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Archeological Find Proves Scriptures True
Biblical Artifact Proven to Be Real
In 1979, two tiny silver scrolls bearing the same Old Testament verse were found in a tomb near Jerusalem by Dr. Gabriel Barkay, an archaeologist at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Both of the scrolls were inscribed with this verse:
May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord
cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
may the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and grant you peace.
The Priestly Benediction, as this scripture from Numbers 6:24-26 is often called, are spoken at the conclusion of both Christian and Jewish liturgies. And now these words have been found on those two miniature strips of silver wound like tiny scrolls, making it the earliest biblical passage ever found on ancient artifacts.
Was this a celestial vision and sign from God or just a rare astronomical event? Either way, find out the fascinating story of how a meteor forever changed the history of Christianity.
(Sign From Heaven?
Meteor Changed History A team of Swedish geologists has found what it believes is the crater made by a meteor that streaked across the sky and crashed into the Earth in 312 AD. If they're right--and carbon dating has already backed them up on it--this is a meteor whose presence may have changed the history of the world, asserts the BBC News Online. The scene: Central Italy in the year 312 AD. The main character: Constantine, who was preparing to invade Italy in a battle with Maximinus Daia for control of Rome. The plot: A celestial vision that changed history. Before the battle, Constantine looked heavenward and saw a blazing light streaking through the sky. He interpreted the shocking sight to mean only one thing: It was a message from the Christian God, a kind of celestial vision. Constantine immediately converted to Christianity. He ordered his soldiers to paint the "Chi-Ro" symbol of Christ on their shields. Eusebius, who was one of the Christian Church's early historians, wrote about the conversion of Constantine. He described the vision as a "most marvelous sign" and "a trophy of a cross of light in the heavens above the Sun, and bearing the inscription 'conquer by this.'" The battle for Rome was very lopsided. Maximinus' troops defending the city were four times as strong in number as Constantine's troops. But Constantine was the victor, and he became the Roman emperor. He ordered that persecution of Christians cease and gave Christianity official status--a big boost for a fledgling religion. Fast forward to 2003: The Swedish geologists, led by Jens Ormo, located the crater that they say was formed by the impact of a meteor as it slammed into the Earth. Radiocarbon dating places it around the year 312 AD. Ormo speculates that Constantine's celestial vision was actually that meteor. Such meteors occur only once every few thousand years, but Constantine had no way of knowing this. Ormo told the BBC News that the meteor would have smashed into the Earth with the force of a small nuclear bomb and would have been accompanied by a mushroom cloud and shockwaves. And here is where the BBC News ponders this fascinating question: What if the meteor hadn't streaked through the sky above Italy on that day just before that decisive battle?
It's taken 25 years, but scientists now date those scrolls from the late seventh or early sixth century B.C.--400 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls, reports The New York Times. Because the ancient silver scrolls were cracked and corroded and some of the words were just faintly scratched onto the metal making them virtually unreadable, it was impossible to accurately date the artifacts. Some thought they were from the third or second century B.C. and therefore were of less importance in establishing the antiquity of religious concepts and language that became part of the Hebrew Bible, reports The Times.
Has proof of part of the New Testament been found? Archaeologists have found a cave in Israel in which they believe John the Baptist anointed many of his disciples.
(Part of the New Testament Proven True?
Archaeologists have found a cave where they believe John the Baptist anointed many of his disciples, offering extraordinary proof of a central New Testament figure and his theology.
The Associated Press reports that the cave is located on the Kibbutz Tzuba, which is 2-1/2 miles from Ein Kerem, John the Baptist's hometown that is now part of Jerusalem. The cave includes a huge cistern with 28 steps that lead to an underground pool of water. Some 250,000 pottery shards were also found and are presumed to be remnants of small water jugs used in the Christian baptismal ritual performed by the fiery New Testament preacher. Wall carvings etched into the cave tell John's life story; they were likely made by monks in the fourth or fifth century. In addition, a stone was found in the cave that researchers believe was used for ceremonial foot washing.
"John the Baptist, who was just a figure from the Gospels, now comes to life," British archaeologist Shimon Gibson, who supervised the dig outside Jerusalem, exclaimed to AP. He is the head of the private Jerusalem Archaeological Field Unit and has written a book on the subject titled "The Cave of John the Baptist." In a separate interview, Gibson told Reuters, "Nothing like this has been found elsewhere. It is the first time we have finds from the early baptismal period. It is an amazing discovery that happens to an archeologist once in a lifetime."
But because there were no inscriptions found in the cave, some experts insist there is no proof that John the Baptist ever set foot in it. Instead, they think Byzantine-era monks commemorated John at this site linked to him by local tradition. Gibson heartily disagrees, insisting the carvings, foot washing stone, and other artifacts provide strong circumstantial evidence that the cave was actually used by John and is not just a memorial to him.
John the Baptist was a contemporary of Jesus Christ and was known as a somewhat bizarre, long-haired character who preached a message of redemption. Since he is considered one of the most important figures in Christianity, the discovery--if it can be confirmed--would be among the most significant breakthroughs for biblical scholars in memory, reports AP.
Gibson thinks the cave appealed to John because it contained an immersion pool. "It apparently was adopted by John the Baptist, who wanted a place where he could bring people to undergo their rituals, pertaining to his ideas of baptism," he told AP. The baptismal candidates would have walked down the 28 stone steps, discarded their clothes in a niche carved into the wall, and then placed their right foot onto a stone that contained an imprint of a foot. A small depression to the right of the imprint would have contained oil, to be poured over the foot for cleansing.
Gibson thinks John the Baptist used the cave in the early years of his ministry when he sought solitude in the wilderness. "In addition to John the Baptist, there's a possibility that Jesus used this cave as well," Gibson explained to Reuters.)
High-technology to the rescue. University of Southern California scientists used photographic and computer imaging techniques to more closely examine the inscriptions. For the first time, they could be fully read and analyzed, which confirmed their much-older age. There is no doubt now that the script is from the time just before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C. and exiled the Israelites to Babylonia. The researchers wrote in The Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research that the scrolls "preserve the earliest known citations of texts also found in the Hebrew Bible and that they provide us with the earliest examples of confessional statements concerning Yahweh." Other scholars agree with this conclusion.
Part of the Old Testament has been proven true. Find out more!
(Part of the Old Testament Proven True
Read 2 Kings 20:20 and 2 Chronicles 32:30 in the Old Testament and you'll find a reference to a tunnel that was built in 700 B.C. by order of King Hezekiah to protect Jerusalem's water supply against an Assyrian siege. Long considered an engineering feat for that day and age, the serpentine tunnel ran 1,750 feet long and moved water from the Gihon spring across the entire city of ancient Jerusalem to the pool of Siloam.
Fast forward to modern-day Jerusalem. The Siloam Tunnel in that city matches the biblical description of King Hezekiah's tunnel. But is it really the same one? That question has stumped scholars for years, many of whom insisted the Siloam Tunnel was built centuries later than the Bible suggested in Kings and Chronicles. The only clue that survived for more than 2,700 years is an inscription discovered in 1880 on a tunnel wall that supported the link to King Hezekiah, although it did not name him specifically, reports The Associated Press.
Now geologists from the Cave Research Center at Hebrew University in Jerusalem think they have solved the mystery. By using radiocarbon testing to analyze the age of stalactite samples from the ceiling of the Siloam Tunnel and plant material recovered from its plaster floor, the biblical record and the tunnel's age have been confirmed, the researchers wrote in the journal Nature. The Siloam Tunnel is the one built by King Hezekiah.
This is also significant because it is the first time that a well-identified biblical structure has been subjected to extensive radiocarbon dating.
Even with all our modern-day technology and scientific knowledge, very little testing of biblical structures has been done to prove or disprove their age or authenticity. Why? The experts told AP such testing is difficult because it's often hard to identify such structures, they may be poorly preserved, or they may be restricted for various political or religious reasons.
The Siloam Tunnel is different. It's long been a tourist attraction. Anyone can wander in it and see the pick marks the original builders made in the walls to adjust their course so the tunnel would meet with a second team of workers who were heading toward them from the opposite end of the city. AP notes that those pick marks tell us how difficult it was to connect the two ends of the tunnel." The tunnel is extraordinary, but these guys didn't know where they were going a lot of the time," Hershel Shanks, an expert on the history of Jerusalem who writes for the Biblical Archaeology Review, told AP. Still, he added," It's nice to have scientific confirmation for what the vast majority of biblical scholars and archaeologists believe." )
It's now known that each of the scrolls was an amulet intended to provide a blessing and protection to the person who wore it. The Times notes that such early Hebrew inscriptions are rare, and these artifacts offer new understanding about the history of religion in ancient Israel.
Look what was recently found on the back of the Turin shroud, the textile that is believed to be burial cloth.
(Look What Is on the Turin Shroud!
Italian scientists have found a ghostly image on the back of the Turin shroud, long believed--but never proven--to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. The newly found image is that of a man's face and possibly his hands and matches the image on the front of the linen cloth, reports Reuters.
The Turin shroud, long one of Christianity's most sacred and at the same time most disputed relics, first appeared in France in the 14th century, but has been held in Turin, Italy since 1578. Measuring 14 feet long and about 3 feet, 7 inches wide, the linen cloth has been at the center of a heated debate for more than 600 years. The front of the shroud bears an ethereal image of a tall, bearded man bearing the marks of crucifixion. Experts over the years say they have found traces of blood, pollen, or soil typical of Jerusalem, where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, reports Reuters.
Is the Turin shroud real or a skillful medieval fraud? "The fact that the image is two-sided makes any forgery difficult," Giulio Fanti, a professor with the University of Padua and one of the scientists who discovered the second image, asserted to Reuters. He believes the finding will add support to those who maintain the shroud is genuine.
Until recently, the reverse side of the shroud has remained hidden under a piece of Holland cloth which was sewn by nuns to cover up damage caused by a fire, notes Reuters. This protective layer was removed in 2002 when the shroud was restored. At that time the back of the cloth was photographed. It was these images that scientists Giulio Fanti and Roberto Maggiolo carefully processed and studied using mathematical and optical techniques.
Fanti and Maggiolo realized that the face that is visible on the back of the shroud matches that on the front. "We can detect the presence of a nose, eyes, hair, beard, and mustache on the back surface that correspond in place, form, position, and scale to those of the front," Fanti told Reuters.
Not everyone is persuaded the shroud is genuine. In 1979, scientists in three separate laboratories used carbon dating to determine the age of the cloth. When all three independently showed that it was no older than the 13th century, the researchers concluded the relic was a hoax created for medieval pilgrimages, a hugely profitable business in those times. Some theorize it was created by Leonardo da Vinci, who developed a technique to put his own face on a shroud.
The study findings were published in the journal of the Institute of Physics in London.)
Scholars Discover Parts of Luke's Gospel
The clue was barely legible. At first, it was just the name that was visible: Simon. It was carved in Greek letters high atop the mammoth and weather-beaten burial monument that dates from the time of Christ.
Emile Puech and Joe Zias, two Jerusalem scholars who credit the serendipity of seeing that almost-faded name in a photograph shot in exactly the right light just as the sun was setting, have also found inscribed on the 60-foot-hightombstone a verse from the Gospel According to St. Luke, specifically Luke:2:25, that was so faded it was never before visible, reports The Associated Press.
Such archaeological finds are extremely rare. While several Old Testament verses have been found on monuments, this is believed to be the first discovery of a New Testament verse carved onto an ancient Holy Land shrine. Jim Strange, a New Testament scholar from the University of South Florida, told AP that ancient people believed that chiseling verses of Scripture into monuments debased the sacred words. It wasn't until 1000A.D. that Bible verses became more common on shrines, and then they were found in Europe--not the Holy Land.
What the inscription does not tell us: The inscription declares that the tomb is that of Simon. He was a devout Jew whom the Bible credits with cradling the infant Jesus and recognizing him as the Messiah. However, the experts say it is doubtful Simon is actually buried here. Instead, the monument was built to honor Jerusalem's aristocracy at the time of Jesus. The inscriptions were carved in the 4th century when Byzantine Christians scoured the Holy Land for sacred sites linked to the Bible and then marked them. Often, they relied on local lore to do this. This particular monument is in the Kidron Valley, between Jerusalem's walled Old City and the Mount of Olives.
What the inscription does tell us: The reason this find is significant is that it supports what have always been scant references to a Byzantine-era belief that three biblical figures--Simon, Zachariah, and James, who was the brother of Jesus--shared the same tomb. Earlier this year, an inscription referring to Zachariah, who was John the Baptist's father, was found on the same monument by the two Jerusalem scholars. Now Puech and Zias will continue their close-up examination of the tombstone in the hopes of finding an inscription that refers to James, the brother of Jesus. If they find that, the trio is complete.
Its likely James will be mentioned on the monument, since it is thought he died nearby. James was hurled off the Jewish Temple, bludgeoned to death in the Kidron Valley below and buried near there. Zachariah was a temple priest who was murdered by zealots and then tossed into the valley. It is not known how or where Simon died. There are several historical references to the three men being buried together, but there is no archaeological evidence of this.
The letters are inscribed vertically on the monument and run together. They're of a different height and are actually crooked. The inscription says the monument is the tomb of "Simeon who was a very just man and a very devoted old (person) and waiting for the consolation of the people." Simeon is the Greek version of Simon. The words are identical to Luke 2:25 as they appeared in the 4th-century Bible, also called the Codex Sinaiticus, notes AP. The Zachariah inscription reads: "This is the tomb of Zachariah, martyr, very pious priest, father of John."
The research was presented by the two scholars at the annual conference of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Atlanta.
Guess Who Doesn't Believe In God?
Ten percent of Protestants, 21 percent of Roman Catholics,
and 52 percent of Jews do NOT believe in God.
That's the surprising word from a new survey by Harris Interactive of 2,306adults that shows belief in God varies quite widely among different segments of the American public. How often do we go to a place of worship? Not much. Most people attend a religious service less than once a month. Still, Americans are far more likely to believe in God and to attend religious services than people in most other developed countries, particularly in Europe.
Who believes in God?
While 79 percent of Americans believe there is a God, only 66 percent are absolutely certain of it. Nine percent do not believe in God and 12 percent aren't sure. And weirdly, not everyone who calls himself or herself a Christian or a Jew actually believes in God.
Who worships at a religious service?
Just over half (55 percent) attend a religious service a few times a year or more. Thirty-six percent attend once a month or more often, and just 26percent say they attend every week. Forty-one percent of women and 31 percent of men attend once a month or more. Protestants (47 percent) are more likely to go to church once a month or more often than are Roman Catholics (35 percent).Jews are least likely to go with 16 percent saying they go to synagogue once a month or more. Church attendance is highest in the Midwest and lowest in the West.
Belief in God by geography and age
Eighty-two percent of Midwesterners and Southerners believe in God, compared with 75 percent in the East and West. Our beliefs get stronger as we age. Of those 25 to 29 years old, 71 percent believe in God. That number jumps to 80 percent for people over 40, and hits 83 percent for those 65 and over.
Other fascinating facts about who believes in God:
84 percent of women believe in God, compared with 73 percent of men.
91 percent of African Americans believe in God, compared with 81 percent of Hispanics and 78 percent of whites.
87 percent of Republicans believe in God, compared with 78 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of Independents.
82 percent of those with no college education believe in God, compared with 73 percent who went to college.
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