Yes, it is generally believed that the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah were directly descended from Bronze Age Canaanite populations. The OT stories of military conquest and the ethnic legend of the twelve tribes being descended from a single non-Canaanite ancestor are sociologically implausible political propaganda, and the countless references to Canaanite practices, beliefs, and legends in the OT (e.g. the necromancy of Saul, the raising of standing stones, the concepts of a divine warrior and divine assembly, the Rephaim, the hero Danel, etc.), sometimes criticized by the Deuteronomistic school (to the extent that they contrast with ideal Yahwism), also bear witness to the nation's Canaanite roots. The prophet Ezekiel with good reason criticized the Jews of Jerusalem for falling back to their ancestral (i.e. non-Yahwistic) ways: "By origin and birth you are of the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite" (Ezekiel 16:3).
Why an article on the ancient city of Ebla in the Watchtower
by Gill 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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OnTheWayOut
WTS wants to ensure continued information control for JW's. IF something big ever comes out of EBLA, there's no need to research beyond your established WTLibrary. "We covered Ebla before," they will say. Just read the 12/15/06 WT.
The article does well to discredit (toward JW's) any scholarly information that comes from Ebla. The article says "Like elsewhere in the ancient East, Ebla had a pantheon of gods. Some of them were Baal, Hadad (a name apperaring as part of the names of certain Syrian kings), and Dagan. The Eblaites feared them all. They even honored the gods of other peoples."
The box, EBLA AND THE BIBLE says "Jesuit Mitchell Dahood claimed that the 'clay tablets [from Ebla] are illuminating the obscurities of the Bible.' He believed, for example, that they could shed light on 'the problems of the antiquity of the name of the God of Israel.'"
The article never names that god, so they are not going to be in opposition to anyone unless they feel the need later on.
They are ready to counter any good finds there about any worship with these statements. Either the finds are from people who worshipped many gods, including foreign ones, or the place harmonizes with the Bible. WTS is ready, now. -
Narkissos
"some have said"?
Watchtower 1976 9/1 p. 953:
The tablets contain many contemporary Biblical names and locations, including "Urusalima" (Jerusalem), which are said to predate other references to Jerusalem by hundreds of years. Investigators are amazed at the tablet’s similarities to ancient Hebrew.
Awake! 1977 1/8 p. 29:
Translation work continues on thousands of clay tablets from the ancient kingdom of Ebla found in what is now northern Syria. A surprising number of Bible names never before found in non-Biblical writings have appeared. Recently, an Eblaite business document was translated that records goods sold to Sodom and Gomorrah. Reference also is made to Ur and Haran, locations associated with Abraham. Scholars caution that there is no proof that these are the same places mentioned in the Bible, but the fact that such names are used during the Biblical period is significant.
Awake! 1977 7/22 p. 29:
The 20,000 clay tablets from the archaeological site of ancient Ebla in northern Syria continue to produce information that lends support to Biblical history. Dr. David Noel Freedman of the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem says that among the tablets, which are basically business documents, there is one that mentions the cities of Sodom, Gommorah, Admah, Zeboiim and Zoar, together with their kings. These cities are named in the same order in the Bible at Genesis 14:2. Freedman also asserts: "In the Ebla tablets—I happen to know—the name of the king of one of the five cities was given. These are not household names. These are so extraordinary, unique names that the correlation either means that we have the same person or somebody within a generation or two."
Watchtower 1980 10/1 p. 8:
As recently as 1976, Italian and Syrian archaeologists identified, in northern Syria, the ancient city-state of Ebla. Like Mari, Ebla is not mentioned in the Bible, but both names appear in ancient texts dating back to the patriarchal period. So what did the digger’s spade uncover on this new site? In the library of the royal palace, thousands of clay tablets were found, dating from the late third or early second millennium before the Common Era. Reporting on this discovery in its March 19, 1979, issue, the French newsweekly LePoint stated: "The proper names are amazingly similar [to those in the Scriptures]. In the Bible we find ‘Abraham;’ in the Ebla tablets, ‘Ab-ra-um;’ Esau—E-sa-um; Michael—Mi-ki-ilu; David—Da-u-dum; Ishmael—Ish-ma-ilum; Israel—Ish-ra-ilu. The archives of Ebla also contain the names of Sodom and Gomorrah, cities mentioned in the Bible, but whose historicity was long challenged by scholars. . . . What is more, the tablets list cities in exactly the same order in which they are mentioned in the Old Testament: Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Bela [Gen. 14:2]." According to Boyce Rensberger, writing in the New York Times, "some biblical scholars believe [the Ebla tablets] rival the Dead Sea Scrolls in authenticating and adding to knowledge of life in biblical . . . times."
Awake! 1981 3/22 p. 30:
Some 20,000 clay tablets were discovered a few years ago at the archaeological site of ancient Ebla in Syria. A number of Bible names never before found in non-Biblical writings reportedly appeared. Dr. G. Pettinato was formerly the chief translator of these tablets. Recently Dr. Pettinato was interviewed by the BiblicalArchaeologyReview and asked if he has changed his mind on his readings of the clay tablets since his successor has disagreed on relating some of the tablets to the Bible. "I haven’t retracted anything," Pettinato replied. Asked about the names of Sodom and Gomorrah, he said: "The names of Sodom and Gomorrah are already published in the catalog. You can check." He also mentioned the city of Zoar as being in the catalog.
The professor was also asked if he has changed his mind about whether the God "Ya" appears in the tablets. He explained that "in the God list," they found the "God YA." And he added: "Also in an economic tablet from Mesopotamia . . . we have an offering to the God Ya. So . . . the existence of this God is sure, and I cannot understand why some of my colleagues don’t want to accept reality. Really I cannot understand it."—Sept./- Oct. 1980, pp. 46, 48, 51.
In 1983 Awake! 7/8 the tune begins to change:
Whether this library at Ebla will cast light on Bible events and places remains to be seen. However, the point is made that life was not so primitive over four thousand years ago as some would have us believe.
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Leolaia
Thanks, Narkissos, those were the articles I was thinking of.
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Gill
Thanks Leolaia, Narkissos and Onthewayout!
That's a great scripture Leolaia!
Isn't amazing that the Watchtower never does any 'work', research or archaeology on its own back.
It always quotes whatever suits it at whatever time from some scholar who has worked very hard to discover the real truth about the past.
They're like a big religious leech!
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RevFrank
fact 1.....a monk in the 14 century century came up with it.
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Gill
RevFrank - Absolutely BUT it seems you can go back furthur into the mists of time and come up with the origins of what is to believed to be the supreme beings name!
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Will Power
Here is Strong's concordance definition of word 1943 hovah as in Jah(God) hovah Result of search for "1943": 1943 hovah ho-vaw' another form for 1942; ruin:--mischief.
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Will Power
p.s. that is the Hebrew translation which is the language of the OT.