Biblical texts much older than thought? -TOI-13.4.2016

Biblical texts much older than thought? Jerusalem AP   Israeli mathematicians and archaeologists say they have found evidence to suggest that key biblical texts may have been composed earlier than what some scholars think. Using handwriting analysis technology, a Tel Aviv University team determined that a famous hoard of ancient Hebrew inscriptions, dated to around 600 BC, were written by at least six different authors. Although the inscriptions are not from the Bible, their discovery suggests there was literacy in ancient Judah. The findings, released on Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, contribute to a longstanding debate about when biblical texts first began to be compiled. In recent years, many scholars have attributed the composition of biblical texts, from the Book of Joshua to the second Book of Kings, to the period after the siege, according to Israeli archaeologist Israel Finkelstein. That theory holds that the biblical texts were written as a result of the exile to Babylon, when the composers began to think about their past and put the ir history to parchment.Finkelstein, however, said he has long believed those texts were written in the late 7th century BC in Jerusalem, before the siege. The team examined 16 ink inscriptions on ceramic shards at a fortress in Arad in southern Israel. It used multispectral imaging to reconstruct Hebrew letters and then used a computer algorithm to analyse. The inscriptions detail troop movements and expenses for provisions, indicating that people throughout the military chain of command down to the fort's deputy quartermaster were able to write. This supports the idea that some biblical texts had already been authored by this time .