One of the most famous discoveries from Biblical archaeology is that of the Moabite Stone, also known as the Mesha Inscription. The inscribed stone slab, three feet ten inches high, two feet wide, and 10\u00bd inches thick, came into the possession of an Arab sheikh at Dhiban in eastern Palestine. Dhiban is Biblical Dibon in what was once the territory of ancient Moab, east of the Dead Sea. In August, 1868, the Arab sheikh showed the stone to a German missionary named F. Klein, who reported the find to the authorities.<\/p>\n
Both the Germans and the French were interested in the stone and quickly dispatched consular officials to buy it from the Arabs. An argument over the stone soon developed. The Arabs, sensing that they had an object of value, built a fire under the stone, poured water over it to break it into pieces and divided the fragments which they believed would bless their grain crops.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, a French archaeologist had been able to obtain a squeeze, or impression, of the inscription before the stone was destroyed. Efforts were made to recover the fragments that had been scattered, and about two-thirds of the text was recovered. With the help of the squeeze, the stone was reconstructed and placed in the Louvre in Paris.<\/p>\n
The inscription contains 39 lines of writing in Moabite, a language closely akin to Biblical Hebrew. In the inscription, Mesha, king of Moab, commorates his revolt against the Omride dynasty of Israel. It is of importance to <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 1:2 (Spring 1972) p. 56<\/p>\n
The restored Moabite Stone<\/b><\/p>\n
Biblical scholars for both linguistic and historical studies. It verifies Biblical records since it mentions kings and gods that are also mentioned in the Bible: Mesha, king of Moab; Omri, king of Israel; Chemosh, god of Moab, and Jehovah (Yahweh), God of the Israelites.<\/p>\n
The revolt of King Mesha described in the inscription is also recorded in the Bible. Omri, king of Israel from about 885 to 874 B.C., defeated Moab and brought them under his control. He maintained control over Moab throughout his reign. Omri\u2019s son Ahab succeeded him and also kept Moab under Israelite dominance. Following Ahab\u2019s death, Moab revolted as recorded in 2 Kings 1:1 and 3:5.<\/p>\n
There has been one point of apparent conflict between the record of Scripture and the Moabite Stone. 2 Kings 1:1 and 3:5 state that Mesha\u2019s revolt took place after Ahab, Omri\u2019s son, died. The Moabite Stone, on the <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 1:2 (Spring 1972) p. 57<\/p>\n
other hand, had been translated to read \u201cAnd he [Israel] dwelt there [in Moab] during his [Omri\u2019s] days and during half the days of his son, 40 years.\u201d Interpreting \u201chis son\u201d to be Omri\u2019s son Ahab, would mean that the Moabite stone inferred that Moab revolted midway through the reign of Ahab, whereas the Bible states that Moab revolted after Ahab\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
In a recent retranslation of the Moabite Stone, an interpretation has been suggested which resolves this discrepancy. There is evidence to show that the phrase \u201chalf the days of his son\u201d does not literally mean half the days of the reign of Omri\u2019s son Ahab, but in a more general sense means half the full span of human life. In Old Testament times, 70 years was considered to be the full span of human life.<\/p>\n
According to this interpretation, Mesha\u2019s revolt took place 35 years after the end of Omri\u2019s reign. Since Ahab ruled for 22 years after Omri, the revolt would have occurred 13 years after Ahab\u2019s death, thus harmonizing the Moabite inscription with the Biblical record.<\/p>\n
The chart below shows graphically when Mesha\u2019s revolt occurred according to the new translation.<\/p>\n
THE OMRIDE DYNASTY<\/b><\/p>\n
(ORIENTALIA, VOL. 40, Fasc. 3, 1971)<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 1:2 (Spring 1972) p. 58<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most famous discoveries from Biblical archaeology is that of the Moabite Stone, also known as the Mesha Inscription. The inscribed stone slab, three feet ten inches high, two feet wide, and 10\u00bd inches thick, came into the possession of an Arab sheikh at Dhiban in eastern Palestine. Dhiban is Biblical Dibon in … Continue reading “FROM
\nISRAEL
\nTHE MOABITE STONE – A SOLUTION TO A CONFLICT”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}