An article published by the Koinonia House:
More Archeological Finds Correlate With Bible
from the July 19, 2011 eNews issue
Archeology in the Middle East consistently confirms the history of the Jews in Israel, for better or for worse. The following archeological sites are offering more information about the history of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas, including more confirmations of the history found in the Bible.
Solomon's Wall:
A 70-meter-long, 6-meter-high wall constructed during the time of King Solomon has been opened to the public just outside the Old City in Jerusalem. The Ophel Wall offers archeologists artifacts that date clear back to 1000 years before Christ, during the time that Solomon was doing expansion work. Visitors can now walk through and touch these walls.
The entire site includes what is thought to be a gate house, a royal edifice, a section of a tower and the 70-meter long wall. Archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar finished exposing the Ophel site in Jerusalem, and the Israel Antiquities Authority Conservation Department did the conservation work necessary to open the site to the public.
Mazar believes the complex forms part of the fortifications that King Solomon had built in Jerusalem according to 1 Kings 3:1: "...until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about."
The plan of the gate house is similar to other gate houses from the First Temple Period found at Megiddo, Beersheba and Ashdod, and Mazar suggests that the gate house might be the "water gate" mentioned in Nehemiah 3:26: "Moreover the Nethinims [temple servants] dwelt in Ophel, unto the place over against the water gate toward the east, and the tower that lieth out."
This find is incredibly important in offering evidence of the Bible and the reality of Jerusalem as a place of importance to the Jews 1000 years before Christ.
Bathing Pool:
According to history, after the Roman Tenth Legion destroyed the Second Temple in AD 70 they plowed under portions of Jerusalem so that it could not even be recognized as once inhabited. Later, in AD 130, Emperor Hadrian decided to build the Roman city Aelia Capitolina on top. That, along with his prohibiting Jews from entering the city and his banning of circumcision eventually led to the Bar Kochba revolt. After the revolt, the province was renamed Syria Palaestina - named after Israel's enemies the Philistines as a supreme insult to the Jews.
The Romans specifically singled out Jerusalem for this treatment because it rebelled against the Empire.
No Roman buildings had been found in excavations in the Jewish Quarter, and archeologists had concluded that Aelia Capitolina was very small in area. However a Roman bathing pool has been uncovered in Jerusalem, demonstrating that the scope of Aelia Capitolina was larger than previously thought.
"This discovery continues to prove that Israel is unlike any other place on earth; every stone in Israel tells a story," said Haim Gutin, Israel Commissioner of Tourism, North and South America. "We encourage you to visit for yourself, because once you visit Israel- you’ll never be the same."
These ancient Roman bathhouse remains will be integrated into the ritual bath that is to be built in the Jewish Quarter.
The prophet Micah declared that Zion would be one day plowed, saying, "Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps…" (Micah 3:1).
Later, Jesus himself foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, explaining it was because they didn’t recognize that the Messiah had already visited:
Solomon's Wall:
A 70-meter-long, 6-meter-high wall constructed during the time of King Solomon has been opened to the public just outside the Old City in Jerusalem. The Ophel Wall offers archeologists artifacts that date clear back to 1000 years before Christ, during the time that Solomon was doing expansion work. Visitors can now walk through and touch these walls.
The entire site includes what is thought to be a gate house, a royal edifice, a section of a tower and the 70-meter long wall. Archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar finished exposing the Ophel site in Jerusalem, and the Israel Antiquities Authority Conservation Department did the conservation work necessary to open the site to the public.
Mazar believes the complex forms part of the fortifications that King Solomon had built in Jerusalem according to 1 Kings 3:1: "...until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about."
The plan of the gate house is similar to other gate houses from the First Temple Period found at Megiddo, Beersheba and Ashdod, and Mazar suggests that the gate house might be the "water gate" mentioned in Nehemiah 3:26: "Moreover the Nethinims [temple servants] dwelt in Ophel, unto the place over against the water gate toward the east, and the tower that lieth out."
This find is incredibly important in offering evidence of the Bible and the reality of Jerusalem as a place of importance to the Jews 1000 years before Christ.
Bathing Pool:
According to history, after the Roman Tenth Legion destroyed the Second Temple in AD 70 they plowed under portions of Jerusalem so that it could not even be recognized as once inhabited. Later, in AD 130, Emperor Hadrian decided to build the Roman city Aelia Capitolina on top. That, along with his prohibiting Jews from entering the city and his banning of circumcision eventually led to the Bar Kochba revolt. After the revolt, the province was renamed Syria Palaestina - named after Israel's enemies the Philistines as a supreme insult to the Jews.
The Romans specifically singled out Jerusalem for this treatment because it rebelled against the Empire.
No Roman buildings had been found in excavations in the Jewish Quarter, and archeologists had concluded that Aelia Capitolina was very small in area. However a Roman bathing pool has been uncovered in Jerusalem, demonstrating that the scope of Aelia Capitolina was larger than previously thought.
"This discovery continues to prove that Israel is unlike any other place on earth; every stone in Israel tells a story," said Haim Gutin, Israel Commissioner of Tourism, North and South America. "We encourage you to visit for yourself, because once you visit Israel- you’ll never be the same."
These ancient Roman bathhouse remains will be integrated into the ritual bath that is to be built in the Jewish Quarter.
The prophet Micah declared that Zion would be one day plowed, saying, "Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps…" (Micah 3:1).
Later, Jesus himself foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, explaining it was because they didn’t recognize that the Messiah had already visited:
"For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation," (Luke 19:43-44).Digging Up Gath:
David famously killed Goliath, who came from the city of Gath on the frontier between Israel and the Philistine territory on the Mediterranean coast. Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University has been digging on a site at Gath since 1996, and every year volunteers swarm in to dig at Gath to help excavate a wealth of artifacts.
Recently, several 3000-year-old Philistine jugs were found with art that showed hints of the Philistines’ Greek history in the Aegean. Gath is an important site for revealing information about the Philistines, especially during the 10th and 9th centuries BC, the time that David and Solomon were ruling. Other Philistine sites give information about earlier and later periods, but Gath is useful for that particular history slot.
There's evidence of Gath's destruction in the 800s BC, which corresponds with Hazael, king of Syria's destruction of the city in 830 BC (2 Kings 12:17).
"Gath fills a very important gap in our understanding of Philistine history," said Seymour Gitin, director of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem and an expert on the Philistines.
Nebuchadnezzar invaded Gath in 604 BC and the city shows no history of ancient habitation after that.
Maeir noted that the story of David and Goliath does give an accurate portrayal of the geopolitical temper during that time period. There was intense fighting between the Philistines of Gath and the Israelites of Jerusalem on the other side of the frontier.
"It doesn't mean that we're one day going to find a skull with a hole in its head from the stone that David slung at him, but it nevertheless tells that this reflects a cultural milieu that was actually there at the time," Maeir said.
Related Links:
No comments:
Post a Comment