What Does It Say?

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We can’t recall an ancient inscription that has engendered so many different interpretations and aroused so many controversies as the ostracon (inscribed potsherd) recovered in 2008 by Yosef (Yossi) Garfinkel at Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Judean Shephelah. For those who are engaged by this sort of the thing, we remember the deathless opening of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s love sonnet: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”

One of the most intriguing interpretations of the Qeiyafa ostracon is that of Émile Puech, a world-class Hebrew linguist and paleographer who teaches at the École Biblique et Archéologique Française in Jerusalem. Because he writes in French we reported in English the substance of his interpretation, which, if correct, is certainly worthy of acclaim.^a In his judgment, the inscription refers to the establishment of the Israelite monarchy, with the reign of either Saul or David.

But because so many questions have been raised by other scholars, many of them as distinguished as Puech, we thought it best to list for our readers some of the issues that divide scholars grappling with this inscription.

One of the more fundamental questions is whether the inscription should be read horizontally or vertically. Among the few things that are undeniable about the inscription are its four reasonably straight lines. The question is whether these lines are meant to underline (or overhang) the text, providing a floor (or a ceiling) for the five horizontal lines of script, or whether they are meant to divide vertical columns of letters. And if the inscription is understood to be horizontal, is it to be read right to left or left to right—or perhaps boustrophedon, back and forth “as the ox plows” (or as the lawn is mowed)? In short, scholars differ.

Another question seems to be the language of the inscription. Is it Hebrew or proto-Canaanite?^b (Could the early Israelites still be using Canaanite?)

Many of the letters of the inscription are missing, the result of thousands of years in the dirt. Naturally, different scholars supply different letters for those that are missing. Different conjectures produce different texts.

What about the letters that are there? Some scholars claim to be able read as many as 66 letters. Others say you can identify with confidence no more than half as many.

The big issue of course is the nature of the content of the inscription. A number of scholars, including Puech, see it as a literary text of prophetic import—a social statement relating to slaves, widows and orphans. It is, they argue, a continuous text, perhaps a draft or copy of a letter, decree or literary composition. Other scholars, however, see it as an elementary writing exercise, simply 013 a list of disconnected words, names, titles or terms, perhaps listing professions of divine or human authority.

Another oddity: The inscription is written on the concave side of the pottery sherd. This is extremely rare. Virtually all ostraca are written on the convex side of the potsherd. What are we to make of this?

Among the scholars who have studied and commented on the inscription, in addition to Haggai Misgav of Hebrew University, to whom Garfinkel assigned its publication, and Émile Puech, previously mentioned, are Ada Yardeni of the Hebrew University, Gershon Galil of Haifa University, Alan Millard of the University of Liverpool, Christopher Rollston of George Washington University, Bob Becking of Universiteit Utrecht (Netherlands) and Paul Sanders of the Protestantse Theologische Universiteit (Utrecht, Netherlands), as well as Aaron Demsky of Bar-Ilan University, from whose recent article in the Israel Exploration Journal ¹ many of the observations in this story have been taken.—H.S.

We can’t recall an ancient inscription that has engendered so many different interpretations and aroused so many controversies as the ostracon (inscribed potsherd) recovered in 2008 by Yosef (Yossi) Garfinkel at Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Judean Shephelah. For those who are engaged by this sort of the thing, we remember the deathless opening of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s love sonnet: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” One of the most intriguing interpretations of the Qeiyafa ostracon is that of Émile Puech, a world-class Hebrew linguist and paleographer who teaches at the École Biblique et Archéologique Française […]