By Arlene Bridges Samuels, CBN Israel— Palm Sunday and Resurrection Day are fast approaching. For Christians, our Holy Week is the most momentous time of the year and the Holy Land is the most sacred place—because it is the land of our Jewish Savior’s birth, where He taught, healed, died, and was gloriously resurrected. The…
By Shira Hanau, JTA.ORG— Archaeologists excavating a 2,100-year-old fortress say it provides “tangible evidence” of the events from the Hanukkah story. The site, located west of Hebron in the Lachish Forest, includes remnants of a fortress made of stone and wood that the archaeologists working with the Israel Antiquities Authority believe was burned by the…
By Megan Sauter, Biblical Archaeology Review— Genesis 38 recounts the saga of Judah and Tamar. Er, Judah’s oldest son, marries Tamar, but he dies, leaving her a childless widow. Er’s brother Onan then marries Tamar, according to levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5–10), but he also dies without giving her any children. She then returns to her…
By Joseph Guzman, The Hill—- A scuba diver exploring the waters off the Carmel coast of Israel recently discovered a sword that experts believe dates back to the time of the crusaders. Shlomi Katzin was scuba diving off the country’s Mediterranean Coast earlier this month when he came across a trove of artifacts that had…
By Michael Freund, JPost— If anyone still has doubts about the Palestinian Authority’s determination to erase all traces of Israel’s ancient Jewish heritage, an important new report should lay to rest any such uncertainties. The 65-page document, entitled “National Heritage Survey” and published by the Shilo Forum and the Shomrim al HaNetzach (“Preserving the Eternal”)…
By Nathan Steinmeyer, Biblical Archaeology Review— A study published in the journal Palestine Exploration Quarterly has shown that large-scale olive oil production began in the land of Canaan much earlier than previously thought and that the competing interests of Iron Age Philistia and Judah were key to driving the industry’s growth. A joint project of…
By Rossella Tercatin, JPost— Some 2,000 years ago, Jews used formal beautifully written biblical manuscripts for public reading, but also informal and sloppily written biblical texts for personal use, new research on the Dead Sea Scrolls has shown. In addition, some of the scrolls might be more ancient than previously thought, suggesting that the current…
By Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post— Some 2,000 years ago, an individual scribe wrote at least eight of the Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts, making him the most prolific scribe ever identified, a group of scholars have found out. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a corpus of some 25,000 fragments unearthed in caves on the shores of…
By Caroline Glick— Two weeks ago, a bus filled with veteran Israeli generals from the Bithonistim, a grassroots national security organization, slowly made its way up the slopes of Mt. Ebal in Northern Samaria to visit a biblical-era site that was severely damaged by a Palestinian Authority contractor in late January. They came to draw…
It is month old news but so much has been happening lately that I never mentioned the big new find that was announced last month by the Israel Antiquities Authority. On September 3rd, the IAA had a special reveal of three complete limestone proto-Aeloic capitals that date to the First Temple period. In case your…