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A great loss today in Israel with the passing of Hanan Eshel.  From Arutz-7:

Prof. Chanan Eshel, a leading Second Temple historian and archaeologist at Bar Ilan University, passed away Wednesday night from cancer. He will be buried at 4 PM in Kibbutz Maaleh HaHamishah.
[…]
Known as an expert in the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran, Eshel also wrote five books, including “The Qumran Scrolls and the Hasmonean State.” He also authored over 200 articles. He was a professor in the Land of Israel and Archaeology Department at Bar Ilan University, and headed the department from 2002 until 2004. He received his doctorate from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and received research grants from Harvard, Oxford, and Michigan University.

Three of Eshel’s books were published last year and are highly recommended: Carta’s Field Guides to Masada, Ein Gedi, and Qumran.

I’ll note other remembrances of this great scholar here when I see them.

UPDATE: For more see, Haaretz (Hebrew with photo), Ferrell Jenkins, Hellige skrifter, the Jerusalem Post, and Robert CargillIsrael LandMinds has devoted a radio show to Eshel’s legacy, with interviews with Prof. Albert Baumgarten and Prof. Aren Maeir.

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Drought conditions continue in Israel, with almost no rain recorded in the north of the country in March.  The water level of the Sea of Galilee went up 2.5 inches (6 cm) over Passover week, but that was because pumping was halted for the holiday.  With winter rains all but over, the lake is now 3.87 meters below capacity.  For more, see this Arutz-7 article.

The fishing ban on the Sea of Galilee begins at the end of this month and the Telegraph has a new story, including interviews with a local critical of the authorities for creating the situation.

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This year the Israeli government took over maintenance of the public beaches on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.  Visitors during Passover week were given free entrance and garbage bags, a change from years when fees were charged in exchange for services.  It didn’t work so well, as the visitors apparently don’t know how to use the garbage bags.  From Haaretz:

"It’s a catastrophe," said Shai, who had come to Lavnun Beach from Azor, with 11 of his friends. "It’s like being inside a garbage can," he said. The Kinneret Association of Towns issued a press release before Pesach, announcing that no entrance fees would be charged during the holiday week at three beaches on the eastern side of the lake – Kursi, Halukim and Lavnun. In addition, the boulders preventing parking along the beach were to be removed. "The association requests that visitors keep the beaches and environs clean," the announcement said.

Maybe the visitors were told how to use the garbage bags, but it didn’t help.

Visitors were handed garbage bags and an explanatory flyer at the entrance, and there were many inspectors on patrol. Nevertheless, the beaches were scattered with garbage, broken glass, and charcoal from beachgoers’ barbecues. In addition, wooden beach shelters were destroyed, and toilets – upgraded in advance of the holiday – were broken and filthy.

The former operator of the beaches blamed the government association.

Shlomo Guetta operated the beach for nearly 30 years before he was convicted of illegally erecting fences and various structures on the beach and was forced out. Guetta, who was also at the beach during the holiday, likened the association’s attempt to manage the beaches to someone who "tries to hijack a plane after killing the pilot, before learning how to land the plane alone. There was a crash here. People were promised free beaches and what they got was garbage in their faces. I protected the beach for years and in the end they made me the bad guy who took it away from the public. But why do you think people came here all those years? Because the beach was kept up properly," Guetta said. Eli Raz said that he comes to Lavnun Beach every year, from his home in Jerusalem. "This was the Kinneret’s most beautiful beach, now I’ve got to get out of here," because of the filth.

The rest of the sad story is here.

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There’s been a recent wave in the email circulation of archaeological evidence for giants, usually with a tagline that this is proof of the Bible’s accuracy.

I might suggest a simple principle for dealing with matters like this in the future: if you heard about it first in an email forward, it’s not true.

Indeed, these photographs were created for a contest for images of an archaeological hoax.  These came in third place in a 2002 competition.

Circulation of the images as “real” apparently began in 2004.  National Geographic debunked them in 2007.  PaleoBabble posted on them in February.  Truth or Fiction has a full copy of the email that
I’ve been forwarded many times now.

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Several works that we have mentioned here are finalists for the 2010 ECPA Christian Book Awards, including A Visual Guide to Biblical Events (Martin, Beck, and Hansen), The New Moody Atlas of the Bible (Beitzel), The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible (Tenney and Silva), and Glo.

Yesterday I noted Glo’s Easter Gallery.  Biblical Studies and Technical Tools has posted a brief review of the impressive media components of Glo.

Aren Maeir posts word of a “very exciting bona fide, new archaeological find from Jerusalem.”  I concur with his assessment, but cannot say more yet.  Publication is expected soon.

Leen Ritmeyer posts a beautiful photographic rendition of the 1st century temple from a new project called The Messiah in the Temple.

A bed-and-breakfast owner in Sepphoris discovered an ancient tomb on his property, but he called the rabbis instead of the antiquities authority.  This Haaretz article gives some insight into the on-going conflict over the excavation of graves.

The Museum of Biblical Art is reopening in Dallas five years after it was destroyed by fire.

Eisenbrauns is selling some new titles as of April 1.

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Glo has a gallery of several dozen Easter images available for free download (in high-resolution). 

These include photographs (including a few of ours), as well as ancient and modern works of art.  It’s probably too late to use for this year’s teaching, but they could be handy for future years.  Glo is available from Amazon for $57 and includes many thousands of images like these.

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