Biblische Exegese und Theologie | Literatur und Kultur Professor für Altes Testament Youtube: https://teapawt.net/t.co/kPL2Eav2gT Amazon: https://teapawt.net/t.co/VBrmkMvoZA
Joined October 2023
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Tomorrow marks the start of the new European Hebrew Journal’s five-day online conference, featuring a diverse lineup of presentations. For more information and to register, click here:
conference.hebrew.edu.rs/
My online lecture is one week from today:
"Was there a writing culture in the heartland of Israel during the Iron Age I?"
For more information and to register, click here:
conference.hebrew.edu.rs/pre…
Benjamin Kilchör retweeted
This on repeat until a fair few scholars step outside of their paradigm.
Above all, Genesis 1 should not be read in isolation in this regard. Genesis 1 is essentially just the account of the temple’s construction. However, in the Old Testament and also in the Ancient Near East, texts describing temple construction are typically followed by descriptions of the worship services held there. Genesis 2 serves this function and should be read together with Genesis 1.
See my article in the Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament (2022) on this topic (full text available at this link): academia.edu/86514511/The_Ei…
Benjamin Kilchör retweeted
Hoffnung leuchtet rot! Vom 15. bis 22. November setzen über 250 Kirchen, Klöster und öffentliche Gebäude in Österreich ein Zeichen für verfolgte Christen. Machen Sie bei der #RedWeek mit – durch Gebet und rote Beleuchtung! orlo.uk/redweek_YnD9q #RedWednesday #kircheinnot
In the last thread, I compiled some evidence of a writing culture in Jerusalem in the 10th century BC. How does this fit into the broader regional context?
The Ophel Pithos inscription from Jerusalem mentioned earlier (see image) is one of a good dozen known alphabetic inscriptions from Israel dating to the 10th century.
In this thread, I’ll present some of the most important 10th-century inscriptions from the border region between Israel and the Philistines (Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tel Zayit and Gezer) and discuss their significance for the debate on a culture of writing.🧵
Gezer is one of the three cities (Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezor) mentioned in 1 Kings 9:15 alongside Jerusalem in connection with Solomon’s construction projects.
The fact that archaeological evidence has been found for a city wall with a six-chambered gate in all three cities—and that the consistent dimensions of the gates (including a gate passage of 4.20 m and a wall thickness of 1.60 m) suggest a master plan devised by a central government—led Yigael Yadin (1958; 1976) to the influential thesis that these were Solomonic fortifications, all of which Yadin dated to the 10th century.
Since the 1990s, these datings have been the subject of ongoing debate in the wake of Israel Finkelstein’s Low Chronology, and the six-chamber gates are now often dated to the 9th century and interpreted as structures of the Omri dynasty of the Northern Kingdom.
However, the latest radiocarbon data from Gezer confirm that the monumental architecture there, including the six-chamber gate, dates to the 10th century (Webster et al. 2023: journals.plos.org/plosone/ar…).
These findings show that writing in the 10th century was not confined to Jerusalem, but was also found in locations in the border region between Judah and the Philistines, which likely were under Jerusalem’s political control in the 10th century (although this is not undisputed).
At least three of the texts (the Khirbet Qeiyafa Ostracon, the Tel Zayit Abecedarium, and the Gezer Calendar) are likely writing exercises (which suggests a teacher-student relationship), with the Gezer Calendar being particularly interesting because it is an exercise similar to those known from the cuneiform curriculum.
Since cuneiform schools had disappeared from the entire Levant by the end of the Bronze Age (12th century), it (along with the depiction of a 10th-century Gilgamesh scene in Jerusalem) can be interpreted as evidence that the writing tradition did not come to an end at the close of the Late Bronze Age, but rather that a curriculum based on the cuneiform model was adapted in alphabetic script.
All of this supports my thesis, published in Vetus Testamentum in 2025, that we find material in the Bible—especially in the Pentateuch—that dates back to the Late Bronze Age and was transmitted through the Early Iron Age into the Monarchical Period.
My online lecture is one week from today:
"Was there a writing culture in the heartland of Israel during the Iron Age I?"
For more information and to register, click here:
conference.hebrew.edu.rs/pre…
Jerusalem thus became the center of an emerging state in the 10th century, the size of which is estimated differently by various archaeologists.
But was there also a written culture in Jerusalem in the 10th century? A thread. 🧵
I am currently studying the extent of Jerusalem’s political influence in the 10th century B.C. (Iron Age IIA).
Three recent books on the subject by renowned archaeologists—Omer Sergi (2023), Yosef Garfinkel (2025), and Avraham Faust/Zev Farber (2025)—reach completely different conclusions. It is striking that they focus on different aspects: the lens determines what one sees. Archaeology is not an exact science.
At any rate, all three agree that after the fall of Shechem and Shiloh in the 11th century (Iron Age I), Jerusalem was the most politically significant city in the heartland of Israel (the Samarian and Judean highlands) for most of the 10th century, and that state formation then—during the period when, according to the Bible, Kings David and Solomon reigned in Jerusalem—began, rather than only in the 9th century.
Seals were used not only to seal written documents but also to seal goods (e.g., in sacks). Therefore, when a seal impression is found, it is not always possible to determine whether it was used to seal goods or written documents.
However, Keel’s corpus contains four seal impressions (nos. 174, 176, 192, 193) that are dated to 1050–900 and bear traces of papyrus on the reverse side, as well as another impression (No. 197), also with traces of papyrus, which is dated to 980–830.
They demonstrate that written documents were in circulation in Jerusalem during this period.
Fragments of a ritual stand dating from 10th-century B.C. Jerusalem depict, according to Hans Ulrich Steymans (2010), a scene from the Epic of Gilgamesh (the slaying of Humbaba). He draws this conclusion based on a comparison with better-preserved depictions of the slaying of Humbaba.
Gilgamesh was the most important literary textbook for cuneiform writing instruction during the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1550–1150).
Cuneiform writing schools are also attested in Canaan during this period, including Gilgamesh fragments found at Megiddo (in northern Israel), which, according to material analysis, were produced in Geser (just under 50 km northwest of Jerusalem).
Thus, if Gilgamesh motifs exist in Jerusalem in the 10th century, this indicates that the literary tradition, as practiced in cuneiform schools, did not cease after the disappearance of cuneiform at the end of the Late Bronze Age, but rather that there was continuity in the transmission of such traditions.
These are some indications that an alphabetic writing culture existed in Jerusalem in the 10th century B.C. They contradict the widely held claim that such a culture did not emerge in Judah until the late 9th or even the 8th century B.C.
Perhaps in a future thread I’ll also write a little bit about how this writing culture in Jerusalem in the 10th century fits into the broader context of alphabetic writing culture in Israel during the 10th century. We don’t know much about it, but we do know something.
In diesem NZZ-Beitrag von @rbandle ist von der Hochschule die Rede, an der ich unterrichte.
Siehe auch den gestrigen Beitrag in der FAZ:
faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/d…
Die Behörden setzen die Gleichstellungsvorgaben mit aller Härte durch, wie ein aktueller Fall zeigt. Zukünftig werden die Diversitätsauflagen für Hochschulen noch stärker – auf Kosten des Leistungsprinzips. nzz.ch/feuilleton/wegen-zu-g…
