 (Image located at: Israel Museum) DESCRIPTION | |
|---|---|
| Language: | Aramaic |
| Medium: | basalt stele |
| Size: | Frag. A:
|
| Length: | A: 13 lines of writing B1 + B2: 8 lines of writing |
| Genre: | Victory Stele? |
| Approximate Date: | 9th—8th centuries BCE |
| Place of Discovery: | Tel Dan, Galilee |
| Dates of Discovery: | Frag. A: 21 July 1993 Frag. B1 & B2: 20 June 1994 |
| Chief excavator: | Avraham Biran |
| Current Location: | Israel Museum (Jerusalem) |
| Transcription: | click here |
 | |||
| . . .] TŠR . c[. . . | . . .] [. . . | ||
| . . .]. 'BY . YS[Q . . . | . . .] my father[. . . | ||
| WYŠKB . 'BY . YHK . 'L[. . . . | [. . . | ||
| R'L . QDM . 'RQ . '?BY[. . . . | 4. | [. . . | |
| 'NH . WYKH . HDD . QDMY [. . . | 5. | [. . . | |
| Y . MLKY . W'QTL . [ML . . . | 6. | [. . . | |
| KB . Q'LPY . PRŠ . [. . . | 7. | [. . . | |
| MLK . YŠR'L . WQ[. . . | 8. | [. . . | |
| K . BYTDWD . W'ŠM . [. . . | 9. | [. . . | |
| YT . 'RQ . HM . L[. . . | 10. | [. . . | |
| 'HRN . WLH [. . . | 11. | [. . . | |
| LK . cL . YŠ[. . . | 12. | [. . . | |
| MSR . cL[. . . . | 13. | [. . . | |
| . . .] WGZ[R . . . | 1. | . . .] [. . . | |
| . . .]LHMH . B'[. . . | 2. | . . .] [. . . | |
| . . .] . WYcL . MLKY. [. . . | 3. | . . .] [. . . | |
| . . .] HMLK . HDD [. . . | 4. | . . .] the king Hadad [. . . | |
| . . .]'PK . M[N] . ŠB[. . . | 5. | . . .] [. . . | |
| . . .] . 'SRY . '[. . . | 6. | . . .] [. . . | |
| . . .]RM . BR . [. . . | 7. | . . .]ram son of [. . . | |
| . . .]YHW . BR[. . . | 8. | . . .]-yahu son of [. . . | |
| DISCUSSION QUESTIONS |
|
1. What are the issues in the controversy over reading BYTDWD as “House
of David”? 2. What is the historical significance of the correlation between the contents of this stele and the location of its discovery? 3. What are the possible correlations between this stele and the narratives in 1 Kings 20–22? 4. What are the possible functions of this stele in its ancient context? 5. What methods are available to date such a document? What are the limitations of each method? |
| SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY |
|
Athas, George. “Setting the Record Straight: What are We Saying about the Tel Dan Inscription?”
Journal of Semitic Studies 51 (2006) 241-55. Athas, George. The Tel Dan Inscription: A Reappraisal and a New Interpretation. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 360. Copenhagen International Seminar 12. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2003. Ben Zvi, Ehud. “On the Reading ‘bytdwd’ In The Aramaic Stele from Tel Dan.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 64 (1994) 25-32. Biran, Avraham, and Joseph Naveh. “An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan.” Israel Exploration Journal 43 (1993) 81-98. Biran, Avraham, and Joseph Naveh. “The Tel Dan Inscription: A New Fragment.” Israel Exploration Journal 45 (1995) 1-18. Cryer, Frederick H. “On the Recently Discovered ‘House of David’ Inscription.” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 8.1 (1994) 3-19. Cryer, Frederick H. “A ‘Betdawd’ Miscellany: Dwd, Dwd' or Dwdh?” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 9.1 (1995) 52-58. Cryer, Frederick H. “King Hadad.” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 9.2 (1995) 223-35. Cryer, Frederick H. “Of Epistemology, Northwest-Semitic Epigraphy and Irony: The ‘BYTDWD/House of David’ Inscription Revisited.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 69 (1996) 3-17. “Dan: The Biblical City.” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Website. Demsky, B. I. “On Reading Ancient Inscriptions: The Monumental Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan.” Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society 23 (1995) 29-35. Lemche, Niels Peter, and Thomas L. Thompson. “Did Biran Kill David? The Bible in the Light Of Archaeology.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 64 (1994) 3-22. Rendsburg, Gary A. “On the Writing of bytdwd in the Aramaic Inscription from Tel Dan.” Israel Exploration Journal 45 (1995) 22-25. Sasson, Victor. “The Old Aramaic Inscription from Tell Dan: Philological, Literary and Historical Aspects.” Journal of Semitic Studies 40 (1995) 11-30. Sasson, Victor. “The Tell Dan Aramaic Inscription: The Problems of a New Minimized Reading.” Journal of Semitic Studies 50 (2005) 23-34. Schniedewind, William M. “Tel Dan Stela: New Light on Aramaic and Jehu’s Revolt.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 302 (May 1996) 75-90. Thompson, Thomas L. “‘House of David’: An Eponymic Referent to Yahweh as Godfather.” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 9.1 (1995) 59-74. Thompson, Thomas L. “Dissonance and Disconnections: Notes on the bytdwd and hmlk.hdd Fragments from Tel Dan.” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 9.2 (1995) 236-40. |
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