Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Archaeologists Discover Evidence That Bethlehem Existed Centuries Before Jesus

 
Reuters  |  Posted:

 


JERUSALEM, May 23 (Reuters) - Israeli archaeologists said on Wednesday they had discovered the first physical evidence supporting Old Testament accounts of Bethlehem's existence centuries before the town became revered as the birthplace of Jesus.

The proof came, they said, in a clay seal unearthed near the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and imprinted with three lines of ancient Hebrew script that include the word "Bethlehem".

Eli Shukron, who directed the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said the seal apparently had been placed on a tax shipment of silver or agricultural produce sent from Bethlehem to the King of Judah in nearby Jerusalem in the 8th or 7th century BC.

"This is the first time the name Bethlehem appears outside the Bible in an inscription from the First Temple period," Shukron said in a statement, referring to the years 1006 BC to 586 BC.

The coin-sized remnant of the seal proves that Bethlehem - first mentioned in the Book of Genesis - "was indeed a city in the Kingdom of Judah, and possibly also in earlier periods", he said.

Bethlehem is located on the West Bank, just south of Jerusalem. (Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Pravin Char)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great story! Thanks.

KarenW said...

I have been reading and studying the scriptures for many years. I am always glad when I read something like this. It just verifys the veracity of scripture. And many of these discoveries are made by archeologists that are not believers!