BALAAM: ARCHEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

The story of Balaam has been recounted in an earlier post entitled “Balaam: Numbers 22-24.” Because of doubts concerning the historicity of the episode with the talking donkey, there has even been speculation that the prophet himself was a fictional character. After all, here we have a prophet who isn't even Jewish but is still able to converse with God and even has a considerable reputation outside his own land.

So it was quite exciting when a totally unique form of archeological evidence was uncovered. The information below comes from David L. Stubbs' commentary on Numbers and from Biblical Archaeology Today, xi(5), p. 34.

Nothing else was known concerning Balaam except the details given in Numbers 22-24 and a few other biblical passages. Then in 1967, some Dutch archeologists were excavating at Deir 'Alla, identified with the biblical Succoth in northern Israel where Jacob built a booth for his cattle. They found pieces of several plaster panels containing writing in a red pigment. It appeared that these panels were attached to a column inside a non-Israelite Iron Age II temple. After many years, they pieced the writing together and reconstructed the Aramaic inscription to read “Book of Balaam, son of Beor, the man who was a seer of the gods.” The rest of the writing confirmed the existence of a pagan prophet named Balaam who was revered by Canaanites hundreds of years later.

The reconstructed text of the first panel describes Balaam receiving a night vision (see Numbers 22:8,20) in which he learns that the heavenly council is planning to remove all the light from the sun. In the second panel, which is in poorer condition than the first, it appears that Balaam may possibly be counseling the people to resort to child sacrifice to avert the disaster. If so, it indicates that Balaam was not just a prophet, but also an exorcist of sorts. This would fit well with the multiple roles that Balaam is expected to play in Numbers 22-24 as someone who not only can discern God's will, but also one who can cast effective spells against an enemy.

As to the age of this wall, the strata covering these panels and earlier levels had large cracks indicating destruction by a large earthquake. One such earthquake is prominently mentioned in Amos 1:1 and Zechariah 14:4-5 dating to about 750 BC. Other indications give the range of dates from 900-600 BC.