70 Metallic Books That Could Change The Biblical Story

This incredible discovery could prove to be the most important thing since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The ancient collection of 70 tiny books bound with wire, could reveal some of the biggest secrets of the early days of Christianity.

As everything that challenged conventional thinking and science, the discovery of these artefacts has caused experts to have divided opinions and to question their authenticity.

Located on these miniature pages are images, symbols and words that seem to refer to the Messiah and, possibly, to the crucifixion and resurrection.

But most importantly, some of the books are sealed, arousing doubts among academics if these could actually be the lost collection of codices mentioned in the Book of Revelations in the Bible.

Dr. Margaret Barker, former president of the Society for the Study of the Old Testament, said:

“The Book of Revelations speaks of sealed books that were only open for the Messiah. There are other texts of the same period of history that speak of great wisdom that has been locked away in sealed books. These contain a secret tradition passed by Jesus to his closest disciples.”

The books were found in a cave situated in a remote part of Jordan known to be a location where Christian refugees fled after the fall of Jerusalem. Other important and authentic documents of the same period have previously been discovered in the area.

Jordanian government officials are in talks at the highest levels to repatriate and safeguard the historical collection. After the discovery by Jordanian Bedouin, this potentially “priceless treasure” was acquired by an Israeli who said he smuggled the books outside the border into Israel, where they remain.

After initial studies, metallurgical testing indicates that some of the books would go back to sometime near the first century after Christ.

Some researchers believe this discovery to be one of the most important findings in history, crucial evidence from the beginning of the Christian era, prior to the writings of St. Paul.

These writings could contain, within their inscriptions, contemporary stories of the final days of Jesus’ life.

David Elkington, a British scholar of ancient religious history and archaeology, and one of the few to examine the books said that might well be:

“the greatest discovery in the history of Christianity.” “It’s exciting to think that we are in the hand’s objects that may have been held by the early saints of the Church,” he added.

Philip Davies, emeritus professor of biblical studies at the University of Sheffield, believes that this is an authentic historical finding.

According to Davies, there is strong evidence that the books have a Christian origin because there are plaques showing a map of the holy city of Jerusalem.

According to Professor Davies, there is a cross in the foreground, and behind it is something which could be interpreted as a grave. The books seem to describe the crucifixion that takes place outside the walls of the city.

Ancient ‘New York’: 5,000-year-old city discovered in Israel

The remains of a 5,000-year-old city have been discovered in Israel – the largest and oldest such find in the region. The city was home to 6,000 people and included planned roads, neighbourhoods, a ritual temple and fortifications.

An even earlier settlement, believed to be 7,000 years old, was discovered beneath the city.

Israeli archaeologists said the discovery was the most significant in the region from that era.

“This is the Early Bronze Age New York of our region; a cosmopolitan and planned city where thousands of inhabitants lived,” the excavation directors said in a statement.

“There is no doubt that this site dramatically changes what we know about the character of the period and the beginning of urbanization in Israel,” the statement added.

Known as En Esur, the site spans 650 dunams (161 acres), about double the size of previous similar findings. The design of the city included designated residential and public areas, streets and alleys, the Israel Antiquities Authority said.

About four million fragments were found at the site, including rare figurines of humans and animals, pieces of pottery and various tools, some of which came from Egypt.

Burnt animal bones found on the site provided evidence of sacrificial offerings. Inhabitants of the city – who were likely drawn to the area by two freshwater springs, fertile land and proximity to trade routes – made their living from agriculture, trading with different regions and cultures.

Archaeologists had been excavating the site for more than two and a half years, with 5,000 teenagers and volunteers participating. The settlement was discovered during excavations preceding the construction of a new road.

8,000-year-old Yarmukian ‘Mother Goddess’ figurine uncovered at Sha’ar HaGolan

Before the Israelis and the Palestinians, before the Greek and the Roman empires, before the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah, before the Umayyad Caliphate and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem – there were the Yarmukians.

This 8,000-year-old Neolithic agricultural culture is considered the first culture in the prehistoric area of what today is called Israel. It is one of the oldest cultures in the Levant to make use of ceramic pottery, with a distinctive style of herringbone decorations incised in horizontal and diagonal lines over the body of their ceramic cooking, serving and storage vessels.

The culture is also known for its enigmatic and iconic “Mother Goddess” figurines, which are believed to have been part of a Yarmukian fertility cult. Renewed excavations at the Sha’ar Hagolan Yarmukian archaeological site at the Sha’ar Hagolan kibbutz this month have revealed an unusually large and impressive ceramic goddess figurine of the “Mother Goddess.”

Created in the typical seating pose, the 20-centimetre figurine was found broken in two pieces next to the wall of a home, said excavation co-director Anna Eirikh-Rose, Israeli Antiquity Authority Judea district archaeologist, who is doing her doctoral research at the Hebrew University on Neolithic pottery.

The broken figurine was covered by a bracelet with a red bottom, the colour which represented fertility. A schematic stone with etched eyes and mouth was also uncovered. The excavation is being carried out in conjunction with the French Center for Research in Jerusalem under the co-direction of Dr. Julien Vieugue.

“This woman ceramic figurine is a hallmark of Yarmukian culture,” Eirikh-Rose said. “This is one of the largest examples of the figurine found. It is of a large, seated woman with big hips, a unique pointed hat and what is known as ‘coffee-bean’ eyes and a big nose. One hand is positioned on her hip and the other one under her breast.”

Symbolism

Though dubbed “coffee-bean” eyes, the traditional eyes of the figurine more likely represented kernels possibly of wheat, or more likely barley, she said.

All the small details of the figurine are important for its cultic symbolism, she said, and the process of creating such a figurine involved a complex method of wrapping and layering the clay around a central cylindrical core.

“It is really impressive, and was a very elaborate way of making a figurine,” she said. “It was not simple to make.”

The Yarmukian culture was poised at the dramatic human juncture of the transition from a foraging culture to a permanent settlement, which also changed the development of architecture. It was so named for the discovery of the archaeological remains at the Sha’ar Hagolan site dated to 6,400-6,000 BCE near the northern bank of the Yarmuk River in the central Jordan Valley.

The history of the Sha’ar HaGolan site

First excavated in 1949, the Sha’ar Hagolan site was identified by Hebrew University Professor Moshe Stekelis as belonging to the Yarmuk culture. A subsequent excavation by Hebrew University Prof. Yosef Garfinkel ended in 2004.

The finds are on exhibit at the Museum of Yarmukian Culture at the kibbutz.

Eirikh-Rose said the current re-excavation of the site was begun next to previous excavations. It is meant to expose the site layer by layer, until reaching the Neolithic pre-ceramic level of the settlement to research the culture’s use and production of ceramic pottery.

“Although the site of Sha’ar Hagolan has been dug several times, revealing the additional layers one at a time, this time there is a clear purpose for our excavation: we want to understand the origin and mechanism of development of the pottery production in the world of this ancient period in the Levant region,” she said.

Eirikh-Rose noted that 8,000 years ago, the inhabitants of this site began to use pottery vessels and mass-produce them.

“This is the first culture of the Neolithic revolution to use and manufacture pottery vessels on a large scale, not just one bowl here and one bowl there,” she said.

Previous excavations at the Sha’ar Hagolan site have uncovered planned streets, courtyard houses and smaller mother goddess figurines, as well as incised pebble face figurines and eye figurines.

At its height, the settlement covered an area spanning 20 hectares, making it one of the largest settlements in the world at that time, said Eirikh-Rose. Although other Yarmukian sites have been identified since, Sha’ar Hagolan is the largest, probably indicating its role as a Yarmukian cultural center.

Eirikh-Rose said the newly uncovered figurine will be taken for residue analysis, which will help researchers establish what types of clay were used to create it. Continued study of these figurines may also help researchers in their quest to determine whether the “Mother Goddess” was used in cultic practices or was already part of established religion.

“There are so many theories,” she said. “This is a big question to study– the development of religious beliefs and culture.”

Ancient Mosaic Floors in Israel May Depict Biblical Heroines

A team of specialists and students led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Jodi Magness recently returned to Israel’s Lower Galilee to continue unearthing nearly 1,600-year-old mosaics in an ancient Jewish synagogue at Huqoq.

Discoveries made this year include the first known depiction of the biblical heroines Deborah and Jael as described in the book of Judges.

The Huqoq Excavation Project is now in its 10th season after recent seasons were paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Project director Magness, the Kenan Distinguished Professor of religious studies in Carolina’s College of Arts & Sciences, and assistant director Dennis Mizzi of the University of Malta focused this season on the southwest part of the synagogue, which was built in the late fourth-early fifth century C.E.

This season, the project team unearthed a part of the synagogue’s floor decorated with a large mosaic panel that is divided into three horizontal strips (called registers), which depicts an episode from the book of Judges chapter 4: The victory of the Israelite forces led by the prophetess and judge Deborah and the military commander Barak over the Canaanite army led by the general Sisera.

The Bible relates that after the battle, Sisera took refuge in the tent of a Kenite woman named Jael (Yael), who killed him by driving a tent stake through his temple as he slept.

The uppermost register of the newly-discovered Huqoq mosaic shows Deborah under a palm tree, gazing at Barak, who is equipped with a shield. Only a small part of the middle register is preserved, which appears to show Sisera seated.

The lowest register depicts Sisera lying deceased on the ground, bleeding from the head as Jael hammers a tent stake through his temple.

“This is the first depiction of this episode and the first time we’ve seen a depiction of the biblical heroines Deborah and Jael in ancient Jewish art,” Magness said. “Looking at the book of Joshua chapter 19, we can see how the story might have had special resonance for the Jewish community at Huqoq, as it is described as taking place in the same geographical region – the territory of the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon.”

Also among the newly discovered mosaics is a fragmentary Hebrew dedicatory inscription inside a wreath, flanked by panels measuring 6 feet tall and 2 feet wide, which show two vases that hold sprouting vines. The vines form medallions that frame four animals eating clusters of grapes: a hare, a fox, a leopard and a wild boar.

A decade of discovery  

Mosaics were first discovered at the site in 2012, and work continued each summer until the COVID-19 pandemic paused work after the dig in 2019.

The mosaics exposed in the last 10 active seasons cover the synagogue’s aisles and main hall.

Discoveries along the east aisle include:  

• Panels depicting Samson and the foxes (as related in Judges 15:4)  
• Samson carrying the gate of Gaza on his shoulders (Judges 16:3)  
• A Hebrew inscription surrounded by human figures, animals and mythological creatures including putti, or cupids  
• The first non-biblical story ever found decorating an ancient synagogue — perhaps the legendary meeting between Alexander the Great and the Jewish high priest   

The mosaic floor in the north aisle is divided into two rows of panels containing figures and objects accompanied by Hebrew inscriptions identifying them as biblical stories, including:  

• One panel depicts two of the spies sent by Moses to explore Canaan carrying a pole with a cluster of grapes, labelled “a pole between two” (from Numbers 13:23)  
• Another panel showing a man leading an animal on a rope is accompanied by the inscription “a small child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6)

The mosaics panels in the nave, or main hall, include:  

• A portrayal of Noah’s Ark  
• The parting of the Red Sea  
• A Helios-zodiac cycle  
• Jonah being swallowed by three successive fish
• The building of the Tower of Babel  

In 2019, the team uncovered panels in the north aisle that frame figures of animals identified by an Aramaic inscription as the four beasts representing four kingdoms in the book of Daniel, chapter 7. A large panel in the northwest aisle depicts Elim, the spot where the Israelites camped by 12 springs and 70 date palms after departing Egypt and wandering in the wilderness without water (Exodus 15:27).

In the 14th century C.E. (the Mamluk period), the synagogue was rebuilt and expanded in size, perhaps in connection with the rise of a tradition that the Tomb of Habakkuk was located nearby, which became a focal point of late medieval Jewish pilgrimage.

“The 14th century C.E. building appears to be the first Mamluk period synagogue ever discovered in Israel, making it no less important than the earlier building,” said Magness.

The sponsors of the project are UNC-Chapel Hill, Austin College, Baylor University, Brigham Young University and the University of Toronto. Students and staff from Carolina and the consortium schools participated in the dig. Financial support for the 2022 season was also provided by the National Geographic Society, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the Kenan Charitable Trust and the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. 

The mosaics have been removed from the site for conservation, and the excavated areas have been backfilled. Excavations are scheduled to continue in summer 2023. For additional information and updates, visit the project’s website: www.huqoq.org.

Images of the most recent discoveries may be downloaded here using password huqoq. Photos by Jim Haberman.