Date of Biblical Artifact Corroborated

In 1979, a silver scroll was discovered near Jerusalem that contained the text of the priestly benediction known from the Pentateuch (Numbers 6:24-26).  The scroll was dated at the 7th century BC at the time, but doubts remained, some thinking that instead it was from post-exilic times centuries later.  Now, according to a New York Times report by John Noble Wilford echoed in the Oakland Tribune, “researchers at the University of Southern California have now re-examined the inscriptions using space-age photographic and computer imaging techniques,” and concluded that the artifacts indeed date from the pre-exilic period.  The international team used some advanced digital imaging techniques at Jet Propulsion Laboratory to bring out hitherto undetectable fine details in the artifact.

This is a small but important piece in a large puzzle of archaeological evidence that supports the historicity of the Pentateuch (the books of Moses).  Liberal scholars and skeptics have claimed that Moses could not have written such books; they assumed the books were compiled much later, after the Babylonian exile.  Artifacts like this show that quotations from the Pentateuch were in common knowledge and circulation centuries earlier.