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Displaying 1 - 20 of 23 results
Reconstructing Herod’s Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Herod the Great—master builder! Despite his crimes and excesses, no one can doubt his prowess as a builder. One of his most imposing achievements was in Jerusalem. To feed his passion for grandeur, to immortalize his name and to attempt to...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1989
A Temple’s Golden Anniversary
Fifty years ago, leading Israeli scholar Michael Avi-Yonah constructed a now-iconic model of the Second Temple destroyed by the Romans. But how accurate is it?
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 2016
The Temple Menorah—Where Is It?
What is history and what is myth? What is true and what is legendary? Reporting on his 1996 meeting with Pope John Paul II (1978–2005), Israel’s Minister of Religious Affairs Shimon Shetreet reported, according to the Jerusalem Post,...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2005
Did the Synagogue Replace the Temple?
In 70 C.E. Roman legions destroyed the Jerusalem Temple, Judaism’s holiest structure and the “dwelling place of God’s name.” Despite this loss, Judaism was to survive and prosper. In the following centuries, the synagogue itself came to be...
Bible Review, April 1996
Locating the Original Temple Mount
Somewhere on Jerusalem’s majestic Temple Mount—the largest man-made platform in the ancient world, the size of 24 football fields, nearly 145 acres—Herod the Great (37–4 B.C.) built a...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1992
The New Jerusalem Inscription—So What?
In 2012, while excavating at the southern wall of the Temple Mount, Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar discovered the oldest alphabetic inscription ever found in Jerusalem. It had been inscribed on a storage jar, but, alas, the jar had not...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 2014
Quarrying and Transporting Stones for Herod’s Temple Mount
Herod’s construction in the Temple Mount area, like the construction of most of Jerusalem’s buildings, used local limestone. The mountains around Jerusalem are composed of Turonian and Cenomanian limestone that has a characteristic horizontal...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1989
The Ark of the Covenant: Where It Stood in Solomon’s Temple
Four years ago, I wrote an article for BAR in which I identified the original 500-cubit-square Temple Mount.1 By now, this location is well established in the archaeological world,...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1996
Why Bone Boxes?
Splendor of Herodian Jerusalem reflected in burial practices
People who hear of it for the first time are always surprised: Ancient Jews practiced secondary burial, gathering into bone boxes called ossuaries the bones of their dead a year or so after death, when the flesh had desiccated and fallen off...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 2001
Ritmeyer Responds to Jacobson
David Jacobson’s theory regarding the shape of Herod’s Temple Mount and the placement of the Temple within it draws heavily on Roman architectural practice. The Romans were particularly fond of symmetrical structures, as Jacobson rightly...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2000
Potter’s Field or High Priest’s Tomb?
About a half mile south of the Old City of Jerusalem—at the southeast end of the Hinnom Valley, near where it joins the Kidron Valley east of the city—is one of the most impressive,...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1994
Daniel and Belshazzar in History
The party was in full swing, the wine flowed freely, and everyone felt on top of the world. There was no power on earth to rival Babylon, and no gods in heaven to equal hers. This is the setting of the famous fifth chapter of the Book of...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1985
Does the Bible Exaggerate King Solomon’s Golden Wealth?
Those who read the Biblical text and make a subjective judgment as to its reliability often conclude—and understandably so—that the descriptions of Solomon’s gold are gross...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1989
Literacy in the Time of Jesus
Could His Words Have Been Recorded in His Lifetime?
How likely is it that someone would have written down and collected Jesus’ sayings into a book in Jesus’ lifetime? Several lines of evidence converge to suggest it is quite probable. The first factor to consider is how prevalent literacy was...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2003
True Colors
Digital reconstruction restores original brilliance to the Arch of Titus
Although many Greek and Roman statues and monuments now appear gleaming white (the result of years of weathering), they were originally brightly colored. Using technology, a team has digitally restored a panel from the Arch of Titus—which famously depicts captured treasures from Jerusalem’s Temple being paraded through Rome—to its original color.
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 2017
Iconoclasm
Who defeated this Jewish art?
The delicate carving on the side of the sarcophagus depicts Zeus, in the guise of a swan, graphically forcing himself on the Spartan queen Leda. The scene is one of the best known in...
Bible Review, October 2000
The Question of Israelite Literacy
How widespread was the ability to read and Write in ancient Israel? Until recently, the answer usually was, “Quite limited.” The ability to write, it was said, was restricted to a class of professional scribes, who possessed a skill...
Bible Review, Fall 1987
Ebla and the Bible
What’s left (if anything)?
I remember it well. It was early October 1975. We were sitting on top of the tell having lunch. One of our guests, Afif Bahnassi, the director of the Department of Antiquities of Syria...
Bible Review, April 1992
Qatzrin—Reconstructing Village Life in Talmudic Times
Before 1967, the Golan Heights was, archaeologically speaking, terra incognita. Since then, surveys and excavations have revealed a rich Jewish life there during the third...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1991