By Callie Mitchell, SAVED News International Correspondent, Jerusalem, Israel
I like to refer to Israel as a “Living Apologetic.” By this, I mean the very existence of the modern state of Israel provides visible, tangible evidence for the character and nature of God and the validity of the Bible. When the Lord spoke His word in Ezekiel 36 that He would bring the Jewish people out of the nations and back to the Land of Israel for His namesake, He fulfilled that word. When the modern state of Israel was born, the Lord proved Himself to be a God of the covenant, honoring the promise to Abram, Isaac, and Jacob that the Land of Israel would be an everlasting possession for their descendants. That is the big picture, and from there, the evidence gets even more detailed. Israel has a landscape rich in archeology that supports the historicity of the Bible and indicates that it is truly the inspired word of God.
Earlier this spring a team of archeologists under Dr. Scott Stripling, provost at The Bible Seminary in Katy, Texas, and Director of Excavations for the Associates for Biblical Research at Shiloh, published information about a finding that has tremendous implications. Through a sifting process conducted in 2020, the team discovered a 2-centimeter by 2-centimeter folded lead amulet on what is historically thought to be Mount Ebal. Mount Ebal is found in your Bible in Deuteronomy 11 and 27, and Joshua 8 states the nation of Israel built an altar of the Lord, specifically as a place for pronouncing curses for sin. Across the valley of Shechem below is Mount Gerizim, which was known to be a place of pronouncing blessings. “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.” Deuteronomy 11:29
Archeological findings dating back to 1987 have provided supporting evidence of the location of the altar on Mount Ebal due to stone types, plaster, and bones of kosher animals found on site. The amulet is potentially the most significant Biblical finding in recent years. Upon discovering the lead amulet, the team sent the artifact to Prague where researchers used a tomographic scan, similar to an MRI machine, to read the inscriptions carved in. In a proto-Hebrew, predating Biblical Hebrew, the inscription reads: Cursed, cursed, cursed – cursed by the God YHVH. You will die cursed. Cursed you will surely die. Cursed by YHVH – cursed, cursed, cursed. Stripling and his team date the amulet to the Bronze Age, making it the oldest Hebrew inscription found and the earliest appearance of the name of God. Besides the wording adding support for this particular site to be biblical Mount Ebal—the place of cursing—the dating of the amulet indicates that Israel possibly crossed over the Red Sea and engaged in the Canaanite Conquest earlier than typically accepted. The irony of it all is that the finding of the Curse Amulet gives us the blessing of seeing the historicity of the inspired word of God!
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