Showing posts with label discovered. Show all posts

Sunday, May 6, 2018

Hidden Script Discovered in New Look at Dead Sea Scroll Fragments - CBN News Julie Stahl

Oren Ableman examines ink traces, Photo, IAA, Shai Halevi

Hidden Script Discovered in New Look at Dead Sea Scroll Fragments

05-04-2018

CBN News Julie Stahl

JERUSALEM, Israel – As Israel marks the 70th anniversary of its re-birth, it's also marking the

70th anniversary of one of the most amazing biblical archaeological discoveries of all time –

the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The scrolls are the oldest known copies of the Hebrew Bible, and 70 years later they are still

revealing new facts, telling the story of their ancient past.

A fragment of Deuteronomy after IR imaging at the scroll lab, Photo, IAA, Shai Halevi

Israeli Archaeologists: Scroll Cave Most Exciting Discovery in 60 Years

Rare Dead Sea Scrolls Set to Go on Public Display for First Time in Colorado

Last Remaining Fragments of Dead Sea Scroll Deciphered - Here's What It Revealed

"In our storeroom we have a lot of boxes of fragments that, as far as I could tell, had never been sorted,

never been investigated," said Oren Ableman of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

As part of the IAA's project to digitize the scrolls, some of these fragments were pulled out and

examined by Ableman, who chose a box from "Cave 11" of the Qumran Caves where the scrolls

were discovered.

Conservation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Photo, IAA, Shai Halevi

"At first this looked like it was garbage," Ableman told CBN News. "It didn't look like anything was

here. You couldn't really see anything with your own eyes."

But with the help of advanced imaging technology developed just for the scrolls, Ableman was able

to find script that was previously hidden.

Dead Sea Scroll Fragment, Photo, IAA, Shai Halevi

"I worked on comparing the handwriting on these fragments that I found to other manuscripts to

Cave 11… and I very quickly started finding matches between the handwriting of the scribes," he said.

Ableman examined 82 fragments. Two examples stood out.

Dead Sea Scroll fragments, Photo, IAA, Shai Halevi

"Probably the best example that I had…where the word that I read there is 'zamra' in Hebrew,

which means a song," he explained. "And this in the Hebrew Bible is actually a very rare word."

He continued. "Based on the handwriting of the scribe, I could tell that this fragment belonged to

what's called The Great Psalms Scroll, which is actually one of the largest scrolls we've found,"

he continued.

The scroll is a collection of different Psalms and the word is rare in the Bible. This fragment belongs

to Psalm 147:1, he said.

Another fragment indicated there must have been an additional scroll that has not been identified

previously in that cave, Ableman added.

Pnina Shor, curator and director of the Dead Sea Scrolls project, Photo, IAA, Shai Halevi

Pnina Shor, head of the IAA's Dead Sea Scrolls project, told CBN News there was a great deal

of symbolism in the discovery of the scrolls at the same time that the State of Israel was being

re-established.

Dead Sea Scroll Fragments, Photo, IAA, Shai Halevi

"On the eve of the 29th of November [1947], when they were voting at the UN for the Partition

Plan [creating a Jewish and Arab state in Palestine], the son of Professor [Eleazar] Sukenik –

who was then one of our first pilots and who was killed in the War of Independence – was counting

the votes on the radio while Professor Sukenik was sitting with one of the scrolls and realized he

was holding a scroll from Second Temple Times," Shor said.

"What could be more symbolic than as we're voting for the Partition Plan for the State of Israel to

hold in [his] hands a manuscript 2,000 years old," she added.

MUST SEE: This year marks 70 years since the reestablishment of Israel as a modern nation.

CLICK HERE for more about CBN’s new movie, “To Life,” on the positive global impact of Israel.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

‘Freedom Coins’ From First Jewish Revolt Against Rome Discovered in Temple Mount Cave - Breaking Israel News

‘Freedom Coins’ From First Jewish Revolt Against Rome Discovered in
Temple Mount Cave

The Sad Face of Poverty:
Meet Eliana From Kiryat Ata

WATCH: Mechanically Searching for Leavened Bread Before Passover

ICYMI: Turkish Leader Claims Muslim Victory Over Europe, Cites Trump’s ‘Alliance’ With Jews as Obstacle

Palestinian Christian Theologians Against Israel

By Dr. Denis MacEoin
It is sad but possibly to be expected that many Palestinian Christians – who are constantly under threat but have not been killed or expelled – identify closely with the cause of their Muslim fellows as they engage in often violent “resistance” to Israel and the limited Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank (Judaea and Samaria). Christians may have a long history in Syria and Palestine, but the earliest Christians, including Christ, were, of course, Jews.

Checking the Smart Abbas

By Caroline Glick

Why Palestinians Need an Israel Victory

By Daniel Pipes

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Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Life Beyond our Planet? What NASA Discovered in the Milky Way - CBN News

Life Beyond our Planet? What NASA Discovered in the Milky Way

06-20-2017

CBN News

NASA continues its search for life beyond planet Earth, and astronomers released a list this week they believe will help in that search.

Scientists circulated a list of 4,034 objects they are 90 percent positive are planets orbiting other stars, The New York Times reported.

The new tally is the last and most dependable finding from a survey of a small area of the Milky Way galaxy by NASA's Kepler spacecraft -- a survey that took four years.

"The search for planets is the search for life," said Dr. Natalie Batalha, a Kepler mission scientist from NASA's Ames Research Center. "These results will form the basis for future searches for life."

"It's amazing, the things that Kepler has found," said Dr. Susan Thompson of the SETI Institute, who compiled the list. "It has shown us these terrestrial worlds, and we still have all of this work to do to really understand how common Earths are in the galaxy. I am really excited to see what people are going to do with this catalog."

The list will help scientists develop a powerful space telescope to be used in around 15 years, which could detect planet images orbiting stars.

Batalha said the findings include, for the first time, at least one planet that is very similar to Earth. It's known as Kepler Object of Interest or 'KOI 7711' and is only 30 percent wider than Earth. Its orbit is very close to one year.

"With this catalog, we are turning from individual planets to trying to understand the demographics of these worlds, which are similar to Earth," Thompson said.

Some of the new planet candidates are in the "Goldilocks" zones of their stars, The Times reports. That means the heat their stars give off is just right -- not too hot or cold -- for liquid water to exist.

Kepler scientists are trying to determine how far away these objects are.

The Kepler spacecraft is passing the torch to a new satellite, TESS, which stands for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. It launches next year.

TESS's mission involves examining large sections of the sky to find planets orbiting around the closest and brightest stars.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Palace of Biblical King Sennacherib Discovered Beneath ISIS Destruction of Jonah’s Tomb By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz - BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

Palace of Biblical King Sennacherib Discovered Beneath ISIS Destruction of Jonah’s Tomb

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz February 28, 2017 BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

“Should not I have pity on Ninveh that great city wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle?’” Jonah 4:11 (The Israel Bible™)

The palace of the Biblical King Sennacherib, long buried underneath the tomb of the prophet Jonah in the Biblical city of Nineveh, has incredibly been discovered by Iraqi archaeologists as a result of efforts by the Islamic State (ISIS) to destroy the site and loot its priceless antiquities.

The shrine is, according to tradition, built on the burial site of Jonah, known as Nabi Yunis in the Koran. Located in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the structure was destroyed by ISIS in July 2014. When the city was liberated by Iraqi troops a few weeks ago, archaeologist were dismayed to find that not only had ISIS used dynamite to destroy the shrine, but the terror group had tunneled underneath and carried away hundreds of artifacts to sell on the black market.

However, the tunnels revealed a completely unexpected treasure: the 2,300-year-old palace of King Sennacherib, mentioned in the Bible. During Sennacherib‘s reign, Nineveh was one of the richest cities in the world. His military campaign against the Kingdom of Judah is described in the Bible.

Ancient Hebrew Inscription Discovered in Galilee Synagogue - CBN News

Margalit Zinati and the ancient stone, Photo, Ritvo, courtesy of Beit Zinati

Ancient Hebrew Inscription Discovered in Galilee Synagogue

CBN News 02-21-2017

JERUSALEM, Israel – A restoration project at an ancient synagogue and visitor's center in the Western Galilee uncovered 1,800-year-old Hebrew inscriptions on a column capital. The inscriptions, which appear to be the names of donors who contributed to the synagogue, confirm the Jewish history of the 2,000-year-old village.

The project, sponsored by the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage and carried out by the Council for Conservation of Heritage Sites in Israel, is taking place in the synagogue and neighboring Beit Zinati visitor center at Peqi'in.

After discovering the Hebrew inscriptions on an overturned column capital in the building's courtyard, the team contacted the Israel Antiquities Authority to examine the discovery.

"The Talmudic and Midrashic sources tell of the Galilean sages that lived in Peqiʽin, including Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who hid from the Romans in a cave," IAA inspector in the Western Galilee Yoav Lerer said. "However, there are those who disagree with the identification of the location of Peqiʽin. I believe that these inscriptions will add an important tier to our knowledge about the Jewish settlement in the village of Peqiʽin during the Roman and Byzantine periods."

The project, which has been taking place for about a year, confirmed the Jewish history of the 2,000-year-old village and the Zinati family, its oldest Jewish residents.

Margarlit Zinati, the last member of the family, lives next door to the synagogue.

"Peqiʽin is one of the most significant sites in the Galilee and is a place where there has always been a Jewish presence," said Ze'ev Elkin, minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage. "It is a great honor for me that during my tenure in office such an important discovery has been made that tells this 2,000 year old story of the Land of Israel."

"This is a historical discovery of unparalleled importance that confirms what the late President Yitzhak Ben Zvi maintained in the early 20th century about the Jewish settlement at Peqiʽin," said Uriel Rosenboym, director of Beit Zinati.

"No one can argue with the written artifact. There was an ancient synagogue here and the synagogue was built in its current form in recent centuries," Rosenboym said.

"We thank the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage, which aims to preserve the heritage of Peqiʽin's Jews. We are pleased to open the new museum with a historic message about this ancient community. Although the stone itself was taken to be studied by the Israel Antiquities Authority, this unique story of the keepers of the flame in Peqiʽin is revealed in the renewed museum."

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Game-Changing Evidence of Holy Temple Discovered at Archaeological Site [PHOTOS] - Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

Collection of Herodian floor tiles believed to be part of the Second Temple complex. (Temple Mount Sifting Project/Zachi Dvira)

Game-Changing Evidence of Holy Temple Discovered at Archaeological Site [PHOTOS]

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 6, 2016 BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

“And He said unto me: ‘Son of man this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Yisrael for ever.’” Ezekiel 43:7 (The Israel Bible™)

An incredible new discovery at the Temple Mount has produced the first-ever physical and archaeological evidence that the Jewish Second Temple stood on the Mount 2,000 years ago, upsetting Arab claims, increasingly endorsed by the international community, that the Temples never existed.

Archaeologists from the Temple Mount Sifting Project, salvaging artifacts from Muslim destruction at the Temple complex, have completed the restoration of ornate floor tiles which experts believe likely decorated the courtyard of the Second Jewish Temple. The project provides visible and incontrovertible proof, backed up by ancient texts and historical context, of a Jewish Temple on the Mount.

In total, archaeological teams have uncovered approximately 600 colored stone floor tile segments, with more than 100 of them positively dated to the Herodian Second Temple period (37-4 BCE).

An eight-pointed star floor tile from the Second Temple. (Temple Mount Sifting Project/Zachi Dvira)

The importance of the discovery is undeniable.

“This represents the first time that archeologists have been able to successfully restore an element from the Herodian Second Temple complex,” said Zachi Dvira, co-founder and director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project.

The Sifting Project began in the Tzurim Valley National Park in 2004 in an attempt to salvage whatever archaeological artifacts it could from destruction caused by illegal construction projects on the Temple Mount led by the Jordanian Waqf that controls the Mount.

This destruction of irreplaceable archaeological artifacts is considered to be part of a larger trend of Temple denial. Denying Jewish connection to the Temple Mount began at the 2000 Camp David Summit, when the Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat insisted that “the Temple” existed near Shechem (Nablus), and not on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

This claim has been taken up in the international narrative as UNESCO passed an initiative claiming the Temple Mount as an exclusively Muslim holy site. This claim went mainstream last October when the New York Times published an article questioning whether the two Jewish Temples ever existed at all.

Breaking Israel News asked Dr. Gabriel Barkay, co-founder and director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project, if this first-of-its-kind restoration was absolute proof refuting Temple denial.

“You are asking me if I have proof that water is wet,” he responded emphatically. “I don’t need to prove anything. I found facts.”

Dr. Barkay compared denial of the Jewish Temples to denying the Holocaust. “I myself am a Holocaust survivor, and I couldn’t care less about people who deny what I know to be true. For the Holocaust, we have the camps, we have the films and photographs, and we have the survivors,” he told Breaking Israel News.

“For the Temple, we have the Mishnah (Oral Law), the New Testament, we have the writings of Flavius Josephus (a 1st Century Romano-Jewish historian). We have mountains of archaeological evidence. I don’t want to relate to what is nothing less than a political misuse of history.

Do you agree the Jewish people have a Biblical right to Jerusalem?

“There are people who approach me, especially Europeans, and ask what proof I have there was a Jewish Temple. I say that I don’t have proof and I am not interested in proof,” Dr. Barkay stated. “The fact is there was a Temple. Our discovery simply shows the glory that was the Temple.”

Speaking of proof, the tiles fit perfectly into a description of the Temple complex given by historian Josephus, who saw Temple with his own eyes. He wrote in his work “The Jewish Wars” that “the uncovered [Temple Mount courtyard] was completely paved with stones of various types and colors”.

The find also agrees with Talmudic literature about the construction of the Temple Mount which describes rows of green, blue and white marble. The tile segments, mostly imported from Rome, Asia Minor, Tunisia and Egypt, were made from polished multicolored stones cut in a variety of geometric shapes.

Floor tiles from the Second Temple. (Temple Mount Sifting Project/Zachi Dvira)

Another point of historical proof is that this style of flooring is consistent with floors found in contemporary works built by Herod, the builder of the Second Temple. Similar flooring has been found at Herod’s palaces in Masada, Herodian, and Jericho, among others. A key characteristic of the Herodian tiles is their size, which corresponds to the Roman foot, approximately 29.6 cm.

The restoration is proof of a theory that large expanses of the Temple Mount during the Second Temple were covered with a special type of ornate flooring called opus sectile, Latin for “cut work.” The idea was first put forward in 2007 by archaeologist Assaf Avraham, director of the Jerusalem Walls National Park. The new discovery confirms it.

“So far, we have succeeded in restoring seven potential designs of the majestic flooring that decorated the buildings of the Temple Mount,” said Frankie Snyder, a member of the Temple Mount Sifting Project’s team of researchers and an expert in the study of ancient Herodian style flooring, explaining that there were no opus sectile floors in Israel prior to the time of King Herod. “The tile segments were perfectly inlaid such that one could not even insert a sharp blade between them.”

Floor tile from the Second Temple. (Temple Mount Sifting Project/Zachi Dvira)

Dr. Barkay noted that not only is the find an archaeological treasure, but a way for Jews to connect to their holiest place, which today’s generations can only imagine.

“This represents the first time that we can see with our own eyes the splendor of the flooring that decorated the Second Temple and its annexes 2,000 years ago,” said Dr. Barkay.

“Referring to the Temple that Herod built, the Talmud says that ‘Whoever has not seen Herod’s building has not seen a beautiful building in his life’. Though we have not merited seeing the Temple in its glory, with the discovery and restoration of these unique floor tiles, we are now able to have a deeper understanding and appreciation for the Second Temple, even through this one distinctive characteristic.”

Temple Mount Sifting Project team member holding models of the Second Temple. floor tiles. (Temple Mount Sifting Project/Zachi Dvira) — Temple Mount Sifting Project team member with the Second Temple floor tiles. (Temple Mount Sifting Project/Zachi Dvira)

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