Habakkuk 1:5 Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. -LORD God
Luke 2:16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.
January 20, 2021, Taibe, Israel: Archeologists have unearthed a Christian settlement near Nazareth. The church has been dated about 1,500 years ago. The church is described as a Byzantine era structure in the town of Taibe. An inscription was discovered on a wall of the church. It states, “Christ born of Mary”.
Churches from the era of the Crusades have been discovered in this region but nothing earlier until now.
“The importance of the inscription is that until now we didn’t know for certain that there were churches from this period in this area,” Israel Antiquities Authority Archaeologist Walid Atrash.
Archeological information continues to pour out of Israel. The message of the Bible and hard, physical evidence from the 21st century are consistent. Jesus has been called the Christ or the Messiah for last 2,000 plus years. The latest example is this find from the 5th century.
Luke 23:20-24 Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” A third time he said to them, “Why? What evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.” But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted.
Jerusalem, City of David: This is the oldest part of the city. A recent find of a step stoned street is believed to be built by Pontius Pilate. The street has its beginnings near the Pool of Siloam and goes north to what is known as Temple Mount. Pilate is believed to rule from 26 to 37 AD.
The road is measured to be 600 meters (655 yards) long and 8 meters (9 yards) wide. Previously, it was thought the street was constructed by Herod the Great who ruled from 37 to 4 BC.
But now, there have been over 100 coins discovered under the road. These coins point to the dates of 31 to 40 AD during the reign of Pontius Pilate.
“Dating using coins is very exact. Some coins show the year in which they were minted. If a coin found beneath a street is dated 30 C.E. then the street had to be built that same year or any time after 30 C.E.” -Dr. Donald T. Ariel, Archaeologist and coin expert, Israel Antiquities Authority
Photo: Ariel David, Haaretz
“It’s not just that we found Pilate’s coins. We also have to look at what we didn’t find and would have expected to find had the road been built after Agrippa I became king of Judea. From a statistical point of view it’s hard to imagine that the road was built after 41 because we don’t have any coins from that period.” Nashon Szanton, Archaeologist, Israel Antiquities Authority, Ph.D. Student at Tel Aviv University. Szanton is also the lead author for the research of the project.
Coins from Agrippa I were found above the pavement. Agrippa I ruled from 41 to 44 AD. These coins were found with burned material. History tells us Jerusalem and the Temple were leveled and torched in 70 AD by the Romans.
For more details on the dig, see the link provided below. Charts and pictures are provided.
The narratives in the gospel accounts were real events and the people who participated were real people. Pontius Pilate was a real person. It appears he commissioned a real street with real steps in the City of David. And once again, the Bible confirms modern day science and archaeology.
1 Samuel 30:1 Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire…
Joshua 15:20, 21, 31 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the people of Judah according to their clans. The cities belonging to the tribe of the people of Judah in the extreme south, toward the boundary of Edom, were… (included) Ziklag.
Ziklag was a member of the tribe of Judah. He was a man who inherited a city when the ancient Israelis were given the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. The word origin and meaning of Ziklag is relatively unknown.
Until recently, the actual location of ancient Ziklag has been a mystery and a point of controversy. But now, new evidence has emerged.
Under the leadership of Prof. Yosef Garfinkel, Head of the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem; the IAA’s Saar Ganor; and Dr. Kyle Keimer and Dr. Gil Davis of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, the location of Khirbet a-Ra‘i has been identified.
Khirbet a-Ra’i is between Lachish and Kiryat Gat. The site is approximately 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem.
This location is believed to be where David took refuge from King Saul.
Pottery discovered at the site is consistent with the era of King David.
Photo: Times of Israel
See the link below from the Times of Israel for more details.
2 Chronicles 11:5-12 Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and he built cities for defense in Judah. He built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, fortified cities that are in Judah and in Benjamin. He made the fortresses strong, and put commanders in them, and stores of food, oil, and wine. And he put shields and spears in all the cities and made them very strong. So he held Judah and Benjamin.
An ancient fortified wall has been recently discovered in Lachish.
Prof. Yosef Garfinkel, Head of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology recently made the following statements.
“We looked in three places, and ultimately, in the northern section, we found a wall between Layer 6 and Layer 4. Later the excavators reached a floor that stretches to the wall, which could be dated using olive pits found beneath the floors. Samples of the pits were sent to the particle accelerator at Oxford, which ruled that the wall had been built around 920 B.C.E., which was exactly the rule of Rehoboam, son of Solomon and grandson of David.”
See the links below from Haaretz and The Times of Israel for more details.
1 Samuel 27:5-7 Then David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your eyes, let me be assigned a place in one of the outlying towns, so I can live there. For why should your servant live in the royal city with you?” That day Achish gave him Ziklag, and to this day it still belongs to the kings of Judah. And the time that David lived in Philistine territory amounted to a year and four months.
Luke 10:13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.-Jesus
See also Matthew 11:21.
Apparently Jesus performed some miracles in ancient Chorazin. Apparently the citizens of Chorazin were not impressed. Woe…
Scholars believe ancient Chorazin was near the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. Historians estimate Chorazin was approximately 2-3 miles from Capernaum.
An archeological dig in northern Israel has resulted in the discovery of a winepress with mosaic tile. The find is located in the Korazim National Park.
“There were Jews here who drank wine and produced wine, alongside Korazim’s special olive oil and wheat industries. The winepress provides further evidence for the uniqueness of the village, with all its features that included residential homes, agricultural industries, a Jewish ritual bath and of course the magnificent synagogue.” -Dekel Segev, Korazim National Park Manager
Lead Archaeologist Ahiya Cohen-Tavor made the following statement, “Unlike most wine presses, which are located in agricultural sites, this one is in the village itself, and the agronomists invested also in decorating its floor with a mosaic featuring patterns of squares and rhombuses.”
2 Kings 23:11 And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
Nathan-melech means: given of a king, a leader in Israel.
Nathan-melech was a “saris” in the original Hebrew. A saris can be translated as a eunich, valet or officer. (Strong’s Concordance)
Nathan-melech knew King Josiah of Israel. This is the only mention in the Biblical text of Nathan-melech.
City of David, Israel: Excavations continue south of the Temple Mount in the greater Jerusalem area. The specific location is the Givati Parking Lot (see red marker in map below).
Photo: Eliyahu Yanai, City of David
The discovery of a clay seal impression is the issue. The find is estimated to be 2,600 years old. The clay seal is written in paleo Hebrew. The seal says, “to Nathan-Melech, Servant of the King” (LeNathan-Melech Eved HaMelech).
“This burnt clay impression is the first archaeological evidence of the biblical name Nathan-Melech.” -Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel
Scholars and experts are looking at this find in its geographical context. The object was found in its place, a large, two-story First Temple structure. The remains of the administrative building are consistent with the burning of Jerusalem in 586 BC at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. Experts were surprised the location of the building was further south of the modern day Temple Mount.
Dr. Yiftah Shalev, Israel Antiquities Authority made the following observation.
“What is importance is not just that they were found in Jerusalem, but (that they were found) inside their true archaeological context. (There is a) connect between the artifact and the actual physical era it was found in. It is not a coincidence that the seal and the seal impression are found here.”
The find is faith confirming for many people.
“This is an extremely exciting find for billions of people worldwide. The personal seal of Natan-Melech, a senior official in the government of Josiah, King of Judah, as described in the second book of Kings. The ongoing archaeological excavations at the City of David continue to prove that ancient Jerusalem is no longer just a matter of faith, but also a matter of fact.” -Doron Spielman, Vice President, City of David Foundation
Skeptics are looking at the archaeological find with an open mind.
“Although it is not possible to determine with complete certainty that the Nathan-Melech who is mentioned in the Bible was in fact the owner of the stamp, it is impossible to ignore some of the details that link them together,” Mendel-Geberovich, Scholar.
For more detail, see the article link below from the Times of Israel.
Exodus 30:13-16 This is what everyone who is numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as a contribution to the Lord. Everyone who is numbered, from twenty years old and over, shall give the contribution to the Lord. The rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less than the half shekel, when you give the contribution to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves. You shall take the atonement money from the sons of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the sons of Israel before the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves.”
Photo: Eliyahu Yanai, City of David, Times of Israel
November 2018: An ancient weight from the first Temple era has been discovered in Jerusalem. The “beka” has been found in an archeological dig. A “beka” was used by Jews to pay the half-shekel Temple tax as mandated by the Law in Exodus 30 as noted in the verses above.
The term “beka” is noted two places in the Bible. The first notation is with Rebekah and Abraham’s servant Eliezer.
Genesis 24:22 When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing a beka and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels in gold…
The second and last mention is in regards to the individual payment of the Temple tax.
Exodus 38:26 a beka a head (that is, half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary), for each one who passed over to those who were numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for 603,550 men.
A Biblical shekel weighs 11.33 grams. Two beka equal one shekel. One beka equals 5.67 grams. Ten gerah equal a beka.
The “beka” was located in Jerusalem’s Emek Tzurim National Park. Specifically, it was found at the foundation of the Western Wall. The pebble was found during 2013 excavations under Robinson’s Arch. The dirt came from a drainage canal under the foundation of the Western Wall. This location would be next to Solomon’s Temple.
Eli Shukron was in charge of the dig on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Shukron made the following statement.
“When the half-shekel tax was brought to the Temple during the First Temple period, there were no coins, so they used silver ingots. In order to calculate the weight of these silver pieces they would put them on one side of the scales and on the other side they placed the beka weight. The beka was equivalent to the half-shekel, which every person from the age of 20 years and up was required to bring to the Temple.”
“This three thousand-year-old beka weight, inscribed with ancient Hebrew was likely used in the First Temple, anchoring once again, the deep historical connection of the Jewish People to Jerusalem,” said Doron Spielman, Vice President of the City of David Foundation which funded the excavation.
In the 21st century, the modern-day Sanhedrin has revived the law or mitzvah for the half-shekel levy (roughly $4 in today’s economy). The cause is to rebuild the third Temple.
Here is today’s version of the half-shekel Temple tax…
John 2:9-11 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in Him.
August 2018: Tradition has Jesus’ water to wine miracle at Kafr Kanna. The “Wedding Church” is located in this town in northern Israel. Archaeology may be providing a new location five miles north.
Tunnels have been located with references to “Kyrie Iesou” in the ancient Greek. Translated to English, this would be Lord Jesus.
This is the location of Khirbet Qana. This was a Jewish village from 323 BC to 324 AD.
Located in the tunnels were an altar, shelf and the remains of a stone vessel. There was space for five additional vessels.
John 2:6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
For all the teetotalers out there, Jesus is throwing one hell of a party. Jesus subjected a wedding party to 120-180 gallons of wine. And He kept the good stuff (120-180 gallons) for the end of the party after the people have drunk freely.
I conjecture this event is a foreshadowing to His wedding party when He marries His bride the church. You want to be invited to this party! Any one out there want to wag their finger and lecture Jesus?
Dr Tom McCollough who leads the dig had the following observations.
“We have uncovered a large Christian veneration cave complex that was used by Christian pilgrims who came to venerate the water-to-wine miracle. 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.”
Dr. McCollough also pointed to the Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus.
Image: Daily Mail
“His references to Cana align geographically with the location of Khirbet Qana and align logically with his movements. 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.”
As for today’s tourist trips to Kafr Kanna, McCollough had the following observations.
“When tourists visiting Israel today are taken to Cana, they are taken to Kafr Kanna. However, this site was not recognized as a pilgrimage site for those seeking Cana until the 1700s. At this point the Franciscans were managing Christian pilgrimage and facilitating easy passage rather than historical accuracy.”
“I would argue our excavations warrant at least a reconsideration of the historical value of John’s references to Cana and Jesus.”
For more in depth research, pictures of the site, artifacts, see the link below provided.
Deuteronomy 20:16-17 But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded…
The cultural and scientific experts and atheists have a field day with these verses. “God is a mean old vicious ogre who is committed to genocide. What kind of God is He? I don’t want anything to do with this kind of God.” And on and on and on…
The problem with God is He has the audacity to tell the human race that He is in charge. Culture and law are on His terms, not humanity’s. There is one way to do things, His way. God is authority. God will say “NO!” And God will define the consequences and execute accordingly. The peoples above were not interested in God’s law or worshipping the Hebrew God.
Exodus 20:3 You shall have no other gods before Me.
Proverbs 10:16 The wages of the righteous is life, the income of the wicked, punishment.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Who are we kidding? To this day, those who do not believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob could care less.
The Canaanite genome was sequenced from five buried bodies near the town of Sidon, Lebanon. This is the same ancient Sidon from the Bible. Canaan also happens to be the father of Sidon.
Genesis 10:15 Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth…
Sidon is located on the middle coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
Genesis 10:19a And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza…
Per the American Journal of Human Genetics, modern day Lebanese share 93% of their DNA with the ancient Canaanites. The 5 bodies were estimated to be buried approximately 3,700 years ago. If the dating of these 5 bodies is correct, this would place the Israelites in captivity in Egypt. The DNA was compared to 99 modern day Lebanese citizens. The timeline fits.
In a stunning turn of events, Scientists were wrong in their assumptions and expectations in comparisons of the two groups!
The following is an excerpt from National Geographic: While the researchers were surprised at the level of genetic continuity between ancient Canaanites and modern Lebanese after some 4,000 years of war, migration, and conquest in the area, they caution against drawing too many conclusions on ancient history based solely on genetic data.
With the DNA findings, scientific/cultural experts and atheists were quick to point out, “These disproves the Bible! The Canaanites were wiped out in the Bible. And they are still here in modern day Lebanon.”
A couple problems here… One, these “experts” have not read the Bible. Two, ancient Israel was disobedient to God’s command in Deuteronomy 20:16-17. Scripture bears witness to Israel’s disobedience to cleanse the land. Israel used the Canaanites as slave labor. After 400 years of bondage in Egypt, it was time for another group of people to work for Israel.
Joshua 17:12-13 Yet the people of Manasseh could not take possession of those cities, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. Now when the people of Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out.
Judges 1:27-28 restates the above passages from Joshua.
The Canaanites of the Bible were real people. And they are significant genetic relatives to modern day citizens near Sidon, Lebanon.
1 Chronicles 22:9-10 ‘Behold, a son will be born to you, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for My name, and he shall be My son and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’
The Lord God of Israel is talking to King David. He was kept from building the Temple of the Lord because of war and bloodshed in the land (1 Chronicles 22:8).
October 27, 2016: Artifacts from the Solomon Temple era were found on location of the Temple Mount. King Solomon built the first Temple in approximately 960 BC. This is the first time evidence has been found on top of the Temple Mount. Previously in the Ophel excavations, items were found off the southeast wall of the Temple Mount near the Kidron Valley.
Evidence unearthed included: olive pits, animal bones and pottery fragments. One of the largest finds occurred when a trench for a power cable was dug. The find was located approximately 400 feet southeast of the Dome of the Rock. Carbon dating confirmed the time era of the pieces.
This archeology dig was completed quietly with the Muslim Waqf who is in charge of security on the Temple Mount. Multiple surveys have taken place between 2007 and 2016.
October 13, 2016: The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voted to deny recognition of religious sites on the Temple Mount to the Jewish people. The UN stated the Temple Mount belongs to the Muslims.
The verses from 1 Chronicles 22:9-10 were prophetic to David and Solomon approximately 1,000 years before Jesus Christ. And they came to pass. But the verses also foreshadow the future of our day in October 2016.
David’s son will establish His kingdom. He will establish peace and quiet. He will build a house.
Mark 1:11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Revelation 1:6 and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
2 Samuel 5:7 Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David.
At stake is the past and future location of the Jewish Temple. Zion equals the city of David. This is a critical statement.
There are many scholars, critics, and experts who suggest Jerusalem, Zion, and the city of David are synonymous. The Bible says something different.
The city of David is a specific location within greater Jerusalem. The city of David is located south of what is known as the Temple Mount in modern day Jerusalem. The city of David is down the hill, below, and south of the modern day Temple Mount. The distance between the two locations is approximately 600-1000 feet.
2 Chronicles 3:1 Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
The verse in 2 Chronicles gives a specific location for the Temple. Where did the Jebusites live? Where is the floor of Ornan the Jebusite? The verse states it is in Jerusalem. The Bible has answers.
2 Samuel 5:6 Now the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, and they said to David, “You shall not come in here, but the blind and lame will turn you away”; thinking, “David cannot enter here.”
The Jebusites lived in Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 5:7 Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David.
The following terms are synonymous per Scripture, Zion and city of David.
2 Samuel 5:8b Whoever attacks them should strike by going into the city through the water tunnel.
A water source is noted to be within the area of the Jebusites. There is only one source of water in the area, the Gihon Spring. The spring is located down the hill and south of the modern day Temple Mount. The Gihon Spring is approximately 600-1000 feet south and below the Temple Mount complex as we know it.
2 Samuel 5:9 So David lived in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built all around from the Millo and inward.
Once conquered, David named the fortress area the city of David. The area was walled. David built up the area within. David commissioned his son Solomon to build the Temple.
Solomon’s temple was built within a few years of 970 BC. Herod improved upon the second Temple which was built in 350 BC. Herod’s Temple was rebuilt and refurbished in roughly 20 BC. Both Temples were built on the same site.
Fast forward roughly 3,000 years from King David to today’s world, November 2015. This real estate is back in the news in a major way.
Archeologists have unearthed a fort to the south of the modern day Temple Mount in the city of David. The site has been covered by a parking lot.
“The new archeological finds indicate the establishment of a well-fortified stronghold that was constructed on the high bedrock cliff overlooking the steep slopes of the City of David hill,” the archeologists said in a joint statement.
First century AD Jewish historian Flavius Josephus noted a fortress, “…he built a citadel in the lower part of the city, for the place was high, and overlooked the Temple; on which account he fortified it with high walls and towers, and put into it a garrison of Macedonians.” The first century book of Maccabees also confirms the location of the citadel in the city of David.
Multiple sources from across time all note the city of David as the location south of the modern day Temple Mount. Yet the conclusion drawn by experts??? The Temple was built north of the location unearthed. “This stronghold controlled all means of approach to the Temple atop the Temple Mount, and cut the Temple off from the southern parts of the city.”
Historians and books written in the first century say the Temple site was south in the city of David. This is below the modern day Temple Mount area.
The Bible says the Temple site was south in the city of David.
John 2:9-11 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
