A first century B.C. fragment of the Book of Ecclesiasticus, which was discovered at Masada in 1964, is on display through March at the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book. Ecclesiasticus, also called The Wisdom of Ben Sira, after its supposed author Jesus (son of) Sira, was written in about 170 B.C. It is a […]
The New York Times on December 8, 1979 carried a front page story headlined, “Scholar Identifies Legal Pages as the Oldest Found in Palestine.” The story describes the efforts of Harvard Professor Frank Cross to decipher fourth century B.C. papyrus fragments found in a cave north of Jericho. The fragments, which are parts of legal […]
Silver Tetradrachma Coins Ashkelon’s treasures. Silver tetradrachma coins, bearing the portrait of Alexander the Great on one side and depicting him on the other as Zeus holding a scepter in his left hand and an eagle in his right, and a silver bracelet were found among the charred debris of a building along Ashkelon’s coast. […]
Gezer III- A Ceramic Typology of the Late Iron II, Persian and Hellenistic Periods at Tell Gezer Seymour Gitin (Jerusalem- Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology, 1990) Text volume, 270 pp.; Data Base and Plates Volume, 345 pp., $90.00 Volumes of the final report on the excavation of Tell Gezer (1964–1974) continue to pour out. […]
This silver drachma coin struck in 323 B.C.E. is among the artifacts that provided evidence for the dating of the “cigarette” scroll. The “cigarette” scroll, found in a cave at Ketef Jericho rolled up into a cigarette-like tube, has helped to substantiate the science of paleography. This Aramaic document is a ledger, listing on one […]
Egyptian coin of the royal mint Stern, Ephraim, Material Culture of the Land of the Bible in the Persian Period. Jerusalem- Israel Exploration Society, 1973.
Material- Silver Denomination- Tetradrachm Size-1 inch in diameter Ptolemy I was the first ruler of Judea to place his own portrait on his coins (some numismatists believe he was the first person ever to mint a coin with his own likeness). The silver tetradrachm (four-drachm coin) shown here, from 305 B.C.E., depicts Ptolemy I wearing […]
Hoard of coins from the time of Alexander the Great. Richard L. Currier, Yaakov Meshorer, Coins of the Ancient World. Lerner Pub Group, 1975.
The relative independence the Jews enjoyed under the Persians would be shattered by the appearance of a man who would reshape the ancient world. Alexander’s the Great’s conquest of Judea in 332 B.C.E. was just a small part of his explosive expansion of the Macedonian empire into the lands that had been under the rule […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls 1. The Septuagint (G*) S.P. Brock et al., A Classified Bibliography of the Septuagint (Leiden 1973). E. Bickerman, “Some Notes on the Transmission of the Septuagint,” in- A. Marx Jubilee Volume (New York 1950) 149–178 = idem, Studies ill Jewish and Christian History, Part One (Leiden 1976) 137–166; P.-M. Bogaert, “Les […]