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Updates from Todd Bolen:
â—Ź Earliest Church in Jordan
â—Ź Just Another Byzantine Church
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From the Christian Post:
Archaeologists unearthed in Jordan what they believe to be the world’s first church, according to a report Monday.
“We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33 AD to 70 AD,” said Abdul Qader al-Hussan, the head of Jordan’s Rihab Center for Archaeological Studies, to The Jordan Times …
Hussan said his team has evidence to believe “this church sheltered the early Christians – the 70 disciples of Jesus Christ.” These 70 early Christians are said to have fled persecution in Jerusalem, particularly to Rihab, and founded churches in northern Jordan …
The underground church has been described as a cave with several stone seats believed to have been for the clergy and a circular shaped area, thought to be the apse – an area which usually contains the altar.
Chuck Swindoll’s Insight for Living ministry presents Insight’s Archaeology Handbook: The Key Finds and Why They Matter. This 120-page handbook highlights the top ten archaeological discoveries relating to the Bible. Complete with photographs, the book covers the Temple Mount, Hezekiah’s Tunnel, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Merneptah Stele, the Tel Dan Inscription, the Sea of Galilee boat and more.
The book is available for a donation through the end of May. After that it will be available in their online store. You can view a video about the book here.
HT: BiblePlaces Blog
“Striking an ancient chord” from Haaretz:
Sounds, archaeological finds and scientific hypotheses all play major roles in an exhibition entitled “Sounds of Ancient Music,” which opened last week at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem. Focusing on musical developments in ancient Sumeria, Babylon, Assyria and other cultures of the Ancient Near East, through the periods of the Kingdom of Judea, Greece and the Roman Empire, the exhibition features 137 objects - among them, rare musical instruments that have been preserved from antiquity, as well as full-sized replicas of instruments from those early eras …
Visitors to the exhibition are invited to listen to a trumpet being blown the way the researchers believe it sounded in the courtyard of the Temple. There are also earlier finds on hand - for example, a flute from the Chalcolithic period (the Copper Age, 4,300-3,300 B.C.E.), one of the oldest wind instruments discovered in all of the Near East …
Multimedia stations have been set up in the museum so as to enable visitors to virtually “play” such ancient instruments as the lyre, the flute and drums. Dozens of digital music players provide an audio guide in Hebrew and English with a highlight tour of the exhibition, peppered with the musical interludes based on the sounds of ancient instruments.
HT: BiblePlaces Blog
SourceFlix Productions has put together an excellent 3 minute video interviewing five biblical archaeologists on site in Israel. Here are some of their answers to the question: “Is the Bible relevant to archaeology?”
“You can’t do archaeology in Israel without the Bible.” (Dr. Aren Maier)
“Serious scholars, even if they’re not believers, even if they do not think this is a sacred text, still consider it to be history, because things match up so well … As it’s coming together, there isn’t anything to contradict or anything to make me wary of the testimony of Scripture.” (Dr. Steven Ortiz)
“I can’t ignore the Bible because the Bible is our main text relating to the periods that we excavate … I need some texts to refer to, and the Bible is, of course, the main one.” (Dr. Amihai Mazar)
“You cannot exclude the Bible from archaeology in this part of the country, in this particular period. You can, but then you are missing a very, very important tool … And you are missing not only this, then you are dealing with pots and pans and bones and dust. You lose the soul.” (Dr. Amnon Ben Tor)
(Note: Dr. Gabriel Barkay is also interviewed.)
There is more on the video. If you’ve got three minutes, I encourage you to visit SourceFlix and listen to these men talk on site about their work in archaeology and the Bible.
HT: BiblePlaces Blog
The British Museum announced that the cuneiform inscription in a tablet dating from 595 B.C. confirms the existence of a person who until this time was known only through the biblical book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 39:3 identifies Nebo-Sarsekim as an official of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 587 B.C. The museum tablet records Nebo-Sarsekim as making a large gift of gold for the temple in Babylon during the same time period.
Irving Finkel, assistant keeper in the Department of the Middle East, said: “A mundane commercial transaction takes its place as a primary witness to one of the turning points in Old Testament history. This is a tablet that deserves to be famous.”
The discovery was made by Michael Jursa, associate professor at the University of Vienna, on a routine research trip to the museum. “It’s very exciting and very surprising,” he said. “Finding something like this tablet, where we see a person mentioned in the Bible making an everyday payment to the temple in Babylon and quoting the exact date, is quite extraordinary.”
Dr. Jursa told The Times that the British Museum tablet was so well preserved that it took him just a couple of minutes to decipher. The tablet was part of a large temple archive excavated in the 1870’s and acquired by the British Museum in 1920. Dr Jursa said: “But no one realised the connection. They didn’t really read it.”
HT: BiblePlaces Blog
The New Seven Wonders of the World were announced today in Lisbon, Portugal. (Today’s date being, appropriately enough, 7/7/07). The New7Wonders were selected by worldwide popular vote from 21 candidates chosen from the top 77 different nominees. Here is the list unranked, as they are all considered equal:
The New 7 Wonders of the World
- Chichen Itza - Mexico
- The Great Wall of China - China
- Machu Picchu - Peru
- Petra - Jordan
- The Roman Colosseum - Italy
- The Statue of Christ Redeemer - Brazil
- The Taj Mahal - India
And here are the remaining candidates that were not selected:
- The Acropolis - Greece
- The Alhambra - Spain
- Angkor - Cambodia
- The Easter Island Statues - Chile
- The Eiffel Tower - France
- Hagia Sophia - Turkey
- Kiyomizu Temple - Japan
- The Kremlin - St. Basil’s
- Neuschwanstein Castle - Germany
- The Statue of Liberty - U.S.A.
- Stonehenge - United Kingdom
- The Sydney Opera House - Australia
- Timbuktu - Mali
The Great Pyramids of Giza
- The Great Pyramids of Giza - Egypt
- The Great Pyramids of Giza were part of the final 21 candidates for the New7Wonders but were removed from competition out of respect for Egypt. They are the only remaining structures from the original list of Seven Wonders of the World. Thus, they will be listed together with the New7Wonders as the Eight Wonders of the World.
So, have you ever visited any of these sites? Which are your favorites?
Note: The New7Wonders Project is sponsored by The New7Wonders Foundation. The N7W Foundation was created in 2001 by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber, with a mission to protect humankind’s heritage across the globe. Fifty percent of all net revenue raised by the New7Wonders Project is to be used to fund restoration efforts of important monuments around the world.
Additional Note: Here is the original list of Seven Wonders of the World:
- The Colossus of Rhodes
- The Great Pyramids of Giza
- The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
- The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
- The Pharos Lighthouse off Alexandria
- The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
- The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
This traditional list was derived from various lists compiled by ancient Greek observers. The Pyramids of Giza are the only surviving structures from the original list. The rest no longer exist.
Todd Bolen at BiblePlaces Blog shares his top ten sites in Jerusalem. Todd also provides some interesting commentary and pictures on the various sites. I have never been to the Holy Land myself but would love to visit some day.
Well, it’s not quite the Holodeck, but it still sounds pretty interesting. Has anyone ever heard about the Visualization Portal at UCLA before? I came across this in some reading this weekend.
A 40-seat theater with up-to-date virtual reality technologies located on the 5th floor of the Math Science Building, the facility is literally a portal into other times, places, and experiences. The Portal is used for both instruction and research, and has particular foci on Historical Architectural Monuments, Scientific Visualizations and Digital Technologies for the Performance Arts …
The historical architectural models shown in the Portal are an experiment in using virtual reality to recreate a place and time that no longer exist. Used both for research and instruction, there are currently 42 models under development to improve the understanding of the original historical site and to develop new applications that will ultimately heighten the research and instruction experiences.
Rhett Smith shares about his experience touring the Second Temple in the Visualizaton Portal. (The Second Temple was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem which stood between 516 BC and 70 AD. Solomon’s Temple, also known as the First Temple, was destroyed in 586 BC.)
Bel Air Presbyterian attender and UCLA Chair for the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures Bill Schniedewind was our host, as he walked us through the Second Temple. In just that short time the Bible was brought to life for me in ways that I could not have imagined. I have been to Israel, Syria and Jordan before, but even being there in person didn’t compare to walking through the Second Temple in practical “virtual reality.” Dr. Schniedewind also walked us through Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls which was also very, very fascinating.
You can view a sample video of the Portal here. The video takes you on a brief virtual reality tour of the Second Temple, the Coliseum, Port Royal, the Roman Forum, and of course a virtual UCLA campus. The video also includes samples from some of the scientific visualizations such as simulations of the creation of the universe, weather models, antibodies, etc. This sounds like a fascinating project and well worth a visit if you are ever in the area.
Ben Witherington was in Turkey last week and offers some pictures and commentary from the town of Harran. Modern-day Harran is the site of the Biblical Haran where Abraham and his family settled before moving to Canaan. (”Together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.” - Genesis 11:31.) This is a picture of an ancient astrological tower located in the ruins of Harran.
From this very tower in the second century B.C. the distance between the earth and moon was correctly calculated. Ancient astrologers were not tawdry palm readers– they were mathematicians scanning the heavenly realms and making calculations. Think of the wise men in Matthew’s Gospel. For someone on a spiritual journey, coming to Harran was like finding the ultimate ancient GPS device– you fell right into the lap of the greatest stargazers and mystics available. It is no surprise then that Gen. 12.1-3 depicts Abram himself as receiving a revelation in this very place to move on to Canaan. As a crossroads town, Harran was an important watch and signal post as well, and they sent messages by means of trained birds to the next caravanserai– trained birds like small hawks and carrier pigeons, just like the ones still nesting in the tower today. Imagine my surprise when I huffed and puffed up the tower only to find such birds still nesting there. Also in the center of the ruins was a huge reflection pool, also used for stargazing as in the movie ‘The Nativity’.
I thought the reflecting pool in The Nativity Story was awesome, so it is very cool to know these things actually existed. You can visit Ben’s site for more background information and more pictures from his trip.
Archeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem believe they have found the tomb of King Herod at Herodium, a fortified palace built by Herod 12 kilometers south of Jerusalem.
Professor Ehud Netzer of the university’s Institute of Archaeology told reporters Tuesday that the tomb was discovered when a team of researchers found pieces of a limestone sarcophagus believed to belong to the ancient king.
Although there were no bones in the container, he said the sarcophagus’ location and ornate appearance indicated it was Herod’s …
The professor, who is considered one of the leading experts on King Herod, has conducted archeological digs at Herodium since 1972 in an attempt to locate the grave and tomb.
It will be interesting to see how this discovery plays out in comparison to the lost Jesus tomb fiasco back in February/March of this year. New Testament scholar Ben Witherington weighs in on this:
Why should we believe this claim after the bogus one about the tomb of Jesus? In the first place the locale is right. The Herodium was a fortress which Herod built near Jerusalem so he would have a place to flee to in a hurry if an enemy was closing in. It is a fascinating site which involved the feat of shaving off several hills in order to build up the one on top of which this fortress is perched. There is also the fact that this claim by Netzer comports with what Josephus tells us about the demise of Herod the not so Great.
For more information on this blog about the Jesus Family Tomb, see the following articles:
HT: Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds
Randy Ingermason, who has a PH.D in physics from U.C. Berkley, has put together a fun set of statistics relating to the Jesus Family Tomb. In his March 26, 2007 article here, he introduces the reader to Bayes’ Theorum and at the same time gives you a crash course in statistical analysis.
What’s fun about Ingermason’s article is that he not only gives you five different possible scenarios (click on “Continue reading …” below), but he also gives you a downloadable Excel spreadsheet so that you can run the numbers yourself. How likely is it that the tomb at Talpiot is really the Lost Tomb of Jesus? You do the math!
HT: Dr. Darrell Bock at Bock’s Blog (Dr. Bock has multiple posts at his blog relating to the Jesus Tomb, including email exchanges with Jim Tabor, the biblical scholar and historical consultant on the Lost Family Tomb Documentary.)
Note: For more information on this blog about the Jesus Family Tomb, see the following articles:
Continue reading ‘The Jesus Family Tomb and Bayes’ Theorum - You Do the Math!’
The Lost Tomb television special on the Discovery Channel reached four million viewers, and the accompanying book is now number six on the New York Times nonfiction best seller list. Unfortunately, unless these viewers and readers look elsewhere for information, they are only getting one side of a story. I have been following this story since it broke on February 26 and believe that it provides an excellent case study in bias.
Here are five ways to ensure bias in any presentation:
- Decide on your conclusion at the beginning rather than at the end of your investigation.
- Select only the evidence that supports your conclusion. Discard any evidence that contradicts your conclusion.
- Choose your experts accordingly. Ask them leading questions. Present only those portions of their answers that support your conclusion.
- Manipulate any numbers or statistics to bolster your case.
- Work in isolation. Do not submit your work for peer review. Present your conclusions publicly before other knowledgeable people have had the opportunity to examine and challenge the evidence at hand.
It would seem that the makers of The Lost Tomb special are guilty in all five of these areas. But rather than turning the guns on them today, let’s take this list and apply it to ourselves. How often are we guilty of introducing bias in any of these ways?
Updated 3/17/2007: I encourage you to visit Dr. Andreas Köstenberger’s blog, Biblical Foundations, for more (and better) insights on this topic.
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