Tag: Old Testament
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The Great Synagogue in Jerusalem, Israel
This week I am taking a little side trip from Biblical sites to other Holyland sites; I shall return to Biblical sites next week. The Great Synagogue in Jerusalem was built to replace the Hurva (also spelt Churva) Synagogue in the Old City which was destroyed by the Palestinians and Jordanians in the 1948 War… Read more
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Israelite Temple at Arad and Who Were the Kenites
The above Israelite fortress of Arad city has existed for the entire period of the Kingdom of Judah in the Old Testament and was partially reconstructed by archeologists. It is atop an imposing hill in the southern desert of the Negev. The fortress and the temple within the fortress were the heartbeat of the city… Read more
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Mt. Tabor: Prophetess Deborah defeats the Canaanites, and A Possible Site For The Lord’s Transfiguration
The king of Hazor, the largest Canaanite city in Galilee (and larger than any Israelite city of the period), oppressed the northern Israelite tribes roughly around 1200 BC. Hazor is located north of the Sea of Galilee and along the main highway between Egypt and Mesopotamia (present day Iraq). At this time all of Israel… Read more
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The Gates of Jerusalem
First a brief history of the walls. There are eight gates into the walled city of Jerusalem including one gate that is blocked up. The current city walls were built (in 1538 AD) by Suleiman the Magnificent (1494-1556 AD) and thereafter maintained by the Ottoman Turkish Empire until 1917. The current walls do not completely… Read more
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Pool of Bethesda at Jerusalem
“Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called … Bethesda, having five porches.” John 5:2. Formerly, many scholars felt that a pool having 5 porches, or porticoes, must have been inaccurate. However, archaeological excavations in 1964 revealed the the Pool of Bethesda consisted of two pools separated by a… Read more
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Sodom or Gomorrah, Located at Tall el-Hammam in Jordan
Sodom Read more
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“Abraham’s Gate” at Tel Dan and the Battle Account in Genesis 14
Above is the mud-brick gate, flanked by two mud-brick towers of the Canaanite city of Dan. To keep the gate from collapsing, it has been bricked up. This gate and towers date to the time of Abraham (Dan was called Laish during the time of the Patriarchs, Judges 18:27, 29). This town was the northernmost… Read more
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Masada, a Fortress and Palace in the Desert
Masada, a Fortress and Palace in the Desert Introduction. Masada is a plateau in the Judean desert near the Dead Sea (seen in upper left corner of photo). The plateau is 1,476 feet (450 meters) above the Dead Sea and is a little over 48 acres in size (2,097,388 square feet or 144,900 square meters).… Read more
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Gideon Chooses 300 Warriors to Defeat the Midianite Hordes
The Spring of Gideon, called the Spring of Herod in the Old Testament, still flows out of a cave at the foot of the Gilboa Mountains as it did in Gideon’s time (around 1400-1300 BC). As recounted in the Judges chapter 7 (Gideon’s full story is in Judges 6:11-8:35). Gideon had previously sent emissaries throughout… Read more
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The Temple Mount of Jerusalem
Solomon’s Temple and then Herod’s Temple were built on Mount Moriah. The prophesied future Temple will also be built on Mount Moriah (see Malachi 3:1; and Ezekiel 37: 26-27, 47: 1; Isaiah 2: 2-3; and Revelation 11: 1). The name Moriah is a contraction of “mor” meaning to see, and “iah/jah” meaning Jehovah. Thus the… Read more