The James Ossuary has been released by the Israel Antiquities Authority to the owner Oded Golan. Matthew Kalman explains how police contamination of the James Ossuary was a factor in the the verdict of “not guilty.” Ninety antiquities on sale in a Jerusalem auction were returned to Egypt last week. Nir Hasson reports on antiquities dealers in Israel who are fighting governmental efforts to force them to use a computer database. Haaretz: How a Canaanite goddess conquered ancient Egypt The Biblical Archaeological Society is providing open access to its seven articles on Lachish in honor of the opening of the fourth expedition. The Catholic Herald runs a recent interview with Jerome Murphy-O’Connor. Leen Ritmeyer shares some of his own reflections. The Book and the Spade re-runs an interview from 2008. Ritmeyer shares a screenshot of a digital picture of ancient Jerusalem from the forthcoming iMax 3D movie. HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor passed away today in Jerusalem. A Dominican priest and author of many books, Murphy-O’Connor is best known to many visitors of Israel for The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700. This excellent guide has been published in five editions beginning in 1980 with the most recent update in 2008.
HT: Paleojudaica
Norma Franklin asks, Why was Jezreel so important to the kingdom of Israel? Her claim that “there is no mention in the biblical narrative” of an Israelite palace is incorrect (1 Kings 21:1).
Another story on the excavations of Carchemish reports that the Japanese offered a million dollars for the opportunity to dig there.
The pigs in ancient Israel allegedly came from Europe.
Five historical monuments have been destroyed in Syria’s civil war. The photos show the damage.
How did ancient Greek music sound? The BBC reports on the research of Armand D’Angour.
How do you avoid losing what you learned on your trip to the Holy Land? Wayne Stiles suggests seven ways. My favorite is #4: Share with people what you have learned and experienced.
Leon Mauldin is doing a series on the cities of refuge. So far, he’s visited Kedesh, Shechem, and Hebron.
All of the entries from Skyview’s 2013 Creative Shot Contest are online.
The Batchelder Conference of Biblical Archeology at the University of Nebraska is scheduled for Thursday through Saturday.
Haaretz profiles the Mormon campus on the Mount of Olives, with details about the campus architecture and the “Non-Proselyting Agreement.”
HT: Jack Sasson
- Tagged Jerusalem, Jezreel Valley, Lectures, Turkey, Weekend Roundup
Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am tell the fascinating story of Moses Shapira and his alleged discovery of an ancient scroll of Deuteronomy. The Times of Israel article includes quite a bit of interesting information about Christ Church, even though it is not really relevant to the story. The question that has never been resolved is whether Shapira held the first discovered Dead Sea Scroll.
Christ Church was the first Protestant church in the entire Middle East, and the only evangelical church in the region. Outwardly resembling a grand European synagogue more than a Christian house of worship, it was erected in 1849 by the London Society for the Promotion of Jews to Christianity for the express purpose of drawing Jews into the Christian fold.
Before that time, simple proselytizing — and the promise of financial gain — had resulted in very few Jewish conversions; the Protestant Bishopric in Jerusalem hoped that an attractive, accessible church might facilitate the cause.
Church fathers wanted Jews to feel comfortable in the sanctuary, which is why the interior is replete with Jewish symbols.
Jewish students at the workshop manufactured the stunning olive wood communion table, decorated with both a Star of David and the Christian Alpha and Omega.
There were no crosses in the church; the cross on the table appeared in 1948, when Jordanians captured the Old City and Anglicans feared their sanctuary would be mistaken for a synagogue.
Moses Wilhelm Shapira, born Jewish in 1830, was 25 when he left his Russian homeland for the land of Israel.
Somewhere along the way, he converted to Christianity.
The full story is here. Shapira’s story is told in greater length in Neil Asher Silberman’s Digging for God and Country: Exploration, Archaeology, and the Secret Struggle for the Holy Land.
UPDATE: See the Jim Davila’s comments here.
Photo from Pictorial Library of Bible Lands
The Caspari Center Media Review reports on a couple of items in the Israeli press of interest to this blog. The first is from an article in Haaretz on October 17.
The Catholic Church in Israel launched a petition demanding the removal of an electricity pole that was put up two years ago across from the Garden of Gethsemane, which is “one of the holiest [sites] to Christians – the place where tradition says Jesus and his disciples prayed together before Jesus was arrested by the Romans and crucified the next day.” The pole was put up at the request of Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem “who have asked to be disconnected from the Jerusalem District Electricity Corporation, which supplies electricity to Arab neighborhoods on the city’s east side.”
The Catholic custodian of the Garden of Gethsemane wrote in his petition that “the huge pylon obstructs the view of the Old City from the prayer garden of the church used by pilgrims. … One of the significant reasons for the popularity of the church is the unique view of the Temple Mount and the Old City, and the pylon utterly destroys this uniqueness.”
The judge presiding over this case criticized the placement of the pole, saying that “it was a beautiful corner of Jerusalem and in addition a holy place.” He later added, off the record, that the Israel Electric Corporation “would not have done it in the Kotel [Western Wall] plaza.” By the end of the hearing, “the two sides agreed to transfer the matter to the appeals committee of the Jerusalem Regional Planning and Building Committee.”
I do not have a photo of the pole, but if any of our readers do, you’re welcome to send it in and we’ll post it here.
UPDATE: See photo below.
The second is from HaModia and HaMevaser.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be traveling to Rome next week to meet with the pope; they will discuss, among other things, the transfer of certain holy sites to the custody of the Catholic Church. “It turns out,” says HaModia, “that the new pope has set a public declaration of the transfer as a condition for his promised visit to the land.” One of the sites in question is David’s Tomb, “which the Catholics have claimed as their own for hundreds of years.”
HaMevaser reports that Rabbi Haim Miller has appealed to Knesset Members in an effort to stop the deal from going through. Miller claims that it is better for the pope not to visit Israel than that the tomb be handed over to the Catholic Church, even if this causes a rift between the Vatican and Israel.
The full Caspari Center Media Review is here.
Photo from Jerusalem
UPDATE: A.D. Riddle has sent along a photo that shows the electrical pole. On the right side of the photo, there’s a purple bush with the pole to the left.
UPDATE #2: Pat McCarthy notes that Haaretz has posted two photos of the pole.
UPDATE #3: Paul Mitchell points to Google Images which has a link to this image in an article dated to last year in the Jerusalem Post.
UPDATE #4: Shawn French has sent a photo of an old electric pole that tarnishes the view from Gethsemane.
Photo by Shawn French
Yitzhak Sapir claims that Matthew Kalman has misrepresented the verdict regarding the ownership of Oded Golan’s artifacts. Kalman has responded briefly.
A report from this season’s excavations of the Roman camp of Legio near Megiddo is now online.
Wayne Stiles provides a perspective, with photos and video, from atop the walls of Jerusalem.
The lecture schedule for the Bible and Archaeology Fest is now online. There are many interesting topics planned.
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary is now offering a masters of arts in biblical archaeology in partnership with Mississippi State University.
Haaretz reports on students excavating in the port of Dor as part of a new English MA in Maritime
Civilizations at Haifa University.
An article at The Christian Science Monitor about Khirbet Qeiyafa is more interesting for its profile of Israel Finkelstein.
Barry Britnell suggests a number of opportunities to learn.
Britnell also links to a beautiful video on the Sky Above Jerusalem.
HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson
Photo from Samaria and the Center
- Tagged Forgery, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Jezreel Valley, Lectures, Shephelah, Weekend Roundup