JERUSALEM — Israeli mathematicians and archaeologists say they have found evidence to suggest that key biblical texts might have been composed earlier than what some scholars think.
Using handwriting analysis technology similar to that employed by intelligence agencies and banks, a Tel Aviv University team determined that ancient Hebrew inscriptions dated to around 600 B.C. were written by at least six authors. Although the inscriptions are not from the Hebrew Bible, their discovery suggests there was widespread literacy at the time in ancient Judah that would support the composition of biblical works. The findings, released Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences contribute to a longstanding debate about when biblical texts began to be compiled: Did it take place before or after the Babylonian siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. and the exile of its inhabitants to Babylon?
In recent years, many scholars have attributed the composition of a group of biblical texts from the Book of Joshua to the second Book of Kings to after the siege, according to Israeli archaeologist Israel Finkelstein, who took part in the study. That holds that the biblical texts were written as a result of the exile to Babylon, when the composers began to think about the past. Finkelstein, however, said he has long believed those texts were written in the late 7th century B.C. in Jerusalem, before the siege, and the study supports that theory.
“It’s the first time we have something empirical in our hands,” he said.
The team examined 16 inscriptions on ceramic shards found at the site of an ancient fortress in Arad, Israel. It used multispectral imaging to reconstruct letters that had been partially erased over time, and then used a computer algorithm to analyze the writings to detect differences in handwriting strokes. Arie Shaus, who helped develop the algorithm, said it was the first time such technology has been used to reconstruct and perform handwriting analysis on ancient Hebrew inscriptions.
