Lead Curse Tablet discovered at Mount Ebal supports the Bible's own internal timeline

One enormous discovery

Last night Archeologist (and friend of the Word for Word Bible Comic- see below) Dr Scott Stripling and the Associates of Biblical Research team announced a new discovery. A tiny lead tablet (2cm x 2cm) found at mount Ebal in Israel in 2020 has recently been scanned using cutting edge tomographic technology (similar to a medical CT scan) to reveal the words inscribed on the inside of the folded lead artefact.

What they discovered was not only the earliest example of proto Hebrew text by over 200 years but it features a curse and was found at Mount Ebal the mountain where the curses of Deuteronomy were to be read!

“When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.” (Deuteronomy 11:29 NIV).

The fulfilment of Moses command in Deut 11:29 comes in the time of Joshua (Josh 8:34:35 WEB below)

The actual words on the lead tablet read:

Cursed, cursed, cursed - cursed by the God YHW.
You will die cursed.
Cursed you will surely die.
Cursed by YHW – cursed, cursed, cursed.

There are huge implications, as Dr Scott Stripling puts it…

“This is earlier than many sceptics believe the Bible existed, making this the earliest appearance of the word YHWH in Israel and it was found at a covenant site. The implications are enormous and will reverberate for many years to come.”

The full 1-hour presentation is linked in this video.

Moses commanded the children of Israel to build an altar on Mount Ebal (Joshua 8:30-31a WEB below), which is where the artefact was discovered.

One of the enormous implications

Dating the Exodus and the Conquest

Much of the announcement has revolved around the proof that the Bible could have be written as contemporary with the events as it states. This is a big deal to rebut sceptical scholars who say the Bible was all created in the Persian era, but as I (probably like yourself) was already convinced of this fact, I found the more interesting element how the discovery supports the dating of the Conquest and the Exodus to be in line with what the Bible itself states.

There is a lot of confusion around the dating of the Exodus, and while there are a range of views there are two major camps. The first support the view that the Exodus was in the time of Ramses II around 1200 BC, which seems to be based on the fact the Israelites were enslaved to build a city called “Ramses” and it is a traditional view. However, when you scratch the surface the proponents of this view seem to state things like “Exodus myth include the documented movements of small groups of Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples into and out of Egypt during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties,”(Meyers 2005, pp. 8–10.) and “Scholarly estimates for how many people could have been involved in such an exodus range from a few hundred to a few thousand people.” (Faust 2015, p. 476.) My own research on this view finds little to support it besides the city name which could be independently called Ramses which means “Begotten of Ra”, or more likely, it is an anachronistic naming for a place later renamed after the Pharoah.

The second camp is based on the Bible’s own stated timeline. A key verse is:

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord. 1 Kings 6:1 NIV

We have a strong chronology placing the building of Solomons temple to between 1020 and 950 BCE giving us an Exodus date of 1500- 1450 BC, as well as all the other dates and durations within the Bible which can be harmonised to indicate an Exodus date within this range. Therefore I believe that this view is the one in line with a high view of Scripture. The puzzle over who exactly was Pharoah in Egypt during the Exodus is down to the inconsistencies of the Egyptian timeline, not the Biblical one, but that’s another story. (If you want to see the most wonderfully constructed detailed timeline for Biblical harmonisation, look up the work of Dr Floyd Jones.)

Conclusion

The point is, this lead tablet from ~1400-1300 BC with a curse found on Mount Ebal, written in paleo-Hebrew with the name God gave to Moses blows the more liberal view out of the water.

I’m praying this piece of evidence discovered by Dr Stripling and the team will cut through many sceptics’ rejection of the Bible and convince them to read and trust its words more closely.

———

Dr Scott Stripling recently gave The Word for Word Bible Comic a great endorsement:

Read the ABR Blog here : https://biblearchaeology.org/current-events-list/4896-abr-researchers-discover-the-oldest-known-proto-hebrew-inscription-ever-found

If you’d like to buy your own copy of the Book of Joshua: Word for Word Bible Comic click the icon below:

HAVE YOUR SAY: THE APOCRYPHAL GREEK ESTHER

There is an alternative version of The Book of Esther which is later and includes a few extra sections. Including Mordecai having a prophetic dream (with two dragons fighting) and later interpreting it, Mordecai and Esther's prayers and an extended version of the Throne room scene where the king is initially angry and Esther faints. My uses of Deuterocanonical sources for the comic are to inform the canonical text if possible where no conflict exists, but I won’t add the verses to the book as it is th e canon version which is being presented.

A good example of this would be that it states in the "Greek Esther" that the king’s sceptre is touched to Esther's neck, a detail missing in the standard text but a useful visual clarification.

People often make a point of the fact the name of God is not in the text of Esther, but with the extra prayers, this is no longer the case, which is interesting. Also, In the Eastern Orthodox church they use this alternative version as their primary apparently so it is well regarded.

A list of the major differences (From Wikipedia)

• an opening prologue that describes a dream had by Mordecai

• the contents of the decree against the Jews

• prayers for God's intervention offered by Mordecai and by Esther

• an expansion of the scene in which Esther appears before the king, with a mention of God's intervention

• a copy of the decree in favour of the Jews

• a passage in which Mordecai interprets his dream (from the prologue) in terms of the events that followed

• a colophon appended to the end, which reads: In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said he was a priest and Levite, and his son Ptolemy brought the present letter of Purim, saying that it was genuine and that Lysimachus, son of Ptolemy, of the community of Jerusalem, had translated it.

So the question is, should I include the text at the end of the comic in the notes pages and if so, do I even go so far as to illustrate the bits like the dream and the prayers?

Let me know your thoughts and about this or if you feel strongly that it should not be included, below

If you’d rather comment of Facebook follow this link:

https://www.facebook.com/wordforwordbiblecomic

________________________

Here are some articles about it…

• The Jewish encyclopaedia on the topic:
  http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5873-esther-apocryphal-book-of
  

• A Blog “You’re reading the wrong Book of Esther”:
  https://www.patheos.com/blogs/joeljmiller/2013/06/youre-reading-the-wrong-book-of-esther/
  

• Read it here in the NRSV:
  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Greek+Esther+1&version=NRSV

Designing the cover of The Book of Ruth

In the video below, I discuss the cover design of The Book of Ruth. 

This book, along with The Book of Judges, launches this month, on September 9th. 

You can buy the book here on the website now. 
https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/

Blog asking for opinions on the Cover Design
https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/blog/cover-for-ruth

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Use of colour in the Word for Word Bible Comic

This is a selection of facts and information about how and why the comic is coloured the way that it is.

Natural and dirty.

As much as possible I try to make the colours of clothing, skin, hair, pots, pans, animals etc. look natural. It is in line with the comic's principle of being as historically accurate as possible. So coloured clothes are still quite drab by today's standards. But in contrast to this there are things that throughout time have been bright and colourful like jewels and gold and certain dyes. We will see the allure of these things against the natural back drop and why they were so prized. For example, the royal purple from murex shells that kings and emperors have worn for centuries was even more striking a purple then against such a natural hued backdrop than it is to us now. The Canaanites were, in fact, known as the “Purple People” due to their trade in purple cloth.

Also to add to the realistic feel of the pictures, things will often be worn and grubby, again to show the contrast of the rich and the poor and what life was like in ancient times.

Ethnicity

The ethnicity, including skin, hair and eye colour will try to be as accurate as possible. Generally speaking, most of the people in the Bible are middle eastern, especially in the Old Testament. The Philistines are one of the exceptions to this rule. They originate from Crete and during this time period therefore have Greek/European complexions with a range of hair and eye colours. Egyptians are the other main exception, and will be of darker skin than the Israelites and may include black Africans in their number (Nubian, Ethiopians, Cushites etc) as they were a part of every echelon of Egyptian society at one time or another.

People who are poor and therefore generally spend a lot of time outdoors in the sun will be of darker complexion than the nobles and ladies whose lifestyles preserve their pale skin.

Clans Colours of Israel and their Enemies

Conveniently, the 13 tribes of Israel are each associated with a different colour. This is based on the gem stones that represents them on the Breastplate of the High Priest. In the table below I've collected together information on the tribes, the order they were born in, their gem stone, their Emblem and the colour I have therefore chosen to use to represent each one in the comic. I believe my colour selections are as true to history as they can possibly be.

These clan colours and emblems make us a basic heraldry for Israel, which is not only very useful in the comic but also really interesting as the Biblical narrative goes on. While reading the comic the clan associations are very interesting. For example, in the book of Judges the clan of Ephraim repeatedly throw their weight around and act arrogantly towards the other clans. The roots of this makes sense when we realise that Joshua, who obviously headed up the whole conquest of Canaan, was an Ephraimite. The use of clan colours helps you link things like the disgraceful acts of the Benjamites in the Book of Judges and then the choice of a Benjamite King in Saul. It also helps break down wrong stereotypes of clans. For example, people might think of the tribe of Levi as “the priestly ones”, but the visual consistency helps link events like Phinehas with his spear or their patriarch's actions in Genesis 34 after the rape of his sister.

I have tried to also remain consistent with the enemies of Israel. For example, I have given each of the five lords of the Philistines a colour that is associated with them and their city. This colour features alongside the general Philistine colours, (terracotta, red and aqua).

This helps to link the events to the geography. For example, the Philistines at Samson's wedding and subsequent retribution at Timnah are wearing orange plumes in their helms as Timnah is on the doorstep of Ekron which has orange as its colour; but the commander of the thousand or more Philistines that come to arrest Samson at Lehi have blue plumes as they are from Ashkelon where he slew the thirty Philistines for their garments.

Walking with God or walking away

With regards to the Israelites, I have also earmarked times when God's people are falling away from him by their acceptance of another culture's dress. When they are walking with God they wear natural colours (browns, tans, greys, blacks, whites, some pale colours) that have simple or no patterns. When they are embracing other gods and customs, they dress in patterns and colours and wear jewellery and the men cut their beards etc. There is an example of this in the sample story, where we see the head man in Lehi of the tribe of Judah. His beard is cut at the corners, and he wears a lion's mane and claws, which are 'unclean' for Jews. His dress is a mixture of Philistine and Hebrew, in bright colours and patterns, and he even speaks their language. This is based on a tile picture from Egypt which some people think shows a Philistine, while others think it depicts an Israelite.

Supernatural and Spirit

One of the most important colour elements is the use of the Spirit colour. This is a bright Cyan/ turquoise and it means there is something of the Spirit or something of God in the story. The idea is to show things that are very real in the spiritual realm but not necessarily the physical. The best example of this is with Balaam's Donkey. When I draw that story the angel that stands invisible to Balaam but that the donkey can sense will be shown in the Cyan colour. When it manifests in a way that Balaam can see it will be in the standard black lines. This colour is also used when Samson is empowered by the Spirit, with a power acting in the spiritual realm depicted as Cyan lightning. Lastly, it is used when God speaks, and for the speech of angels.

There is a corrupted version of this colour that is a pure putrid yellower green. This demarcates possible demonic activity.

Flashbacks

There are times that the pictures in the comic will show things that happened before the events being described in the story. These may be a memory of one of the characters or just events that proceed the current narrative. These are shown in a brown “greyscale” with a hazy red border.

Parables and Prophecy

When there is a parable or a prophecy a unique colour scheme is used. This has not been finalised but it is currently planned to be a dreamy blend of pinks and the spiritual cyan.

Dreams

Dreams will likely have a unifying colour scheme but this has yet to be decided.

So there you have it...

So there you have it, the many aspects that make up the colour choices for the comic - and you thought it was all just slapped in there! :-) I hope this blog has highlighted not just the comic's colours but also their  specific use to deepen scriptural understanding in an easy way.

Philistine Buildings in History

All things in the comic are as close to the real history as possible. In this example the buildings of the philistines are drawn from archaeological examples of the Iron I era.

My drawing (below) is alongside an example on a Philistine building featured on the Biblical Archaeological Review website.

Animal Accuracy

In this image you can see my illustration with a goat and hornet as “supporting characters”, along side is the photo reference. It is important in this project that every detail is correct, so thanks to the power of the internet these things can be easily researched and drawn from photo references.

This is the breed of wild goat that would have been found in ancient Canaan, they do not look like the goats we are used to in the west. The same applies to the hornet, this brown hornet with two yellow stripes, called the Oriental Hornet, is the type found in that region.

Maps Integrated

Maps interspersed into the story help pinpoint the action and also highlight the times that significant events happen on the same turf or nearby to other significant events. In this example Samson goes down the Gaza.

In the image we can also see a silhouette of the city of Gaza, this is based on the image or neighbouring Ashkelon from the time of Seti I, between 1290–1279 BC. Also there is a model of a Philistine ship created from the many pictures of the sea battle with the Philistines (sea people) on the walls of Medinet Habu from about 1185-52 BC, during the reign of Rameses III.

Lastly, the sun is setting in the correct direction based on the geography.

Dissected panel

One panel taken as an example and focused in on to show the features included in the image and how they relate to the Bible and history.