Bible may be older than previously thought.
Scholars have long debated how much of the Bible was composed before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah, in 586 BCE. While experts agree that key biblical texts were written starting in the 7th century BCE, the exact date of the compilation of these books remains in question.
Now, a groundbreaking new study by Tel Aviv University (TAU) published in the Proceedings of the [US] National Academy of Sciences this week, sheds important new light on the debate. Using cutting-edge computerized image processing and machine learning tools, the TAU team analyzed 16 inscriptions unearthed at an excavation in the remote fort of Arad, and deduced that the texts had been written by at least six authors.
“Adding what we know about Arad to other forts and administrative localities across ancient Judah, we can estimate that many people could read and write during the last phase of the First Temple period,” said Finkelstein. “We assume that in a kingdom of some 100,000 people, at least several hundred were literate.”
However, he noted that following the fall of Judah, there was a pronounced gap in production of Hebrew inscriptions until the second century BCE, the next period with evidence suggesting widespread literacy. “This reduces the odds for a compilation of substantial Biblical literature in Jerusalem between ca. 586 and 200 BCE,” the professor concluded.
