New Ebla Epigrapher Attacks Conclusion of Ousted Ebla Scholar - The BAS Library
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Elba Update

New Ebla Epigrapher Attacks Conclusion of Ousted Ebla Scholar

Professor Archi disagrees with Professor Pettinato’s Biblical connections.

Dr. Alfonso Archi of the University of Rome’s Institute of Near Eastern Studies and the new chief epigrapher of the Italian Mission to Ebla, has vigorously disputed the conclusions of his predecessor, Dr. Giovanni Pettinato, linking the Ebla tablets to the Bible.

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Footnotes

1.

Alfonso Archi, “The Epigraphic Evidence from Ebla and the Old Testament,” Biblica, Vol. 60, pp. 556–566 (1979).

2.

The asterisked words are taken from the variations in the second tablet.

3.

Archi also rejects the suggestion of the great American linguist Professor I. J. Gelb that the sign Pettinato reads as –ya should be read –ni. See “Assessing Ebla,” BAR 04:01.

4.

A determinative is a non-phonetic (that is, unpronounced) sign which indicates something about the word in which it appears, in this case that Ya is a deity.

5.

Archi notes that Pettinato has now admitted that only Sodom and Gomorrah appear in the tablets (See “Ebla Evidence Evaporates,” BAR 05:06). But even in Pettinato’s latest assertion, “Once again the inventory number is not given!” In other words, Pettinato refuses to identify the tablet in which Sodom and Gomorrah is supposed to appear, says Archi.