How December 25 Became Christmas

From Biblical Archaeology Review

By Andrew McGowan

On December 25, Christians around the world will gather to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Joyful carols, special liturgies, brightly wrapped gifts, festive foods—these all characterize the feast today, at least in the northern hemisphere. But just how did the Christmas festival originate? How did December 25 come to be associated with Jesus’ birthday?

The Bible offers few clues: Celebrations of Jesus’ Nativity are not mentioned in the Gospels or Acts; the date is not given, not even the time of year. The biblical reference to shepherds tending their flocks at night when they hear the news of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:8) might suggest the spring lambing season; in the cold month of December, on the other hand, sheep might well have been corralled. Yet most scholars would urge caution about extracting such a precise but incidental detail from a narrative whose focus is theological rather than calendrical.

Tomb of St. Philip the Apostle Discovered in Turkey

From Fox News

A portrait of St. Philip from around 1611, by the Italian painter Peter Paul Rubens, at the Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.

A tomb believed to be that of St. Philip the Apostle was unearthed during excavations in the ancient Turkish city of Hierapolis.

Italian professor Francesco D'Andria said archeologists found the tomb of the biblical figure -- one of the 12 original disciples of Jesus -- while working on the ruins of a newly-unearthed church, Turkish news agency Anadolu reported Wednesday.

1,400-Year-Old St. Paul Fresco Discovered in Ancient Roman Catacomb

A 1,400-year-old fresco of St Paul has been discovered in an ancient Roman catacomb. 

The sixth-century fresco of Saint Paul has been discovered in the Catacombs of San Gennaro in Naples

From The Telegraph

By Nick Pisa in Rome

The fresco was found during restoration work at the Catacombs of San Gennaro (Saint Januarius) in the southern port city of Naples by experts from the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Art.

The announcement was made on the feast day of St Peter and Paul which is traditionally a bank holiday in Rome and details of the discovery were disclosed in the Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.

Jordan Battles to Regain 'Priceless' Christian Relics

From BBC News

By Robert Pigott

They could be the earliest Christian writing in existence, surviving almost 2,000 years in a Jordanian cave. They could, just possibly, change our understanding of how Jesus was crucified and resurrected, and how Christianity was born.

A group of 70 or so "books", each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007.

A flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave, one of them marked with a menorah or candlestick, the ancient Jewish religious symbol.

A Jordanian Bedouin opened these plugs, and what he found inside might constitute extremely rare relics of early Christianity.

That is certainly the view of the Jordanian government, which claims they were smuggled into Israel by another Bedouin.

As soon as I saw that, I was dumbstruck” End Quote Philip Davies Sheffield University.

Hirbet Madras Mosaic Discovered at Site of Zecharia's Tomb

From Arutz Sheva

By Chana Ya'ar

Archaeologists have uncovered an especially large and beautiful mosaic floor as well as numerous artifacts in excavations at Hirbet Madras, in the Judean coastal plain.

The site and its secrets are in the process of being carefully preserved by Israel Antiquities Authority specialists for conservation and future presentation to the public.

According to a release issued by the Authority, the site, identified by scholars as the residence and tomb of the prophet Zecharia, has been included in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's national heritage project.

The excavations were conducted under the aegis of the Israel Antiquities Authority in the wake of an antiquities theft during which robbers attempted to plunder an ancient underground complex.

Hirbet Madras was known as the site of a large, important Jewish community from the Second Temple period. The city was destroyed during the Bar Kochba Revolt in 135 CE.

Also uncovered were the remains of a church, as well as other buildings, caves, agricultural installations and extensive underground hiding tunnels. The site has been identified by scholars as the location of a major community.

(Israel news photo: courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority)

    

In the 1980s, a lintel bearing a unique decoration discovered at the site was found to be identical to a lintel from the Hirbet Nevoraya synagogue in the north of Israel. At the time, Professor Amos Kloner and the late Dr. Zvi Ilan theorized that an ancient Jewish synagogue was located nearby.

In the wake of the illicit excavations by antiquities robbers, the lintel was rediscovered by inspectors from the Israel Antiquities Authority Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Theft. A legitimate excavation of the site soon followed, with the aim of revealing the secrets of the monumental building to which the lintel belonged.

Based on the results of the excavation, a church dating to the Byzantine period was apparently built inside a large public compound from the Second Temple period and the Bar Kochba Revolt. Eight marble columns bearing capitals especially imported from Turkey graced the nave of the basilica.

All of the floors in the building were adorned with spectacular mosaics decorated with fauna and floral patterns and geometric designs, many of which were extraordinarily well preserved, officials said.

Numerous artifacts were discovered in a subterranean hiding complex beneath the entire structure that featured rooms, water installations, store rooms and traps.

Among the items found in the rooms were coins from the time of the Great Revolt (66-70 CE) and the Bar Kochba Revolt (132 - 135 CE), stone vessels, lamps and various Jewish pottery vessels from the period.

Found in Rome's Catacombs: Oldest Known Images of Apostles

A spotlight illuminates the icon of the Apostle John discovered with other paintings in a catacomb located under a modern office building in a residential neighborhood of Rome, Tuesday, June, 22, 2010.

From Catholic World News

Archeologists in Rome have discovered the oldest known images of the Apostles.

Using laser technology to peel away layers of stone that had built up over the centuries, workers uncovered a series of frescoes depicting Sts. Peter, Paul, Andrew, and John in the catacomb of St. Tecla. The Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archeology, announcing the find on June 22, said that the images appear to date from the late 4th or early 5th century.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• 'Oldest' images of Christ's apostles found in Rome
• Oldest known images of apostles found (CNN)

Jordan River Could Die by 2011: Report

From TerraDaily

The once mighty Jordan River, where Christians believe Jesus was baptised, is now little more than a polluted stream that could die next year unless the decay is halted, environmentalists said on Monday.

The famed river "has been reduced to a trickle south of the Sea of Galilee, devastated by overexploitation, pollution and lack of regional management," Friends of the Earth, Middle East (FoEME) said in a report.

More than 98 percent of the river's flow has been diverted by Israel, Syria and Jordan over the years.

"The remaining flow consists primarily of sewage, fish pond water, agricultural run-off and saline water," the environmentalists from Israel, Jordan and the West Bank said in the report to be presented in Amman on Monday.

"Without concrete action, the LJR (lower Jordan River) is expected to run dry at the end of 2011."

The river -- which runs 217 kilometres (135 miles) from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea -- and its tributaries are shared by Israel, Jordan, Syria and the West Bank.

In 1847, a US naval officer who led an expedition along the river described navigating down cascading rapids and waterfalls. Today the Jordan is a brackish stream barely a few metres (yards) wide.

A couple of kilometres south of the Sea of Galilee -- which is actually a lake -- a dam cuts off the flow of the river. Just south of the dam, raw sewage gushes from a pipe.

"This is what is today the source of the lower Jordan River," FoEME director for Israel Gidon Bromberg says, pointing to the foul-smelling water.

"No one can say this is holy water. No one can say this is an acceptable state for a river this famous worldwide."

A few metres away, saline water -- diverted from salt springs to protect the nearby lake -- flows into the foaming brown mess.

About 100 kilometres downstream, a Russian clad in a white robe immerses himself in the river at a site in Jordan where many Christians believe Jesus was baptised.

Every year, thousands of pilgrims take the plunge in the biblical river despite alarmingly high pollution.

Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian communities along the lower Jordan river -- about 340,000 people in all -- dump raw sewage into the river.

Ironically, if the sewage stops flowing into the river -- which Israel plans to do on its stretch -- the damage could be even greater unless additional measures are taken to reduce the salinity of the water.

FoEME believes the solution lies in releasing huge amounts of fresh water into the river.

The Jordan once had a flow of 1.3 billion cubic metres (45.5 billion cubic feet) a year, but now discharges only an estimated 20 million to 30 million cubic metres into the Dead Sea.

"A new study we commissioned reveals that we have lost at least 50 percent of biodiversity in and around the river due to the near total diversion of fresh water, and that some 400 million cubic metres of water annually are urgently needed to be returned to the river to bring it back to life," said Munqeth Mehyar, FoEME's Jordanian director.

Israel, Syria, Jordan must all return water to the ailing river, the report says.

Israel, having diverted the largest share and being a developed nation, should return a proportionally higher percentage of water, it adds.

Better management could save Israel 517 million cubic metres of water a year and Jordan 305 million cubic metres, part of which could be allocated to the Jordan river, the environmental group says.

Improving the flow of the Jordan River would also go a long way towards saving the Dead Sea, which is in turn withering rapidly.

Has Noah's Ark Been Found on Turkish Mountaintop?

Noah’s Ark Ministries International

An explorer examines wooden beams inside what
some are nearly certain is the remains of Noah's Ark.

From Fox News

A group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers say wooden remains they have discovered on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey are the remains of Noah's Ark.

The group claims that carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old, meaning they date to around the same time the ark was said to be afloat. Mt. Ararat has long been suspected as the final resting place of the craft by evangelicals and literalists hoping to validate biblical stories.

Yeung Wing-Cheung, from the Noah's Ark Ministries International research team that made the discovery, said: "It's not 100 percent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 percent that this is it."

There have been several reported discoveries of the remains of Noah's Ark over the years, most notably a find by archaeologist Ron Wyatt in 1987. At the time, the Turkish government officially declared a national park around his find, a boat-shaped object stretched across the mountains of Ararat.

Nevertheless, the evangelical ministry remains convinced that the current find is in fact more likely to be the actual artifact, calling upon Dutch Ark researcher Gerrit Aalten to verify its legitimacy.

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Ancient Synagogue’s Remains Unearthed in Magdala; Jesus May Have Preached There

From Catholic World News

Remains of the ancient synaogogue of Migdal (Magdala), the birthplace of St. Mary Magdalene, have been unearthed. “It is possible that Jesus had preached in this synagogue since Migdal was an important Jewish city at the time,” the excavations director noted.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Artifacts Dating to Time of Jesus Found (Vatican Radio)
• Remains of Jesus-era synagogue found in Israel (AFP)

'Massive' Ancient Wall Uncovered in Jerusalem

From CNN

An archaeological dig in Jerusalem has turned up a 3,700-year-old wall that is the largest and oldest of its kind found in the region, experts say.

The wall is built of enormous boulders, confounding archaeologists as to how ancient peoples built it.

Standing 8 meters (26 feet) high, the wall of huge cut stones is a marvel to archaeologists.

"To build straight walls up 8 meters ... I don't know how to do it today without mechanical equipment," said the excavation's director, Ronny Reich. "I don't think that any engineer today without electrical power [could] do it."

Archaeologist Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority added, "You see all the big boulders -- all the boulders are 4 to 5 tons."

The discovered section is 24 meters (79 feet) long. "However, it is thought the fortification is much longer because it continues west beyond the part that was exposed," the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a news release.

It was found inside the City of David, an archaeological excavation site outside the Old City of East Jerusalem on a slope of the Silwan Valley.

The wall is believed to have been built by the Canaanites, an ancient pagan people who the Bible says inhabited Jerusalem and other parts of the Middle East before the advent of monotheism. Watch report on the discovery of the ancient wall »

"This is the most massive wall that has ever been uncovered in the City of David," Reich and Shukron said in a joint statement about the find. It marks the first time "that such massive construction that predates the Herodian period has been discovered in Jerusalem."

It appears to be part of a "protected, well-fortified passage that descends to the spring tower from some sort of fortress that stood at the top of the hill," according to the joint statement.

The spring "is located in the weakest and most vulnerable place in the area. The construction of a protected passage, even though it involves tremendous effort, is a solution for which there are several parallels in antiquity, albeit from periods that are later than the remains described here."

Such walls were used primarily to defend against marauding desert nomads looking to rob the city, said Reich, a professor at the University of Haifa.

"We are dealing with a gigantic fortification, from the standpoint of the structure's dimensions, the thickness of its walls and the size of the stones that were incorporated in its construction," the joint statement said.

Water from the spring is used by modern inhabitants of Jerusalem.

"The new discovery shows that the picture regarding Jerusalem's eastern defenses and the ancient water system in the Middle Bronze Age 2 is still far from clear," Reich said. "Despite the fact that so many have excavated on this hill, there is a very good chance that extremely large and well-preserved architectural elements are still hidden in it and waiting to be uncovered."

World of Archeology Rocked as King David's Palace is Unearthed in Jerusalem

From Aish.com
By Rachel Ginsberg

How Jewish is Jerusalem?

You might think that's a silly question, but in the world of academia, revisionist history and even biblical archaeology, scholars have cast the shadow of doubt over Judaism's intrinsic connection to Jerusalem. The Moslem Waqf, the religious authority that administers the Temple Mount -- the site of Judaism's First and Second Temples -- has been claiming for years that there was never a temple there. But the idea that Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and Jerusalem its holy capital has been under attack from far more reputable sources in recent decades as well.

For a growing number of academics and intellectuals, King David and his united kingdom of Judah and Israel, which has served for 3,000 years as an integral symbol of the Jewish nation, is simply a piece of fiction. The biblical account of history has been dismissed as unreliable by a cadre of scholars, some of whom have an overtly political agenda, arguing that the traditional account was resurrected by the Zionists to justify dispossessing Palestinian Arabs. The most outspoken of these is Keith Whitelam of the Copenhagen School which promotes an agenda of "biblical minimalism," whose best-known work is The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History.

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