Mystery of Jesus turning water to wine REVEALED as archeologists make shock discovery

A tunnel network unearthed in Israel could be the site where Christians believe Jesus performed his first miracle by turning water into wine.

For hundreds of years, pilgrims have believed the site of the wedding miracle to be Kafr Kanna, a town in northern Israel, but archaeologists now believe the Cana of biblical times might be a hillside five miles to the north, the news outlet reported.

The location is the former site of Khirbet Qana, an ancient Jewish village, and excavations have uncovered a network of tunnels used for Christian worship, including an altar and a shelf hold the remains of a stone vessel with room for five more.

Six stone jars like this held the wine in the biblical account of the miracle.

Tom McCollough, who is directing the excavations, told the news outlet three other sites appear to fit the bill, but "none has the ensemble of evidence that makes such a persuasive case for Khirbet Qana."

"We have uncovered a large Christian veneration cave complex that was used by Christian pilgrims who came to venerate the water-to-wine miracle," he told. "This complex was used beginning in the late fifth or early sixth century and continued to be used by pilgrims into the 12th-century Crusader period.

"The pilgrim texts we have from this period that describe what pilgrims did and saw when they came to Cana of Galilee match very closely what we have exposed as the veneration complex."

As part of his evidence, McCollough points to the work of first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.

"His references to Cana align geographically with the location of Khirbet Qana and align logically with his movements," McCollough told the news outlet. "The reference to Cana in Josephus, the New Testament and in the rabbinic texts would argue the village was a Jewish village, near the Sea of Galilee and in the region of lower Galilee.

"Khirbet Qana fulfills all of these criteria."

“At this point the Franciscans were managing Christian pilgrimage and facilitating easy passage rather than historical accuracy.”

Dr McCollough believes the discoveries at Khirbet Qana could even bolster the case for the historicity of the Gospel of John.

He said: “Our excavations have shown that this was in fact a thriving Jewish village located in the heart of much of Jesus’s life and ministry.

“For the Gospel of John, Cana is in some ways, Jesus’s safe place or operational centre. It is a place He and His disciples return to when they encounter resistance in Judea.

“I would argue our excavations warrant at least a reconsideration of the historical value of John’s references to Cana and Jesus.”

Mystery of Jesus turning water to wine REVEALED as archeologists make shock discovery

Oldest Known Inscription of 10 Commandments Goes Up for Auction

Back in 1913, workers were excavating for a railroad station near Yavneh, in western Israel, when they discovered the two-foot-square white stone slab bearing 20 lines of text in Samaritan, an early Hebrew script. More than a century later, that same 200-pound slab is set to go up for auction next month. The minimum opening bid is $250,000, though experts think it will likely sell for much more. Believed to have been carved between 300 and 500 A.D. to adorn an ancient synagogue, the tablet is the earliest known stone inscription of the 10 Commandments.

According to the Old Testament, God revealed the 10 Commandments, carved on two stone slabs, to Moses on Mount Sinai. As a central part of the shared Jewish and Christian heritage, the set of divine precepts—including instructions to worship only God and honor one’s parents along with prohibitions on murder, adultery, theft, blasphemy and other sins—are fundamental to both faiths.

Some Dead Sea Scrolls written in the first century A.D. on parchment or papyrus contain written versions of the 10 Commandments, but the earliest known stone inscriptions of biblical law date to several centuries later. They are the so-called “Samaritan Decalogues,” created by the Jewish sect that in biblical times lived in Samaria, a mountainous region north of Jerusalem.

Only four examples of the Samaritan Decalogues are known to exist. Three of them, all fragmentary, currently reside in museum collections or at protected sites in the Middle East. The fourth will go up for auction on November 16 in Beverly Hills, California. Presented by Heritage Auctions, the tablet is the centerpiece of the Living Torah Museum Auction, a collection of some 50 Bible-related historical artifacts. “The Living Torah example is among the earliest of these Decalogues, and certainly the most complete,” David Michaels, Director of Antiquities for Heritage Auctions, said in a statement. “It is also the only example that can be legally obtained for private ownership.”

Probably carved between 300 and 500 A.D., in the late Roman or Byzantine era, the tablet is believed to have decorated the entrance to a synagogue located near what is now the city of Yavneh. The Romans, who heavily repressed the Samaritans, may have destroyed the synagogue between A.D. 400 and 600; alternatively, it may have fallen victim to Muslims or Crusaders up to the 12th century.

Earliest known carving of the Ten Commandments.

The white marble slab, which measured some two feet square, weighs in at around 200 pounds. On it are inscribed 20 lines of characters in Samaritan script, which was derived from both Hebrew and Aramaic. Nine out of the 10 Commandments commonly known from the Book of Exodus appear on the tablet, but it omits “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” Instead, the text contains a Samaritan commandment about how worshipers should “raise up a temple” on Mount Gerizim, the holy mountain for the Samaritans, which was located near the West Bank city of Nablus.

After the railroad workers first uncovered the tablet back in 1913, it was used as flooring in a privately owned courtyard, where foot traffic rubbed out portions of the writing. A man named Y. Kaplan, who acquired the slab in 1943, submitted it to scholars for study, and introduced it to the wider world in an article he co-wrote in 1947 with Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, an archaeologist specializing in ancient texts who would go on to become president of Israel (1952-63).

In the 1990s, antiquities dealer Robert Deutsch bought the stone slab, which was designated a “National Treasure” of Israel. Despite that distinction, in 2005 the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) approved its export to the United States, where it was entrusted to the care of Rabbi Saul Deutsch, of the Living Torah Museum.

At the upcoming auction, the tablet will be included among a number of other historically valuable objects from biblical times, including a nine-spouted ceramic oil lamp dating to the first century A.D. Some experts believe the lamp is the earliest known Hanukkah menorah.

The opening bid for the 10 Commandments tablet is $250,000, though experts think it will go for much more. Because of its “National Treasure” status, the buyer of the tablet must agree to display it in public, as a condition of ownership. As Michaels put it, “We seek either an institutional buyer or a private one who will agree to exhibit the 10 Commandments Stone so that all can see, enjoy and learn from it.” Proceeds from the auction will go to expand and upgrade the Living Torah Museum’s facilities in Brooklyn, New York, including the construction of a full-scale replica of the original Tabernacle in Solomon’s temple.

Oldest Known Inscription of 10 Commandments Goes Up for Auction