Todd Bolen, Author at BiblePlaces.com

Chisel Discovered from Temple Mount Construction

Archaeologists excavating in the area below Robinson’s Arch along the southern end of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount have discovered a metal chisel used to shape the stones in the first century.
The Israel Antiquities Authority has not issued a press release yet, but Haaretz has learned of the discovery.

Archaeologists have found a stonemason’s chisel that they believe may have been used by the builders of the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Actually Eli Shukron, an archaeologist working for the Israel Antiquities Authority, found the chisel last summer while digging at the lower base of the Western Wall, south of the Western Wall courtyard. However, the IAA has preferred to remain silent on the discovery, based on the need to study the tool and other evidence further before issuing any statements, it explained.
Shukron has been digging in the area of the City of David and the Western Wall together with Prof. Ronny Reich for the past 19 years, until a few months ago. In recent years Shukron had been excavating inside a tunnel found to lead from the City of David into the Old City, passing beneath its massive stone wall and ending at the Western Wall.
[…]
The chisel is just one of many archaeological treasures that Shukron and Reich reported from the area. Other finds include a Roman sword, cooking vessels from the period of the Great Rebellion, a gold bell that they think may have adorned the robe of the High Priest, and a ceramic seal apparently used to confirm the suitability of sacrifices brought to the Temple.
[…]
“People pray and kiss these holy stones every day, but somebody carved them, somebody chiseled them, somebody positioned them,” Shukron says. “They were workers, human beings, who had tools. Today for the first time we can touch a chisel that belonged to one of them.”

The full article in Haaretz (registration/subscription required) explains the basis for dating the construction of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount to one of the rulers after King Herod.

HT: Joseph Lauer

Chisel used in construction of Western Wall
Photo by Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority

Western Wall excavations below the ancient street level near discovery location

Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem, Temple Mount

Weekend Roundup

Aren Maeir will be lecturing on the Philistines in Kansas City and Chicago later this month.

Carl Rasmussen ran into a pack of wild boar at Caesarea Philippi and some in his group managed to get photos. (I’ve managed the former but never the latter.)

Israeli police arrested five Jews attempting to sacrifice a goat at the Temple Mount for Passover.

A couple of tombs from the 26th Dynasty were discovered in Pr-Medjet. Luxor Times has photos.

The ruins of Palmyra have suffered from the Syrian civil war, and the New York Times provides an update.

The ASOR roundup has more stories from archaeology around the world.

Bibles-Online is a new site that allows you to view every page of rare and antique copies of the Scriptures, including the 1521 Erasmus Greek NT, the 1535 Coverdale Bible, the 1549 Matthew-Tyndale Bible, and others.

Wayne Stiles is offering a significant discount on his new audiobook this weekend before it is available at Audible.com. I’ve highly recommended the print version of Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus in the past and now the audiobook is available for less than $7.

HT: Jack Sasson, Charles Savelle

Tagged Egypt, Holidays, Jerusalem, Lectures, Philistines, Resources, Syria, Temple Mount

Bible-Related Works at Oxford University Press Free This Week

Oxford University Press: “To celebrate National Library Week (April 13th – 19th 2014) and all the hard work librarians do to support their patrons, OUP is freeing up our entire list of online products for one week only!”

UPDATE (4/16): OUP is *not* making available most of the titles listed here. Therefore we have deleted the previous contents of this post. We’re sorry. (See comments below for a reply from OUP.)

Tagged Resources

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Now online: the video of Eugene Merrill’s recent lecture on “Ai and Old Testament Chronology: Who Cares?”

Places of the Passion Week in 360-Degrees – Wayne Stiles shares some new photos.

The ASOR Blog has a series of posts about Passover and Jesus:

The Last Passover of Jesus, by James H. Charlesworth
Passover as Jesus Knew It, by Helen K. Bond
Did Jesus Celebrate Passover in Sepphoris?, by Eric M. Meyers

Also on the ASOR Blog: 10 Tips for Packing for a Dig

The sale of a Nebuchadnezzar II cylinder set a world auction record.

Now available for Kindle: Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament with English translation ($6.99)

iPad users can purchase the HebrewBible app here ($9.99).

Happy 6th Blogiversary to BibleX!

HT: Ted Weis

Tagged Excavations, Exodus-Conquest, Holidays, Jerusalem, Lectures, Resources, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Leo Depuydt still believes that the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” is “hilarious” and “patently fake.” His article in the Harvard Theological Review is online as is Karen King’s response. Some excerpts are given in The Washington Post. Christianity Today runs an interview with Nicholas Perrin of Wheaton College about what it all means.

A fascinating new exhibition will be opening next month at the British Museum on mummies and what we know about them from the latest technology. The changing graphic on the museum website provides a preview. This AP article has more details.

Luxor Times has photos of antiquities recently stolen from the Luxor Temple.

Barry Kemp has posted a report from the latest season of excavations of the Great Aten Temple in
Amarna.

King Tut began his US tour in Kansas City this week. He will be in San Diego in time for the annual meetings.

Some excellent Zondervan e-resources on sale until tomorrow:

NIV Study Bible – $9.99
How to Read the Bible Book by Book – $3.99
How to Choose a Translation for All Its Worth – $3.79 (reviewed here)
Zondervan Dictionary of Biblical Imagery – $5.99
Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, Volume 1 – $6.99
Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, Volume 2 – $5.98
Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, Volume 3 – $6.99
Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, Volume 4 – $6.99
Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, Volume 5 – $6.99

The full list is here. The first two are particular favorites of mine. All 5 volumes of ZEB for only $34 is very good, though this resource may be more difficult to use in electronic format than in print form ($121).

HT: G. M. Grena, Jack Sasson

Small Temple of Aten, Tell el-Amarna
Photo from Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

Tagged Egypt, Excavations, Forgery, Museums, New Exhibits, Resources

Jesus’ Wife Papyrus Fragment Likely Ancient

From the New York Times:

A faded fragment of papyrus known as the “Gospel of Jesus’s Wife,” which caused an uproar when unveiled by a Harvard Divinity School historian in 2012, has been tested by scientists who conclude in a journal published on Thursday that the ink and papyrus are very likely ancient, and not a modern forgery.
Skepticism about the tiny scrap of papyrus has been fierce because it contained a phrase never before seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife…’ ” Too convenient for some, it also contained the words “she will be able to be my disciple,” a clause that inflamed the debate in some churches over whether women should be allowed to be priests.
The papyrus fragment has now been analyzed by professors of electrical engineering, chemistry and biology at Columbia University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who reported that it resembles other ancient papyri from the fourth to the eighth centuries. (Scientists at the University of Arizona, who dated the fragment to centuries before the birth of Jesus, concluded that their results were unreliable.)
The test results do not prove that Jesus had a wife or disciples who were women, only that the fragment is more likely a snippet from an ancient manuscript than a fake, the scholars agree. Karen L. King, the historian at Harvard Divinity School who gave the papyrus its name and fame, has said all along that it should not be regarded as evidence that Jesus married, only that early Christians were actively discussing celibacy, sex, marriage and discipleship.

The full NYT article is here. The Harvard Theological Review article is available for free download here.

An initial radiocarbon analysis dated the fragment to 404–209 BC; a second analysis gave a mean date of AD 741. King concludes with a date in the 7th or 8th centuries AD. As far as being a reliable witness to 1st century events, it is not. The author notes that the fragment should be studied in light of the Muslim view that prophets were usually married.

In King’s reading, “The main point of the GJW fragment is simply to affirm that women who are wives and mothers can be Jesus’s disciples.”

Previous posts about this subject:

Somebody Once Believed Jesus Had a Wife

Articles on Jesus’ Wife

Tagged Forgery