Posted on 07/10/2007 5:48:08 PM PDT by blam
Tiny tablet provides proof for Old Testament
By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent
Last Updated: 7:33pm BST 10/07/2007
The sound of unbridled joy seldom breaks the quiet of the British Museum's great Arched Room, which holds its collection of 130,000 Assyrian cuneiform tablets, dating back 5,000 years.
But Michael Jursa, a visiting professor from Vienna, let out such a cry last Thursday. He had made what has been called the most important find in Biblical archaeology for 100 years, a discovery that supports the view that the historical books of the Old Testament are based on fact.
Searching for Babylonian financial accounts among the tablets, Prof Jursa suddenly came across a name he half remembered - Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, described there in a hand 2,500 years old, as "the chief eunuch" of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon.
Prof Jursa, an Assyriologist, checked the Old Testament and there in chapter 39 of the Book of Jeremiah, he found, spelled differently, the same name - Nebo-Sarsekim.
Nebo-Sarsekim, according to Jeremiah, was Nebuchadnezzar II's "chief officer" and was with him at the siege of Jerusalem in 587 BC, when the Babylonians overran the city.
The small tablet, the size of "a packet of 10 cigarettes" according to Irving Finkel, a British Museum expert, is a bill of receipt acknowledging Nabu-sharrussu-ukin's payment of 0.75 kg of gold to a temple in Babylon.
The tablet is dated to the 10th year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, 595BC, 12 years before the siege of Jerusalem.
Evidence from non-Biblical sources of people named in the Bible is not unknown, but Nabu-sharrussu-ukin would have been a relatively insignificant figure.
"This is a fantastic discovery, a world-class find," Dr Finkel said yesterday. "If Nebo-Sarsekim existed, which other lesser figures in the Old Testament existed? A throwaway detail in the Old Testament turns out to be accurate and true. I think that it means that the whole of the narrative [of Jeremiah] takes on a new kind of power."
Cuneiform is the oldest known form of writing and was commonly used in the Middle East between 3,200 BC and the second century AD. It was created by pressing a wedge-shaped instrument, usually a cut reed, into moist clay.
The full translation of the tablet reads: (Regarding) 1.5 minas (0.75 kg) of gold, the property of Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, the chief eunuch, which he sent via Arad-Banitu the eunuch to [the temple] Esangila: Arad-Banitu has delivered [it] to Esangila. In the presence of Bel-usat, son of Alpaya, the royal bodyguard, [and of] Nadin, son of Marduk-zer-ibni. Month XI, day 18, year 10 [of] Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
Please forgive the scientific community for using the brains God gave us.
We will try to better in the future.
Signed,
The Scientists
How appropriate in Lot's case, which yielded Moab and Edom. We know what a hoot they turned out to be.
LOLOL
It was common for kings to elevate eunuchs to high office this way. It was done so that said officers wouldn't be a risk of fooling around with the king's concubines.
This isn't religion, it's history.
looks like something i could eat with milk
All those guys had the SAME shopping list. Why?
Written Cherokee as developed by Sequoia also uses a syllabry.
Not all languages are cut out for that sort of thing. English, for example, with more than half a dozen specific sounds, would require an exceedingly large syllabry to handle all the combinations, and then we still wouldn't agree.
The ancient Sumerians knew what characters to use to represent what sounds they spoke. The Akkadians, however, who used Sumerian only as a written but not a spoken language, had only the vaguest idea what the characters were supposed to sound like outside of their own spoken Semitic language(s).
You'll notice that one of the fairly uniform features found throughout the Semitic languages are the general absence of vowels. It's like they think they don't need them ~ and they don't ~ if they have a pretty good memory. Still, syntax saves the day for them and a mere "dot" to show where a vowel ought to be (if an Arab could figure out how to say one) will suffice. Hebrew is a tad more sophisticated of course ~ (right guys? ~ lots of vowels there ~ NOT!)
Your reply is proof positive that you have never read the first article on textual criticism. If you had, you would know that your assumptions about the transmission of documents simply do not square with the number of documents, and historical periods from which they came. Sorry, but that is just the way it is.
It was created by pressing a wedge-shaped instrument, usually a cut reed, into moist clay.
You are in error.
You’ve given me quite an education on language there, Muaw!
We still use many of the traditional methods to make sure that composition for a new printing (e.g. the Federal Register, the Congressional Record, etc.) is EXACTLY what was decided earlier.
Can't be since the worldwide flood of Noah's time was only 4760 years ago, nothing survived but one big ark and it's passengers. Therefore making the Biblical account the oldest and most reliable account. Lot's wife turned back to look, in doing so she disobeyed God, who in turn punished her. A lesson we today would do well to learn.
Oops, my bad. The tablet recorded the sale of gold. SOrry about that...
2600 years old. That is about a million days, not really a large number. We get maybe 35,000 days each. Today it is raining, which is good since rain has been scarce lately, but it is one day down.
It goes to show that the Earth is 6,654 years old!
I had to read it twice too. There are examples of tablets of gold but this just isn’t one of them. :-)
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