Another decipherment of the Qeiyafa inscription

A DECIPHERMENT OF THE QEIYAFA INSCRIPTION has reportedly been published in the journal Semitica by Prof. Reinhard Achenbach of Münster University. I say reportedly because I have not seen the article itself, only the notice of it in The Local:

German translates oldest known Hebrew

Published: 6 Jun 12 07:44 CET
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The oldest known written ancient Hebrew other than the Bible has emerged as laws to protect slaves, widows, orphans and foreigners, according to the German theologian who translated the script.

Here's the summary of the article:

"The language seems to be ancient Hebrew, but it is closely related to other west-semitic canaanite languages," the Old Testament expert told The Local in an email.

The tablet’s significance lay in its instructions to take care of the disadvantaged of ancient Israeli society.

This is visible in the second and third lines which read: “Give rights to slaves and to widows! Give rights to orphans and foreigners! Protect the rights of the poor and protect the rights of minors!”

These were likely to be some of the first laws implemented, he said, adding that the tablet was probably a copied version made by a royal official given the task to learn the laws.

The proposed translation is very similar to the one produced by Prof. Gershon Galil of the University of Haifa in 2010. As far as I know—and I haven't been paying close attention, so correct me if I'm wrong—this is the first decipherment of the inscription actually published in a peer-review journal. That and the fact that two specialists now read the text in the same way means that we have to take this interpretation seriously. But the real test will be the response from other scholars and the viability of this reading against any other readings that may be published in the coming years.

I hope Professors Galil and Achenbach are right. If we actually have an early Hebrew(ish) ostracon with such interesting and biblically relevant content, that would be very exciting. But let's wait and see what other interpretations are published. In the scheme of things it is much more likely to be something utterly banal, like a list of loan defalters or a tax receipt. (I'm not proposing either, thy are only examples.) But maybe we just got really lucky on this one.

Much more on the various discoveries at Khirbet Qeiyafa in recent years here and links.