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  • From: Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
  • To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Jehoash Tablet
  • Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 09:40:47 -0700


On Saturday 18 January 2003 02:19, Jonathan D. Safren wrote:
> There is a sceptical article about the Jehoash Tablet in Ha'aretz, Friday,
> Jan.q8, 2003. at:
> http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=252975&contrassI
>D=2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
>
> Though non-prodessional, the article weighs the various pros and cons, but
> its chief value, in my opinion, os that it decries the lack of
> sollaboration between the various scholarly disciplines involved.

I have to agree with him about the lack of cooperation; however, I tend to
disagree with him that we can't apply scientific examination. It seems to me
that the geologists and chemists have done just that and confirmed that the
tablet is old. That being the case, and since everybody agrees that we have
a severe lack of inscriptions by which to compare things like writing style,
grammar and vocabulary, it's not enough for an epigrapher to say "this is a
modern idiom" or "they didn't carve the letters this way back then" without a
viable explanation as to how a forger was able to fake a 2300-year-old patina
as well. Perhaps there's a necessary sequence of investigation here: first
determine the age of the tablet itself and the accretions on its surface,
then try to interpret the inscription in light of those results. In that
event, the epigraphic conclusions that have been put forth are perhaps a
little premature? I don't know, but for me, when the age of the tablet and
its patina, as determined by scientific tests that seem to be reliable,
clashes with epigraphic analysis, which everyone agrees is an inexact science
because of the lack of comparison materials, I would lean a little more
heavily on the former than on the latter.

--
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
One psychiatrist to the other when they meet in an elevator:
"You're fine, how am I?"



  • Jehoash Tablet, Jonathan D. Safren, 01/18/2003
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re: Jehoash Tablet, Dave Washburn, 01/18/2003

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