Your Filters
- (-) Remove Temple filter Temple
- (-) Remove Authors: Leen Ritmeyer filter Authors: Leen Ritmeyer
- (-) Remove Authors: Stephen J. Patterson filter Authors: Stephen J. Patterson
- (-) Remove Authors: Victor Hurowitz filter Authors: Victor Hurowitz
- (-) Remove Authors: Doron Mendels filter Authors: Doron Mendels
- (-) Remove Authors: Dorothy Resig filter Authors: Dorothy Resig
- (-) Remove Authors: Rami Arav filter Authors: Rami Arav
Displaying 1 - 20 of 38 results
Solomon’s Temple in Context
Although the Bible gives a detailed description of Solomon’s Temple, we have no physical remains of the building destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. Thanks to the recent excavation of several hitherto-unknown ancient Near Eastern temples, however, archaeologists are shedding new light on similarities and differences between these temples and King Solomon’s structure.
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2011
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
Inside Solomon’s Temple
“Then Solomon said … ‘I have built thee an exalted house, a place for thee to dwell in forever.’” (1 Kings 8:12–13) A vision of Isaiah, “I beheld my Lord seated on a high and lofty throne; and the skirts of his robe filled the Temple.” (...
Bible Review, April 1994
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
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
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
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
Prize Find: An Incense Shovel from Bethsaida
Slowly it emerged from the ground: a beautiful, 8-inch-long bronze incense shovel, the prize find of the 1996 excavations at Bethsaida, near the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The shovel lay in a first-century C.E. refuse pit. Just...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1997
Volunteers Find Missing Pieces to Looted Inscription
In the November/December 2008 issue of BAR, we reported on an inscribed limestone stela that had been purchased on the antiquities market by Judy and Michael Steinhardt and is on permanent loan to the Israel Museum.a The incomplete stela,...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 2010
Reconstructing the Triple Gate
Reconstructing the Triple Gate required that we answer three principal questions. What was the gate’s original width? Was it originally a double gate or a triple gate? For whom was it built? The discovery of a vault in front of the Triple...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1989
Searching for Bethsaida: The Case for Et-Tell
For 30 years, archaeologists have been excavating et-Tell in the Lower Golan, east of the Jordan Rift Valley. See why they believe their site is biblical Bethsaida.
Biblical Archaeology Review, Spring 2020
Wish Upon a Stone
Discovering the idolatry of the even maskit
Leviticus bans the Israelites from bowing upon a maskit stone. But what is a maskit? A recently deciphered Assyrian inscription may hold the key to identifying this mysterious prohibited object.
Bible Review, October 1999
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
From Storm God to Abstract Being
How the deity became more distant from Exodus to Deuteronomy
A spectacular sound and light show greeted the Israelites when the new nation encountered God for the first time at Mt. Sinai.1 The awesome display of divine presence and power so terrified the Children of Israel that they begged God not to...
Bible Review, October 1998
Did King Solomon Violate the Second Commandment?
Readers Letter Sparks Article When reading Victor Hurowitzs Inside Solomons Temple, BR 10:02, a question suddenly occurred to me that I should have thought of years ago. In the shrine of the temple were two huge, gold-plated, olive-wood cherubim, writes...
Bible Review, October 1994
P—Understanding the Priestly Source
Reading an introduction to biblical criticism, a beginning student might well think he or she is peering into a bowl of alphabet soup—or perhaps perusing a catalogue of foundations and corporations. Letters are all over the place, especially...
Bible Review, June 1996
The Golden Calf
Made by Man...or God?
While Moses was up on Mt. Sinai receiving the first edition of the Ten Commandments, the people down below grew impatient and asked Aaron, Moses’ brother, to make them another god to...
Bible Review, April 2004
Exploring the Holy Land Close to Home
I have never been to Israel. But after visiting the Explorations in Antiquity Center just an hour outside of Atlanta in LaGrange, Georgia, I have a much better idea of what it was like to live there 2,000 years ago. The center, which opened...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2008
Return to the Cave of Letters: What Still Lies Buried?
A small shovel started it all. In the summer of 1996, at the excavation of the Galilee site of Bethsaida (which we codirect), we uncovered a small bronze incense shovel. Others like it were used in the imperial cult throughout the Roman...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 2001
Bethsaida Rediscovered
Long-lost city found north of Galilee shore
Bethsaida is the town that disappeared. Soon after playing a prominent role in the Gospels—Bethsaida is mentioned more often in the New Testament than any city except Jerusalem and Capernaum—this fishing village on the Sea of Galilee simply...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 2000