|
To receive daily emails from Breaking Christian News to your inbox CLICK HERE
Israeli Archaeologists Find Ancient Building from Time of the Sanhedrin"It is exciting to see ancient accounts of the Sanhedrin translated into actual evidence in the field, with vessels, installations and buildings. With the project's initiators at the Israel Land Authority and Yavne municipality, the Israel Antiquities Authority is examining the possibility of preserving some of these finds and presenting them to the general public." -IAA Director Eli Eskozido
Archaeologists uncovered the building in the central Israeli city of Yavne. The Sanhedrin relocated to Yavne after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago. Among the remains, they found chalkstone cups, "clear evidence that its occupants were observing Jewish laws of ritual purity," the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said in a statement. Excavators also found an impressive cemetery about 230 feet away from the building. Experts say the location of the cemetery would have likely put it outside of the boundaries of the city in accordance with Jewish and Roman law. "We encountered dozens of carefully arranged tombs spaced out at set distances, which probably indicates the existence of a 'burial society'—some official body that was responsible for burial," said Pablo Betzer and Dr. Daniel Varga, directors of the Yavne excavation for the IAA. "There are different types of tombs: some are coffins (sarcophagi), which are made mostly of stone with one lead coffin." Archaeologists don't know for sure who is buried in the cemetery because there are no ethnic symbols on the coffins. But they speculate "with all due caution" that the coffins could belong to the ancient Jewish inhabitants and perhaps even some of the members of the Sanhedrin. "If this hypothesis is correct, then at least some of the tombs, perhaps the most elaborate, may belong to the sages of Yavne, contemporaries of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Akiva and Rabban Gamliel," the IAA said. Excavators found 150 glass vials on top of tombs.
"About half of them were locally produced and the other half were imported from Alexandria in Egypt. Vials of this type have been recovered in excavations at both Jewish and pagan burial sites from the first to the early third centuries CE. It is a mystery why the vials were placed outside the tombs in Yavne and not inside them, as was usual," Gorin-Rosen said. After the Romans destroyed the Second Temple of Jerusalem and the Sanhedrin relocated to Yavne, the city became the spiritual center of ancient Israel. It was there that the ancient Jewish sages "restored the Torah to the Land of Israel and established laws in keeping with the new reality, without the Temple. It can be said that the foundations of Judaism as we know it today were laid in Yavne," the IAA said. This latest archaeological discovery was made during attempts to build new housing units in the modern city of Yavne. Oftentimes before the construction process begins in Israel, the IAA conducts excavations to find and preserve any archaeological finds. "It is exciting to see ancient accounts of the Sanhedrin translated into actual evidence in the field, with vessels, installations and buildings," said IAA Director Eli Eskozido. "With the project's initiators at the Israel Land Authority and Yavne municipality, the Israel Antiquities Authority is examining the possibility of preserving some of these finds and presenting them to the general public." Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here Click Here watch the IAA video, and view more photos.
To receive daily emails from Breaking Christian News to your inbox CLICK HERE
Other Recent Articles from Breaking Christian News 250 Reasons Why We Love America Stories of Heroism and Miracles from the Devastation in Venezuela, Shared on Social Media Enemies Within: The Threat of Communism to America Man Taken into Custody in Somalia for Role in Huge MN Fraud Scheme Supreme Court Decision Sparks Urgent Calls to Pass SAVE America Act Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship in Blow to Trump Immigration Enforcement Supreme Court Rules on State Laws Excluding Men From Women's Sports America 250: Freedom Trucks Travel across US Celebrating American History Lowest Gas Prices Are in States with Republican Governors, Legislatures: Report MLB's Texas Rangers Shun 'Pride Night,' Host 'Faith and Family Night' Instead Resolution to Preserve Daughters of the American Revolution for Women Only Is Defeated Texas Institutes Bible Passages into Its Public School Reading List Justice Alito Torches SCOTUS Ruling in Mail-in Ballot Case, Warns of Voter Fraud SCOTUS Rules 5-4 to Permit Counting of Mail-In Ballots that Arrive AFTER Election Day America's Semiquincentennial Begins: Trump Launches Massive National Mall Expo Woman Removed from Detroit Tigers Game for Wearing 'Jesus Over Pride' Shirt Netherlands Does the Unthinkable: Euthanize a Young Child Search the Articles Archives |
All articles on this site and emails from BCN are copyrighted property of Breaking Christian News. Permission is given to link to, or share a BCN story if proper attribution is given to both the original writer and summarizer of the story. Breaking Christian News 2005-2019. All Rights Reserved.
Breaking Christian News is a division of Elijah List Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: Articles and links, as well as the source articles linked to; do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Breaking Christian News.
| Home | Store | Subscribe | Facebook | Article Archive |