Tel Arad, an Archaeological Discovery for the Bible and Book of Mormon

Tel Arad - Implications For the Book of Mormon

Research by Kerry A. Shirts

Tel Arad demonstrates that Jews and Egyptians were hopelessly mixed in Lehi's day of 700-600 B.C. In fact, there is ostraca showing a combination of Hebrew and Egyptian Hieratic writing together. In fact, Hebrew characters are written in Egyptian. The Egyptian values are given their Hebrew equivilants as a sort of jargon (suggesting a differentiating Egyptian, or as the BofM would put it, Reformed Egyptian) The person who wrote this ostraca obviously was familiar with both languages and hence throws support on the BofM with Lehi teaching his sons just these two languages, the Hebrew and Egyptian.

Thank goodness these aren't Mormon scholars or we would hear endless screams of torment that they are bias and wishful thinking, and armchair antics in phony archaeology and biased interpretations and what not endlessly. But these are Biblical scholars, publishing in scientific peer review journals.

1. Ivan Tracy Kaufman - "New Evidence For Hieratic Numerals on Hebrew Weights" in the "Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research" - BASOR - Number 188, Dec. 1967, pp. 39-41.

2. Yohanan Aharoni - "The Use of Hieratic Numerals in Hebrew Ostraca and the Shekel Weights", in BASOR, Number 184, Dec. 1966, pp. 13-19.

3. Rudolf Cohen - "Biblical Archaeologist", Spring 1981, pp. 98f. "Excavationsat Kadesh-barnea 1976-1978", which shows the pictures of the ostraca called "The Hebrew-Hieratic ostracon of the 7th-6th centuries B.C.E."

4. Rudolf Cohen - "Did I Excavate Kadesh-Barnea?" in "Biblical Archaeology Review", May/June 1981, pp. 27-29 showing the analysis of the Hebrew-Hieratic writing on the ostracon. There are combinations of hieratic numerals and Hebrew terms.

5. Sh. Yeivin - "An Ostracon From Tel Arad Exhibiting a Combination of Two Scripts", in "Journal of Egyptian Archaeology", Vol. 55/56, 1969-70, pp. 98-102. The ostracon exhibits a combination of two scripts, he says (p. 98).

6. Also showing the Egyptian weights and equivilants with the Hebrew is David Diringer, "The Early Hebrew Weights found at Lachish", in the "Palestine Exploration Quarterly", 1942-43, pp. 88-101.

7. Y. Aharoni, "Hebrew Ostraca from Tel Arad", in "Israel Exploration Journal", 1966, pp. 1-7.

8. S. Yeivin - "A Hieratic Ostracon from Tel Arad", in "Israel Exploration Journal", 1966, pp. 153-159. He notes that perhaps the most striking thing about this is that we find Egyptian garrison troops working as mercenaries in the Judaean army! (p. 158) So we Mormons always knew that Jews and Egyptians were constantly mixed at this time as the Book of Mormon would indicate. Archaeology is bearing the BofM out in this, most clearly...

9. A.F. Rainey, "Semantic Parallels to the Samaria Ostraca", in "Palestine Exploration Quarterly", 1970-71, pp. 45-51.

Two conclusions and historical implications are caused by the incredible Tel Arad Archaeological Excavations.

1. That in the 7th century B.C. there were close connections between Egypt and the Jews - as the Book of Mormon correctly notes, but was unknown in Joseph Smith's day.

2. There were persons in Judah in the late 7th century B.C. who knew both the Hebrew and Egyptian scripts and systems of writings. Nephi says the language of his father was that of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians. Tel Arad may be possibly showing us that the combination of Hebrew and Egyptian writing could be a type of Reformed Egyptian.

A Critic said:

"Fundamentalists" might be bothered by the negative evidence vis-a-vis the Bible, but at least many non-Mormons face it honestly and openly. Can the same be said for those arguing for the historical authenticity of the BOM? Is their attitude toward the BOM as critical? I think not.

Kerry A. Shirts Responds:

My attitude of condemnation lies in the plain and obvious fact that you critics refuse to come up to date with the archaeological evidences in favor of the Book of Mormon, and still proclaim that there is not an iota of evidence for the BofM. You apparently refuse to understand the true nature of the BofM, being a product of both the Old World and the New World. I have already admitted that we lose track of the Nephites and other BofM peoples in the New World, but you have never looked and acknowledged that there certainly is Old World evidence that is every bit as strong as anything found in favor of the Bible. I have always, and I mean always seen that Christians claim the Bible is fundamentally proven true, while the Book of Mormon has nothing archaeologically for it. This is an outdated stance, and hardly a scholarly approach to understanding the BofM. Tel Arad supports the Book of Mormon.The Lachish Letters, Dead Sea Scrolls, Elephantine Papyri, Bar Kochba Documents, Ras Shamra Texts, Nag Hammadi codices, all have more or less support for the BofM, and yet critics still say there is nothing for the BofM? This approach seems to be desparate in light of current understanding of archaeological and historical information about the Book of Mormon.