by Luke Chandler
Synopsis: Recalling past heroes of faith, Hebrews 11:32 says, "Time will fail me if I tell of Gideon. . ." A newly discovered pottery fragment containing Gideon's nickname, "Jerubbaal," carries a reminder for Christians today.
In the summer of 2019, near the end of an excavation season in which several Christians participated, including myself, word spread of a discovery just down the slope from our work area. Pottery fragments inscribed with ancient letters had just been unearthed in a 3,000-year-old trash pit. The senior archaeologists packed the inscription away and sent it to a Jerusalem lab for analysis, leaving the rest of the team to imagine what the message might say.
In July 2021, after two years of research and discussion, the archaeologists publicly revealed the inscription. It spells the name “Jerubbaal,” a biblical name associated with Gideon. It is written in Proto-Canaanite (or Early Alphabetic) script, a precursor to the Hebrew alphabet, and dates to around 1150 BC, the approximate time of the latter Judges and Samuel. The discovery was made at a site called Khirbet er-Ra’i (Arabic for “Ruin of the Shepherd”), an ancient town along the border of tribal Judah and the Philistines. This is the first time that the name Jerubbaal has been attested outside of the Bible.
How did Gideon receive the name Jerubbaal? His first task from God was to destroy his father’s high place to Baal and Asherah, and to use the materials in constructing an altar for burnt offerings to the Lord.
Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down (Judg. 6:25-26, ESV).
Gideon was fearful, so he did the work at night under cover of darkness. When people saw the results the next morning, they soon realized Gideon was the culprit. They demanded he be executed for sacrilege but his father Joash replied, “If [Baal] is a god, let him contend for himself” (v. 31) From that time, people referred to Gideon as Jerubbaal, which translates, “Let Baal contend with him.”
Gideon went on to fabulous success in God’s name, but the nickname was used for him up through the time of Samuel and David (1 Sam 12:11; 2 Sam 11:21). Interestingly, the reference in 2 Samuel 11 replaces “-Baal” with the word “-Boshet” (shame), possibly as a euphemism to avoid using the idol’s name.
Does this “Jerubbaal” inscription refer to Gideon? While possible, we cannot be certain. The inscription was found at a site in southern Canaan, far from the Jezreel Valley, where Gideon lived and operated. There is no scriptural record to link Gideon with the region of Judah. At most, we can say it “might” refer to Gideon. It is possible they used the name with some other person or context.
What can we take from this discovery? For one, this is a fresh example of how the Bible preserves historically accurate details. Until now, the name Jerubbaal has only been found in Scripture, and only during the time of the Judges and earliest kings. This discovery confirms the name was in use during that period. While some critics insist much of the Bible should not be considered historical, we now have another example demonstrating otherwise. It is reasonable to put faith in the Bible’s historicity.
The Jerubbaal inscription also carries a reminder for us. Many people once trusted in Baal, but Gideon’s life revealed the futility of false gods. In a similar way, the idols of money, materialism, race-based philosophies, political figures, pornography, and more surround us. Reliance on any of these in contradiction to God will be revealed as failure, distracting or misleading a person from Truth.
May we renew our trust in the incorruptible, all-powerful God, looking to the day when false hopes have faded and our faith becomes sight.
Rollston, Christopher, Yosef Garfinkel, Kyle H. Keimer, Gillan Davis and Saar Ganor. “The Jerubba’al Inscription from Khirbet al-Ra’i: A Proto-Canaanite (Early Alphabetic) Inscription.” Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology. 2021. 2:1-15. Copy at http://www.tinyurl.com/yj98wbsh.
Image-1 Caption: Jerubbaal inscription—Photo by Dafna Gazit. Israel Antiquities Authority
Image-2 Caption: Drawing of the sherd including the letters yod (broken at top) resh bet ayin lamed. Drawing by Olga Dubovsky
