Ancient Christian Witness

"By Ari Rabinovitch

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -
Archaeologists in Israel said on Thursday they had unearthed the oldest Hebrew
text ever found, while excavating a fortress city overlooking a valley where the
Bible says David slew Goliath.

The dig's uncovering of the past near the
ancient battlefield in the Valley of Elah, now home to wineries and a satellite
station, could have implications for the emotional debate over the future of
Jerusalem, some 20 km (12 miles) away.

Archaeologists from the Hebrew
University said they found five lines of text written in black ink on a shard of
pottery dug up at a five-acre (two-hectare) site called Elah Fortress, or
Khirbet Qeiyafa.

Experts have not yet been able to decipher the text
fully, but carbon dating of artifacts found at the site indicates the Hebrew
inscription was written about 3,000 years ago, predating the Dead Sea Scrolls by
1,000 years, the archaeologists said.

Several words, including "judge,"
"slave" and "king," could be identified and the experts said they hoped the text
would shed light on how alphabetic scripts developed."