Biblical Find at the British Museum.

Posted by gail in Everything Else on July 11, 2007 at 12:31 pm


tablet

You never know what might turn up when you’re digging around the British Museum. Last Thursday, Professor Michael Jursa found a cuneiform receipt from a person named in chapter 39 of the book of Jeremiah, as the Telegraph reports::


Searching for Babylonian financial accounts among the [cuneiform] tablets, Prof  Jursa suddenly came across a name he half remembered – Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, described there in a hand 2,500 years old, as "the
chief eunuch" of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon.

Prof Jursa, an Assyriologist, checked the Old Testament and there in chapter 39 of the Book of Jeremiah, he found, spelled differently, the same name – Nebo-Sarsekim.

Nebo-Sarsekim, according to Jeremiah, was Nebuchadnezzar II’s "chief officer" and was with him at the siege of Jerusalem in 587 BC, when the Babylonians overran the city.

The small tablet, the size of "a packet of 10 cigarettes" according to Irving Finkel, a British Museum expert, is a bill of receipt acknowledging Nabu-sharrussu-ukin’s payment of 0.75 kg of gold to a temple in Babylon.

The tablet is dated to the 10th year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, 595BC, 12 years before the siege of Jerusalem.


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COMMENT

7 comments to "Biblical Find at the British Museum."

  1. Jimmy
    July 11th, 2007 at 6:12 pm

    looks like a biscuit from a selection pack thats been dipped in tea. Someones just carved out the lettering and left to dry for a few days!

  2. Jesus
    July 11th, 2007 at 8:07 pm

    Yeah, but the bible is still only history and mythology:

  3. Carl Huber
    July 11th, 2007 at 8:31 pm

    Interesting! Seems the more that's unearthed the more is clarified rather than disproved.

  4. gail
    July 11th, 2007 at 8:45 pm

    ONLY history and mythology? What the hell is wrong with history and mythology?

  5. ted
    July 11th, 2007 at 9:15 pm

    LOL @ history and mythology.

    I don't think they were trying to prove anything. This just confirms that the Bible does have its historically correct moments.

    Way to have a chip on your shoulder.

  6. gail
    July 11th, 2007 at 9:19 pm

    Exactly, Ted. We're talking about serious scholarship, not some bozo trying to find a splinter off the ark.

  7. steve
    July 30th, 2007 at 3:48 pm

    the professor mentioned that it was a 'bill of receipt' - but imagine how long it would have taken to chisel out. the poor guy must have been there for an hour.
    i wouldn't fancy being a cashier in those days.


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