Scientists find ‘Goliath’ inscribed on pottery

by truthseeker 12 Replies latest jw friends

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  truthseeker

  FYI

  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9997587/ Updated: 9:30 p.m. ET Nov. 10, 2005

  Scientists find ‘Goliath’ inscribed on pottery

  Reference from 950 B.C. lends credence to Bible tale, archaeologists say

  JERUSALEM - Archaeologists digging at the purported biblical home of Goliath have unearthed a shard of pottery bearing an inscription of the Philistine’s name, a find they claimed lends historical credence to the Bible’s tale of David’s battle with the giant.

  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.

  “What this means is that at the time there were people there named Goliath,” he said. “It shows us that David and Goliath’s story reflects the cultural reality of the time.” In the story, David slew Goliath with a slingshot.

  Some scholars assert the story of David slaying the giant Goliath is a myth written down hundreds of years later. Maeir said finding the scraps lends historical credence to the biblical story.

  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.

  Scientists made the discovery at Tel es-Safi, a dig site in southern Israel thought to be to be the location of the Philistine city of Gath.
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  funkyderek

  I wonder if archaelogists thousands of years from now will find a name tag somewhere with the name Harry on it and conclude that it lends credence to the Harry Potter stories.
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  gumby

  Archaeologists also found a piece of pottery with the name Hercules on it. This proves the big good lookin strong bastard truely existed.

  There could have been a young lad who defeated a bigass man.......but does this prove the bible is from god, or that it has some authentic history?

  Proving Goliath existed is little proof of anything.....sorry.

  Gumby
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  Narkissos

  It would prove the name "Goliath" (possibly from Hittite or Lydian origin) existed in Israel, which nobody denied afaik.

  As a side note, there is another "giant Goliath" story in 2 Samuel 21:19:

  Then there was another battle with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, killed Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.
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  undercover

  It's possible that a big guy named Goliath fought a puny Jew and lost. Kinda like George McFly laying out Biff. It becomes the stuff of legends. Over the years Goliath got bigger, David became braver, until by the time the story got written down, it was the stuff of a children's Bible story.

  Or...Maybe this wasn't the same Goliath. Maybe this was Bob Goliath and it was his cousin Dirk Goliath that was known as the big bully of the valley. Dirk was an embarrasement to the family and the family did everything to keep from being connected to Dirk. But, alas, they never figured that some dirt sweeper thousands of years later would find their family water jug and put two and two together and conclude that the jug belonged to Dirk instead of Bob.
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  rmt1

  lol undercover
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  greendawn

  It's a good proof that the person existed that the name is not totally mythical, yet this is not necessarily the adversary of David.
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  Leolaia

  Maeir said finding the scraps lends historical credence to the biblical story.

  How? All the ostracon indicates is that Goliath was a name used in Palestine. This is not something anyone had doubted (and since the Hittites and the Philistines had an incursion in Palestine in the Late Bronze Age, one would certainly expect that these names are early), but more importantly...how does the existence of a name found in a narrative (i.e. not the name of the character in the story, but simply the existence of the name itself) verify any aspect of the story other than the mere existence of the name? It's like finding a Hellenistic-era coin with the name of the Seleucid heir Herakles being seen as proof of the veracity of the hero Heracles of Greek myth.
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  GentlyFeral

  To me this suggests that the Goliath story was a widely known folktale rather than history. "Goliath" might have been a synonym for "giant" back then just as it is now.

  I used to attend a church where the pastor taught that "Goliath" was the Paul Bunyan of ancient Israel.

  GentlyFeral
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  Nathan Natas

  The pot shard was conclusively dated by the Target RFID tag attached to it.
  

  Man, that clinches it for me!

  A common name on a piece of pottery!

  Who'd a thunk it?

  WooHOO! Back to the Kingdumb Hall for me! YESSIR!

  
  

  
  I'll bet this time it isn't a forgery like the crypt of James, brother of Jesus, either.
  

  
  This is iron-clad!