Kerby Anderson

A significant archaeological find in Israel should change the minds of skeptics about when much of the Old Testament was written. Archaeologists have found a fragment that includes the earliest reference to God (YHWH) ever discovered.

The discovery is important because critics of the Bible assume that the first books in the Old Testament were written hundreds of years after the Exodus. The assumption is that Moses and the Israelites did not have the ability to write these biblical texts at the time the Exodus occurred. Christians believe the book of Exodus was a firsthand account that was concurrent to the events in the Bible.

The archeological report concludes this “would be the first attested use of the name of God in the Land of Israel and would set the clock back on proven literacy by several centuries” and shows “that the Israelites were literate when they entered the Holy Land, and therefore could have written the Bible as some of the events it documents took place.”

This discovery came from a re-examination of earth from a dump pile formed from excavations in the 1980s at Mount Ebal in Israel. The earth had been dry shifted previously, but the fragment was found when they used a wet shifting technique.

This discovery also challenges the statement by one reporter that “the Bible, including the Book of Exodus, which details the Israelites’ flight from Egypt, was written somewhere between 600 B.C. and 300 B.C.” No, Exodus was NOT written when Daniel was taken to Babylon. It was written many centuries earlier.

This is a significant archaeological find and should encourage Christians who believe the biblical record.