Come again?: Ancient Hebrew fragments of Jewish Bible are part of Muslim country’s “cultural heritage”
This ancient Hebrew scroll of the Book of Psalms is part of... the Muslim cultural legacy?
Here’s how this will get reported: Canada declined to get involved in a controversy over ownership of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, which Jordan alleges Israel seized illegally from east Jerusalem during the Six-Day War.
What actually happened: Canada didn’t get involved when Jordan–ostensibly the most moderate of Israel’s neighbors–demanded that Canadian authorities seize a traveling exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls, ancient Hebrew manuscripts including segments of the Hebrew Bible, are of enormous significance to Christians and Jews and have little or nothing to do with Islam, the religion of the majority of Jordanians. Canadians are too polite to have snorted in the Jordanians’ faces.
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The ancient caves near Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.
So let’s go over this again: Jordan told Canada that, according to the Hague convention, the scrolls are their ”cultural property.” Back in April, Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, wrote to the Canadian Prime Minister to claim ownership and tried to get the Canadians to refuse the show altogether. When that didn’t work, a bunch of “pro-Palestinian” groups demonstrated outside the museum for daring to show them. (Around 200,000 people viewed them anyway.)
As a reminder, the Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient Hebrew parchments that were discovered in caves near Qumran, a valley in the desert between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, between 1947 and the late 1950s. The scrolls are believed to have been written by the Essenes, a Jewish sect that lived there around the time of the Second Temple. (Many scholars believe that Jesus might have been an Essene.)
The scrolls include fragments from most books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms and Isaiah, as well as a number of other books from the Aprocrypha –…
Read More » Comments (3) »Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 5:04 PM | Stand For Israel
Photos and details about Nazareth find: 1st century house sheds light on life in Jesus’ era
An aerial view of the house uncovered in Nazareth
The Israeli archaeologists who carried out excavations in Nazareth that revealed a house that dates to the time of Jesus (the 1st century CE) are saying that the dig sheds important light in the way of life in Nazareth at the time.
From the few written sources available, historians believe that, in the first 1st century CE, Nazareth was a small Jewish village nestled in a valley. Until this dig, only a few tombs from the time of Jesus had been uncovered; these remains are the first house to be found.
“The building that we found is small and modest and it is most likely typical of the dwellings in Nazareth in that period,” said Yardena Alexander, the archaeologist who directed the excavation.
The house was discovered during excavations prior to the building of a new visitors’ center as a part of the Church of the Annunciation compound, which is adjacent to the plot where the house lays. The Church sits on the spot that Catholic tradition identifies as the home of Mary, Jesus’s mother. It was built in 1969 on the remains of three earlier churches, which included a Crusader Church and one that dated to the Byzantine period (the fourth century CE). A cave that lies between the churches was identified by early Christian tradition as the home of Jesus’ family.
(Because Israeli soil is so rich in remnant of Biblical and post-Biblical history, Israeli law requires that any construction that requires digging be cleared with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) first. The IAA then makes sure that there aren’t any remains that might be damaged. –Alas, they’ve been a little more permissive when it comes to digging on the Temple Mount.)
The house is adjacent to the Church of the Annunciation
The house sat underneath remains of a broad wall that dated to the Mamluk period (15th century CE). (Israeli archaeologists…
Read More » Comments (2) »Thursday, December 24th, 2009 at 11:52 AM | Stand For Israel
First Jesus-era house found in Nazareth
A new find in Nazareth may shed light on how shepherds (like those in this recreation) lived 2,000 years ago. (Photo by John LaRue)
NAZARETH, Israel — Days before Christmas, archaeologists on Monday unveiled what they said were the remains of the first dwelling in Nazareth that can be dated back to the time of Jesus – a find that could shed new light on what the hamlet was like during the period the New Testament says Jesus lived there as a boy.
The dwelling and older discoveries of nearby tombs in burial caves suggest that Nazareth was an out-of-the-way hamlet of around 50 houses on a patch of about four acres (1.6 hectares). It was evidently populated by Jews of modest means who kept camouflaged grottos to hide from Roman invaders, said archaeologist Yardena Alexandre, excavations director at the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Based on clay and chalk shards found at the site, the dwelling appeared to house a “simple Jewish family,” Alexandre added, as workers at the site carefully chipped away at mud with small pickaxes to reveal stone walls.
Nazareth holds a cherished place in Christianity. It is the town where Christian tradition says Jesus grew up and where an angel told Mary she would bear the child of God.
“This may well have been a place that Jesus and his contemporaries were familiar with,” Alexandre said. A young Jesus may have played around the house with his cousins and friends, she said. “It’s a logical suggestion.”
The discovery so close to Christmas has pleased local Christians.
Read the rest at the Washington Post.
Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 12:25 PM | Stand For Israel
Late Hall of Famer Reggie White’s spiritual journey into scripture — in the original
Watch this moving ESPN story from 2004 about Reggie White, the famed NFL football star and preacher, which explores the spiritual journey he took in his last years: While remaining a committed Christian, White learned Hebrew so that he could learn scripture in its original form and, in doing so, deepened his already complex and meaningful faith.
Comments (1) »Saturday, December 5th, 2009 at 8:08 AM | Stand For Israel
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