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

OVER 2000 YEARS LATER: ANCIENT GOLD EARRING DISCOVERED IN CITY OF DAVID

Hellenistic-era golden earring that features the image of a horned animal was discovered in the Givati parking lot of the City of David National Park that encircles the Old City walls, the City of David announced Wednesday.

The discovery was made during archaeological digs carried out by the Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University.

According to the directors of the excavation, Prof. Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University and Dr. Yiftah Shalev of the Antiquities Authority, “The jewelry was found inside a building that was unearthed during the excavation, dating to the early Hellenistic period – a fascinating era about which we know very little when it comes to Jerusalem. During the course of over a century of archaeological digs in the city, many small discoveries have been made from this period – mainly consisting of pottery fragments and a few coins – but hardly any remains of buildings that could be accurately dated to this period.”

The hoop earring bears the head of a horned animal with large eyes and a mouth.

“It is unclear whether the gold earring was worn by a man or a woman, nor do we know their cultural or religious identity. But we can say for certain that whoever wore this earring definitely belonged to Jerusalem’s upper class,” the researchers said. “This can be determined by the proximity to the Temple Mount and the Temple, which was functional at the time, as well as the quality of the gold piece of jewelry.”

Close to the place where the earring was found, excavators also found a gold bead with intricate embroidered ornamentation resembling a thin rope pattern, dividing the beads into two parts with six spirals on each side.

Ariel Polokoff and Dr. Adi Erlich, from the University of Haifa’s Department of Archaeology, examined the earring and bead and said the jewelry was crafted using a technique called filigree, in which threads and tiny metal beads are used to create delicate and complex patterns.

According to them, this type of earring first appeared in Greece during the early Hellenistic period. Similar earrings have been found across the Mediterranean basin, especially in Greece, but are extremely rare in Israel.

According to Prof. Gadot, only a few earrings of this kind have thus far been found in Israel, many of them in the coastal region, with one slightly different specimen discovered inside a tomb in the Hinnom Valley. This is the first time, however, that an earring of this type has been found in Jerusalem in archaeological ruins from that era.

Researchers believe the latest findings “open a window to what Jerusalem was like during the early Hellenistic period. It seems as though, at the time, the city did not reach farther than the top of the hill in the City of David but then spread slightly to the west into the Tyropoeon Valley. We also learned from this excavation that the residents of this area were not peasants who settled in empty areas on the periphery of the central area, but rather the opposite – they were well-off people. The discovery of familiar Hellenistic pieces of jewelry can teach us about how Hellenistic influences reached Jerusalem during this time.”

The jewelry will be on public display at the City of David’s 17th Annual Archaeological Conference scheduled for September 8.

OVER 2000 YEARS LATER: ANCIENT GOLD EARRING DISCOVERED IN CITY OF DAVID

Ancient Roman-era mosaic floor discovered near Tel Aviv carefully removed (Video)

A newly discovered ancient mosaic in the city of Lod, near Tel Aviv, is believed to have belonged to a wealthy Jew living there during the period immediately following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.

Ancient Roman-era mosaic floor discovered near Tel Aviv carefully removed (Video)

3,200-year-old Pagan Ritual Hall Found in Israel

Rare masks, cultic tableware, a massebah and figurines bolster the theory of pagan worship at Tel Burna over three millennia ago, says excavator.

The discovery of masks and more cultic vessels has bolstered confidence that ritual activity was taking place 3,200 years ago at Libnah, a Canaanite city that would become Judahite in the biblical era.

Previously the archaeologists had been uncertain as to whether they had found a cultic site featuring ritual feasting, or simply a house sporting cultic objets d'art. 

The excavators exploring Tel Burna are not saying they necessarily found a temple per se. But they are now confident: Canaanite ritual festivities happened here.

The city's excavation began in 2009, which is when Dr. Itzhaq Shai of Ariel University and his team discovered a courtyard inside a sturdily constructed, spacious building, 15.8 meters long, built directly upon bedrock. At that point, they could not say what it purpose the building served.

Since then, accruing indications of pagan cultic activity at the spot have included a massebah (a pillar made of stone, associated with worship or memorial activity) found this year, representing a deity or a cultic object; cultic vessels such as goblets and chalices; figurines; zoomorphic vessels, and two ceramic masks.

“The fact that we have a massebah and a concentration of cultic vessels clearly indicates that the activity within this courtyard was not daily life, but ritual practice," says Shai.

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That represents an evolution in his position: previously he had cautioned against leaping to conclusions, noting that "not every ancient site sporting a war god or female figurine is a temple to Baal or Anat." Indeed, no representatives of deities have been found, at least yet.

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Meanwhile, among the intriguing discoveries this year were three rare, small vessels of Cypriot origin. Residue analysis revealed that each had contained a different kind of oil. The vessels were probably used for ritual libation.

Telltale giant jars and charred bones

In addition, two gigantic pithoi imported from Cyprus, each with a capacity of 200 liters, were discovered along with charred bones of young sheep, goats and pigs.

The presence of imported giant pithoi in and of itself is indicative that Libnah was an important site of worship to the Canaanites in the 13th century B.C.E., Shai explains.

3,200-year-old Pagan Ritual Hall Found in Israel

7,200 yr-old vessel for food storage unearthed in Jordan Valley

A unique 7,200-year-old clay vessel recently unearthed in the Jordan Valley by researchers from Israel and Germany may represent the oldest evidence yet of ancient class structure as it relates to food storage rituals in the Near East.

The relic was discovered at the Tel Tsaf archeological site during digs overseen by Prof. Danny Rosenberg of the Zinman Institute of Archeology at the University of Haifa, and Dr. Florian Klimscha of the German Archeological Institute in Berlin.

According to Rosenberg, the clay vessel provides unprecedented insights into ancient political and socioeconomic class structure among elites during a period that remains somewhat mysterious.

“Until now, discussions of the early transition to complex societies in this area have focused mainly on later periods, and on the connection between the development of socioeconomic elites and the ability of certain individuals or families to store large quantities of food – beyond their own needs – for survival,” Rosenberg said on Wednesday.

“In this context, the findings at Tel Tsaf provide firsthand evidence of the early connection between food storage on a large scale and the observance of a ritual associated with the successful storage and preservation of agricultural yields.” Located near the Jordan River, the Tel Tsaf site was first documented in the late 1940s.

It was subsequently excavated during the late 1970s, and later between 2004 and 2007.

Since 2013, with the assistance of an international team of experts equipped with advanced scientific methodologies, Rosenberg and Klimscha have led a multidisciplinary project at the site, focusing on the area’s ancient economy and environment.

The rare findings unearthed at Tel Tsaf include numerous silos found in the courtyards of ancient buildings once used for large-scale grain storage.

The silos, the researchers said, are evidence of the storage of food on a scale not previously documented at sites from this period.

“The wish and ability to store food certainly constitutes an important step in the transition of humans to societies characterized by more complex social organization,” noted Klimscha. “It also seems that Tel Tsaf’s location, near a major water source such as the Jordan River is no coincidence, considering the site’s potential to accumulate such a large amount of crops.”

Rosenberg said that with the exception of the finds at Tel Tsaf, no evidence of mass-food storage between 7,500 and 6,500 years ago has been found in the region.

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“The significance of storage for development of complex societies is evident by later testimonies from our own region,” he said, “but even more so from Mesopotamia and Egypt, where complex, pre-state and state-level societies emerged and engaged in the intensive storage of food as an essential condition for the development of a social hierarchy.”

Researchers have long debated the early emergence of societies characterized by social and economic elites, a phenomenon frequently associated with the Bronze Age, which in the Near East began around 5,300 years ago.

However, no evidence has previously been found illustrating that large-scale food storage in earlier societies was accompanied by social or ritual acts intended to ensure the successful storage and distribution of produce.

During the excavation season at Tel Tsaf two years ago, researchers found numerous pottery shards in a room situated in the center of a cluster of silos and cooking installations.

The fragments appeared to belong to a single vessel. After painstaking work, they managed to reassemble the pieces, and were surprised to find a unique miniature vessel with a height of around 20 centimeters and a small, window-like aperture on its side.

“All the pottery vessels we are familiar with from this period have an opening on the top, facing up, just like most pots and cups in any modern kitchen,” Rosenberg explained. “But this vessel is dome shaped, closed on the top, and covered with red-painted clay balls, whose significance is unclear to us.”

The researchers said they believe that the vessel is actually a model of the silos.

“This vessel is not ‘functional,’ and was found in a building that was used for intensive storage, on the floor in a room surrounded by numerous silos similar to those we are familiar with from archeological and ethnographic records from various parts of the world,” said Klimscha.

“We can hypothesize that this vessel was associated in some way with the silos, and particularly with the act of storage,” she continued. “From later evidence, we know that humans created vessels symbolizing larger storage structures; and, indeed, pottery vessels similar to this one – though larger – appear a few centuries later in [this] region, used for secondary burial.”

                                 TRENDS

Rosenberg and Klimscha said the size and characteristics of the vessel – together with the archeological context in which it was found – reinforce their contention that it symbolized the silos and was probably used in a ritual setting, possibly as part of the ceremonies that preceded the placement of grains of wheat and barley in the silos, or their removal from storage.

The correlation between the growth of food storage capacity and the human cycle of life and death is well known to researchers from various sources, including later findings from the ancient Near East.

“Tel Tsaf offers a glimpse into a unique time capsule, with excellent preservation of organic remains and other archeological findings that reflect a thriving community practicing long-distance trade,” said Rosenberg.

“Putting together all these findings, the picture reveals an increasingly strong connection between ritual and intense food storage and consumption,” he added.

“We believe that the economic prosperity reflected by the astonishing findings from Tel Tsaf was accompanied by notable changes in the way the community of Tel Tsaf organized itself, and by rituals and ceremonies that were practiced in order to ensure that this prosperity will last.”

The miniature silo may be the best example yet of the connection between the desire to store large amounts of agricultural crops to gain social and economic advantage, and rituals intended to sustain and ensure economic prosperity, Rosenberg and Klimscha said.

7,200 yr-old vessel for food storage unearthed in Jordan Valley

Archaeologists hunting the "Ark of the Covenant" believe ancient relic may have held pagan gods

Archaeologists tracing the origins of the Ark of the Covenant, a lost biblical chest that is said to contain ancient relics, believe it may have also carried pagan idols thousands of years old.

The team from Tel Aviv University and College de France have been excavating the town of Kiriath Jearim where the Old Testament states the ark containing the Ten Commandments was kept for 20 years before it arrived in Jerusalem, Haaretz reported.

While the excavators do not expect to find the ark itself in the ancient town, their discoveries have cast new light on the religious practices of the Israelites before the arrival of monotheism in the holy land, supporting a number of theories about the ark suggested in the Bible.

The Old Testament states that the ark was recovered by the Israelites after it was lost in battle with the Philistines. Following divine intervention it was returned and kept at Kiriath Jearim before being moved to King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. It was then lost after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem.

The archaeologists have uncovered a huge retaining wall at Kiriath Jearim which, judging from the pottery shards that surround it, dates from the 8th or 7th century B.C. The terrace that would have sat above the wall, according to contemporary architectural styles, could have supported one of the most important cultic centers in Israel, with a temple that would have rivaled the Temple in Jerusalem. 

“It is possible that the ark stayed much longer at Kiriath Jearim, and it was only Josiah who brought it to Jerusalem when he wanted to centralize all cultic and political activity there, and his scribes justified it by writing the story about David taking the ark,” Professor Thomas Römer, an expert in Hebrew at the College de France explains.

It now seems possible that before its arrival in Jerusalem, the ark was associated with religious practices far removed from Judaism.

Early Israelites from the 8th and 7th century B.C. worshipped Canaanite gods like Baal and El. Baal, who was worshipped as a bull statue, lends his name to the alternative title for Kiriath Jearim: Kiriath Ball. Contemporary evidence from around the Middle East shows that polytheist nomads like the Israelites prior to monotheism were likely to carry their idols in boxes like the ark.

Israel Finkelstein from Tel Aviv University, who conducted digs in the 1980s at Shiloh, north of Jerusalem as well as the ongoing Kiriath Jearim excavations, has said he is less interested in the narrative of the ark than what the findings can reveal about life 2,600 years ago. “I want to know what’s behind it, what it tells us about the history of Judah and Israel, of the cult of the God of Israel and the Temple in Jerusalem,” he said.

Archaeologists hunting the "Ark of the Covenant" believe ancient relic may have held pagan gods

Outside Jerusalem’s Old City, a once-in-a-lifetime find of ancient Greek inscription

During a salvage excavation ahead of telephone cable infrastructure placement, archaeologists uncover a rare intact 1,500-year-old mosaic from the dawn of the Christian empire.

An extremely rare ancient early Christian Greek inscription has been discovered about a kilometer north of Jerusalem’s Old City. The once-in-a-lifetime dream archaeological find was discovered by chance during infrastructure work for a phone cable.

The intact 1,500-year-old mosaic was uncovered in the flooring of what is thought to have been a pilgrim hostel during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian. Israel Antiquities Authority director of excavation David Gellman was supervising the salvage dig ahead of the placement of Partner communications cable infrastructure outside American Consulate buildings in East Jerusalem.

Gellman called the find “extremely exciting,” saying that “it’s not every day that one finds an inscription — a ‘direct letter’ from someone — from 1,500 years ago.”

The black-lettered mosaic inscription was discovered on a white tile floor during the last day of salvage work.

“The fact that the inscription survived is an archaeological miracle,” said Gellman.

Gellman, who has spent the past four years working on digs in Jerusalem, said with one more day left to his excavation permit, he had been unsure of any remarkable finds from the dig. The team was excavating an area approximately one meter below street level.

“The excavation in a relatively small area exposed ancient remains that were severely damaged by infrastructure groundwork over the last few decades. We were about to close the excavation when all of a sudden, a corner of the mosaic inscription peeked out between the pipes and cables,” he said.

“My heart leapt out of my chest,” the Toronto-born Gellman said on Wednesday at a press tour at the IAA’s Rockefeller Museum headquarters.

“Amazingly, it had not been damaged. Every archaeologist dreams of finding an inscription in their excavations, especially one so well preserved and almost entirely intact,” said Gellman. He said one area of the mosaic was slightly raised by a tree root growing beneath it, and a there are a few gaps of letters among the six-line inscription.

After three days of work on his extended excavation permit Gellman’s team uncovered, in addition to the mosaic, a few remnants of walls of the pilgrims’ hostel, pottery shards of bowls and other vessels, and three Byzantine coins dating from the 6th century.

The Greek inscription was deciphered by the Hebrew University’s Dr. Leah Di Segni, an expert on ancient Greek inscriptions.

The inscription reads, “In the time of our most pious emperor Flavius Justinian, also this entire building Constantine the most God-loving priest and abbot, established and raised, in the 14th indiction.”

Di Segni believes it was written to commemorate the founding of the building — presumed to be a pilgrim hostel — by a priest named Constantine. The word “indiction,” said Di Segni, “is an ancient method of counting years, for taxation purposes. Based on historical sources, the mosaic can be dated to the year 550/551 CE.”

The new inscription is currently being treated and researched by conservation experts at the Israel Antiquities Authority’s mosaic workshop in Jerusalem.

The inscription was found on a road leading to the Damascus Gate, the main northern entrance to Jerusalem in the period surrounding the era of the charismatic emperor Justinian. Also known as Justinian the Great, the monarch was considered the “last Roman emperor” for his desire to revive the vast strength and greatness of the Roman empire. It was under Justinian that the Byzantine empire completed its conversion to Christianity.

According to Gellman, the foundation of the hostel by Justinian on the Damascus Road points to the importance of Jerusalem in the empire.

“Knowing that, it is no surprise that this area is rich with archaeological remains,” said Gellman. “In the Byzantine period, with the emergence of Christianity, churches, monasteries and hostels for pilgrims were built in the area north of the gate, and the area became one of the most important and active areas of the city.”

A similar mosaic was found in the 1970s during excavations of the Old City under the remains of the Nea Church, or new church, also founded by Justinian, in 543 CE. The church, dedicated to Jesus’s mother Mary, was a jewel of the Byzantine empire. It is now on exhibition in the Israel Museum.

According to the IAA, the abbot of the church was the same priest Constantine whose name appears in the newly discovered inscription. Gellman said that the inclusion of the priest Constantine in the newly found mosaic points to the influence of the priest, whom we now know was not only in charge of the Nea Church but also of the pilgrim complex uncovered by the IAA outside the walls of the city during salvage operations ahead of construction of new roads and a gas station over the past several dozen years.

Ancient Greek expert Di Segni concurred that the two mosaics are “fairly similar” in that they include mentions of both Justinian and Constantine.

“This new inscription helps us understand Justinian’s building projects in Jerusalem, especially the Nea Church,” said Di Segni. “The rare combination of archaeological finds and historical sources, woven together, is incredible to witness, and they throw important light on Jerusalem’s past.”

Uncovering this mosaic, said Gellman, is, “so far, the height of my career.”

Outside Jerusalem’s Old City, a once-in-a-lifetime find of ancient Greek inscription

Archeologists find ancient quarry and stone vessel factory

Reineh excavations in the Galilee unearth thousands of chalkstone cores and other types of production waste, including fragments of mugs and bowls.

New light has been shed on this question with the discovery of a 2,000-year-old stone vessel quarry and production center at Reineh near the city of Nazareth in the Lower Galilee. The ancient site was uncovered during the course of construction work at a new municipal sports center in Reineh.

“According to ancient Jewish ritual law, vessels made of pottery are easily made impure and must be broken,” explained Prof. Yonatan Adler of Ariel University and director of the excavations conducted on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

“Stone, on the other hand, was thought to be a material which can never become ritually impure, and as a result ancient Jews began to produce some of their everyday tableware from stone.”

Indeed, the jars filled with water which the Gospels say Jesus turned into wine were made of chalkstone. And the wedding at Cana narrative in the Gospel of John (John 2:6) relates, “Now there were six stone water jars set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each.”

The Reineh excavations unearthed a small cave in which archaeologists have found thousands of chalkstone cores and other types of production waste, including fragments of stone handled mugs and bowls in various stages of production.

This is the fourth chalkstone workshop of its kind discovered in ancient Israel; two are in the Galilee and two in the Jerusalem area.

Although chalkstone vessels have been found at many archaeological sites in Israel, including Kfar Kana, Sepphoris (Tzipori) and Nazareth, “it is extremely unusual to uncover a site where such vessels were actually produced,” Adler said. “Our excavations are highlighting the pivotal role of ritual purity observance not only in Jerusalem but in far-off Galilee as well.”

Archeologists find ancient quarry and stone vessel factory

Archaeologists May Have Found Peter's Home Town Bethsaida

What does an ancient Roman Bath have to do with Jesus' miraculous feeding of the 5,000?

Archaeologists working in Israel peel back layers to unravel the mystery of the past. That's what happened at a site they now believe may have been biblical Bethsaida.

"We are on the northern shore of the Kinneret Lake, the Sea of Galilee, a site known in Arabic as el-Araj [and] in Hebrew [as] Beit Abek," Dr. Mordechai Aviam, with the Kinneret College of the Sea of Galilee's Institute for Galilean Archaeology, told CBN News. "This site was known since the end of the 19th century as an ancient site and one of the three candidates to identify Bethsaida."

For years, archaeologists searched for biblical Bethsaida, the home of Peter, Andrew and Philip. There were several candidates, but ironically, a Roman Bath could hold the key to identifying the ancient village.

"And a bathhouse is something that leads us to understand that we are within some kind of a city, some kind of a sphere of people who are building communal structures, public structures and although the dig here is very small, it immediately hinted us that we are in a very good place to suggest that we discovered the city of Julias," Aviam, who's directing the excavation, explained.

"Now what is the city of Julias? We were talking about Bethsaida!" he said. "Josephus Flavius, the Jewish historian in the first century, tells us that King Phillip, the son of Herod the Great, who ruled from there to the Golan, toward Damascus – ruled this area – decided to upgrade the village of Bethsaida and to make it a polis [city], by the name of Julias, after the daughter of Emperor Augustus."

Scholars believe it was near the fishing village of Bethsaida where Jesus fed the multitudes with five loaves and two fish.

Aviam said it's clear there's a Roman layer at the site.

"Also, two coins were discovered," he said. "One of them is a silver coin of Emperor Nero, from the year 65 to 66 [in the] first century. That's what we are looking for."

According to Aviam, another sign of the site's significance is roof tile and other remains of what appears to have been a Byzantine church as well as an historical reference by a Christian from that time.

"There is a document from a visitor from the end of the 7th century AD, a Christian pilgrim, [which] says that after he left Capernaum, he arrived to Bethsaida, and there is a church for the apostles, Peter and Andrew," Aviam explained. "So for the Christians in the sixth, seventh, [and] eighth century it was still called Bethsaida, although there was nothing here but a church dedicated to [Peter and Andrew]. It was identified and a church was built."

The team also found a 13th century Crusader layer, which included a sugar factory.

Excavating takes place in the summer so there are years of digging ahead.

"If we will succeed in proving scientifically that this is the place of Julias, therefore Bethsaida, I think it can be developed into an interesting site for people who are interested in being near, close, in the place where the apostles lived," Aviam said.

source

https://www1.cbn.com

Archaeologists May Have Found Peter's Home Town Bethsaida

90,000 Hebrew Manuscripts Available Online for First Time in History

Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, was a visionary who not only played a crucial part in the creation of the Jewish state but also understood the importance of preserving Hebrew manuscripts. Declaring, “It is our first duty to save Hebrew literature,” he sent experts across the world to find and reproduce with permission Hebrew manuscripts that could not be physically brought to the Holy Land.  

It is estimated that Ben-Gurion’s mission collected 90 percent of the world’s Hebrew manuscripts, either in their original forms or on microfilm. These records have been held at the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem since the 1950’s.

On August 6, at the opening of the World Congress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, Ben-Gurion’s vision was launched into the modern era by way of a new website digitizing millions of images from dozens of collections for online use. The website, called Ktiv: The International Collection of Digitized Hebrew Manuscripts, has preserved for posterity some 90,000 Hebrew manuscripts and images from 40 countries dating back to the Middle Ages until today.

“This is an important project for scholars and laypeople alike as so many manuscripts have been destroyed over the ages, often through anti-Semitism or natural disasters,”  commented Roni Segal, academic adviser for The Israel Institute of Biblical Studies, a company which offers language courses online, to Breaking Israel News. “Both Biblical and modern writings are now centrally preserved for all to study.”

Accessible through innovative search and discovery tools, savvy researchers who love Hebrew, history and the Bible may now see online the Babylonian Talmud from the 14th century, and a manuscript written by Rabbi Joseph Caro, the author of the famous Jewish law book, the Shulhan Arukh, in his own hand. Additionally, one may view important previously unpublished Kabbalist documents relating to Jewish mysticism and Hebrew poetry dating back to the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Other manuscripts of interest are the Leningrad Codex, significant Judeo-Persian handwritten writings such as from Moses Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah (Repetition of the Law) dating back to Persia 1549-50, the Aleppo Codex, documents from the 13th century detailing struggles within the Yemenite Jewish community, commercial and family records chronicling Jewish life in Afghanistan in the 11th century and discourses in philosophy, astronomy, science, medicine and the Jewish calendar.

Also included are the First Gaster Bible, dating back to the 9th-10th century and containing fragments from Psalms, and the Second Gaster Bible which dates back to the 11th-12th century and includes sections from the Pentateuch. Both are decorated with Islamic style motifs. There is also an Italian decorated daily prayer book dating back to the 15th century.

Ktiv is a joint venture of Albert D. and Nancy Friedberg through the Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society, The National Library of Israel (NLI) and the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) in cooperation with the Israeli Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage’s Landmarks project. The Vatican, the British Library, and the national libraries of Austria, Germany, France, Russia, as well as dozens of other important institutions, are also participating, making the site is one of the largest digital collections of manuscripts in existence.

“Over the course of thousands of years, the Jewish people used the written word to express their religious beliefs and their scientific knowledge,” Chairman of The National Library of Israel David Blumberg said. “They meticulously copied Torah scrolls, books of religious laws and customs, and essays on different topics related to religion and science.

“Hebrew manuscripts, reflecting the knowledge and culture of the Jewish people, traversed countries and continents before finding refuge in large libraries and the vaults of private collections. Today, these manuscripts present a rich resource for learning about the spiritual and material cultures of Jewish communities across the globe and we are now enabling free access to all Hebrew manuscripts from any computer or mobile device.”

Though every manuscript is written in Hebrew letters, there is a wide range of Jewish languages represented, including Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Greek. The collection only consists of hand-written texts.

“Not only will this library preserve ancient and modern Hebrew, but, as many of the manuscripts are richly illustrated, it will serve those interested in Jewish art,” noted Segal. “For example, documented is the Sephardi Golden Haggadah from 1320 AD which includes stunning images from Genesis, the Exodus story and Jewish rituals.”

To learn more about Biblical and modern Hebrew, please visit here.

source

https://www.breakingisraelnews.com

90,000 Hebrew Manuscripts Available Online for First Time in History

Israel blasts Unesco as 'shameful and anti-Semitic' after vote over ancient city of Hebron

Israel branded Unesco “shameful and anti-Semitic” and called for the US to slash its funding after the global heritage organisation passed a pro-Palestinian resolution about the flashpoint city of Hebron. 

Hebron is the largest city in the occupied West Bank and its ancient quarter is home to a religious site which is sacred to both Jews and Muslims, known as either the Tomb of the Patriarchs or the al-Ibrahimi mosque. 

Unesco voted on Friday to recognise both the religious site and the Old City around it as Palestinian heritage sites, infuriating Israelis who believe Hebron is the birthplace of the Jewish people. The body also voted that the Israeli occupation was endangering the site. 

Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli defence minister, released a furious statement after the vote on Friday and called for Donald Trump to punish Unesco by cutting its funding.        

אביגדור ליברמן 

✔@AvigdorLiberman

UNESCO is an antisemitic, politically biased organization whose decisions are scandalous.

1:49 PM - 7 Jul 2017

“Unesco is a politically biased, shameful and anti-Semitic organization whose decisions are scandalous, and I hope that with the help of our great friend the United States, the organization's budget will be cut off,” he said.

Palestinians celebrated the vote as a diplomatic victory.

Hebron has consistently been one of the most fraught areas of the West Bank. It is home to around 200,000 Palestinians but 500 Israeli settlers also live in the city, protected by heavily-armed Israeli combat troops.

Palestinians living around the settlement are subjected to severe restrictions on their movements and there is regular violence between settlers, soldiers and Palestinians.  

The 12-3 Unesco vote was the latest in a series of symbolic pro-Palestinian resolutions adopted by UN bodies, which have enraged Israel but have little real-world impact.

Palestine is recognised as a nation state at Unesco, allowing it to appear on an equal footing to Israel. In the UN’s main body it only has observer status, meaning it is not recognised as fully-fledged country.

Israel and the US argue that many of the UN’s bodies are deeply biased against the Jewish state.

For example, the UN Human Rights Council regularly votes to condemn Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights but rarely criticises the Syrian regime for killing civilians a few miles away.

The UK criticised the “disproportionate focus on Israel” earlier this year and, in line with the Trump administration, said it would vote against anti-Israel resolutions if there was not more balance at the Human Rights Council.

Mr Trump’s UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, has made defending Israel one of the cornerstones of her tenure at the United Nations and has threated to pull the US out of the Human Rights Council because of its votes against Israel.

The Unesco vote on Friday marks the failure of a coordinated diplomatic campaign by the US and Israel to try to stop the vote. Unesco ambassadors were briefed at the Israeli foreign ministry last month to try to persuade them not to support the resolution.

Ms Haley also wrote to the director general of Unesco and to the secretary general of the UN urging them to oppose the vote.

The religious site at the heart of Hebron is believed to house the tomb of Abraham - the forefather of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - and his family.

The structure was originally built by the Jewish king Herod and then later added to by the Muslim caliphs. The site is believed to be the oldest continually used house of prayer and today its site is split uneasily between Jewish and Muslim worshippers.

Source
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Israel blasts Unesco as 'shameful and anti-Semitic' after vote over ancient city of Hebron

Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered treasure and 3,200 year-old bodies at the Biblical city of Gezer

Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered treasure and 3,200 year-old bodies at what is said to be the site of the Biblical city of Gezer, believed to have been destroyed in a devastating raid by the ancient Egyptians.

Excavations of the city appeared to show how three inhabitants, two adults and a child, met a violent end after a series Egyptian pharaohs attempted to bring Gezer to heel, finally reducing it to rubble in the 13th Century B.C., Haaretz reported.

In one large building—some 20 by 15 meters in size—in the south of the city, archaeologists discovered the three skeletons, two still with earrings in their ears.

Meanwhile, the debris inside the room gave an indication of final, traumatic hours of the trio's life.

It appeared that a large room where two of the inhabitants, one of the adults and the child, had been set on fire before they were crushed by the collapsing ceiling and buried in a meter-thick layer of debris.

The ferocity of the blaze was such that the sex and origin of the pair, whether Egyptian of Canaanite, could not be discerned and some of the bones had been reduced to dust. 

"The adult was lying on its back with arms above its head. The child, who was wearing earrings, was next to the adult, to the left. This room was filled with ash and collapsed mud brick,” Professor Steven Ortiz of the Tandy Institute for Archaeology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said.

“We can only guess what they were doing in the building on the eve of destruction. Were they hiding? Were they fleeing the Egyptian soldiers? Did they go back into the building to retrieve valuables?”

In a second room, to the north of where the pair died, a third body also showed signs of a grisly end. Buried by stones, the body had been largely preserved. 

“This individual attests to the violent nature of the destruction, as it is clear he experienced the trauma of the event,” Ortiz said.

Among the Egyptian jewellery that was discovered was a 13th century amulet and various scarabs and cylinder seals. The amulet bears the cartouches—or official royal monikers—of the Egyptian Pharaohs Thutmose III and Ramses II.

Gezer was a prominent Canaanite city-state throughout the 2nd millennium B.C. It’s location between Egypt and Mesopotamia gave it a strategic trade and military position.

The death of Ramses II led to rebellion in the southern Levant and Gezer was sacked in order to subdue the Canaanites. Several other sites in the area including Jaffa, Gerisa and Aphek were also destroyed.

Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered treasure and 3,200 year-old bodies at the Biblical city of Gezer

Advanced Imaging Technology Reveals 2,600 Year-Old Hebrew Inscription

Using multispectral imaging, a team of Israeli researchers has discovered a hitherto invisible text on the back side of an ostracon (ink-inscribed pottery shard) that has been on display for half a century.

The recto (upper image) and the verso (lower image) of the ostracon Arad 16: color images, multispectral images and manual drawings of the proposed reading. In red: team’s alterations and additions with respect to the original publication. Image credit: Faigenbaum-Golovin et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178400.

The ostracon, known as Arad 16, was found in 1965 at the desert fortress of Arad by Prof. Yohanan Aharoni and dated to 600 BC (the eve of Judah’s destruction by Nebuchadnezzar).

“Arad was a military outpost — a fortress at the southern border of the kingdom of Judah — and was populated by 20 to 30 soldiers,” said team member Dr. Anat Mendel-Geberovich, of Tel Aviv University.

“Most of the ostraca unearthed at Arad are dated to a short time span during the last stage of the fortress’s history, on the eve of the kingdom’s destruction in 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar.”

“Many of these inscriptions are addressed to Elyashiv, the quartermaster of the fortress. They deal with the logistics of the outpost, such as the supply of flour, wine, and oil to subordinate units.”

The inscription on the front side of Arad 16, opening with a blessing by Yahweh, discusses money transfers and has been studied by archaeologists and Biblical scholars alike.

“While its front side has been thoroughly studied, its back was considered blank,” said Arie Shaus, also of Tel Aviv University.

Using multispectral imaging to acquire a set of images, the researchers noticed several marks on the ostracon’s reverse side.

“To our surprise, three new lines of text were revealed,” Shaus said.

“The content of the reverse side implies it is a continuation of the text on the front side,” added Tel Aviv University researcher Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin.

Renewed reading of Arad 16 recto (left) and the first reading of Arad 16 verso (right). Image credit: Faigenbaum-Golovin et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178400.

“The new reading of the recto (front side) of Arad 16 has added about 45 new characters. There are almost 20 words on the recto with a changed reading,” the scientists said.

“The text details an exchange of supplies and silver between Elyashiv, the quartermaster of the Arad fortress and Hananyahu, possibly his peer at Beer Sheba, located one day’s walk (15.5 miles, or 25 km) to the west.”

“Elyashiv and Ḥananyahu seem to be on friendly terms, with the letter possibly continuing an earlier personal communication.”

“The letter begins with an affectionate salutation (‘Your friend Ḥananyahu [hereby] sends greetings to [you] Elyashiv and to your household’) and continues with a blessing from God (‘I bless [you] by Yahweh’).”

“This is followed by the mention of a receipt sent by Ḥananyahu (‘when I left your house I sent the receipt to Ge’alyahu’).”

“Requests regarding a certain purse and an amount of silver (‘in the sum of 5 Xar’), as well as oil (‘if there is still any oil left at your [p]ost — send it’) are made, along with a call to avoid sending a certain commodity, the name of which is indiscernible (‘[…] drop it, don’t send it!’).”

“The last part of the recto contains some decipherable signs and letters, which, however, do not amount to a coherent text.”

“The verso (back side) is seen and deciphered by us here for the first time,” they said.

“The text bears more than 50 characters, creating 17 new words.”

“It begins with a request for wine (‘If there is any wine, send [quantity]’), as well as a guarantee for assistance if the addressee has any requests of his own (‘If there is anything [else] you need, send [= write to me about it]’).”

“The letter concludes with a request for the provision of a certain commodity to an unnamed person, and a note regarding a bat (an ancient measure of liquids) of wine carried by a man named Ge’alyahu.”

“The newly revealed inscription features an administrative text, like most of the Arad inscriptions. Its importance lies in the fact that each new line, word, and even a single sign is a precious addition to what we know about the First Temple period,” Dr. Mendel-Geberovich said.

“On a larger scale, our discovery stresses the importance of multispectral imaging to the documentation of ostraca. It’s daunting to think how many inscriptions, invisible to the naked eye, have been disposed of during excavations,” Faigenbaum-Golovin added.

“This is ongoing research. We have at our disposal several additional alterations and expansions of known First Temple-period ostraca. Hence, the future may hold additional surprises,” said Tel Aviv University researcher Barak Sober.

The team’s findings were published this week in the journal PLoS ONE.

_____

S. Faigenbaum-Golovin et al. 2017. Multispectral imaging reveals Biblical-period inscription unnoticed for half a century. PLoS ONE 12 (6): e0178400; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178400

Source

http://www.sci-news.com

Advanced Imaging Technology Reveals 2,600 Year-Old Hebrew Inscription

Ancient Jerusalem Tower Is (Much) Younger Than Thought

Remains of the stone tower built to guard Gihon Spring, a water source downhill from the ancient city of Jerusalem.

Credit: Weizmann Institute of Science

Gihon Spring, just downhill from the ancient city of Jerusalem, was crucial to the survival of its inhabitants, and archaeologists had uncovered the remains of a massive stone tower built to guard this vital water supply. Based on pottery and other regional findings, the archaeologists had originally assigned it a date of 1,700 BCE. But new research conducted at the Weizmann Institute of Science provides conclusive evidence that the stones at the base of the tower were laid nearly 1,000 years later. Among other things, the new results highlight the contribution of advanced scientific dating methods to understanding the history of the region.

Dr. Elisabetta Boaretto, Head of the Weizmann Institute of Science's D-REAMS Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory and track leader within the Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, had the opportunity to date the tower as part of her ongoing cooperative research projects with the Israel Antiquity Authority (IAA). Since 2012, Dr. Joe Uziel and Nahshon Szanton of the IAA, in continuing the excavations around the tower, have discovered that the base of the tower was not built on bedrock. "The boulders in the tower's base, in and of themselves," explains Boaretto, "do not yield any information other than the fact that whoever placed them there had the ability to maneuver such heavy stones. But underneath the boulders, the soil exhibits the layers typical of archaeological strata, and these can reveal the latest date that the site was occupied before the tower was built."

The unique and methodical approach of the D-REAMS lab team begins by planning and executing the field sampling and excavation from the beginning - together with the site archaeologists. "Getting one's hands dirty is all part of building a reliable chronology," says Boaretto. During field work conducted with the archaeologists and later in her laboratory with postdoctoral fellow Dr. Johanna Regev, Boaretto identified several clearly-delineated strata. From these, they carefully collected remains of charcoal, seeds and bones - organic matter that can be definitively dated through radiocarbon dating.

The first dating was conducted on mid-to-lower levels of sediment, and these dates indeed agreed with those originally proposed. "But there was another half-meter of sediment between the material we had dated and the large cornerstone," says Boaretto. "At a glance, we thought this might represent another few hundred years before the stone was placed." The presence of separate, sequential layers, which they identified using microarchaeological tools and radiocarbon dating, enabled the researchers to attach dates to the strata just below the tower.

The radiocarbon dating method is based on counting the radioactive 14C atoms in a sample. These carbon atoms are found in all living things in a small, but stable ratio to that of regular carbon, and they begin to decay at a known rate after death. At the Weizmann Institute of Science, the count of 14C atoms in a sample is performed with an accelerator, so it can return highly accurate results on something as small as a seed.

The date revealed by this radiocarbon dating was sometime around 800-900 BCE. That is nearly 1,000 years later than thought, and it moves the building of the tower to another historical period entirely, from the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age.

To complete the study, Boaretto and her team asked whether any explanation could allow the tower to have been built earlier - repairs, for example - but the presence of the large boulders sitting above layers of earth containing the remains of everyday activities would appear to be fairly conclusive evidence that the later date is the correct one. Boaretto: "The conclusive, scientific dating of this massive tower, placing it in a later era than was presumed, will have repercussions for other attempts to date construction and occupation in ancient Jerusalem."

Source

Weizmann Institute of Science

Ancient Jerusalem Tower Is (Much) Younger Than Thought

Ancient Reservoirs Under Jerusalem Used by Second Temple Pilgrims 2,000 Years Ago

The massive ancient reservoirs that remain viewable today in Jerusalem’s Old City had serviced Jews making pilgrimages to the Second Temple some 2,000 years ago, according to a soon-to-be-published research paper.

Jerusalem contains a large number of these ancient pools. A massive cistern named the Pool of Israel—more than 360 feet long, 111 feet wide and 78 feet deep—is situated next to the Temple Mount. 

The Pool of Hezekiah lies among the houses of the Christian Quarter. Jerusalem residents are also familiar with the Sultan’s Pool, which was converted into an open-air venue for public performances; two pools located on the Church of St. Anne’s property; a deep pool seen on Western Wall tours; and the Shiloah (Siloam) Pool, which was discovered under the City of David.

“While residents of Jerusalem had private wells under their homes and the ruling authorities had aqueducts, another solution was needed for the masses of pilgrims. 

The visitors used water for drinking, cooking and other day-to-day tasks. Two of the pools were also used for ritual cleansing,” Dr. David Gurevich, an archaeologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who specializes in the holy city’s history during the Second Temple period, told Israel Hayom.

Ancient Reservoirs Under Jerusalem Used by Second Temple Pilgrims 2,000 Years Ago