11/13/05

Goliath's name found at Israeli dig

Goliath's name found at Israeli dig in Gath.

A shard of pottery unearthed in a decade-old dig in southern Israel carried an inscription in early Semitic style spelling "Alwat and "Wlt", likely Philistine renderings of the name Goliath...

[Aren] Maeir, head of the archaeology department at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, told Reuters his excavators found the shard, possibly part of a bowl, about two metres underground at Tell es-Shafi.

The mound where the dig took place is widely believed to be the site of the ancient city of Gath, which the Bible calls Goliath's hometown.
The dig is described here.

The Jersalem Post has a photo of the shard.

Looks authentic to me.

CNN.com - Robertson warns Pennsylvania voters of God's wrath - Nov 10, 2005

Pat Robertson warns Pennsylvania voters of God's wrath: "In voting on Tuesday, eight Dover, Pennsylvania, school board members up for re-election lost their seats after trying to introduce a statement on 'intelligent design' to high school biology students."

Here we go again. These eight fine public servants were voted out.

Now Pat says that the Lord may punish the town. OOH how terrible. What a simplistic fundamentalist theology.

But wait. Isn't this just about the Deuteronomic view of history? Isn't it a prime theme of rabbinic theology. Sin leads to punishment, destruction, suffering, death. Doesn't that make the randomness of world events vanish? Specific sin to specific punishment.

Yes. Yes. And yes. So what is the fuss? I'm just surprised Pat did not specify the exact punishment.