New analysis of a previously known scrap of a Biblical text provides fascinating insight into the formation of the Hebrew Bible. Known as the Ashkar-Gilson Hebrew Manuscript #2, the text is a remnant of a Torah scroll from the seventh or eighth century C.E. and contains a crucial section of the Book of Exodus. Although […]
Highlights- Dome of the Rock, 688 Jerusalem Coin – Muhammad, Messenger of God, 632 Aleppo Codex, c. 930 Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 1009 Overview Moslem Jerusalem 638-1099, Teddy Kollek and Moshe Pearlman, Jerusalem- Sacred City of Mankind, Steimatzky Ltd., Jerusalem, 1991. Artifacts Anti-Christian Epigraphy Dome of the Rock, 688 Jerusalem Coin […]
Uamayyad Dinars Uamayyad Dinar Hoard Hoard of Umayyad Dinars found at Capernaum in 1983. Removal of a paving stone from the inner courtyard of a Byzantine house at Capernaum revealed the cache of gold. Valued today at $250,000, these 282 dinars were minted in Damascus during the Omayyad dynasty, about 695–743 A.D. At that time, […]
Aleppo Codex. Photo by Ardon Bar Hama. The Aleppo Codex is a full manuscript of the entire Bible, which was written in about 930. For more than a thousand years, the manuscript was preserved in its entirety in important Jewish communities in the Near East- Tiberias, Jerusalem, Egypt, and in the city of Aleppo […]
Samaritan Ten Commandments In 1943 Israeli archaeologist Jacob Kaplan learned of a marble plaque with writing on it that was embedded in the ground in an Arab courtyard before the threshold to one of the rooms. The owner told Kaplan that the 22-by-24-inch plaque had been found by his father in Yavneh (on the outskirts […]
First Map of the Holy Land Close-up, showing Jerusalem The First Map of The Holy Land and The First Modern Printed Map Holy Land, Brandis, Lucas. Map Of Palestine. Lübeck- Brandis, 1475, from Rudimentum Novitiorum sive Chronicarum Historiarum Epitome, 1475. In 1475 (some 25 years after the invention of printing from moveable type) Lucas Brandis […]
Hulda Gate: Double Gate Drawing The Double Gate is one of the gates leading to the Temple Mount. The Double Gate and the Triple Gate are both part of the Huldah Gate in the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount. They were built in the Herodian period and were refurbished in the Ummayad period. Today […]
Dome of the Rock Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall. Photo by Ardon Bar Hama. Epigraphy from the Inner Octagonal Arcade of the Dome of the Rock, the oldest known Islamic inscription on the oldest Islamic building; it is located on the Temple Mount, Jerusalem. “…O People of the Book! Don’t be excessive […]
Golden Haggadah Golden Haggadah. Biblical scenes based on Genesis, 19-37. Northern Spain, probably Barcelona, c.1320 Anticlockwise from top right- Adam naming the animals, the Creation of Adam and Eve, the Temptation, Cain and Abel offering a sacrifice, Cain slaying Abel, and lastly Noah, his wife and sons coming out of the ark. God’s image is […]
Torah Codex An Early Codex of the Torah, Palestine or Middle East, probably ninth century. Exodus 20 This thousand-year-old document is one of the oldest surviving examples of a Hebrew Bible codex – a manuscript written in book form rather than a scroll – and includes information from early scholars on how to pronounce and […]