No, it doesn't.
Archaeologists have recently found a shard of pottery with the name "Goliath" inscribed on it.
The shard dates back to around 950 B.C., within 70 years of when biblical chronology asserts David squared off against Goliath, making it the oldest Philistine inscription ever found, the archaeologists said.
So does that lend any significance to the historical account in the Bible? Let me get my shoehorn out here. Urrrgghh, that data is hard to force in there!
No. While the finding is incredible, it proves exactly dick when it comes to Biblical chronology.
While the discovery is not definitive evidence of Goliath's existence, it does support the Bible's depiction of life at the time the battle was supposed to have occurred, said Dr. Aren Maeir, a professor at Bar-Ilan University and director of the excavation.
No. It proves that the name "Goliath" goes back to 950 B.C. That's all. Reading anything else into the finding is shoehorning it in to what you want to believe. It's just not intellectually honest.
4 comments:
it does support the Bible's depiction of life at the time the battle was supposed to have occurred
The find definitely doesn't support a battle 'tween Davie and his dog. It does supply a little historical correlation with naming conventions and life-style's during the period.
I've no reason not to think something like the D & G story took place in some fashion and this is circumstantially not low-grade evidence that it did when taken on it's likely time-line. It doesn't give any meta-meaning to such a battle though. I love having biblical historicies unearthed because it is knowledge that helps explain how a mountainous desert trible culture might rationally - though wrongly - be inclined to interpret things in its development to mean what is proclaimed by the Hebrew texts.
I'm sure you know that their biblical flood was geologically evidenced to have covered a great deal of the geography from Turkey to past the Sinai peninsula. That's probably a bit larger an area but I don't recall the details and it's only conjecture if that flood had a similar "ice-dam" breaking cause to others across the world. It might have been more related to post-Ice Age rising of the Mediterranean.
This story gives a chance to understand a cultural event (Dave whackin' Goliath) that might help explain why the Jewish tradition has thrived whenever it's been pushed to near extinction by groups surrounding it. There's plenty else in these traditions supporting expansion through genocide and economic domination. That concept comes right up to present day where Israel is the most technologically advanced culture in a region they, once again, forcefully and intelligently spread their leadership over.
Alright, no more zionism commentary this morning.
Your insightful comments are always welcome here.
Hmmm...
Me be just another godless dork tryin' to get'long with the dominant forces amigo.
Zee fools must be completely well understood to be known for all their potential wiles. {-;
Any insight on Ohio politics from out your way may help me clarify my position vis-a-vis my State of nutterdumbnation. It's often just too depressing to look at the shape this place is in politically... {sigh}
Goliath was probably the Simpson's Nelson of his day.
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