Headline News: Early Bronze Period German Bible Discovered at Ancient Ebla

Wire Report: While digging in the Lexham Bible Dictionary on Friday, a pastor discovered a German Bible buried in the Early Bronze III period at Ebla. To see this Bible for yourself, open the Lexham Bible Dictionary to the article on Ebla (sub-heading: Archaeology) where you will read: "Later excavations unearthed a royal archive containing more than 8,000 cuneiform tablets dating to the middle third millennium (EB-III; circa 2400–2300 BC)." To clear away the dust, simply hover your mouse over the "EB" abbreviation where you will uncover the German "Echter Bibel" right in the middle of the Early Bronze III period of archaeological dating.

The unnamed pastor said: "I was surprised to find such a relatively modern Bible, intact, at such an ancient site as Tel Mardikh!" Ancient Ebla is located about 50 km southwest of modern day Aleppo, in war-torn Syria. It is uncertain at this time whether or not the Echter Bibel is a direct translation from some of the many cuneiform tablets unearthed there.

The pastor vows to continue his search for more misplaced artifact abbreviations, but says that he has high hopes that editors John D. Barry and Lazarus Wentz of Logos Bible Software will soon correct this mistake in an upcoming release of the ambitious Lexham Bible Dictionary.

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Francis

[:D] LOL

Unix

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/495568#Comment_495568

[:)] Perhaps someone was convenient with the find an replace command!

Steve Maling

Good one[:)]!

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/495576#Comment_495576

Love it[:D]

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

The pastor vows to continue his search for more misplaced artifact abbreviations, but says that he has high hopes that editors John D. Barry and Lazarus Wentz of Logos Bible Software will soon correct this mistake in an upcoming release of the ambitious Lexham Bible Dictionary.

An under cover reporter found Echter Bibel (EB) buried in a few more places:

Keep Smiling [:)]

NB.Mick

While digging in the Lexham Bible Dictionary on Friday, a pastor discovered a German Bible buried in the Early Bronze III period at Ebla. To see this Bible for yourself, open the Lexham Bible Dictionary to the article on Ebla (sub-heading: Archaeology) where you will read: "Later excavations unearthed a royal archive containing more than 8,000 cuneiform tablets dating to the middle third millennium (EB-III; circa 2400–2300 BC)." To clear away the dust, simply hover your mouse over the "EB" abbreviation where you will uncover the German "Echter Bibel" right in the middle of the Early Bronze III period of archaeological dating.

The unnamed pastor said: "I was surprised to find such a relatively modern Bible, intact, at such an ancient site as Tel Mardikh!" Ancient Ebla is located about 50 km southwest of modern day Aleppo, in war-torn Syria. It is uncertain at this time whether or not the Echter Bibel is a direct translation from some of the many cuneiform tablets unearthed there.

This is great news!

I immediately started to wonder how Ebla was closer connected to Bronze-Age Germany than previously known - probably through some amber trading routes from the Baltic Sea to the Mediteranean?

This is how the cover picture probably looked like:

(this is the "Nebra sky disc", a real bronze time artifact from Germany)

Actually, the Echter Bible is not a bible but a set of bible commentaries from a Roman Catholic point of view. I confess: I never heard of them and had to look it up. The small publishing house "Echter" in Würzburg specializes in this commentary - and regional-interest books for the small part of Bavaria surrounding Würzburg.

The well-known scholars Gnilka and Schnackenburg taught at Würzburg university and published in the Echter Bible commentary series.

Tommy Miller

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/495856#Comment_495856

Actually, the Echter Bible is not a bible but a set of bible commentaries from a Roman Catholic point of view. I confess: I never heard of them and had to look it up. The small publishing house "Echter" in Würzburg specializes in this commentary - and regional-interest books for the small part of Bavaria surrounding Würzburg.

Thanks for helping to classify the nature of this find. Archaeology is a collaborative effort. [:)]

Tommy Miller

Upon further examination, it appears that EB serves as a general dual abbreviation across multiple resources (Early Bronze; or Echter Bibel). But in the following example, EB can only mean Early Bronze Age. When I do a quick hover over a hyperlink, I want to see the correct definition come up. I do not want to be forced to choose from a list of possible answers based on the context. This is expected with dictionary definitions where words have multiple meanings. But it should not be expected with abbreviations.

IMHO abbreviations across Logos should be universally true. i.e.: EB = "Early Brone (Age)"; while EchtB = "Echter Bibel" (as in The Encyclopedia of Christianity seen below). This would eliminate the confusion?

NB.Mick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/498691#Comment_498691

Upon further examination, it appears that EB serves as a general dual abbreviation across multiple resources (Early Bronze; or Echter Bibel). But in the following example, EB can only mean Early Bronze Age.

But: Logos reproduces physical books and so the abbreviations will differ accross resources. Thus, they should be unique to the resource. Many resources from a certain area of interest tend to follow common abbreviations, but it seems, AYBD made the blunder in your example.

Tommy Miller

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/498701#Comment_498701

Granted. Each resource sets its own abbreviations. Most of them, like ISBE, seem to get it right. AYBD, however, gives you the choice of two meanings for the EB abbreviation. A blunder, we both agree. But Lexham Bible Dictionary gets it totally wrong. Every occurrence of "EB," where "Early Bronze" is intended (7 hits in 6 articles), is displayed as "Echter Bibel." This needs to be corrected.

NB.Mick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/498717#Comment_498717

This needs to be corrected.

I concur - however it's much more fun. Someone even "retrofitted" this wrong abbreviation explanation into an article title in the bibliography for "Death", which now implies that people were buried in real/genuine bibles back then in Palestine (picture a mummy wound up in scrolls instead of tissue):

Tommy Miller

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/498728#Comment_498728

WOW! I reported that one as a Typo.

NB.Mick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/498755#Comment_498755

WOW! I reported that one as a Typo.

As did I, with a reference to this thread for the popup issue.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/498691#Comment_498691

Hee hee. Very funny subject line. I hope you sent an email to LogosFeedback@logos.com about this problem, since they do not generally scan the General forum for bug reports.

IMHO abbreviations across Logos should be universally true. i.e.: EB = "Early Brone (Age)"; while EchtB = "Echter Bibel" (as in The Encyclopedia of Christianity seen below). This would eliminate the confusion?

Logos is not at liberty to change what other publishers use as the abbreviation for something in order to make its abbreviations universally consistent and unique. There are many well known abbreviations that mean multiple things (even within the Christian world) depending on context, and that's just unavoidable. B.C. means both Before Christ and Boston College, for example. Nobody's going to make up an artificially different abbreviation such as BoCo to avoid the redundancy. Similarly, the fact that Echter Bible is abbreviated both EB and EchtB, depending on the resource, is also not unusual. That sort of inconsistency happens regularly. For example, Biblioteca Sacra gets abbreviated BSac or BibSac. Logos cannot bring all the publishers into alignment on such things. There's a long history behind both abbreviations.

Tommy Miller

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/498787#Comment_498787

Thanks Rosie. I sent email to LogosFeedback.

Angela Murashov

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/499098#Comment_499098

I have passed this issue on to the correct department. Thanks!

fgh

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/499289#Comment_499289

I have passed this issue on to the correct department.

I guess it takes a newcomer to see with fresh eyes.[:)] This thread has been going on for two weeks and you're the first employee to realize there's something 'odd' with the heading (or at least the first to do anything about it). [*] to you.