Rebellion Set in Stone

The events of Genesis 6:1-4 have been enigmatic ever since they were recorded in Holy Scripture over 3,000 years ago. Attempts to explain the strange union of angelic beings with humanity have been many and varied. Perhaps the most famous (or is that infamous?) explanation came from the First Book of Enoch, a Jewish text drawing on centuries of Israelite tradition and written around the 3rd-2nd centuries BC.
The unknown author, representing himself as the ancient prophet and seventh patriarch Enoch, described events that Genesis does not preserve - how a group of high-ranking angelic beings made a pact to carry out an act of deliberate sin against God and man. They descended upon Mt. Hermon, in the northern region of Bashan (now southern Lebanon), and there began to commit an act of lustful selfishness that quickly turned into violent and systematic genocide against the human race.
But that’s just a story, right? A fanciful tale designed to offer an explanation for the state of the world in 3rd century BC Israel. It doesn’t need to be true to make a valid point, does it?
Or does it?!
A hundred years ago, archaeologists climbed to the summit of Mt. Hermon and made a terrifying discovery.
The Hermon Inscription is a stone marker featuring an engraved message. It preserves Ancient Greek text with peculiar features that date it to as far back as the 8th century BC.
That’s earlier than the Classical Greek poets.
Early efforts to translate the tablet were hindered by features that were at the time unattested previously, but since new evidence has come to light, fresh efforts to translate the full text have borne fruit.
The text reads as follows:
“According to the command of the Great Bull God of Bashan, those swearing an oath in this place go forth.”*
This is language from 500 years before 1 Enoch.
Although it comes much later than the historical date of the event that it records, the significance of this discovery remains undiminished. There is solid, archaeological evidence that the tradition of 1 Enoch had more behind it than just wild speculations based loosely on interpretations of Genesis 6.
THE BIBLE WAS TELLING THE TRUTH - LITERALLY.

* Translation based on that provided by researcher Douglas Hamp. 

The truth is out there.
- TJ Steadman