In his book, Has Archaeology Buried the Bible, William Dever, probably the more sympathetic to the biblical account among secular archaeologists, says “…Joshua is almost certainly a work of fiction, celebrating in an exaggerated fashion the exploits of a legendary military hero.”¹ He cites a hodge-podge assembly of sources (Dever follows the infamous J-E-P-D Documentary Hypothesis), contradictions, and most importantly virtual silence in archaeology about the Joshua period of Israeli history.

Nevertheless, archaeologist Dr. Scott Stripling, director of excavations for the Associates for Biblical Research (ABR), announced at a press conference in March 2022, that his team had discovered a lead “curse amulet” dating to the time of Iron Age I or the late Bronze Age, maybe even as early as 1400 BCE. This is 200 years earlier than any Hebrew script had been published.² Also significant is that the inscription is the earliest mention of YHWH in Israel and it was found at a covenant site. Stripling and his team used a modern sifting process to go through the debris left from earlier excavations at the Mt. Ebal site done by Prof. Adam Zertal in the 1980s.

Stripling had waited two years (the amulet was first discovered in 2020) to carefully document his finding and make sure his discovery would cause reasonable skeptics to come to his conclusion—the finding radically undermines accepted scholarship on the writing of the biblical text. The amulet has Deuteronomy 11:29, Deuteronomy 27:9-26 and Joshua 8:30-35 as the backdrop. The amulet was folded and the writing inside could not be read without opening, and destroying the artifact. After sending it out to have a tomographic scan (similar to a medical CT scan) at the Prague, Czech Republic Academy of Sciences, they were able to read four lines of 40 words of text:

“Cursed, cursed, cursed—cursed by the God Yhw. You will die cursed. Cursed you will surely die. Cursed by Yhw—cursed, cursed, cursed.”

In the text, the words for God (el) and a three-letter version of YHWH appeared. This is significant because it suggests Deuteronomy and Joshua were written much earlier than thought and that literacy and a proto-Hebrew script was evidently much earlier than thought as well. Most scholars, following the Documentary Hypothesis guidelines date much of the assembly of the Old Testament to the time of the exile (seventh century BCE) with Deuteronomy and Joshua (part of the “D” source, according to the hypothesis) to the time of King Josiah. This find puts a written version of the events at Mt. Ebal much closer to their recording in Deuteronomy and Joshua.

UPDATE: The peer review has been released (cf. "More Info"). This means that opinion will predictably line up for and against the evidence as presented (which appears to be balanced and non-spectacular). Already we have heard from Dr. Kipp Davis who, as an apparent sympathizer with the Documentary Hypothesis, offers a complete take-down. Others, like Dr. David Falk, Egyptologist and Bible Scholar, are more cautious. By the way, Dr. Falk offers a brilliant take-down of Dr. Davis on Youtube (Dr. Falk takes on Kipp ). After hearing this, it is difficult to trust anything Dr. Davis, a deconstructed ex-Christian, says about anything. It is important to realize that bible scholars offer interpretations that are informed by their a priori or preconceived world-view. We all have a world-view (including me!), whether we be atheists or theists. It is important that we understand this when we research interpretations of the Bible, including the Documentary Hypothesis. For a balanced presentation of the Documentary Hypothesis see on YouTube "What is the Documentary Hypothesis?"

威廉·德弗 (William Dever) "在他的著作《考古学是否埋葬了圣经》中说：“……约书亚记几乎可以肯定是一部虚构作品，以夸张的方式颂扬了一位传奇军事英雄的功绩。”¹ 他引用了各种来源的大杂烩（Dever 遵循臭名昭著的 J-E-P-D 纪录片假说）、矛盾，以及最重要的关于以色列历史约书亚时期考古学的几乎沉默。

尽管如此，圣经研究协会 (ABR) 发掘负责人考古学家 Scott Stripling 博士在 2022 年 3 月的新闻发布会上宣布，他的团队发现了一个铅制“诅咒护身符”，可追溯到铁器时代 I 或 青铜时代晚期，甚至可能早在公元前 1400 年。 这比任何希伯来文字的出版早 200 年。² 同样重要的是，该铭文是以色列最早提及 YHWH 的地方，它是在一个立约地点发现的。 Stripling 和他的团队使用现代筛选流程来筛选 Adam Zertal 教授在 1980 年代在埃巴尔山遗址早期挖掘留下的碎片。

斯特普林等了两年（该护身符于 2020 年首次被发现）仔细记录了他的发现，并确保他的发现会让合理的怀疑论者得出他的结论——这一发现从根本上破坏了公认的关于圣经文本写作的学术研究。 护身符以申命记 11:29、申命记 27:9-26 和约书亚记 8:30-35 为背景。 护身符被折叠起来，如果不打开并破坏神器就无法读取里面的文字。 在将其发送到捷克共和国布拉格科学院进行断层扫描（类似于医学 CT 扫描）后，他们能够阅读四行 40 个单词的文本：

“诅咒，诅咒，诅咒——被耶和华诅咒。 你会被诅咒而死。 诅咒你必死无疑。 被耶和华诅咒——被诅咒，被诅咒，被诅咒。”

在文本中，出现了上帝 (el) 和 YHWH 的三个字母版本。 这很重要，因为它表明申命记和约书亚记的成书时间比想象的要早得多，识字和原始希伯来文字显然也比想象的要早得多。 大多数学者遵循文献假说指南，将旧约的大部分集会日期定为流亡时期（公元前七世纪），申命记和约书亚记（根据假说，“D”来源的一部分）日期为 约西亚王。 这一发现使以巴勒山事件的书面版本更接近申命记和约书亚记中的记录。

更新：同行评审已发布（参见“更多信息”）。 这意味着对证据的意见将是“支持”或“反对”所呈现的证据（看起来是平衡的和非壮观的）。 我们已经从 Kipp Davis 博士那里听说过，他显然是对文献假说的同情者，却完全反对证据。 其他人，如埃及古物学家和圣经学者大卫福尔克博士，则更为谨慎。 顺便说一下，Falk 博士在 Youtube 上提供了对 Davis 博士的精彩打击 (Dr. Falk takes on Kipp )。 听到这个之后，很难相信戴维斯博士这个解构的前基督徒所说的任何事情。 重要的是要认识到，圣经学者根据他们的先验或先入为主的世界观提供解释。 我们都有自己的世界观（包括我！），无论我们是无神论者还是有神论者。 当我们研究圣经的解释，包括文献假说时，理解这一点很重要。 有关纪录片假设的平衡介绍，请参阅“什么是纪录片假设？”

More Info - Mt. Ebal Curse Tablet