Biblical Archeology 101 Review

Quick review…• Last time we went

over some of the differences between archeology, paleontology and anthropology.

Biblical Archeology 101Review

2. You also now know there’s various kinds of archeology (I.E. historical, prehistorical, Near Eastern, Syrio-palestinian and Biblical archeology .

3. You know there’s different methods like the “pit” and “tunnel” methods.


4. You know who Captain Charles Warren was and what effect he had on Biblical Archeology.

5. And lastly you know what Hezekiah's tunnel is.


Captain Charles Warren

• I want to finish up now with one more bit of information on the tunnels under Jerusalem because it directly relates to what happened at Masada and then we’ll begin our virtual tour of Masada.

Biblical Archeology 101

• I have one more short clip which shows another tunnel which was recently found under Jerusalem.

• Please show clip one.


Hezekiah's tunnel

• So we can see from that video how the Zealots and others fled from Jerusalem in 70 AD.

• It is very likely that many of those Zealots eventually made it to Masada.


• Let’s get our bearings now and see what that looks like on a map…


• Show Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Qumran, Ein Gedi, and Masada.

• Now lets look at this same map with a legend.


Biblical Archeology 101• So you can

see it’s only about 10 miles (approx 20 kilometers) from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea then another 20 miles to Masada.

• Not far at all!

Biblical Archeology 101• Let’s look at the area on Google Earth.


• This area is a vast wilderness. In fact we call it in Hebrew…

• Midbar ,מדבר יהודהYehuda, the Judean desert.

• Let’s take a drive down the road from Jerusalem to the dead sea… video of road to dead sea)


• Very little lives out there in the area of Masada.

• The Dead Sea is full of salt, 5 times saltier then Salt Lake in Utah.

• (Show dead sea swimming demo clip)


• So there is no fish that live in the Dead Sea

• The water is not drinkable.

• The mud from the Dead Sea is good for the skin though.


• Very few things can survive in that area.

• But there are a couple things.

• One of those things is the…


• The Rock Rabbit


• Here’s another picture.

• Not very cute like other rabbits but that’s because it’s not really a rabbit at all.

• In Hebrew we call it “Shafan”.


• In some English Bible translations it’s called the “coney” and at other times “rock badger” because the translators had no idea what a shafan was.


• This is the English Coney.

• It’s just another word for rabbit.

• The shafan however isn’t even related to the rabbit.


• But it’s a very hardy animal and the Bible talks about it in Proverbs 30:26…

• 26. The coneys, a species with little power, yet they make their home in the rocks. (CJB)

• Better then some other translations…• 26 the rock badgers are a people not mighty,

yet they make their homes in the cliffs. (English Standard Version)

• That’s confusing… is it a badger or a people???


• You can understand how a non Hebrew speaking western theologian might read this translation and then build an entire idea based completely on a false presumption.


• Another animal that lives in that area is the ibex.

• In Hebrew it’s called the Azel.

• In English translations it’s often called the “wild goat”.


• We read about it in Psalms 104:18• 18 The high hills are for the wild goats; The

cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers (shafanim). KJV


• Both of these animals are hardy animals, they can live in harsh areas.

• It is not a hospitable place for humans.

• That’s what makes Masada all the more remarkable.


• It’s important to understand the conditions of that area so we can better understand Masada itself.

• I think the movie we saw certainly helps get that across.


• Now we’ve seen the surrounding area, lets look around the base of Masada.

Biblical Archeology 101A- Circumvallation wall, perimeter 2 miles, 6 feet tall, with towers at intervals of about 200 feet.B- Roman Headquarters Camp.C- East CampD- GuardpostsE- Enlarged outposts or camps within the wall F- Camp followers area (merchants and brothel)

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Another shot.Also showing the snake Trail.

Here’s a closer shot of the roman headquarters camp.

Here’s the other camp, it’s been reconstructed a little.

Here it is a little closer

And then of course there’s the ramp. Good shot showing how long it is.

Another shot showing how wide the ramp is.

Me in front of the Great Pyramid. Not much bigger.

Back to this picture and you can see how small the ramp is compared to the mountain.The top of Masada is 1800 ft x 900 ft

•Now we’re about to get onto the cable car and go up to the top of Masada (290 meters)…(cable car video)

•Now that you’ve arrived and you walk up the ramp to the entrance, you can see the top cable car station

•And this is the entrance to Masada.


• Now, lets look at Masada itself.

• We get up to the top and here’s what we’ll see.

• (show 360 view from top of Masada)

• Here’s the floor plan…

Here’s the floor plan of Masada. We’ll be going through these (pretty much) one by one.

• Not much to say about the Eastern gate but right next to it is our first example of a casemate wall.

• What is a casemate wall?• A casemate consisted of two thinner, parallel

walls with empty space between them. • It was faster and cheaper to build, and

afforded the inhabitants extra living space in crowded cities (Masada often had a lot of people there)

• During times of war, the space could be quickly filled with dirt and stones to create a thicker, solid defensive wall.

• Here is one of those casemates at Masada.

• Why is that significant? Because we see it mentioned in the Bible as well.

• Rahab the madam lived in a casemate in Jericho…

• She let the Israelite spies down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall. (Joshua 2:15, ESV)

• There are a lot of buildings at Masada.• Where did all the rock come from?• Right here as well as from the many cisterns.• How much building was actually done?• Let’s look at it…

Remember how big this area is…

Remember how small the ramp looks here.

You can see better here how far back it goes.

The north palace is magnificent. We see some structure and paint that have been preserved.

Many of the columns and walls were plastered.

King Herod knew how to live and he knew how to entertain his guests.

There are designs and mosaics all over the Palace areas. Like this one.

There was also a large dinning room area where they would have had tricliniums set up

Typical triclinium. Herod was a roman at heart, this is not how the typical Jews ate in Israel.They ate from a round table with mats that shot out like spokes on a wheel.

Inside one of the store rooms

• In the movie we watched, they said they had lots of food… they weren’t kidding.

• There were 15 storehouses built on Masada and each held a different commodity. • This was attested to by different storage jars and inscriptions on jars in the rooms. • Wine bottles sent to Herod from Italy were found there.

You can see thecolumns they made in order to supporta second floor

The heat was piped under the floor and through the pipes on the side.It gets cold in the desert at night, so these hot steam baths were very nice in the evenings.

These baths were similar to Turkish baths. They’re called a caldarium The warm air of the caldarium had a purpose: heat releases dirt from the pores of the skin, making it easier to remove.Each bather was rubbed all over with olive oil, then used a strigil or scraper to remove the dirt. After this, the bather went to the frigidarium or cool room, or plunged into a swimming pool before getting dressed again.

There were different kinds of strigils…

Actual oil jar and strigil.

In other parts of the bath complex you can find original murals.

Herod did not build a synagogue at Masada, this was a later conversion done by the Zealots.It was originally a stable that Herod had built.

original

reconstructed

Notice how the steps go all the way around in a U shape, this was a typical style for Synagogues in the First Century, it faced towards Jerusalem and is a perfect example of how Messianic Synagoguesshould be built today!

This Synagogue at Masada is one of the oldest Synagogues ever to be found in Israel.

original

This Synagogue at Gamla (near the Galil) is also u shaped

• This is also how the Sanhedrin was set up.

• This synagogue in Masada was found in the first season of Yigael Yadin’s excavations. • No Second Temple period synagogues were known at the time.

• Many coins from the Jewish Revolt were found here. • An ostracon was found on the floor with inscription, “priestly tithe.”

Ma’aser Cohen

• The back room served as a genizah.

• Let’s talk about the genizah for a moment. • Genizah means "storage"; plural: genizot

גניזה

• The genizah is the store-room or depository in a synagogue (or cemetery), for worn-out Hebrew-language books and papers on religious topics that were stored there before they could receive a proper cemetery burial. Genizah burial

• It is forbidden to throw away writings containing the name of G-d (even personal letters and legal contracts could open with an invocation of G-d).

• This also included the periodic solemn gathering at the genizah where the writings were then buried in the cemetery or “Beit Chayyim." • Synagogues bury the contents of their genizot every seventh year.

• Show genizah video.

• There are other famous genizot.• The Cairo genizah for one… The Cairo Genizah is a collection of almost 300,000 Jewish manuscript fragments found in the Genizah or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt.

Entrance to the genizah in Cairo

•The importance of these manuscripts became known in the 1700’s but it wasn’t until the late 1800’s that they were retrieved and studied. Solomon Schechter studying

documents from the Cairo Geniza in 1895.

• The only literary discovery more important then this was the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. • That’s how important this find was.

Qumran

• The materials include a vast number of books, most of them fragments, including several incomplete manuscripts of Sirach as well as works from The RamBam and even Karaite documents.

Karaites

• So it’s importance spanned Judaism across all lines.• Unfortunately, most of the Christian world has never heard of the Cairo Genizah.

• At the entrance of the genizah in Masada there is something else to note.

•There’s a place where they kept the Torah

• Things were so well preserved there they even found some braided hair.

Hair and comb found at Masada

• Also found were some sandals. • This is one from a child, a woman and a man

• And just as Josephus wrote in his story of the men casting lots with the names of the men on them…• Eliazer ben Ya'ir’s was found in Jerusalem.

• What is the Byzantine period?•In Biblical archeology we refer to various time periods ranging from the Early Bronze period to the Roman period.

Hagia Sophia, IstanbulOriginally a Church

but converted into a Mosque

•This is what that looks like…

“Bronze age”: 3,200-1,200 BCE Early Bronze (EB) Age = 3200-2200 BCE Middle Bronze (MB) Age = 2200–1550 BCE

MB I (formerly MB IIA) = 2200–2000 MB II (formerly MB IIA) = 2,000-1,750 MB III (formerly MB IIC) = 1750–1550

“Late Bronze” (LB) Age = 1550–1200 BCE LB I = 1550–1400 LB II = 1400–1200

“Iron Age”: 1200-586 BCE Iron I = 1200–1000 Iron IIA = 1000-930 Iron IIB = 930-721 Iron IIC = 721-586

Babylonian period: 586-539 BCE Persian period: 539-332 BCE “Hellenistic period” = 332-63 BCE

Early Hellenistic = 332-198 Late Hellenistic = 198-63

Roman period: 63 BCE-324 CE

• After the Roman period there is another period we study called the Byzantine period.• This period starts with the Emperor Constantine.• If you want to know where a whole bunch more of Christian doctrine came from, study Constantine.

•So what does the Byzantine period have to do with Masada?•Well, after the Zealots took their own lives at Masada, years later Masada was inhabited once again.

This time by the Byzantine monks in the 4th century.They are still around in various parts of the world.

Byzantine monk in France

•So, the monks made some of their own additions to Masada including this gate and they even made their own church in Masada

Byzantine West Gate

•This is the entrance to the Byzantine Church.

•This is the nave of the Church.•When you get in you look down to the floor and you see this…

•There are also Mikvas in Masada that were built by the Zealots.

•This is the view from one…

•Here’s another Mikva.

•Here’s just one of the cisterns at Masada.•The Zealots at Masada had plenty of water to spare.

•Also in this area you’ll find a pigeon coup.•Why in the world would they need pigeons?

• For one they would eat them, pigeons are also called squab when they’re young.

• They Zealots also used their guano for fertilizer and it’s possible that King Herod used them as carriers.

• So now we’re coming to the close of our tour. Remember this information because we’ll be using some of it to build on other archeological classes and virtual tours of the Land of Israel but…

• before we end, we have to get back to our tour bus so I want to show you a little of what •that looks like close up…. Via bicycle! (Show bike video)

Biblical Archeology 101 Review

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