ARCHEOLOGICAL BIBLE
1. Pilate’s Ring. In addition to the Caesarean inscription, a second discovery also confirms Pilate’s historical existence.
In 2018, news circulated in Jerusalem that a ring had been discovered in Herod’s fortress, just three miles from Bethlehem. The ring had been actually found in 1969! But no one had been able to decipher its inscription. Only in 2018, after a thorough cleaning and advances in photographic technology, was it possible to read the Greek wording that contains the name of Pontius Pilate!
Scholars believe the ring was not his but that of a secretary who signed documents on his behalf. The name has neither the nominative nor the genitive form that usually forms part of the names of authorities appearing on coins or seals. Some think the inscription could be in the dative form, which translates as “by Pilate.” Therefore, it belonged to some secretary, perhaps a tax collector, who would have enough authority to issue documents in the name of the Roman governor.
Source: Shua Amorai-Stark, Malka Hershkovitz, Gideon Foerster, Yakov Kalman, Rachel Chachy, Roi Porat, “An Inscribed Copper-Alloy Finger Ring from Herodium Depicting a Krater,” Israel Exploration Journal 68:2, 2018, p. 217.
2. Tel Motzah Temple: Located about eight km from the Jerusalem Temple Mount, the site offers the most recent evidence of idolatry among Judahites before the arrival of the Babylonians.
In 2012, while constructing a highway in Israel, workers uncovered an Iron Age religious building at Tel Motzah, dating between the ninth and tenth centuries BC. The findings of the archaeological excavation confirm the religious apostasy in Judah that several biblical prophets, especially Jeremiah and Ezekiel, repeatedly denounced.
The structure was a pagan religious temple that functioned less than five miles from Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, showing that it was not the only place of worship for local Jews. Such a discovery suggests that not all sectors of Judahite society followed the reforms undertaken by Josiah and Hezekiah. Many continued to worship in the high places.
Further research should produce additional information about this pagan cult center in the territory of Judah. For now, the researchers’ attention has focused on the apparent fact that Nebuchadnezzar did not destroy it but that it was instead abandoned after the Babylonian invasion.
Source: Kisilevitz, Shua.“The Iron IIA Judahite Temple at Tel Moza,” July 3, 2015, Tel Aviv. 42 (2) pp.147–164, https://www.telmoza.org/.
3. David’s inscription confirmed on the Mesha stele. Until recently, only the Tel Dan stele offered historical support for the Judahite king David. Today additional evidence has surfaced.
The world of biblical archaeology witnessed in 1993 the publication of an archaeological find in Tel Dan in northern Israel that provided historical proof of the existence of David and his descendants. The expression “house of David” found on an Aramaic stele was so significant that it made the front page of The New York Times.
Almost two years earlier, Professor André Lemaire of the Sorbonne University would have read the same phrase on the Mesha Stele now in the Louvre Museum in Paris. However, he faced resistance among his peers because it was almost unanimous among scholars that David was a myth. Even after the publication of the Tel Dan stele, Lemaire found no support for his reading.
A new technique used in 2019 by Michael Langlois reopened a new investigation of line 31 on the stele, this time using the advanced technology of three-dimensional photography. André Lemaire was right. The Stele of Mesha also bears a reference to King David. The results were presented at an international meeting in the city of Jerusalem.
Source: Amanda Borschel-Dan, “High-tech Study of Ancient Stone Suggests New Proof of King David’s Dynasty,” The Times of Israel, May 3, 2019, https://www.timesofisrael.com/high-tech-study-of-ancient-stone-keeps-davidic-dynasty-in-disputed-inscription/.
Langlois, M. . “The Kings, the City and the House of David on the Mesha Stele in Light of New Imaging Techniques,” Semitica, 61, July 3, 2019, pp. 23-47, https://doi.org/10.2143/SE.61.0.3286681.
4. A statuette found in northern Israel could be the first image of a king of Israel so far found. Jehu, depicted on a commemorative stele from Shalmaneser, was the only Hebrew king to have his portrait preserved for posterity. However, in 2017 an enigmatic sculpture of a king’s head dating back nearly 3,000 years opened up the possibility of depicting a biblical monarch.
The 5-centimeter (2-inch) sculpture is an extremely rare example of figurative art from the Holy Land during the ninth century BC—the time of the Israelite monarchy. Well preserved, except for a bit of missing beard, the artifact was an unprecedented find, and nothing like it had ever been excavated before in Israel.
Although some scholars question whether it is a royal figure, the find has importance, especially since it was found in situ south of Israel’s border with Lebanon during excavations at Abel Beth Maacah, a town mentioned in I Kings 15:20 and 2 Kings 15:29.
Source: “Small, Sculpted Head May Depict Ancient King,” Archaeology Magazine, June 7, 2018, Archaeological Institute of America, https://www.archaeology.org/news/6671-180607-israel-sculpted-head.
5. A clay seal with the inscription “Bat Lechem.” It perhaps offers the first archaeological evidence for the existence of Bethlehem during the biblical period.
Discovered in 2012, it is a bulla, or seal impression, measuring c. 1.5 cm, found during the sifting of soil removed from excavations of the City of David in Jerusalem. It is the first time that the name Bethlehem appears outside the Bible; it indicates that it was indeed a place in the kingdom of Judah and thus certainly existed before the period of the monarchy.
The Bible first mentions Bethlehem in the verse “in Ephrathah (that is Bethlehem)” to indicate where Rachel, Jacob’s wife, died and was buried (Gen. 35:19; 48:7). The descendants of Judah settled there, among them the family of Boaz (book of Ruth).
Three lines of ancient Hebrew writing appear on the bulla:
בשבעת Bishv’at
בת לחם Bat Lechem
ך[למל] ך [Lemel] ekh
According to Eli Shukron, director of the excavation, “it appears that in the seventh year of a king’s reign (it is not clear whether the king referred to here is Hezekiah, Manasseh, or Josiah), a remittance was dispatched from Bethlehem to the king in Jerusalem. The bulla we find belongs to the group of “tax” bullas—administrative bullas used to seal tax remittances remitted to the taxation system of the Kingdom of Judah in the late eighth and seventh centuries BC. The tax could have been paid in the form of silver or agricultural products, such as wine or wheat.”
Source: Israel Antiquities Authority. “Earliest Archaeological Evidence of the Existence of the City of Bethlehem already in the First Temple Period,” May 23, 2012, http://www.antiquities.org.il/Article_eng.aspx?sec_id=25&subj_id=240&id=1938&hist=1.
Shanks, Hershel. “History of Bethlehem Documented by First Temple Period Bulla from the City of David: Jesus’ Birthplace in Ancient Bethlehem Confirmed as an Israelite City Centuries Earlier.” Biblical Archaeology Review, July, 16, 2019, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/earliest-history-of-bethlehem-documented-by-first-temple-period-bulla-from-the-city-of-david/.