Canaanite Golden Calf Discovered

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• published: 24 Nov 2011
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Discovery of ancient unknown script -- Caucasian Albanian A devastating fire in 1971 at St. Catherine's Monastery on Mt. Sinai led to the discovery of 1100 manuscripts that had been kept in a crypt below the chapel floor but which had been totally forgotten until they were accidentally discovered during reconstruction of the chapel in 1975.[4][5] The most significant discovery was a palimpsest manuscript which had Georgian script on the visible layer but an unknown script, which was barely visible on the underlying layer and which turned out to be an ancient Caucasian Albanian text. In 1990, Dr. Zaza Aleksidze, Director of the Center for Manuscripts in Tbilisi, Georgia, discovered the unknown script. In 1996, he identified it as Caucasian Albanian, a script which has 52 letters based on Georgian, Ethiopian, and Armenian alphabets. The script described a language in the Caucasus that was the ancestor to the language spoken by the present-day Udis, who live in three villages in Azerbaijan and Georgia.[6] In 2001, Aleksidze was able to decipher his first word -- "Thesalonike," referring to passages in the New Testament that St. Paul addressed to the Thessalonians.[7] and he later identified the text of some 300 pages as one of the earliest existing Lectionaries in the Christian religion (5th--6th centuries).[8] Kings 10:29 "Howbeit [from] the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan." The Old Testament mentions the worship of a "golden calf" several times. According to the Bible, the Israelites fashioned one of these idols after their exodus from Egypt. Later, king Jeroboam worshiped the golden calf idol. Until 1991, no one in our time had ever seen one. In the summer of 1991, Harvard University archaeologists excavating Canaanite ruins near the ancient port city of Ashkelon unearthed a "golden calf." Ashkelon is in Israel. This "golden calf," however, is not made entirely of gold. It is about four and one-half inches long and four and one-fourth inches tall. It weighs just under a pound. The arms, legs, horns, tail and other parts were made of different metals and were attached to the body in sockets. The body itself was bronze. The calf was dated through the pottery and other artifacts found alongside it to about 1550 BC. This would mean that the calf is Canaanite. Though there was no reason to question what the Bible says about golden calf worship, many scholars preferred to refer to biblical statements on the subject as legends. This discovery shows the Bible's accuracy when it speaks of golden calf worship. It also shows that the Canaanites worshiped these idols before the Israelites took over the Promised Land. We should note that no archaeological discovery in the Holy Land has ever shown the Bible to be anything less than accurate. So-called experts, who have been skeptical of the Bible's claims, have been proven wrong many times. Prayer: Lord, I thank You that Your Word is truth. I, too, live in a world with many idols. I ask that You would help me see how the world's idols influence my life. Help me to be faithful to You, both in my life and witness. Amen. Notes: "Before-Christ 'golden calf' idol startles archaeologists in Israel." The Argus (Fremont, CA), July 25, 1990.