May 9 - Inscriptions Found in Ancient Fortress Support Biblical Timeline, Challenge Skeptics

Critics of the Bible have long alleged that Israelites prior to the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. were largely illiterate. Therefore, they argue, many of the Old Testament books were written after the destruction of Jerusalem, which is much later than the Bible suggests. “The epigraphic evidence simply does not support the contention that the average pastoralist or agriculturalist in Israelite society was literate,” wrote Chris Rollston in his book “Writing and Literacy in the World of Ancient Israel: Epigraphic Evidence from the Iron Age.” “This is a marvelous romantic notion, but I simply do not find credible evidence of widespread literacy of the non-elite masses.”
 
However, a recently-published study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests that literacy levels among Israelites around 600 B.C. were indeed higher than Rollston and others claim. The study’s authors, all researchers affiliated with Tel Aviv University, analyzed 16 inscriptions written prior to the 586 B.C. Babylonian destruction. They were discovered in an ancient fortress in Arad, which is in southern Israel.