Tag: peer-review

Photo Study I

[Ebal’s Plea, seventeen of thirty-two]

As already noted Heritage Science finally published the Stripling team’s peer reviewed article on 12 May 2023. That is twelve months after the press conference and almost three and a half years after the tablet’s discovery.

Much of the world, of course, breathlessly anticipated one feature.

Likely you also think, “Show us the photos, please!”

Before I do, however, there are four important observations to make.

Observation One

The article’s conclusion states the core of the Stripling team’s argument about the Curse Tablet. With it they poise a stake into the heart of much scholarly accepted history including that associated with the documentary hypothesis.

The other parts of the article’s body state facts and ideas considered. Only with the concluding core, however, does Stripling dig in his boots. It is there that he states what about the tablet emphatically belies the idea that Moses could not have authored the Torah.

The Stripling article, for example, credits team member Professor Gershon Galil, Director of the Institute of Biblical and Ancient History at the University of Haifa, with deciphering most of the interior tablet. His premises it fully elucidates.

Yet, note this crucial point.

The Stripling article’s conclusion leaves many, if not most, of Galil’s premises orphaned. His accounting of the number of inner tablet letters is neither adopted nor rejected. The same applies for his full chiasmus interpretation.

The article acknowledge many of Galil’s premises. It cites his increased letter count of forty declared at the press conference to forty-eight at publication. Consequently, it also acknowledges his slightly modified chiasmus interpretation.

Despite this, the article’s conclusion does not embrace these premises.

Instead, it concludes that the tablet’s inscription challenges history for greatly truncated reasons. Those reasons include these:

• The tablet displays in proto-alphabetic script the word “YHW”, the name of the Hebrew God;
• From this we know that a Hebrew inscribed the tablet sometime before 1250 B. C.;
• Additionally, the tablet contains the word “ARWR” or “cursed”;
• These tablet words recall events described in Deuteronomy and The Book of Joshua;
• Resultantly, this artifact challenges long standing historical paradigm.¹

A more conservative approach, however, Stripling’s conclusion adopted.

Following publication, Galil and Stripling amicably ended their team affiliation.

What are the consequences for our study?

For us Stripling has simplified our original question, “Is there anything to see here?”

Stripling’s team answers with a resounding, “Yes, see the two words on the inside of this artifact–the ancient Hebrew equivalents of “cursed” and “Yahweh”. They alone with the tablet’s ambiance challenge world history!”

Consequentially, that makes our photo study easier.

From Stripling’s perspective we can focus primarily on photos relevant to two words. The other words of Galil’s chiasmus while important are not crucial to Stripling’s conclusion.

Observation Two

Our purpose is not only to review the Stripling article and its photos. We seek also to study an allegedly refuting article.

That article considers closely the alleged Hebrew words for “cursed” and “Yahweh”.

Additionally, it makes relevant arguments involving two individual tablet characters and the Hebrew word for “You will die!” These I also include in our study.

Observation Three

In the proto-alphabetic era writing often traced a boustrophedon path. Then there was no standardized script order. Instead, letters tracked as oxen plow. They follow left to right, up to down, diagonally, etc. Another example may be the various paths that an inexperienced pre-teen might push a lawnmower over your yard or maybe someone much older quite inebriated.

Observation Four

Many of these inscriptions are quite small. How small? Some could fit inside of a wedding band or even on the side of a penny.

Photos!

Ready now for some photos?

“Cursed! “, our next post declares.

Still ready?

Next post: “ARWR,” Cursed!

1. Stripling, S., Galil, G., Kumpova, I. et al. “You are Cursed by the God YHW:” an early Hebrew inscription from Mt. Ebal. Herit Sci 11, 105 (2023), paragraph 71. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-023-00920-9 ↩︎
2. Id. at paragraph 72. ↩︎