Joash Tablet Found in Jerusalem

By: J.R. Church

It was found in debris hauled out from Palestinian excavations on the Temple Mount, stirring fears that many priceless artifacts were deliberately destroyed by the Muslim effort to erase Israel’s historical claim to the site of their ancient Temple.

The tablet was written in the first person by King Joash in the 9th century B.C., ordering repairs to Solomon’s Temple at a time when it had stood on the mount about one hundred years. The tablet probably escaped Palestinian destruction because it was written in Phonecian script rather than Hebrew.

It has already undergone a battery of tests by Israeli scientists and has proven to be from the 9th century B.C. by Carbon 14 dating. Flecks of gold were found embedded in the lettering and cracks, indicating that it was buried under debris when the Temple was burned by the Babylonians. Gold from the walls melted, some bursting into microscopic flakes and filtering down upon the ruins of whatever items happened to be there.

In the 1930s, the Muslim Supreme Council published a guidebook with these words: “This site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest times. Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute.”

Recently, however, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, in the Al Aksa Mosque, declared: There is not the smallest indication of the existence of a Jewish temple on this place in the past. In the whole city, there is not even a single stone indicati Jewish history.”

But, the Joash tablet establishes Israel’s right to the Temple Mount beyond doubt!