Digging Up the Bible: The Gezer Calendar

DIGGING UP THE BIBLE
Important Archeological Finds that help Us Understand Scripture
pdf
Linda Manuel—1996

Gezer Calendar
(late 11^th to early 10^th century BC)

R.A.S. Macalister discovered the Gezer Calendar in 1908 at the site of the ancient Canaanite city, about seventy miles west of Jerusalem. The inscribed limestone tablet is 4'14" by 2/4". Its irregular bottom edge indicates that a portion broke off before the scribe made this record. Moreover, an examination of the surface reveals an earlier but now indistinguishable use (having been scraped and sanded smooth). The current text, which is complete, fits the available space. The inscription's paleography (study of ancient writing) and orthography (study of ancient spelling) help date the text.

 

 

The writing is paleo-Hebrew, and the text describes the agricultural year in verse form. It may have been an aide for teaching children:

His two months are (olive) harvest
     His two months are planting (grain)
          His two months are late planting
His month is hoeing up flax
     His month is harvest of barley
           His month is harvest and feasting
His two months are vine-tending
     His month is summer fruit.

The significance of this find is not just the insight it offers into early educational material—although it does suggest that literacy may have been fairly prevalent in Israel—but the window it offers into the regular agricultural cycle. For example, reading the book of Ruth against the backdrop of the Gezer Calendar offers perspective on the timetable of those events, that they occurred over several months and not just a few weeks, as the brevity of the four-chapter narrative may seem to suggest: "Ruth went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz." (Ruth 2:3)
 

Plowing and sowing began in November, after the early rains, and continued into February. The new grass and herbs sprang up quickly during the later rains of March and April, and farmers either harvested them for fodder or left them for pasturing livestock. Flax was one of these "new grasses" pulled up by hand. Having gathered and stored the fodder, the barley, first of the major grain crops, was ripe. Reaping occupied the months of April, May, and June. Ruth spent at least three months in the fields of Boaz: "Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished" (Ruth 2:23).
 

Wheat was the largest crop of the year, and processing it took considerable time. Threshing was the final step and lasted through June and July. During that period Boaz and Ruth would have had time to develop a relationship. Furthermore, the threshing floor was a public area, probably near the city gate, and may have been where farmers paid their debts and taxes. Naomi would have known this and advised Ruth to seek Boaz there: "Is not Boaz...a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor." (Ruth 3:2)
 

Significance for Biblical Studies: The Gezer Calendar may have been a child's practice tablet, but it provides insight to Israelite customs of that time. It describes the order of the agricultural year and shows how children may have learned that order. It also explains the chain of events God used to bring Ruth and Boaz together: "Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife.... The LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.... Boaz [became] the father of Obed." (Ruth 4:13, 21) The union of Ruth and Boaz began the line from which David came, and ultimately the messiah: "Jesus... was the son...of Joseph...the son of David...the son of Obed, the son of Boaz." (Luke 3:23, 31-32)

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