Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Reinhard G. Lehmann" <lehmann AT uni-mainz.de>]

As one of those who formerly (1995, just before discovery of Fragment B) made 
another point out of the BYTDWD in Tel Dan,
I only want to add (what you already know very well, George):
convincing,
and the actual formulation:
vivid and brilliant.

Reinhard


> The dominant theory has been to see the phrase [ML]K.BYTDWD as similar to 
> other Ancient Near Eastern designations for states, such as "Bit-Humri" 
> (House of Omri) for Israel. This sees the state named after one of its 
> prominent rulers. The problem with this reasoning is that it would require 
> the phrase in the Tel Dan Stele to actually read: [ML]K.DWD -- in other 
> words, the element BYT should not be there. The fact that BYT is there, 
> however, is the thorn in the side of the dominant theory. To say "King of 
> the House of David" is a bit like saying "President of the Bush Household" 
> or even "President of the Whitehouse". Such expressions don't make sense. 
> Using our contemporary examples, we would have to say "President of the 
> USA", or some such expression.
>
> This to me says that BYTDWD is indeed the name of a place, rather than the 
> name of a dynasty. I suggest that this place is actually Jerusalem. In 
> other words, BYTDWD (Bayt-Dawid) is an Aramaic version of the Hebrew name 
> (YR-DWD (City of David). This would see the Tel Dan Stele, which I date to 
> c.795 BC (written by Bar-Hadad, son of Hazael), being a witness to some 
> sort of state entity in Jerusalem. That is, it sees Jerusalem as a city 
> state, albeit very small, ruled by a famous family -- a kind of Monaco of 
> the ancient world, only far less glamorous.
>
> You can find a more detailed argument in my book, The Tel Dan Inscription: 
> A Reappraisal and a New Interpretation (Sheffield Academic, 2003).-

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   Dr.  Reinhard G. Lehmann, AkOR
   Forschungsstelle für Althebräische Sprache und Epigraphik
   Fachbereich 02 Evangelische Theologie
   Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
   D - 55099 Mainz
   tel: (+49) 6131 - 39 23284
   mailto: lehmann AT mail.uni-mainz.de
   web-HP: http://www.uni-mainz.de/~lehmann/
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