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If you’ve ever wondered which way Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem or how the Magi were able to flee without Herod chasing, you should listen in tomorrow to the broadcast of The Land and the Book. Hosts Charlie Dyer and Jon Gauger interview me on the background of the familiar Christmas story.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…or so goes the song! From the music on the radio to the decorations in store windows, it’s hard to miss the fact that Christmas is almost here. But what would it have been like for Mary and Joseph that very first Christmas? If we could somehow go back in time, what would the sights, sounds and smells of that first Christmas season have been like? We don’t have a time machine here on The Land and the Book, but we have the next best thing…someone who has lived in the land of Israel and who knows it like the back of his own hand. We’ll be talking with Todd Bolen about what it would have been like for Mary and Joseph that first Christmas season.

You can find more details and a link for listening live on the Moody Radio website.

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Vandals spray-painted anti-Christian graffiti on the Dormition Abbey church. UPDATE: The graffiti was near the Dormition Abbey, just outside Zion Gate on the door of the Franciscan Convent.

Haaretz has a photo. (Thanks, Dina.)

Israel and Jordan are planning to work together to rehabilitate the Jordan River.

The case for the authenticity of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife is getting weaker.

Aren Maeir posts an archaeological note relating to Sukkot.

If you’re interested in historical fiction set in the life of the early church, The Scribes is currently free for Kindle.

The problem with blackmail is that it never stops, even between governments and world-class museums.

How is the Messiah related to the feast of Sukkot? Wayne Stiles explains and illustrates.

HT: Jack Sasson

Man with four species during Sukkot at Western Wall, cd091006002

Sukkot prayers (photo source)
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Today is Yom Kippur and I suggest you read Wayne Stiles’ lavishly illustrated article on the tabernacle and its significance for the Day of Atonement.

A full-scale replica of the Tabernacle stands in the very wilderness where Moses and the children of Israel wandered for forty years.
It is like entering a doorway to history—and viewing a picture of your salvation.
Reading the Tabernacle’s dimensions in Exodus 35-40 is so different from seeing them with your own eyes—and in the same wilderness where the Tabernacle stood (Exodus 40:34-38).
The realistic replica echoes of Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement—when God forgave the sins of His people.

Read the full article here.

Tabernacle model from outside courtyard, tb030807084
Tabernacle replica at Timna Park
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Eilat Mazar has resumed excavations in the (so-called) Ophel, and her partners at Armstrong College plan to provide regular updates. They begin with an on-location interview of Mazar.

Excavations continue to reveal Egyptian presence in Joppa from the New Kingdom period.

Mark Fairchild’s search for ancient synagogues in Turkey is profiled in the local press. The article includes an interesting video by Fairchild of his discoveries.

In light of an article in the Wall Street Journal, Charles Savelle reflects on the value of knowing biblical geography.

Ferrell Jenkins is back in Israel and he shares a rare photo of Jacob’s well.

King Tut and his predecessors may have been afflicted with temporal lobe epilepsy.

Did you forget to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of Caligula’s birthday?

Clean-up of the polluted Kishon River is finally scheduled to begin, 12 years after divers were found
to have contracted cancer.

The cedars of Lebanon are threatened by climate change.

As Rosh HaShanah (the New Year) begins in Jewish homes around the world at sundown on Sunday,

Wayne Stiles reflects on the Gezer Calendar and other ways we keep time.

The 50th anniversary of Lawrence of Arabia inspires Anthony Horowitz to travel to Jordan.

HT: Explorator, Jack Sasson
Wadi Rum Jebel el Qattar, df070307712
Wadi Rum. Photo from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.
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Hundreds of pilgrims celebrated Palm Sunday in Jerusalem.

Wayne Stiles visits the Jerusalem of Hezekiah’s time and writes, “I have a faith rooted in history—not mystery. The words on the pages of Scripture are supported by simple elements we can dig out of the ground. They prove nothing, but they support it all.”

The Israel Museum has joined the Google Art Project and “online users will be able to view high-resolution images of 520 pieces from the museum’s collection.” That future tense should be changed to present, as you can see the images here. Beautiful.

A restaurant in Capernaum has been accused of dumping raw sewage into the Sea of Galilee. “This is one of the most serious cases of coastal environmental damage that the Kinneret has encountered thus far,” said a prosecutor.

Cyprus and Israel are collaborating to form a database for archaeology. There is more in common between the pasts of the two countries than many people know. The article does not explain the reason for why this cooperation is occurring only now: a downturn in the relations between Israel and Turkey.

The Mughrabi Bridge saga continues with Israel’s Supreme Court ruling that planning committees have to consider the women’s prayer area as well as security issues in their decisions. An Islamic petitioner claims that the Western Wall plaza falls under the authority of the Waqf. Jordan’s crown prince made a surprise visit to the Temple Mount today to see the Mughrabi Gate.

Turkey is asking for the return of artifacts from the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Cleveland Museum of Art and Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. “‘Turkey is not trying to start a fight,’ said Murat Suslu, Turkey’s director general for cultural heritage and museums. ‘We are trying to develop…cooperation.’”

The Israel Antiquities Authority recently recovered the covers of two sarcophagi smuggled out of Egypt.

For one week, the Teaching Company is offering a free video lecture by John R. Hale, “Central Turkey—Ankara, Konya, Cappadocia.”

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Kourion theater and coast, tb030405137

Theater of Kourion, Cyprus
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The Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests are at it again. From Haaretz:

The annual cleaning of one of Christianity’s holiest churches deteriorated into a brawl between rival clergy Wednesday, as dozens of monks feuding over sacred space at the Church of the Nativity battled each other with brooms until police intervened.
The ancient church, built over the traditional site of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, is shared by three Christian denominations: Roman Catholics, Armenians and Greek Orthodox.
Wednesday’s fight erupted between Greek and Armenian clergy, with both sides accusing each other of encroaching on parts of the church to which they lay claim.
The monks were tidying up the church ahead of Orthodox Christmas celebrations in early January, following celebrations by Western Christians on Dec. 25. The fight erupted between monks along the border of their respective areas. Some shouted and hurled brooms.

The full story is here. A video of the scene is posted online here.

HT: ShalomIL

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