Calcol/Chalcol and KRKR

 There are thousands of extrabiblical literary and archeological corroborations of the Bible. New evidences of persons and places mentioned in the Bible continue to be discovered every year.

There have been suggestions that Chalcol/Calcol, one of David’s wise men mentioned in the Bible, and Kerker (KRKR), who is mentioned in the Megiddo Ivories, may be connected. KRKR can be transliterated as Kulkul.

Calcol/Chalcol was one of David’s wise men and was a brother of Heman, a wise man and musician who was the king’s “seer in the words of God to lift up the horn.” Because Chalcol/Calcol was a brother of Heman, many believe that he was also a musician. David appointed more than 4000 Levite royal musicians and singers.

Artifact A22269 is an Egyptian-style ivory plaque from the Megiddo ivories collection, featuring hieroglyphic inscriptions with prayers for an Egyptian singer named Kerker. This is one of the almost 400 ivories discovered at the site in the 1930’s.

A22269 features Egyptian hieroglyphs with a prayer reading: “[… for the spirit of the singer of] Ptah, south of his wall, [Lord of] 'The Life of Two Lands,' Kerker, the justified”. Kerker appears to have been a female singer who worked in the Temple of the Egyptian deity, Ptah, during the time period of ca 1350-1150 BC/BCE. Her name is spelled out phonetically as KRKR with the symbols for k and r. KRKR can be transliterated as Kulkul.

The plaque was found at the Megiddo archeological site in modern Israel during excavations of the treasury room of a Late Bronze Age palace, from the 12^th Century BC/BCE.

https://isac-idb.uchicago.edu/id/af86a18e-7b0c-40c6-bec4-43f513b7f052 shows an image and description of the plaque. You can click on the image to enlarge it. The plaque is held in the collection of the University of Chicago Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures.

Because of the similarity of the pronunciations of the names of Chalcol/Calcol and KRKR some have suggested that there may have been some sort of familial connection with Chalcol/Calcol being an honorific, serving in a similar way to a modern surname. There are problems with this idea and most commenters believe that there is no connection other than similar sounding names and being therefore totally coincidental.

1. 1. KRKR was a female pagan singer in the Temple of Ptah while Chalcol/Calcol was a male member of the tribe of Judah.

2. 2. KRKR lived in the ca 1350-ca 1150 BC/BCE time period, while Chalcol/Calcol served during the lifetime of King David ca 1000-931 BC/BCE.

1 Chronicles 2:6, 6:33, chapter 25, especially verse 5; 1 Kings 4:31; Psalm 88.

The Inspiration of the Bible

I believe in the full and absolute inspiration of the Bible. It is totally free of errors. Where errors have been claimed by critics the critics have usually been eventually proven to have been in error themselves. An example of this is the Hittite people .

Since no archeological evidence was ever found for the Hittites, many believed that they were a fictional element in the Bible. Then. in 1871, at Carchemish, extra-Biblical documentary evidence of the Hittites was unearthed. Later (1906 - 1907), the ruins of Hattusas, the capital of the Hittite empire, were discovered in Turkiye. Hattusas was found the hold over 10,000 Hittite records recorded on clay tablets. Now, Hittite history, including king lists and court records, is well established.

It is true that there are still claims of errors in the Bible. I believe that they will eventually be resolved as we learn more about the history of the Middle East. There is probably more under the dirt of the Middle East than is on top of it.

Extrabiblical Evidences of Biblical Persons and/or Events: The Nebo-Sarsekim Tablet

The Nebo-Sarsekim Tablet is a clay cuneiform inscription which mentions an important Babylonian official of King Nebuchadrezzar II.  The official was a eunuch named Nabu-sharrussu-ukin.  Jeremiah 39:3 mentions this man, who sat on the Middle Gate of Jerusalem during the Babylonian conquest of the city.  The clay tablet was found about 1870 in the ruins of Sippar, about one mile from modern Baghdad, Iraq.

"And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, evenNergalsharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon." Jeremiah 39:3 The tablet is a receipt for a financial transaction. [Regarding] 1.5 minas [0.75 kg] of gold, the property of Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, the chief eunuch, which he sent via Arad-Banitu the eunuch to [the temple] Esangila: Arad-Banitu has delivered [it] to Esangila. In the presence of Bel-usat, son of Alpaya, the royal bodyguard, [and of ] Nadin, son of Marduk-zer-ibni, Month XI, day 18, year 10 [of] Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (Reynolds 2007).

Extrabiblical Evidences of Biblical Persons and/or Events: The Mesha Stele

Those who doubt the historicity of the Bible are either ignorant of the archeological record or choose to ignore it.  There are multiple extrabiblical corroborations of biblical statements.  These confirm the accuracy of the Bible’s historical assertions.  The religious interpretation of the information, of course, cannot be “proven.”

Those of faith come to realize that there are other ways of “knowing.”  (I know how “mystical” this sounds, but if the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is true, this is so.)

One of the first extrabiblical eveidences is the Mesha Stele (also known as the Moabite Stone).  The stele was shown to F.A. Klein, a Prussian missionary in Dhiban (the ancient Dibon, Moab) in 1868 by Bedouins.    When the Prussian government tried to purchase it, so did France, and a bidding war erupted.  The locals decided to break the stone into pieces.

There are several modern explanations for breaking the stone.  1. The locals wanted to prevent its removal and they thought a broken stone would be useless.  2.  The locals thought there was a treasure inside since so many people wanted it.  And the most likely explanation, 3. Someone understood the Law of Supply and Demand.  The individual pieces might collectively be of more value than one piece.

A stele is a commemoration or memorial carved or sculpted into an upright pillar, stone, tablet, or slab, often of basalt or marble.  The Mesha Stele was erected 847 BC/BCE in what is now Jordan by Mesha, the king of Moab.  The stele describes how Omri, King of Israel  ( ruled ca 886-874 BC/BCE), and his son Ahab (ruled 873-851 BC/BCE) defeated Moab because the Moabite deity, Chemosh, was angry at his people.  On the stele, Mesha is celebrating his defeat of Ahaziah, on of Ahab’s two sons.

"As for Omri, king of Israel, he humbled Moab many years [lit. days], for Chemosh was angry with his land. And his son followed him and he also said 'I will humble Moab.' In my time he spoke [thus], but I have triumphed over him and over his house, while Israel hath perished forever" (cf. 2 Kings 1:1; 3:4–5)

Moabite is considered by many to have been a dialect of Hebrew and the name of the king, Mesha, may be equivalent to Moshe (“Moses”).

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=mesha+stele&gbv=2&gs_l=hp.3..0l3j0i30l7.2292.5796.0.6261.11.11.0.0.0.0.60.528.11.11.0...0.0.xyqc_p4Q9Nk&sa=X&oi=image_result_group

http://www.jordanjubilee.com/history/mesha.htm

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0014_0_13724.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesha_Stele

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Mesha_Stele

Extra-Biblical Evidences of Biblical Persons and/or Events: The Merneptah Stele

The Merneptah Stele is also known as the Israel Stele or the Victory Stele of Merneptah.  A stele (plural: stelae) is an ancient stone or wooden slab put into place for a funeral or as a commerative, usually for the declaration of the deceased's glorious accomplishments.  They were sometimes placed at borders to denote national ownership of a territory.

The Merneptah Stele, dated to about 1205 BC/BCE, declares the glories of the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah, who ruled from 1213 to 1203 BC/BCE.  The stele lists all the nations conquered by Merneptah, including "Isrir" or "ysri r."  Many believe that this stone, now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, is the earliest known extrabiblical mention of Israel, though an earlier mention, dating to 1400BC/BCE may have been found in 2012 on a random piece of a statue pedestal which for years lay uncataloged and unexamined in the hundreds of fragments held by the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, Germany.

The Merneptah Stele says "Israel is wasted, bare of seed." (Actually, it literally says, "Israel waste (negative) seed/grain his/its.")

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Extra-Biblical Evidences of Biblical Persons and/or Events: The Taylor Prism

The Taylor Prism (691 BC/BCE) s one of three red clay six-sided prisms, all inscribed with the same Akkadian inscription written in cuneiform characters.  The Taylor Prism is in the British Museum, while the two Sennacherib prisms are located in the Israel Museum (Jerusalem) and in the Oriental Institute of Chicago.

Sin-ahhi-eriba (the Biblical Sennacherib), was the son of Sargon II and ruled Assyria 705-681 BC/BCE.  The Taylor Prism and its two sisters present the king's version of the events related in 2 Kings 17:17;  2 Chronicles 32:9;  and the 33rd and 36th chapters of the book of Isaiah.  The event described is Sennacherib's attack on Jerusalem in 701 BC/BCE during the reign of King Hezekiah.  Sennacherib destroyed forty-six cities in Judah and deported 200,150 people.  King Hezekiah was forced to pay tribute (including several of his daughters) to the Assyrian monarch.  (Another extra-biblical mention of the event is in the writings of the historian Herodotus.)

The Taylor Prism was acquired by Colonel R. Taylor in 1830 in Baghdad after having been found earlier in the ruins of Ninevah, the ancient capital of Assyria.  Colonel Taylor's widow sold the prism to the British Museum in 1855.

To read more about the prisms, see these links:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/t/the_taylor_prism.aspx 

http://www.bible-history.com/empires/prism.html 

http://www.scholarofgod.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78:sennacherib-prism&catid=40:biblical-archaeology&Itemid=57