Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

> > As I said in a previous post, the Tel Dan inscription has a long way to 
> > go.
> > While George has already accepted its authenticity, such authenticity has
> > not as yet been established
>
> There is absolutely no substantive reason to believe the Tel Dan Inscription
> is anything but genuine.  Archaeology is supposed to help us get at history,
> not prove or disprove favorite paradigms.  I am from the old school and 
> hence
> I would never call scholars like Biran and Naveh frauds if a discovery
> interfered with my favorite view of history.  The same holds true for Morton
> Smith (Secret Mark).  Make no mistake about it..the suggestion that the
> TDI is fraudulent is the same as claiming these scholars are either frauds
> or totally incompetent.

I've shown in my research that all three fragments do actually belong to the 
same stele by
examining the way in which the incisions on each fragment were carved. This 
goes a long
way towards, if not clinches, the authenticity of the fragments. However, the 
current
arrangement of the fragments as proposed by Biran and Naveh and as currently 
displayed at
the Israel Museum, are definitely incorrect.

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 >