Page 10 of 8 Dec 1996 Issue of Indiana Gazette in Indiana, Pennsylvania

Indiana Gazette December 8, 1996 Page 10 old newspaper archives

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Indiana Gazette (Newspaper) - December 8, 1996, Indiana, Pennsylvania A10 the Indiana a Gazette Jack Pagut sunday decembers 1996 looking for proof of the Bible in israels Hills Yemen desert by David Briggs a religion writer Hazor Israel Bentor is an archaeologist who doubts any thing he cant dig up he takes nothing in the Bible on Faith yet standing in a Trench on a hot Barre Mountainside he stares into the fire blackened Stone and sees an army destroying the canaanite City of Hazor years ago just As it says in the Book of Joshua Hazor was destroyed by fire when the invading israelite claimed their promised land Ben Tor says nobody can prove to me the Story in Joshua is entirely fic from the Northern Hills of Israel desert of Yemen a string of recent archaeological discoveries have provided the first hard Evi Dence for a number of biblical figures and events Many of which had been widely dismissed As myths arid moral tales individually the discoveries Are they Are Shak ing the Field of biblical archaeology and buttressing words believers have taken on Faith they also have political implications in a Region where jewish and palestinian claims to the land rest in part on events dating Back to the time of Abraham in this volatile mix of archaeology religion and politics the most important of the new discoveries is evidence for the existence of King David the Bible says the child David slayed the Philistine giant Goliath and went on to found Jerusalem which this year is celebrating its anniversary As the City of David Davids is an exciting tale of murder adultery political deceit and extraordinary Faith and Cour age the fantastic Many biblical scholars have Long thought that even David himself must have been made up then came what Seymour Gitin of the Albright Institute of archaeological research in East Jeru Salem Calls one of the greatest finds of the 20th in 1993 israeli archaeologists dig Ging in Tel Dan in the Golan Heights unearthed a piece of Stone from an ancient Monument or Stele in scribed upon it m ancient aramaic were the words King of Israel and House of the Story so Shook some scholars that they insisted the find was phony or the inscription incorrectly trans lated a year later however archaeologists found More fragments of the Stele with additional inscriptions referring to the ancient King today the new scholarly Consen sus is that David was real not because the Bible says so says Ronny Reich of the israeli antiquities authority but because archaeology has found v the Rock upon which Davids name was found is Only one of the recent finds consistent with biblical accounts discoveries that May be ushering in a hew Golden age of biblical archaeology recent expeditions where the Bible says Abraham built an altar to god prove an organized Community existed there during Abrahams time nearly years ago this summer archaeologists digging in a Kibbutz in Central Israel found a Stone Tablet with a phone Ciari inscription Baring the name of the City of Ekron the fabled City where according to the Book of i Samuel took the Ark of the covenant after capturing it from the israelite recent excavations have uncovered a string of ancient egyptian forts along the Sinais Mediterranean coast the discovery offers a plausible explanation for an exodus Story that has Long puzzled scholars for Why Moses would Lead his people out of Egypt through the Sinai wilderness instead of along the Shorter coastal this summer archaeologists sifting through a Gar Bage dump at Masada in Southern Israel unearthed a wine Jug in scribed with the name of King Herod it was the first object Ever found bearing the name of the great Judean King mentioned in the gos Pels an Ivory pomegranate Pur chased in the International antiquities Market by israeli authorities for m 1988 is now believed by Many scholars to be the first relic Ever found from Solomons Temple according to the Bible the magnificent Temple generally dated to around 950 housed the Ark of the covenant an inscription on the pomegranate has been translated As holy to the priests belonging to the Temple of no archaeologists Are saying everything in the Bible is literally True How reliable is the Bible her Shel Shanks editor of biblical archaeology review asks rhetorically the answer is it has a sound historical Core whats heat ing up now is an academic Battle Between those who deny this and those who affirm some researchers accept the re cent discoveries As proof that biblical accounts of exodus and the Conquest of the promised land Are generally True others continue to insist that the events never occurred and the major figures of the old testament from Jacob to Solomon never existed the debate centers on figures and events that Are important to three of the worlds major religions christianity Judaism and islam at the Center of the dispute is Israel Finkelstein a professor at Tel Aviv University on a warm Day the tall thin bearded archaeologist scampers up and Down a slope supervising scores of volunteers dig Ging at Tel Megiddo the Mountain top where the Book of revelation says the final Battle Between Good and evil will take place they Iare searching for artefacts of the Iron age and late Bronze age it was during those times Accord ing to the Bible that the jews were claiming their promised land Joshua conquered Canaan and Dur ing the fighting the ancient Canaan Ite City of Megiddo was Defeated says is proof that this never happened he has found evidence that Meed do was still standing after Joshua supposedly conquered Ca Naan those who dispute these findings Finkelstein says Are practising nationalistic archaeology that puts politics ahead of scholarship less than 60 Miles away at Tel Hazor Short Burly Bentor stands in the ruins of a once magnificent canaanite Palace and supervises workers digging in the heat Finkelstein Bentor says angrily is supplying anti semites with a Fig Leaf by attacking the traditional accounts of israeli nationhood god Grant him Money and time Bentor says and Hazor will be the place where Finkelstein idiotic theory can be already he says his excavations have uncovered evidence that razor was destroyed by a terrible fire and its canaanite and egyptian statues destroyed in the late second millennium the findings support the biblical account of Joshuas Triumph discoveries at Hazor also show the City was occupied again by the 10th Century supporting biblical accounts of King Solomons reign eventually Bentor said one will find an inscription with Solomons name on How will such proof or the Lack of it affect people of Faith Camille Killam graduate Stu Dent at Southeastern Baptist univer sity working on the dig at Tel Hazor says no archaeological discovery could change her beliefs it happen it she says i believe in gods but in the current uneasy mix of science and religion where some claim science has become the new religion what can be proven or disprove by archaeology May mat Ter not Only to scholars but to Many people of Faith a recent editorial in christianity to have born destroyed Ancton Bronze and gum j archaeologists found a a capt which included the name of the City ebon where the Bible says philistines took foe Ark of the covenant Jerusalem a holy City for christianity Judaism and islam archaeologists have uncovered some evidence of King David whom the Bible says founded the City Hula evidence indicates that in this Region there was a flood that became recorded As the flood of the 0d testament today the leading evangelical mag Azine encourages conservative wins trans to support biblical archaeology because evidence for the historical accuracy of the Bible bolsters Faith evangelicals Are committed to fostering a belief in the trustworthiness of the editorial states that requires both argument and James Sauer a Harvard University archaeologist and former presi Dent of the american schools of Oriental research never put much Faith in the trustworthiness of the bibles Early stories but today he goes so far As to assert a historical basis for one of the bibles most ancient stories the Story of Noah the Middle East was not always Krahtz such a dry place Sauer says in Yemen the Hula Lake Region of Israel and the empty Quarter in saudi Arabia he and others have found evidence of flooding during the Early Bronze age what in he says is there was a flood in the Middle East that became recorded As the flood of the old testament from his St Louis Home where he is in the debilitating stages of Huntington disease Sauer says he wants evidence of the flood to be his final legacy for most of his life he says he thought the Story of the great flood was a fable that did not contain any historical memory yet in my re search As a scientist i came up with this evidence that supports the by by David Briggs a religion writer Caesarea maritime Israel Here amid the crumbling crusader Era Walls of an ancient Harbor town two women swing water bottles and sing their version of the theme from the Bedrock we hit Bedrock All about them coworkers streaked with dirt uncover Stone by Stone the place where the Bible says the apostle Paul was imprisoned the place where Cornelius the first of what was to be billions of Gentile believers was converted to christianity close by a the barrel shaped body of a prominent archaeologist from the blistering morning Sun would you care for a drink Avner Raban asks a visitor when water is requested he gives a Sui yourself shrug and pours himself a fistful of Jack Daniels it is 10 the swaggering Romance of archaeology the legacy of a bygone Era when archaeologists were More treasure Hunters than scientists lingers at some of the scores of digs found throughout Israel it takes some of the Edge off the harsh reality rising at Dawn digging ditches hauling away Rock in heat that can hit 120 degrees in summer this is not work for the weak or the uncommitted but when it comes to the Bible few Are uncommitted those who would sift the dirt of the kingdom of David arrive Here burning with Fervour to prove the truth of the word or they seek to earn an academic badge of Honor by proving the Bible false they Hope to find an ancient inscription that will prove the jews ancient claim to the promised land or a priceless relic that will make them famous like the fictional Indiana Jones some seek Only the truth a truth found not in scripture but in scraps of pottery and Stone what they seek matters because some times what you seek is what you find Camille Killam a graduate student from Southeastern Baptist University working at biblical archaeologists Are uncommitted a dig at Tel Hazor smiles under her Straw hat and Lowers her voice As if letting you in on a Little secret she says this snot As scientific As you might think in the beginning and for much of its history biblical archaeology involved More Faith than science it was the province of Seminary professors and treasure Hunters who used the Bible As their guide scouring it for clues about where to dig and what to dig for gradually they gave Way to sceptical scholars who distrusted the Bibie and dared ask questions their predecessors would never have posed was there really Ever an exodus from Egypt was the promised land really conquered by the israelite or was it gradually settled Over centuries by different ethnic groups who eventually be came the people of Israel bythe 1960s says Fred Winter supervisor of the Caesarea expeditions this pure scientific approach had become so strident that the Bible was seen As nearly irrelevant today the pendulum is swinging Back because of recent discoveries providing the first hard evidence for some old testament figures and events among the key discover ies the discovery of the ruins of Ekron the fabled City where the Bible says the Philis tines brought the Ark of the covenant after capturing it from the israelite and the discovery of a Stone inscription bearing the name of King David today archaeologists Are still not Likely to take the Bible on Faith but it is no longer fashionable to dismiss it out of hand still the dominant View is never the Only View the truths buried in the Earth of the holy land attract All kinds the throwback Wendyl Jones stands tall in the Mouth of a desert Cave in Qumran near the dead sea he is wearing a Khaki shirt and shorts and yes a pith helmet for More than two decades the former fundamentalist preacher has been digging holes in the the holy grails cof biblical archaeology the Bible and the dead sea scrolls or rather his arcane interpretation of them Are his treasure the Story Jones is telling sounds vaguely familiar he was working a dig inside a Cave suddenly a huge Boulder came rum bling out of an upper chamber Jones turned and ran looking Back Over his Jones believes he was the Model for Indiana Jones take away the v and the y and his first name becomes Endy he Points out today with the backing of some prominent orthodox jews he is searching for nothing less than the Ark of the covenant few but Jones seems to think he will find it and he is stalled on his latest plan to dig in the caves of Qumran because israeli author it essay he does not have the credibility to be Given new permits you fellas have a Bent against religion i mean the feisty Jones says he has told the israeli archaeological authority if you would study the Bible and talmud its so precise in giving the Man on the pendulum the site at Ashk Helon overlooking the Mediterranean sea is so Beautiful that there used to be a club med right next door some of americas brightest archaeology students Are digging Here in carefully Laid out grids near a magnificent year old arched Gateway supervising the dig is a husky bearded Harvard University professor who is known As the Dean of american archaeologists Larry Stager the son of fundamentalist midwestern Farmers is unwilling Totake everything in the Bible at face value but he Doest dismiss it As a storybook either Stager says the Bible is a multilayered Book of books that archaeologists should read the same Way they examine dig by peeling it Back layer by layer the farther Back you go in the Bible the less Likely the characters and events Are historical he says but even in the oldest stories of the old testament bib ucal writers had to pass the test of what i Call he says in other words he says there had to be history to make a plausible Story it was at Ashkhen Tonthat researchers unearthed an ancient Bronze and Silver figurine the figurine is considered a pre cursor to the Golden the idol that the Bible says enraged Moses when he descended from mount Sinai with the ten commandments the Odd couple Ronny Reich thinks the Bible is part history part liturgical text and part Litera Ture he thinks the earliest figures of the old testament were mythological he Doest think there was Ever an Abraham or an Isaac Yaakov Billig is an orthodox jew who takes it on Faith that the biblical patriarchs were real whoever is willing to Slaughter All the holy cows int being Billig said it int More than their own personal Way of it int unusual to find people holding such widely divergent opinions working on the same dig for example at Megiddo this summer Israel Finkelstein the archetype septic supervised a Crew that included a group of conservative christians every Day they would Pray on the Mountain top where the biblical writer of revelation believed the final Battle Between Good and evil would take place what is unusual is to find two people with As divergent As Reich and Billig jointly supervising a dig yet together they ran the dig that uncovered a firs Century marketplace outside of Jerusalem Western Wall it is a marketplace where jews visiting the second Temple could have exchanged Money bought purchased the ancient equivalent of souvenir shirts Jesus May have walked its ancient Plaza were at the foot of the Temple mount the holiest spot in the world for Judaism this is just about the Peak of the Billig said after years of exile were finally the limits of science Toni Tessa no a dig supervisor at Bethsaida near the sea of Galilee says that sometimes she imagines finding a note saying Pete gone Down to the River be Back soon but she knows she never will nor will Raban find a letter signed by Paul in the Rocky ground of Caesarea archaeology has its time and the elements erase Many things and not even Indiana Jones could dig up every Inch of ground from Egypt to Canaan but perhaps Raban will find the crumbled Walls of the prison where Paul was held perhaps Amnon Bentor will find the treasure he seeks in the ruins of a canaanite Palace at Tel Hazor a Royal Archive with the greatest trove of documents since the dead sea scrolls despite centuries of treasure Hunting and archaeology much remains hidden perhaps it will always be so for everything that found you can also argue says Anna Lamia the architectural expert at the Caesarea maritime dig i dont think Well have any indisputable proof if something did or did not happen she says the truth is it is unanswerable Worms Persimmon pits contradict forecast by Karen Testa associated press writer fair Grove to forget predictions of mild Winter by the National weather service and the old Farmers almanac Irene Thomas has stocked up on fire Wood because the telltale signs Shes been watching for most of her 84 years indicate this Winter will be a doozy the Only woolly worm Shes seen was Black As night the squirrels Are bustling about her Yard at a frenetic Pace and the first Snow of the season came on oct 22 if youll keep track of your first Snow of the year and what Day that Falls on then Many snows youre going to is Thomas explains it was the 22nd this Winter it Doest look very fellow Scott hair of Hurley agrees the work of spiders also tells her to bundle up for this Winter the Tough As i dont know says is hair who turns 94 this month and we had them another popular indicator of the upcoming Winter is the inside of a Persimmon pit folklore has it that if the Center of the pit is shaped like a knife there will be biting cold if its a Fork there will be Little Snow if you find a spoon or a Spade that Means youll have a lot of Snow to shovel is Thomas says is hair says friends brought her a couple of Persimmon pits but before opening them she knew what to expect they had opened the seed and found a spoon in she says in sure there there Are Downs of other folkloric indicators of the weather for example the thickness of Corn husks or the thick Ness of animals Coats you know your animals shed during the summer and then they begin to put on Thomas lays if there going to have extra heavy Coats on that an indication its going to be a worse Winter than the most popular indicator is probably the woolly worm whose color and coat supposedly indicate the severity of the Corning Darker and thicker the worse the Winter neither is hair norms Thomas could remember when or where they first heard the Foi Tonc weather tales just picked it hair says my parents didst pay any attention to its just something that you is Thomas says a lot of thai is superstition and old wives tales and that sort of but it is cause for discussion after a local radio station interviewed is Thomas recently on her Amateur forecasting skills her Telephone rang off the Hook one of my friends called up and said hey i want to know what its going to do for the rest of the i said sorry As you know in not a meteorologists enjoy a Good natured laugh at the folklore David Gaede the science and operations officer with the National weather service says the Outlook for Missouri in january february and March is for temperatures slightly above Normal with Normal rain fall those Ion Grange predictions Are made by the climate diagnostic Center of the National weather service folklore in general id say it probably Doest have any he says and according to the internet website of the old Farmers almanac the Central great Plains Region can expect a mild Winter temperatures during the period from november through March Are expected to average a bit above Normal especially in the Central part of the Region in Gebru the almanac predicts Humbug says is hair i dont think meteorologists Are More accurate than your folklore whatever it is Persimmon seeds or Walnut hulls or is Thomas was less convinced of their accuracy so in the end she goes with her feelings we have had so Many Nice Winters that its about time we had a bad she says its kind of due seems to

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