Priceless Ancient Stone Tablet
found on Temple Mount
By
Kenneth Lewis
Ancient
Black Stone Tablet with Holy Scriptures and Hebrew Inscription is Found
Dating from the Ninth Century BCE Describing Temple Repairs by King Jehoash
of Judah....
(Jan 2003) JERUSALEM,
ISRAEL (CNT)
-- Considered to be one of the the most important archaeological discovery
in the history of Israel was recently found on the Temple Mount. It was a
black stone with an ancient Hebrew inscription written by the descendant of
David, King Jehoash of Judah, who ruled in Jerusalem at the end of the
ninth century BCE. (Part of the
inscription of King Jehoash)
According to
the geological institute in Jerusalem the inscription on the stone is
written in the first person. The inscription includes ten verses of
Scripture and describes the repairs made to the Temple by king Jehoash
during his reign. The king describes the repairs that he made to the
Temple exactly as it is recorded in Gods word (2 Kings 12) using the same
words in the Holy scriptures...
The
inscription was validated by two major scientists from the geological
institute in Jerusalem who confirmed its dating. Dr. Shimon Ilani, a
geo-chemist and also an expert in archaeometrics, and by Dr. Amnon
Rosenfeldt, another important expert who has undertaken much research
together with the archaeologists. The major expert of the geological
institute, Michael Dvorcheck, performed a test of the inscription using an
electron-microscope and he confirmed the authenticity of the inscription.
The experts
opinion is that the stone was brought from southern Trans-Jordan (a part of
the land of Israel) or from the area of the Dead Sea. The writing is in
ancient Hebrew script. In the middle of the stone they found a crack. In
the crack, and also among the letters were specks of gold were found. It
is their assumption that these specks are the result of the burning of the
Temple a few hundred years later. This and other material which covers the
stone show that the writing was buried between the years 400 to 200 BCE.
Which means that it was exposed and uncovered for only 500 to 600 years
after it was written. This fact fits the time of King Jehoash at the end
of the ninth Century BCE.
The
inscription is described by the experts as a sensational archaeological
criterion which will have great significance for Israel and the rest of the
world. This royal inscription of King Jehoash glorifies and exults the
repairs which were undertaken by the king exactly as it appears in 2 Kings
12:7-17, including the call of Jehoash on the priests to raise donations
from the Jewish populace for his project to restore the First Temple.... It
also describes the buying of the wood and stones needed for all of the
repairs....
"But it was so, that in the twenty third year of king Jehoash the priests
had not repaired the breaches of the house. Then king Jehoash called for
Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests, and said to them, 'Why do you
not repair the breaches of the house? Now therefore receive no more money
from your acquaintances, but deliver it for the breaches of the house'.
And the priests agreed to receive no more money from the people, nor to
repair the breaches of the house. But Jehoiada the priest took a chest,
and bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right
side as one comes into the house of the L-rd; and the priests who guarded
the door put in there all the money that was brought to the house of the
L-rd. And it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the
chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came up, and they
counted and tied up in bags the money that was found in the house of the
L-rd. And they gave the money, that was counted, to the hands of the
workmen, who supervised the house of the L-rd; and they paid it out to
the carpenters and builders, who worked upon the house of the L-rd. And
to the masons, and the stone cutters, and to buy timber and quarried
stones to repair the breaches of the house of the L-rd, and for all that
was laid out for the house to repair it. But there were not made for the
house of the L-rd bowls of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any
utensils of gold, or utensils of silver, from the money that was brought
to the house of the L-rd; But they gave that to the workmen, and repaired
with it the house of the L-rd. And they did not ask an accounting from
the men into whose hand they delivered the money to be paid to the
workmen; for they dealt in good faith. The money for guilt offerings and
the money for sin offerings was not brought to the house of the L-rd; it
was delivered to the priests." (2 Kings
12:7-17)
The Black
stone was found by Arabs excavating on the Temple Mount...According to a
team of experts the way in which the Arabs on the Temple Mount handled the
discovery of the inscription was terrible and with no respect to it and its
holiness....They sold the Black stone to a collector in Israel who knew its
value was priceless...
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