BIBLE TRUE EVIDENCES

Satellite Images Confirm ISIS Destruction of Temple of Bel and Other Monuments in Palmyra, Archaeology news, Robin Ngo • 09/04/2015 This Bible History Daily article was originally published on September 1, 2015. It has been updated.—Ed. New satellite images published by UNOSAT, a program of the United Nations, confirm that ISIS has almost completely destroyed the Temple of Bel in the Syrian city of Palmyra. A powerful explosion had been reported over the weekend near the Roman-era monument, but the extent of the damage was not clear, since no one could approach the site. “Unfortunately, the images we acquired do show that the main building of the temple has been destroyed,” UNOSAT manager Einar Bjorgo told the BBC. palmyra-temple-of-bel The Temple of Bel in Palmyra, Syria, was the center of religious life in antiquity. Photo: Odilia’s image is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. It appears, according to the satellite image taken on August 31, 2015, that a p...

A WINDOW INTO ANCIENT ECONOMICS AT PHILISTINE ASHKELON. At the Philistine marketplace in Ashkelon, people visit the wine and butcher shops and examine a shipment of Greek pottery, placed next to some local Philistine cooking pots. An Egyptian official stands nearby as silver is weighed on the scale. The artifacts found at the marketplace in Philistine Ashkelon illuminate ancient economics.  Credit: Balage Balogh/ArchaeologyIllustrated.com. Perhaps at first glance, a study of ancient economics does not sound as interesting as examining ancient battles or treasure-filled tombs. Yet arguably the results of such a study are more valuable for reconstructing daily life for the average person. The seventh-century B.C.E. (Iron Age) marketplace at Philistine Ashkelon—the only archaeologically-demonstrated marketplace in the ancient Near East—provides a window into ancient economics. In  “Buy Low, Sell High: The Marketplace at Ashkelon”  in the January/February 2014 issue...

Discovery brings us face to face with the Israelites’ archenemy The first and only Philistine cemetery ever discovered has been found outside the walls of ancient Ashkelon. As one of the major Philistine city-states during the Iron Age, Ashkelon was a significant Mediterranean port and boasted a thriving marketplace. Excavations at Ashkelon have revealed many details about how the Philistines lived: the kind of houses they built; the food they ate; the plates, bowls, cups, pots and jars they made; the tools and weapons they used; the jewelry they wore; the imports they bought; the way they made clothes; and much more. Now Ashkelon has yielded the Philistines themselves. Directed by Lawrence E. Stager, Dorot Professor of the Archaeology of Israel, Emeritus, at Harvard University, and Daniel M. Master, Professor of Archaeology at Wheaton College, the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon discovered the Iron Age cemetery in 2013 and began excavating it extensively in 2014. Three seasons ...

The Fishy Secret to Ancient Magdala’s Economic Honest Growth The Galilee is one of the most evocative locales in the New Testament—the area where Jesus was raised and where many of the Apostles came from. Our free eBook The Galilee Jesus Knew focuses on several aspects of Galilee: how Jewish the area was in Jesus’ time, the ports and the fishing industry that were so central to the region, and several sites where Jesus likely stayed and preached. Excavations and research conducted around the Sea of Galilee have revealed a great deal about the history of the Galilean towns and their populations during the first century C.E. At Magdala, hometown of Mary Magdalene in the Bible, excavations have uncovered a large marketplace with 28 shops, about 300 fishing weights, 40 pools and more than 4,000 ancient coins, the majority of which were minted in Jerusalem. Putting all of this together, the finds point to large-scale commercial interactions between Magdala and many other ...

Archaeology shines light on the riot against Paul at  Ephesus WM In Acts 19, Luke describes a frenzied riot at Ephesus, a city in the Roman province of Asia in modern-day Turkey: biblical Archaeology Society Staff • 07/14/2016 About that time no little disturbance broke out concerning the Way. A man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the artisans. These he gathered together, with the workers of the same trade, and said, “Men, you know that we get our wealth from this business. You also see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost the whole of Asia this Paul has persuaded and drawn away a considerable number of people by saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be scorned, and she will be deprived of her majesty that brought all Asia and the world to worship her.” W...

Where is Golgotha? Was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site where Jesus was crucified, located within or outside of the city walls when it was built in the fourth century C.E.? The drawing here depicts the present-day Old City of Jerusalem (shaded in gray) as well as the proposed location of the so-called Second Wall that would have stood during Jesus’ time. Drawing: Leen Ritmeyer. Does the Church of the Redeemer (pictured here) provide evidence that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the authentic site of Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified? Where is Golgotha today in Jerusalem? According to the New Testament, Golgotha was the name of the site where Jesus was crucified. Where is Golgotha located in Jerusalem? In their Archaeological Views column “Golgotha: Is the Holy Sepulchre Church Authentic?” in the May/June 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Marcel Serr and Dieter Vieweger discuss past and current investigations into the site where Jesus ...