Todd Bolen, Author at BiblePlaces.com

Muslims Recognize Temple's Existence

I don’t have access to the particular guide referenced, but I don’t doubt that it is true. Of course, the statement was made in a different day and age. But now that politics are different, so is truth.

From a letter to the editor, Jerusalem Post, Oct 31, 2007:

Sir, – I read with interest “Jerusalem mufti: Western Wall was never part of Jewish temple” (October 25).
The kind of denial by former mufti Ikrema Sadi is somehow disputed by no more and no less than the institution he represents: the Supreme Muslim Council. In an official guide published by the council in 1930, it states: “This site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest times. It’s identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which ‘David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings’ from 2 Samuel XXIV, 25.”

The rest is here.

UPDATE (11/21): Reader Sean Q has located a copy of the guide and has scanned it. You can download it in pdf format here.

Tagged Jerusalem, Temple Mount

The Pictorial Library: Romanian Edition

If you’ve been waiting for the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands to be available in Romanian, the first two volumes have been released (Galilee, Samaria). The Jerusalem volume should be available next month. Just in time for Christmas…for that special Romanian in your life. 🙂

Tagged Resources

Temple Mount updates

There is news for three items related to the Temple Mount:

Quarry: The Orthodox Union has new photos online (or if you prefer a slide show)

First Temple Period Remains: Leen Ritmeyer has marked out the find location on a couple of diagrams. The discovery matches his previous conclusion that this area was within the temple area of Hezekiah’s time.

Temple Mount Destruction: The transcript from the government meeting about the bulldozer excavations is now online in Hebrew. Yitzhak Sapir has made the following observations:

Present at the meeting were archaeologists Yuval Baruch (district archaeologist of Jerusalem for the IAA), Gabriel Barkai and Meir Ben-Dov, as well as Shuka Dorfman, head of the IAA. Eilat Mazar was also invited but she doesn’t appear to speak during the meeting.
Aside from their statements on the topics, which are really interesting, there are also some interesting statements by Limor Livnat, who was in the past Minister of Education and responsible for the IAA, and an architect who claims that when the dig began two months ago, he found a segment of the Northern Wall of the Temple, that was covered up the next day.

Tagged Jerusalem, Temple Mount

Ron Tappy and the Abecedary

I don’t think this recently discovered alphabetic inscription has received coverage in the popular press like it deserves. From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Ron Tappy became a committed Christian in his mid-20s, after deciding to read the Bible straight through.
When he did, “the Old Testament just floored me, and the history of Israel became my history, and I became a Christian in that process. To this day, I have an abiding respect for the texts of Scripture,” he said.
It seems fitting, then, that Dr. Tappy’s most famous discovery as a biblical archaeologist is a 38-pound limestone rock inscribed with a 2,900-year-old alphabet.
The stone was found two years ago at Tel Zayit in Israel, a dig about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem. Using distinctive pottery and carbon dating of the soil levels above it, the stone was firmly traced to the 10th century B.C., the time when the biblical King Solomon was supposed to have lived.
The discovery was described by some experts as the most important find in biblical archaeology in the last 10 years.
One reason for the buzz was that the stone suggests the earliest Hebrew Scriptures could have been written down in that era — hundreds of years earlier than many scholars had believed.
For Dr. Tappy, the alphabet stone also suggests not only that King Solomon was a real historical figure, but that he did in fact have a growing kingdom at the time, because Tel Zayit sits on the border of Solomon’s Judah and the kingdom of Philistia, where the Philistines lived.

The story continues here. The excavation’s website is here, but has not been updated recently.

Photographs of the inscription appear to be more sacred than the ark rare but here’s one with Tappy and another showing a few of the letters.

UPDATE: Offline there is a lot of information and photographs in this article:

Tappy, Ron E., P. Kyle McCarter, Marilyn J. Lundberg, Bruce Zuckerman (2006). “An Abecedary of the Mid-Tenth Century B.C.E. from the Judaean Shephelah”. BASOR 344 (November): 5-46.

Tagged Discoveries

Ancient Site of Bene-Berak to be Developed

This summer I was out scouting around trying to locate some sites on the Coastal Plain, including Ono, Eltekeh, and Bene-berak. Bene-berak is mentioned in Josh 19:45; 21:45; 1 Chr 9:14; Neh 11:15. The most likely location is el-Kheriyah, located about 3 miles south of the modern Israeli city of Bene-berak. I wasn’t quite sure if I had found the right spot or not. It wasn’t for lack of remains that I lacked certainty, but for an overabundance. Today it was announced that the government is going to transform the Hiriya landfill into the “Ariel Sharon Park.” While I’m not sure if I’d feel honored if a trash dump was named aft er me, I am hopeful that the $250 million project will make the ancient Israelite site accessible to tourists.

The Hiriya Landfill, located between Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv is a mountain of garbage that was used from 1952 until 1998. The government is now planning on transforming the site and the area around it into one of the largest parks in the country.The Hiriya site stretches out along 112 acres and the garbage mountain itself is elevated around 200 feet.
“The restoration project will transform Hiriya from a waste landfill into a flourishing, green park which will attract thousands of visitors each year, providing leisure and recreational opportunities as well as pleasant walks along its paths,” organizers say.
“Today is the opening shot in the building of this incredible park,” said Danny Shternberg of the Ayalon Park Government Company. “We are proud to name it for former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was an enthusiastic backer of the idea, advancing the park himself.” Shternberg declined to comment on the unorthodox nature of deciding to name a park after someone who is still living.
The park will contain within it sheltered areas (such as the Menachem Begin Park), open areas, forested regions, agricultural tracts and man-made lakes and streams.
Archeological sites will also be refurbished and put on display. The ancient city of B’nei Brak, spoken of in the Passover Haggadah, lay at the site and an Arab village named Hiriya was built atop its ruins until its residents fled in 1948. Emergency plans when Israel feared an Arab victory in the 1967 Six Day War called for mass graves to be dug in the area for the expected Jewish casualties.

For more, see the Arutz-7 report.

Playground in modern Bene-Berak. It’s pretty nice for a neighborhood park. It doesn’t have any relation to the landfill, but it is certainly more picturesque than the subject of the story. Apologies if it makes your kids jealous.

Tagged New Exhibits

Persian Period Finds in City of David

I was talking with a scholar the other day about the general lack of archaeological material in Israel from the Persian period (530-330 B.C.). This is especially true for the city of Jerusalem. Then today I learned this from a reliable source:

Just yesterday, Eilat Mazar found a Persian period layer with much pottery and bullae, mostly fragments, but one with a beautiful 5th century B.C. inscription from the Persian Period.

Mazar is excavating in the City of David, above Shiloh’s Area G, on the summit of the hill in an area where she believes she is excavating the palace of David. When I know more, or when this is reported in the media, I’ll mention it here.

Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem