A clay seal containing the name "Isaiah".
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Has the Personal Seal of the Prophet Isaiah been Discovered?

The industrious team of eminent archeologist Dr Eilat Mazar may have done it again. Coming from a venerable archeological family, Mazar has spent her career in Jerusalem carefully uncovering the secrets of the City of David and the “Ophel”, the raised area that in ancient times connected the Temple Mount to the City of David. With the exception of the Temple Mount itself, from a Bible reader’s perspective no other locations hold as much interest as these areas.

Her labours have been rewarded with remarkable discoveries time and again. Though some of her conclusions are controversial, her work is always impossible to ignore. In 2005, she went public with the discovery of an ancient structure in the City of David that she identified as the palace of King David. For Bible critics who had always maintained that David was a mythological figure or at best an insignificant tribal leader of an insignificant town, Mazar’s conclusions were problematic. Continue reading →

The Earth swallows Korah, Dathan and Abiram
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Earthquakes In The Bible

Earthquakes can cause catastrophic loss of life and devastate buildings of all sizes. Is it possible to discover evidence for an earthquake that happened in the distant past? Today, modern scientific methods coax the Earth into giving up her secrets. New fields of archeology and geology have revealed convincing evidence of ancient earthquakes and astonishingly, may even have illuminated a couple of well known earthquakes from the Bible.

A number of earthquakes are recorded in the Bible. In most cases, these are not natural events but manifestations of divine power. The inauguration of the Mosaic law covenant at Mount Sinai was accompanied by a fear-inspiring earthquake and possibly even volcanic action (Exodus 19:18). The rebel Levite Korah, along with his co-conspirators were executed by means of what may have been a divinely sent earthquake (illustrated above): Continue reading →

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When Alexander the Great came to Jerusalem

Although we don’t meet Alexander the Great directly in the Bible record, Bible students recognise him clearly in Bible prophecy. Approximately 200 years before Alexander began his campaign to conquer the world, the Hebrew prophet Daniel was inspired to write of a series of beasts that represented great empires. First, he wrote of a great ram: Continue reading →

William Blake's famous interpretation of the madness of King Nebuchadnezzar II.
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The Madness of King Nebuchadnezzar

In Toronto, at the Royal Ontario Museum (if you haven’t visited you really should) are two square clay building blocks with an inscription stamped upon them reading, “Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who provides for (the temples) Esagila and Ezida, the eldest son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, am I”. Building brick from Babylon with Nebuchadnezzar inscription.King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon was a prolific builder. According to some sources, Nebuchadnezzar’s workers used over 15,000,000 bricks in his building projects and almost all of them carried the same inscription.

Nebuchadnezzar was keenly aware of Egyptian Pharaoh’s and Mesopotamian monarchs who had been erased from the historical record by envious and resentful successors. The Babylonian king would not allow the same thing to happen to him. No one could ever take credit for his greatest work, the rebuilding of the great capital of Babylon but the man whose name and esteemed royal parentage was pressed into the very walls and foundations of everything he built. Continue reading →

Aerial photo of Tyre taken circa 1934.
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What Happened To Tyre?

In the south of Lebanon there is evidence of an ancient battle so fierce that it permanently altered the Mediterranean coastline. A peninsula juts out from the mainland in the place where a proud island city once refused an invader, providing silent testimony as to the fate of all those who defied Alexander the Great. The city is called Tyre and it is located approximately 20 kilometres north (12 miles) of the Israeli border and about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the Lebanese capital Beirut. Tyre is well-known to Bible students particularly (although not exclusively) from the prophecy of Ezekiel who was inspired to foresee details of Tyre’s downfall that would have seemed wildly improbable to his contemporaries yet in the course of time proved accurate to the smallest detail.

Continue reading →

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Whose Image Is On The Coin?

Note from the editor: I am delighted to introduce to our readers an article by a special guest contributor! Jay Grande is a friend of the website, an avid Roman history enthusiast and a Biblical numismatist (specialist in the study of coins). Enjoy this in-depth look at the most famous coin in the Bible!

 

Next they sent to him some of the Pharisees and of the party followers of Herod in order to catch him in his speech. On arriving, these said to him: “Teacher, we know you are truthful and you do not seek anyone’s favor, for you do not look at the outward appearance of people, but you teach the way of God in line with truth. Is it lawful to pay head tax to Caesar or not?  Should we pay, or should we not pay?” Detecting their hypocrisy, he said to them: “Why do you put me to the test? Bring me a denarius to look at.”  They brought one, and he said to them: “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to him: “Caesar’s.”  Jesus then said: “Pay back Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.” (Mark 12:13-17)

There has been much debate amongst numismatists and historians about the above passage.  There are many theories about which Caesar’s image was on the coin and also which denomination of coin was brought to Jesus.  What’s all the fuss about?  Let’s look a little closer and examine the evidence. Continue reading →

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The Babylonian Invasion in Archeology – Part 3: Exile

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat. We wept when we remembered Zion.” (Psalm 37:1)

(This is the third and final part of a three-part series on the Babylonian invasion of Judah in archeology. In part 1 we looked at the archeological memory of the invasion and conquest of Jerusalem. In part 2 we examined the famous “Lachish Letters”. In part 3 we will investigate evidence of the famous captivity of the Judean population in Babylon.)

As recently as last year, I heard an archeologist refer to the “so-called Babylonian exile”. Continue reading →