BiblePlaces Blog - Page 484 of 554

Museum in Gaza to Open

The International Herald Tribune has the story:

It may sound like the escapist indulgence of a well-fed man fleeing the misery around him. But when Jawdat Khoudary opens the first ever museum of archaeology in Gaza this month, it will be an act of Palestinian patriotism, showing how this increasingly poor and isolated coastal strip ruled by the Islamists of Hamas was once a thriving multicultural crossroad.

Now only if there was a way for non-Palestinians to get there. If he’s depending on revenue from Palestinians interested in history, he is going to be a poor man.

The exhibit is housed in a stunning hall made up partly of the saved stones of old houses, discarded wood ties of a former railroad and bronze lamps and marble columns uncovered by Gazan fishermen and construction workers.
And while the display might be pretty standard stuff almost anywhere else – arrowheads, Roman anchors, Bronze Age vases and Byzantine columns – life is currently so gray in Gaza that the museum, with its glimpses of a rich outward-looking history, seems somehow dazzling.
“The idea is to show our deep roots from many cultures in Gaza,” Khoudary said as he sat in the lush, antiquities-filled garden of his Gaza City home a few miles from the museum. “It’s important that people realize we had a good civilization in the past. Israel has legitimacy from its history. We do too.”

Someone’s going to have to explain this one to me. I’m not sure how Roman or Byzantine antiquities have anything to do with the legitimacy of Palestinian Arabs.

It’s a good article with a nice photo. I recommend reading the whole thing, and I hope the venture is successful.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Museums, New Exhibits

Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds has posted a two-part interview with Leen Ritmeyer. Ritmeyer served as the archaeological and architectural reconstruction editor for the forthcoming ESV Study Bible, of which Taylor is the managing editor.

Part one of the interview focuses on what the place of Jesus’ crucifixion looked like. It includes a stunning, high-resolution reconstruction of the Temple Mount as it may have looked in the time of Jesus.

Part two of the interview concerns what the tomb of Jesus looked like. It features a high-resolution image of what the “new tomb” may have looked like.

I have had the privilege of having an preview of dozens of graphics and hundreds of full-color maps that will be included in the ESV Study Bible and I concur with Ritmeyer’s assessment:

It is vital for Bible students to have a correct knowledge of the background of the Bible, and I am sure that the Study Bible will be of tremendous help for those who love to study the Word of God. With its many exquisitely rendered reconstruction drawings and accurate maps, a new standard has been set for biblical illustration, raising the bar for many years to come.

Tagged Jerusalem, Resources

Weekend Roundup

Leen Ritmeyer has a posted (with a follow-up) on his identification of several stones in the eastern wall of the Temple Mount that are clearly pre-Herodian. Ritmeyer dates them to the time of King Hezekiah, suggesting that he was the one to build the 500-cubit square Temple Mount that Ritmeyer has previously identified. He includes some helpful illustrations and photos.

A review of current excavations in Turkey is given at Today’s Zaman. New Testament sites being excavated include Alexandria Troas, Miletus, Hierapolis, Sardis, Smyrna, and Laodicea. There are many other sites as well. Many of these cities have very impressive remains, unlike many sites in Israel. Today’s Zaman also has an article on recent discoveries at Sardis.

NASA has a photo of a street of Ephesus at night, with (the planet) Jupiter illuminating the way.
Across the way in Greece, the ancient hippodrome of Olympia has been discovered. This is a good story that counters the myth that everything to be found has already been found.

A couple fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls have now been published by James H. Charlesworth.

One of the fragments may be from the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the other appears to be from Nehemiah, making it the first portion of that book to be found among the DSS. Paleojudaica gives more info and links.

If you’re a tourist in Israel and have a question, you can now call the 24-hour tourist hotline. It’s easy (dial *3888), but it’s not a toll-free number.

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Jerusalem, Temple Mount

Just Another Byzantine Church

The “Earliest Church in Jordan” sounded like a bunch of nonsense to start with and now a couple of scholars have more data and believe the excavators have made some big mistakes.

Even stronger criticism has now emerged. Two University of Toronto scholars argue that the excavators have misread the inscription in the church; they claim, from both a rereading of the inscription and from the architecture, that the church is significantly younger than do the excavators. They also say that the cave below gives no indication of having been used in the first century.

Biblical Archaeology Review has the story, including a pdf file of the article: “The Oratory of St. George in Rihab: The Oldest Extant Christian Building or Just Another Byzantine Church?”

Tagged Analysis, Discoveries

Weekend Stories

A Byzantine cemetery has been discovered in construction work at the hospital of Ashkelon (JPost).

An arsonist set several fires in the Tel Dan nature reserve, burning half of the 120-acre park. They hope to re-open the park later this week (JPost).

A rare marble discus was discovered underwater at Yavne-Yam. The disk, 8 inches in diameter, was used to ward off the evil eye in the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. (IAA; Arutz-7; Haaretz; JPost).

The hotel where Mark Twain stayed in Jerusalem has been identified (Haaretz).

Israeli, Palestinian, and German scholars will be studying bones unearthed at Jericho by Kathleen Kenyon in order to study the DNA so as to identify genes that made the ancient inhabitants more or less susceptible to tuberculosis (Guardian).

Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg discusses two Jewish temples known from Egypt, one at Leontopolis (Tell el-Yehudiyeh) and the other on Elephantine Island (Yeb, Aswan) (JPost).

Tagged Discoveries, Galilee, Jerusalem, Technology

New Book: Walk the Land

One of the simultaneously best and worst experiences of my life was hiking the Israel Trail. I led a group of intrepid adventurers on a 120-mile hike, beginning in Dan and concluding in Caesarea (skipping a 30-mile section in the middle). I’ve hiked many other portions of the trail over the years. The trail covers some of most beautiful and remote scenery, and it is a way to understand the land of Israel that you’ll never get from jumping on and off a bus. It also can be quite a painful experience for your feet.

An Israeli couple recently hiked the entire trail from Eilat to Dan (580 miles) and the wife wrote a book about the 2-month trek. The book, Walk the Land, was recently reviewed by Theresa Newell of CMJ USA (pdf, p. 21). The review begins:

“What is needed by the reader or teacher of the Bible is some idea of the outlines of Palestine – its shape and disposition; its plains, passes and mountains; its rains, winds and temperatures; its colours, lights and shades. Students of the Bible desire to see a background and to feel an atmosphere; to discover from `the lie of the land’ why the history took certain lines and the prophecy and gospel were expressed in certain styles; to learn what geography has to contribute …” (From the 1894 Preface to the First Edition of The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, by George Adam Smith.)

Over a hundred years later, Judy Pex brings the reader through those very “plains, passes and mountains” about which Smith wrote. Step by step from Eilat to Mt. Hermon on The Israel Trail, Pex describes her country from the ground up.
Judy and John Pex have overseen The Shelter Hostel in Eilat for over 20 years. They lead an international congregation there which grew out of their work of serving soup dinners and giving backpackers a place for overnights. It is a 24/7 kind of job.
Their dream grew over the years: to walk the entire Israel National Trail (Shvil Israel) – a feat accomplished by only about 100 people per year. John decided it had to be done before his 60th birthday! And they did it – all winding 940 km (580 miles) from Eilat to Dan. The Trail meanders through the vast wadis and heights of the Negev, then cuts west to the Mediterranean near Tel Aviv along busy roads, up the coast and across the Carmel Range, ending on Mt. Hermon at the Syrian-Lebanese border. The map and 16 pages of Pex’s color photos augment her descriptive passages.

There is also an interview with the author here.

The book sounds like a profitable way to gain insights from the trip without having to wrap your feet in duct tape every morning.

HT: Yehuda Group

Tagged Resources

Museum in Gaza to Open

Interview with Leen Ritmeyer

Weekend Roundup

Just Another Byzantine Church

Weekend Stories

New Book: Walk the Land