are competing interest in the “refutation” determination.

Considering these, how do we arrive at an appropriately wise answer?”

The next post suggests a plan!

Next post: “A Plan”

1. See: http://www.haaretz.com-Archaeology November 20, 2023. ↩︎
2. See: http://www.timesofisrael.com -new -academic- December 7, 2023. ↩︎
3. See: http://www.timesofisrael.com -academic -article, May 14, 2023. ↩︎
4. See: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org-daily, December 4, 2023. ↩︎
5. See: Dr. Gad Barnea- Youtube,m.youtube.com -watch, June 2, 2023. ↩︎
6. The Mt. Ebal “Inscription” is actually a Folding Lead Clasp …
   YouTube·Bible & Archaeology·Dec 2, 2023 ↩︎
7. Melanie Lidman, Academic article on controversial 3,200 -year old ‘curse tablet’ fails to sway experts, The Times of Israel, 14 May 2023, paragraph 18, https://www.timesofisrael.com/ academic-article-on-controversial-3200-year-old-curse-tablet-fails-to-sway-experts/, (7 October 2024). ↩︎
8. Id., paragraph 37. ↩︎
9. The Mt. Ebal “Inscription” is actually a Folding Lead Clasp …
   YouTube·Bible & Archaeology·Dec 2, 2023 ↩︎