The Paradigm

The Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet

Facts

[Post seven of thirty-three]

This is the beginning of the posts I categorize as “Facts.” The first ten tell the Curse Tablet’s history. They provide important context. Please do not skip them!

The next fact category describes Stripling’s claims. I follow that with opposing claims.

History I

Here is a story of two discoveries that may profoundly affect biblical and world history. ¹

Archaeologists discovered them at the same location at different times. The first became known about forty years ago. Archaeologists found the latter within the last six years. ²

Together, they pose a piercing assault on an entrenched paradigm.

What is that? Moses did not write, and in fact could not have written, the first five books of the Bible. ³

Many maintain this despite Scripture declaring otherwise. Old Testament sources cite Moses. Jesus also affirmed or implied this.

If not Moses, who lived allegedly around the twelfth to fifteenth centuries B.C., then who? In short, scribes of the Third to Ninth Centuries B.C. did! ⁴

With their stories, these alleged authors forged a Hebrew national identity. A disparate people thereby engendered moral cohesion. Henceforth, they revered shared mythological heroes.

This idea permeates more than the ivory towers of elite universities. It holds sway over heartlands worldwide. Since the late 19th century, priests and preachers have learned this. Professors have taught this to waves of college students enrolled in biblical studies. ⁵

This paradigm against Mosaic authorship has a name. It is the documentary hypothesis. ⁶

Now, let us examine these two discoveries.

But before doing so, here are some questions. When did you first encounter the documentary hypothesis, and what effect did that have on you?

Let me know in the comment section below.

Next post: “Joshua’s Altar?”

1. Sean McDowell, Oldest Hebrew Writing? Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet (Revisited) m.youtube.com>watch, (20:00 & 33:49), 11 May 2023. ↩︎
2. Melanie Lidman, Academic article on controversial 3,200-year old ‘curse tablet’ fails to sway experts, The Times of Israe,14 May 2023, paragraph 5,  https://www.timesofisrael.com/academic-article-on-controversial-3200-year-old-curse-tablet-fails-to-sway-experts/, (7 October 2024). ↩︎
3. Id., paragraph 2. ↩︎
4. Sean McDowell, Oldest Hebrew Writing? Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet (Revisited) m.youtube.com>watch, (20:00 and 35:02-14), 11 May 2023;
   and
   Associates for Biblical Research, “ABR Researchers Discover the Oldest Known Proto-Hebrew Inscription Ever Found”, https://biblearchaeology.org/current-events-list/4896-abr-researchers-discover-the-oldest-known-proto-hebrew-inscription-ever-found, (33:35); 24 March 2022, Updated 26 April 2023. ↩︎
5. Associates for Biblical Research, Cursed! The Mount Ebal Curse Tablet (Part Three, Digging for Truth Episode 200), YouTube, (6:18), May 1, 2023. ↩︎
6. Greg A. King, The Documentary Hypothesis, Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 12/2001, pp. 22-30, p. 25, paragraph 7. ↩︎

To view the memorandum from its beginning, click here.

For the composite footnotes, click here.