This Is Why We Need More People Working in Cuneiform: The ‘Ark Tablet’

[KichigaiNeko]

http://zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com/...rk-tablet/

POSTED ON JANUARY 21, 2014 UPDATED ON JANUARY 21, 2014
There are literally thousands of tablets still untranslated. Doubtless among them are many wondrous treasures, like this:


We’ve known since at least 1872 that the Great Flood detailed in Genesis is a descendant of earlier flood myths from Mesopotamia. And there may be some credibility to the occurrence of at least some serious floods then, based on the facts that Mesopotamia is a giant flood plain and that there is some archeological evidence for a big flood around 5000 BC. But what we didn’t know until now is that those earlier flood myths also incorporated a boat onto which species of wild animals were sequestered to save them—two by two! This clearly shows, as if we didn’t know it already, that the Genesis story of Noah and the Ark isn’t true, but was simply an embroidery of earlier flood stories. (It will be interesting to see how Biblical literalists like Ken Ham react to this finding.)
This has all come to light since the recent deciphering of a clay cuneiform tablet first shown to curators at the British Museum in 1985, but not surrendered by its owner for translation until 2009. Now the remarkable results are detailed in a book by Irving Finkel, Assyriologist and “assistant keeper” of ancient writings at the British Museum. Finkel’s book, The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood (released in the US on Jan 30, Kindle only; already available at Amazon UK in hardback, Kindle, and paperback—the last for a tad more than 8 pounds). Finkel’s article (see below) is very well written, so I suspect his book will be a good read.
First, here’s Finkel, who bears a remarkable resemblance to an aged Darwin with more hair. And here’s the “Ark tablet” that Finkel and the British Museum finally got hold of four years ago. It contains 600 cuneiform characters and is dated between 1900 and 1700 BC, which makes it roughly a millennium older than the book of Genesis. According to Finkel, Genesis was assembled between 597 and 538 BC during the Jewish exodus in Babylonia

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

Creationists actually assume stuff like this is proof of the flood. To them, the more cultures who have flood legends, the more likely Noah's flood happened. They actually cite pagan flood legends in their materials as proof of the biblical flood.

[Minimalist]

You know, Kichi, I find Jim West a fascinating character. He's a baptist preacher from fucking Tennessee - of all places - yet he somehow keeps his job in spite of the fact that he knows the OT is horseshit and hangs out with minimalist scholars like Philip Davies and Niels Peter Lemche. I wonder how he manages to fend off the Drippys and G-Cs in his congregation because you know they have to have them.

[Jackalope]

Creationists actually assume stuff like this is proof of the flood. To them, the more cultures who have flood legends, the more likely Noah's flood happened. They actually cite pagan flood legends in their materials as proof of the biblical flood.

What won't they cite as evidence for it?

[StuW]

Creationists actually assume stuff like this is proof of the flood. To them, the more cultures who have flood legends, the more likely Noah's flood happened. They actually cite pagan flood legends in their materials as proof of the biblical flood.

I've read a few alternate theories that could explain widespread flood legends without a global flood, most involving root religions and flash thaws of mini ice ages.

[Minimalist]

What won't they cite as evidence for it?

Anything that tells them they are wrong.

[Jackalope]

Anything that tells them they are wrong.

Nah, they just cite it and "reinterpret" it to fit.

[Minimalist]

Well, West's headline reminds me I really wonder how many people in the world can actually read this stuff?

I recall a side-by-side translation of the Khirbet Qeiyafa ostracon.

http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.co...ption.html

A. Translation on John Hobbins’ website:

1 Do not do [anything bad?], and serve [personal name?]

2 ruler of [geographical name?] . . . ruler . . .

3 [geographical names?] . . .

4 [unclear] and wreak judgment on YSD king of Gath . . .

5 seren of G[aza? . . .] [unclear] . . .

B. Translation “provided by the University of Haifa”:

1 you shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord]. 

2 Judge the sla[ve] and the wid[ow] / Judge the orph[an] 

3 [and] the stranger. [Pl]ead for the infant / plead for the po[or and] 

4 the widow. Rehabilitate [the poor] at the hands of the king. 

5 Protect the po[or and] the slave / [supp]ort the stranger

Now, the fact that two supposed groups of people who claim to be capable of reading this stuff can look at the same inscription and come up with two different readings would be disquieting except the Haifa U group is pushing to read it in "hebrew" which probably did not even exist at this time period.

It would be like taking a tattered original page of Cervantes' Don Quixote and trying to read it as French or Italian.

[truthBtold]

The pic above looks like a pizza puff that got ran over by a car...wtf!!!

[Minimalist]

So, we can guess that you are not one of the people who can read it?