119 Blog

Archaeologists Find 3,200-Year-Old Cheese in an Egyptian Tomb

Mysterious substance found in ancient broken jar. By Niraj Chokshi August 16, 2018 A few years ago, a team of archaeologists cleaning sand from an ancient Egyptian tomb discovered a group of broken jars, one of them containing a mysterious white substance. The team had guesses as to what the material might be, but a new analysis published in the journal Analytical Chemistry offers an answer: What they found during that excavation was an approximately 3,200-year-old piece of cheese, one...

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How Was the Bible Written During and After the Exile?

Please note, that the author of the article below is not affiliated with 119 Ministries in any way and the information does not necessarily reflect the teachings or understandings of 119 Ministries.  We found the general information of the article to be worth testing by other members of the community regardless of where one stands on the subject. Original Article Found...

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Scribes in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Looking at scribal figures at Qumran Megan Sauter   •  07/23/2018  What’s in the Dead Sea Scrolls? The scrolls, which date from the third century B.C.E. to the first century C.E., mostly contain Jewish religious texts. About 40 percent of the manuscript fragments consist of texts from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Pseudepigraphal texts—that is, religious texts that did not make it into the Hebrew Bible—from the Second Temple period (c. 530...

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Daily Life in Ancient Israel

What was life like for the settlers of Canaan during the time of the Biblical Judges? What was life like for the tribes of Israel in the time of the Biblical Judges, the period archaeologists call Iron Age I (1200–1000 B.C.E.)? The evidence for the early Israelite settlers of Canaan comes from two sources: archaeological survey and excavations. Much of the area of the central highlands, where most of the settlers of Canaan established their villages, was archaeologically surveyed in...

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Hezekiah’s Religious Reform—In the Bible and Archaeology

What was King Hezekiah’s reform like on the ground? One of the most significant changes in the religious life of ancient Israel occurred during the reign of the Judahite king Hezekiah, in the late eighth century B.C.E. The Hebrew Bible provides us with this image: “He removed the high places, broke down the pillars, and cut down the sacred pole (asherah). He broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to...

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Where Did Jesus Turn Water into Wine?

Finding Cana of Galilee, site of Jesus’ first miracle   On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” —John 2:1-4 Jesus’ first miracle was performed in Cana of...

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Ophel Excavations Uncover Jewish Revolt Coins in Rebel Hideout

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem recently announced that dozens of bronze Jewish revolt coins from the First Jewish Revolt against Rome (66–70 C.E.) have been discovered in a cave just south of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The coins were found during the renewed Ophel excavations led by Hebrew University archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar following a four-year hiatus.   Mazar believes that the coins, which measure 0.6 inches in diameter, were left by Jewish residents who had fled...

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The “Original” Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Can the scrolls help expose the original Bible language within the Masoretic Text and Septuagint?     Noah Wiener   •  03/08/2018   For centuries, Bible scholars examined two ancient texts to elucidate the original language of the Bible: the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint. The Masoretic Text is a traditional Hebrew text finalized by Jewish scholars around 1000 C.E. The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Torah created by the Jews of Alexandria in the...

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Searching for the Temple of King Solomon

How the ’Ain Dara temple in Syria sheds light on King Solomon in the Bible and his famous temple For centuries, scholars have searched in vain for any remnant of Solomon's Temple.  The fabled Jerusalem sanctuary, described in such exacting detail in 1 Kings 6, was no doubt one the most stunning achievements of King Solomon in the Bible, yet nothing of the building itself has been found because excavation on Jerusalem's Temple Mount site of the Temple of King Solomon, is...

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Isaiah’s Signature Uncovered in Jerusalem

Evidence of the Prophet Isaiah? Megan Sauter   •  02/22/2018 he Assyrian king Sennacherib responded to Hezekiah’s rebellion with force. He campaigned against Judah—destroying many Judahite cities, such as Lachish (depicted on the Lachish reliefs, panels from Sennacherib’s palace in Nineveh, now on display at the British Museum in London), and ultimately besieging the capital city of Jerusalem in 701 B.C.E The prophet Isaiah said that Jerusalem would not fall...

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Miniature Writing on Ancient Amulets

Ketef Hinnom inscriptions reveal the power of hidden writing by Robin Ngo • 01/29/2018 The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.—Numbers 6:24–26When unrolled, the two ancient amulets from Ketef Hinnom revealed miniature writing that had been painstakingly inscribed on them. Researchers discovered that the inscriptions included blessings similar to Numbers...

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Taking Out the Trash in Ancient Jerusalem

Using the archaeology of garbage to reconstruct ancient life     From time immemorial, people have produced rubbish. Yet to an archaeologist, not even this discarded material is a waste! Just as archaeologists can glean information about the past by excavating ancient houses, streets, and temples, so too can they learn by studying ancient trash. What people discarded tells a lot about how they lived.  One of the world’s oldest landfills was recently uncovered in...

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Aerial Technology Directs Archaeologists to Idumean Structure

Bible and archaeology news Samuel Pfister   •  12/06/2017 The archaeologist’s toolbox of gadgets is always expanding. While excavations could previously rely on pickaxes, trowels, and buckets, now archaeologists are adopting the latest technologies, like ground-penetrating radar to detect buried architecture, CAT-scans to examine mummified remains, and aerial and satellite photography to survey patterns and data across broad landscapes. Use of digital technologies in the...

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Jews in Roman Turkey

Jewish presence uncovered at Limyra, Turkey     Megan Sauter   •  10/02/2017   Located on the coast of southwestern Turkey, Limyra has a long, rich history—although the site now lies in ruins. Occupied for more than a millennium, it served as the home for many different religious groups. A recent archaeological discovery at Limyra suggests that a Jewish community also lived there.   Martin Seyer of the Austrian Archaeological Institute explains the...

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Naboth’s Vineyard Unearthed at Tel Jezreel?

“Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. And Ahab said to Naboth, ‘Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house; I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.’ But Naboth said to Ahab, ‘The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance.’ Ahab went home resentful and sullen because of...

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To Jerusalem: Pilgrimage Road Identified?

Ancient road sheds light on Jewish pilgrimage to Jerusalem Robin Ngo - 1/18/2016 Before the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 C.E., Jewish pilgrims would make their way to Jerusalem for numerous festivals and occasions. The command to “appear before the Lord” is referenced in relation to the three festivals of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (Festival of Weeks) in the Bible (Exodus 34:22–23; Deuteronomy 16:16). Ancient literary sources...

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Archaeological Dig Uncovers Byzantine Church

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Archaeological Dig in Central Israel Uncovers Byzantine Church and 2700-Year-Old Farm Archaeological digging near the central Israeli city of Rosh Ha'Ayin has uncovered a 2700-year-old farm house and a 1500-year-old Byzantine church in recent days, the Israel Antiquities Authority reported on Wednesday. The approximately 30X50 meter farmhouse and the church, which features colorful mosaics, were discovered as part of excavations being carried out by the IAA with the help of students ahead...

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Who is the Bride?

Question:I do not fully understand the implications of the remarriage of Israel to the Father by way of the Son.  Are we Yeshua's Bride or the Fathers? Can we be both? This is a fantastic question.  We learn in Jeremiah 3:8 that YHWH divorced the House of Israel and we also understand that the House of Israel will be brought back into covenant despite the divorce (i.e. Jeremiah 31:31-33; Ezekiel 36:26-27). We cover this process in depth in the teaching “The Lost...

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Pope Francis with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas - Reuters

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Pope Francis to visit Israel May 19, 2014 Pope Francis with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abba Reuters Palestinian Authority (PA) and Arab Christian sources are already celebrating Pope Francis's visit to Israel starting next Sunday, saying his choice to begin the trip directly in PA-held Bethlehem is meant to "recognize Palestine" and "oppose the occupation." "He is taking a helicopter directly from Jordan to Palestine - to Bethlehem. It's a kind of sign of recognizing...

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Archeaological Find - The Ruins of Ai

Exploring the Ruins of Ai:  Archeological Find in Israel Confirms Historicity of Biblical Account by Garrett Haley JERUSALEM – Archaeologists working in Israel have announced the discovery of an ancient artifact in Israel that confirms a biblical account in the book of Joshua. The Associates for Biblical Research (ABR) is a ministry committed to exploring the ancient biblical world through archaeology. According to ABR’s website, archeological findings frequently...

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Archaeologists: Ancient Writings Confirm Noah's Ark January 28, 2014 Archaeologists say writings on an ancient tablet confirm there was a global flood and an ark that carried animals. A recently deciphered 4,000-year-old clay tablet, discovered in mo

Archaeologists say writings on an ancient tablet confirm there was a global flood and an ark that carried animals.  A recently deciphered 4,000-year-old clay tablet, discovered in modern-day Iraq -- which is ancient Mesopotamia -- reveals striking similarities to the biblical account of Noah. The tablet describes a massive flood that destroys the earth and instructions that animals should be loaded onto the craft "two by two." The tablet differs from scripture in its description of...

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Israel, Lebanon rush to ease tensions following border clashes

    Israel, Lebanon rush to ease tensions following border clashes JERUSALEM –  Israel and Lebanon on Monday rushed to ease tensions following a deadly border skirmish that left one Israeli soldier dead, with the enemy countries holding a face-to-face meeting with U.N. peacekeepers and pledging their commitment to a seven-year-old cease-fire.The U.N. peacekeeping force along the volatile border, UNIFIL, said it called the meeting to "establish the facts and...

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Redrawing Israel Borders

European Union Issues Order To Redraw Israel To 1949 Borders The coming of Daniel’s 70th week? “In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.” Daniel 9:2 From Haaretz: The European Union has issued orders forbidding its member states from cooperating, transferring funds...

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