Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George Athas" <gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au>]

> At 12.04 04/01/00 -0500, peter_kirk AT sil.org wrote:
> >George Athas has just finished a Ph.D on the Tel Dan inscription, so
> >surely he, unlike you and many others including me, is in a position
> >to judge.
>
> He has not seen the item itself to my knowledge and was considering going
> to Jerusalem just to check the physical evidence. Stop the "he's in a
> better position and is on my side routine, huh?"

Actually Ian, all my research is based on an examination of the fragments 
themselves. I
was in Jerusalem in late 1998 and pored over the fragments for a very long 
time (Whenever
I walked away from them, I could see ghost images of the fragments transposed 
over
everything else!!!). Many of the conclusions I reached are based on the 
physical evidence
of the stones which can only be seen with the naked eye. Certainly in the 
photographs,
particular elements do not show up as they do when you see the stones "in the 
flesh". I
was quite surprised at the wealth of information that does not show in the 
photos. For
example, I've been able to reconstruct the beginning of Fragment A, Line 2, 
and have
discovered an extra letter which completely changes the way we used to read 
the text.

Also, Peter Kirk mentioned that I do not support the David connection with 
regards to Tel
Dan. This isn't quite true. I believe you can connect the word _bytdwd_ to a 
David person.
However, that link is not made by the inscription itself. In other words, the 
link to
David is plausible, but unprovable. The TD inscription is inconclusive in 
this regard. As
such, the link to a "David" is speculation. I have no doubt whatsoever that 
_bytdwd_ is
not a dynastic name but a toponym. The next question is whether that toponym 
can be
related to a "David" person. It's possible, but unprovable. So, the fragments 
are
inconclusive.

Best regards,
George Athas
 Dept of Semitic Studies,
 University of Sydney
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Tel Dan Inscription Website
http://members.xoom.com/gathas/teldan.htm
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< gathas@ mail.usyd.edu.au >