Gary A. Byers<\/b><\/p>\n
Three Pieces of an Aramaic inscription engraved on a basalt monument were discovered in the early 1990\u2019s at the Biblical city of Dan. Now referred to as the Tel Dan Stela, the original stone had been smashed in antiquity and the pieces reused in a later wall. Parts of 13 lines are readable, about one-third of the 3 ft x 2 ft inscription. Aramaic is a sister language to Old Testament Hebrew and, based on the shape of the letters, scholars date the text to the mid-ninth century B C., during the period of the divided Israelite monarchy.<\/p>\n
Possibly Commissioned by the king of Aram (modern Syria), this is the first royal monumental inscription with a historical text ever found in Israel. While not mentioning their actual names, the text speaks of \u201cthe king of Israel\u201d and \u201cthe House of David,\u201d and most likely memorializes the victory of Hazael, king of Aram, over Joram, king of Israel, and Ahaziah, king of Judah, at Ramoth Gilead recorded in 2 Kings 8:28\u201329.<\/p>\n
King David\u2019s dynasty through Solomon, commonly referred to in the Bible as \u201cthe House of David,\u201d ruled the Southern Kingdom from their capital of Jerusalem. This inscription, the first-known mention of David in a contemporary text outside the Bible, was made by an enemy only a little over 100 years after David\u2019s death! At a time when some scholars are maintaining that David was only a mythical figure, an archaeological find has once again demonstrated the historical reliability of the Bible.<\/p>\n
(For further information, see Bryant G. Wood, The Tel Dan Stela and the Kings of Aram and Israel, Bible and Spade<\/i> 13 [2000]:59-63.)<\/p>\n
BSpade<\/i> 16:4 (Fall 2003) p. 122<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gary A. Byers Three Pieces of an Aramaic inscription engraved on a basalt monument were discovered in the early 1990\u2019s at the Biblical city of Dan. Now referred to as the Tel Dan Stela, the original stone had been smashed in antiquity and the pieces reused in a later wall. Parts of 13 lines are … Continue reading “GREAT
\nDISCOVERIES IN BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY:
\nTHE TELL DAN STELA”<\/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-15383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15383","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=15383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}