To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Tel Dan & David
Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2000 10:14:58 -0600
Ian Hutchesson wrote:
> 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.
Dance around the orthography all you want but the damn thing is real.