The discovery of Noah’s Ark was announced last Sunday (4/24/10) by a Chinese organization from Hong Kong (Noah’s Ark Ministries, International).  The problem with this is that it seems like the “discovery” of Noah’s Ark is getting to be almost an annual event.  What in the world is going on?  We think it’s a question that is easy to analyze.  Genesis 1-11 is the most attacked portion of Scripture for its historicity.  Finding an antediluvian artifact like Noah’s Ark could be the greatest archaeological discovery ever.  It evokes many wannabe Indiana Joneses to search for Noah’s Ark.  We see no problem with this quest, and would welcome such a discovery.  The problem is not in the finding of the Ark; but in its substantiation. Amateur archaeologists can and do find things that turn out to be fantastic discoveries.  Witness the treasure hunter, Terry Herbert, in Staffordshire, England who recently found a huge cache of Saxon gold artifacts that was reported in National Geographic.  However, to properly document a discovery, the proper scientific protocol must be followed.  Scientists are trained to gather and analyze evidence.  They then publish their research so that other scientists can test their results. These “Indiana Joneses” invariably do not do this.  They put the cart before the horse by holding a spectacular press conference declaring what they discovered rather than publishing their results in a scientific journal.  The news media, on the other hand, is all too eager to comply for what gets good ratings, and at the same time it usually puts evangelical Christians in a bad light.

This Hong Kong group claims they are 99.9 % sure that the wood they found belongs to the Ark of Noah.  Since we have spent a few thousand hours digging into the subject of the Noah’s Flood and the Ark, we have the following questions about the alleged discovery:

1.    When archaeologists make a discovery they must be able to prove exactly where they took their specimen out of the ground.  How do we know this video showing the rooms was filmed where they said it was?

2.     It is claimed that this discovery was found in an ice and rock cave on Agri Dagh, also known as Mt. Ararat.  It is a known fact among geologists that nearly all of the icecap on this mountain consists of moving ice, that is, glacier.  A glacier is a river of ice which flows down the mountain.  Any wooden structure inside this ice would be ground to bits from the glacial action.  In their news releases they have reported this site to be at 13,000 feet and in another report at around 14,000.  With these altitudes it would have to be on the ice cap or at the very edge.
3.     Most geologists believe this mountain was formed in relatively recent times, i.e., after the Flood.  It is a complex volcano with no clearly discernible layers of sedimentation that would have been laid down by flood waters.

4.  The group claims they have had the wood carbon dated by a lab in Iran with
the results being almost 5000 years old (with the Flood occurring about
3000 B.C.).  Why did they have the wood tested in Iran, we ask?   Will other
scientists have access to the lab results?  Are there any good labs in Iran
that can do this kind of testing?  Or, was the wood tested in Iran because
the lab results might be harder to trace by other scientists?  Why wasn’t a
lab in the United States or the United Kingdom used?  Just asking!

5.  Is this wood coated with pitch (bitumen)?  The Bible says God instructed Noah to treat the wood with pitch, either asphalt or pine pitch (Gen. 6:14).  At least some of this wood should test positive for this coating.  Also, has a botanist examined the wood to determine what kind of wood it is?

6.  What about motives?  Only God knows their true motives, but it sure makes one nervous when these groups looking for the Ark are planning a documentary video so early in the project before any truth claims are established.  One of the members of this Chinese group just happens to be a filmmaker.  Most readers interested in this subject probably notice about once a year a new docudrama about Noah’s Ark appears on one of the cable channels.  They would not keep doing this if they didn’t make money.  Hopefully, this group’s motives are other than financial.

7.  What are the plans to publish this material in scientific peer-reviewed archaeological and geological publication?  We would have hoped that this would have been primary to a news conference and videos.  True archaeology is not forwarded by this sequence, but we certainly understand their excitement and the desire to be the first to report such a discovery.

In addition to the above questions, we have some reasons to question the integrity of this discovery for the following reasons:
1.  This group had a local guide who is a known for his deceit and fraud. It is this guide who initially informed the Chinese group that he knew the location of the Ark in 2008.  However, since then he has led them to more than one location.  The first location was a cave at a low altitude, a small cave with a tree growing in front!  Apparently the current cave is at the 13,000 or 14,000 foot level on the icecap.
2.  The specimens taken from this first cave (at the lower altitude) were claimed to be petrified wood from the Ark. In actuality, they were nothing but volcanic tuff.

3.   In one of the photos of the rooms straw is seen on the floor and even a spider web in one of the corners.  Really!  Do spiders live at 13,000 or 14,000 feet?  Can they survive the freezing temperatures?

4.  There is a real problem with evangelists (which is what they claim to be) who use this kind of discovery to prove the Bible, and hence convince non-believers of its authority, when in fact the truthfulness of the discovery had not been established.  I [Bill Crouse] know firsthand of one “Indiana Jones” who spoke eloquently and emotionally about his adventures, and when he gave an invitation at the end of his presentation, many in the audience stood up to commit their lives to Christ.  When the speaker was confronted about the truthfulness of some of the stories he told that night, he replied:  “But look how many stood up to receive Christ.”  This becomes very problematic when at some point the convert learns the real truth.  They often become very embittered about all things Christian, and understandably so.

5.  There seems to be more than the usual gullibility here in that the Hong Kong group was warned about this local guide who has led others astray.  We say usual gullibility, because it seems to be a characteristic of other ark-hunters as well, in that they tend to believe all the local lore.  While many ark-hunters mean well, it seems that they want to believe every report seemingly at all costs; putting everything through a rational grid often is avoided as being too skeptical.

At this point we are skeptical of these new claims but would rejoice in the end if they proved to be true.  If this someday is the case we will be the first to apologize for our doubts. We would strongly urge the Hong Kong group to follow proper scholarly procedures and publish this material in scientific, peer-reviewed archaeological and geological publications so that the scholarly community can examine the material first hand and critique it in order to offer helpful, and constructive, criticism.  For the person in the pew, we caution you to not get too excited about something that is at best, unsubstantiated; and at worst, a fraud perpetrated by an enterprising local guide!

(The authors are both members of the Near East Archaeological Society and the Evangelical Theological Society.  We both believe that Noah was a real historical person and that the Flood was a literal event in space-time history.  In our own research we came to a different conclusion about the landing place of the Ark.  Nothing we have seen so far causes us to doubt of change our position.  If you care to read of our research in can be found here: www.rapidresponsereport.com )

On Friday morning, February 26, 2010, Chuck Holton reported on CBN’s 700 Club program of a man who believes he found an “amazing Biblical discovery” on Malta.  This nine-minute video segment featured Robert Cornuke presenting his theory about the location of the Apostle Paul’s shipwreck on the island of Malta.

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/February/Searching-for-Pauls-Shipwreck-on-Malta/

Cornuke, in his persona as a “former Los Angeles crime scene investigator,” approached the account of the shipwreck of Paul in Acts 27 and 28 as a “crime scene.”  As he read the Biblical text, he concluded there were four “clues” that needed to be found in order to solve the “crime.”  He identified these as: (1) a bay with a beach; (2) a reef or sandbar where “two seas meet”; (3) a seafloor with a depth of 90 feet; and (4) a place the sailors would not have recognized.  Cornuke concludes that the shipwreck occurred on the eastern shore of Malta, not on the northern side of the island as most scholars believe.

Cornuke’s theory and investigations, as presented in this news segment, were already set forth in his 2003 book entitled, The Lost Shipwreck of Paul (Bend, OR: Global Publishing Service).  In the book his view is that the Alexandrian grain ship containing the Apostle Paul and Dr. Luke was shipwrecked on the Munxar Reef on the island’s eastern end.  Cornuke claims to have located, from among the local spear fishermen and divers, six anchor stocks which could have been from this shipwreck (cf. Acts 27:29, 40), four of which were located on the east side of the Munxar Reef in fifteen fathoms, or ninety feet of water (cf. Acts 27:28).  He identifies the “place where two seas meet” (cf. Acts 27:41) as the Munxar Reef and the “bay with the beach” as St. Thomas Bay (cf. Acts 27:39).  He concluded that neither the sea captain nor his crew would have recognized the eastern shoreline of the Maltese coast when it became light on the morning after they dropped anchor (cf. Acts 27:39).  Unfortunately Cornuke’s theory simply does not hold water.

Experts and Computer Models
Cornuke consulted Graham Hutt, an expert on Mediterranean storms, and Hutt concluded that the ship would have been driven by the winds to the southeast quadrant of the island, and that the more likely place of the shipwreck was the Bay of St. Thomas.

In the book, Cornuke described a visit to the Rescue Coordination Center of the Armed Forces of Malta (2003:184-193).  Here he watched a computer model that plotted the possible course of a ship caught in a windstorm from Crete to Malta.  The ship landed, after 14 days in a severe windstorm, in the St. Thomas Bay!

The limitations of storm experts and computer models were well illustrated by the recent Nor’easter that hit the Northeast United States on Feb. 25-26, 2010.  The storm was a prime example of what computer models and meteorologists could not predict.  The meteorologists on television said that this “monster storm” defied all the computer models and did not behave as any of the meteorologists predicted it should!

Bay with a beach
The beach in the St. Thomas Bay was identified as the “bay with the beach.”  The earliest maps of Malta show that the Munxar Reef, at one time, was actually a series of small islands.  Possibly in the first century AD, this location would have been a lengthy peninsula that has now eroded away.  If that is the case, the sea captain, in all probability, would not have been able to see the low-lying beach of St. Thomas Bay from the area where the four anchor stocks were found and almost certainly, he would not have dared to sail his ship through the dangerous islands or peninsula to reach the beach!  Thus, the Bay of St. Thomas could not be the beach that the captain saw or where the sailors and passengers swam to.

Reef or Sandbar where the “two seas meet”
Several times in the news segment the Munxar Reef is described as a “sandbar.”  A careful examination of a geological map would have identified the reef as being made of “Middle Globigerina Limestone.”  This soft limestone is rock not a sandbar.

The identification of the “two seas meet” is based on two Greek words, “topos dithalasson”, that are translated different ways in different translations.  Professor Mario Buhagiar, of the University of Malta, cautions that this term “does not offer any real help because it can have several meanings and the way it is used in Acts 27:41, does not facilitate an interpretation.  A place where two seas meet (Authorized and Revised versions) and a cross sea (Knox Version) are the normally accepted translations but any beach off a headland (Liddell and Scott) or an isthmus whose extremity is covered by the waves (Grimms and Thayer), as indeed most water channels, can qualify as the place where the boat grounded.  The truth is that the Acts do not give us sufficient clues to help in the identification of the site” (see link at bottom for full bibliography).

Anchors at 90 feet
Mr.Cornuke interviewed people, primarily divers and spear fishermen, who claimed to have located four anchors on the south side of the Munxar Reef at 15 fathoms, or 90 feet of water.  Two other anchors were allegedly found near the Munxar Reef in 10 meters (ca. 33 feet) of water.  Cornuke implied in his book that these two anchors were the ones put in the skiff when the sailors tried to escape (Acts 27:30).  These interviews are the author’s primary evidence for Paul’s shipwreck.

Unfortunately only two actual anchor stocks can be examined.  They are on display on the second floor of the Malta Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa.  The other four, however, are not available for scholarly consideration.  One of the anchor stocks was melted down, another is in a private collection, and two were allegedly sold on the antiquities market.

Unfortunately the video clip of the anchors in the Malta Maritime Museum is very misleading.  It shows 6 or 7 anchors on display, but only two are from the Munxar Reef.  One of them, called “Tony’s anchor,” was one of the smallest of those on display.  It measured about 3 feet, 8 inches in length and would be too small for the stern of an Alexandrian grain ship.

On the other hand, Professor Mario Buhagiar examined the other anchor and gave a cautious analysis, “It could have belonged to a cargo ship, possibly a grain cargo ship, and possibly one from Alexandria” (2003: 183).  He went on to conjecture, “This anchor stock would fit very well within the era of St. Paul” (2003: 184).  Although this anchor could have been from an Alexandrian grain ship, suggesting that it was from Paul’s shipwreck certainly goes beyond the available evidence.

Did not recognize the land
In the 1st century AD, the island of Malta was, in essence, the “Turn Right to Sicily” sign in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.  Malta was the landmark for sailors sailing west from Crete who were about to turn north to Sicily.  The eastern end of the island was what they saw first and it was a welcomed and recognizable sight.

It seems that capable sea captains, piloting an Alexandrian grain ship between Egypt and Rome, would have recognized the landmarks on the eastern coastline of Malta, including the St. Thomas Bay and the hazardous Munxar Reef which every sea captain would know about because of its inherent maritime danger.
Dr. Luke, however, testifies the sailors did not recognize the land.  This suggests that the shipwreck occurred at a different place on the island.

Can We Know for Sure?
At the end of the 700 Club news segment, Holton stated that it was “impossible to know for sure if this is where the shipwreck occurred.”  I would strongly disagree with that statement because my work leads to the inevitable conclusion that the St. Thomas Bay theory is contrary to the Biblical and geographic evidence, the alleged anchors are not verifiable, and thus it is surely possible to know that Paul’s shipwreck did not occur on the Munxar Reef.  One must look elsewhere for this shipwreck.

For a detailed and documented critique of the St. Thomas Bay theory as presented in Cornuke’s book, see:
http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2010/02/26/Has-Pauls-Shipwreck-Been-Found.aspx

For another devastating critique by a Maltese diver based on his local knowledge of the waters around Malta, see pages 162-174 of the just released PAVLVS, The Shipwreck 60 A.D. by Mark Gatt (2010, Valletta, Malta: Allied Publications).

A Documentary Coming
On Tuesday, February 16, 2010, it was announced on Maltese television that Mr. Cornuke’s documentary about the location for the shipwreck of the Apostle Paul would be released by the BASE Institute in April, 2010.

If Cornuke has any new evidence that supports his theory and that responds to the significant problems that have been previously noted, his discussion is welcomed.  If it is merely another way to sensationalize an old theory that has already been refuted then this documentary will not be about an “amazing Biblical discovery.”

Introduction
Dr. Robert Cornuke, the founder of the BASE Institute, claimed at the 2007 Promise Keepers events to reveal what would be an astonishing archaeological discovery.  He has photographs of what he claims is an ancient stone artifact from Mount Sinai that is inscribed with the name of the LORD, “Yahweh,” on it!  If the inscription on this stone is what he claims it is, then the headline of every archaeological publication and newspaper should state: “YAHWEH INSCRIPTION DISCOVERED AT MOUNT SINAI!”  But has he really revealed a monumental discovery of biblical significance?

A concerned Christian contacted the Associates for Biblical Research (ABR) and inquired as to the validity of this claim, which was forwarded to me for a response.  This individual had watched the six Promise Keepers video clips on the BASE Institute website.  On one of the videos, two pictures are shown of the stone object with the inscription (see line drawing below).  The discussion of the “Yahweh inscription” begins at 5:17 minutes into the video and goes for about a minute.  In order to find the video in question on the website, the duration of this video is labeled 6:16 minutes.

http://www.baseinstitute.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=109&Itemid=64

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFxyPGtq0bY&feature=player_embedded#

The Claim about the “Yahweh Inscription”
Here is what is stated on the video about this ancient stone artifact:  “This, this particular stone — now I have not shown this before publicly.  This is a, ah, this particular shot I mean.  This is – You see this stone here?  This is found around the mountain [Jebel al-Lawz].  Why is this important?  Because if this is the real Mount Sinai, we have these different letters inscribed on rocks over there.  And this particular rock, umm, has a very unique appearance to it.  You can see the front of it?  That’s a, ah, that’s a ‘Y’ ‘H’.  And in the back side has a ‘W’ ‘H’.  O.K., that spells Yahweh [YHWH].

This is an ancient stone with ‘Yahweh’ on the face.  What did Moses have when he came down from Mount Sinai?  The glory of God was on his face.  These stones are crying out today.  Can we prove this with DNA and fingerprints?  No.  But the evidence is starting to mount slowly.”

The claim, if I understand it correctly, is either that this is a portrait of Moses that is inscribed with the name of “Yahweh” on it in order to represent the “glory of God … on his face” (cf. Ex. 34:29-35), or it is the face of Yahweh.

Illustration: Line drawing of the “Yahweh Stone.”  The obverse side (left) has the face of Moses or Yahweh with two South Semitic letters on it.  On the reverse (right) there are two more South Semitic letters.  This drawing was traced from a screen capture of the stone with the inscription.

Critique and Analysis of this Claim
A vigorous critique and scholarly analysis of this discovery is in order.  First, there is no discussion of the initial discovery or provenance (where it was found) of the inscription.  Nor is the identity of the individual revealed who found this stone at Jebel al-Lawz in Saudi Arabia, the mountain that Cornuke believes to be Mount Sinai.  Did Cornuke himself find the stone, or did somebody else actually find it there?  If the latter is the case, we are not told if the actual stone was given to Cornuke or he just received the photographs of the stone.  Assuming the stone was given to Cornuke by somebody else, that individual is not identified, nor are we told how or where it was obtained by this other party.  Was the stone actually found at Jebel al-Lawz or somewhere else?

Second, little is said about the stone itself.  We have no idea from the picture how big or small this object is.  Was it a hand held stone, or a standing stele?  There was no scale in either picture.  What is the geological make-up of the stone?  Is it made of basalt or something else?
A word of caution is in order.  Unless an artifact is found in situ (in place in a controlled scientific archaeological excavation), there is always the possibility that it is a modern-day forgery, something that is very common in the Middle East these days.  Proper scientific protocol should be followed and this stone should be inspected by a professional epigraphist for authenticity and a public report from the epigraphist should be issued, as to whether it is authentic or not.

Third, where is the present location of this object?  Was it deposited with the Saudi Arabian Department of Antiquities, as required by Saudi law?  Or, was it bought on the antiquities market and now held in a private collection, or is it on display in a museum?  If so, which museum?  Also, when, and in what scientific journal will this inscription be published?

Fourth, and most importantly, how was this text deciphered and translated?  To my knowledge, Bob Cornuke has no training in Middle Eastern field archaeology or Semitic languages, so we are not told how he arrived at the identification of these letters.  Did he identify them and translate the word himself?  Or did somebody else identify the letters and translate them as a single word?  If somebody else did, who was that individual?
I am a field archaeologist and a Biblical geographer but not a Semitic language expert, so I contacted two Semitics scholars and an archaeologist who worked for the Saudi Department of Antiquities.  I shared with them contents of the video published on the Internet.

Michael Macdonald, a Semitics scholar, is a research associate at the Oriental Institute at the University of Oxford.  He has had over 30 years of field experience, recording and cataloging tens of thousands of inscriptions from Syria, Jordan and the Arabia Peninsula.  In other words, he is very familiar with ancient rock graffiti and with the forms of letters in ancient scripts.  He once published a comparative chart of South Semitic alphabetic scripts (1992: 3: 419).  Thus readers can now compare the script on the “Yahweh stone” with what is known from archaeological excavations and field research.  But note his words of caution when using the chart: “The stance and shape of many letters in Safaitic and Thamudic may vary considerably.”

The second Semitics scholar I consulted with was Dr. K. Lawson Younger Jr., Professor of Old Testament, Semitic Languages and Ancient Near Eastern History at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.  Both Semitics scholars, independently of each other, concluded that this unprovenanced sculpture is most likely a crude modern day forgery.  In personal correspondence with the author, Macdonald wrote: “I am almost certain that the sculpture is a fake. Quite a lot of these very crude carvings are appearing on the market nowadays but they bear no relation to the types of ancient Arabian sculptures found in scientific archaeological excavations.  The two letters [on the obverse side] have genuine shapes, but this is not a surprise since published script tables of the ancient scripts are widely distributed in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. I have come across small boys in remote villages able to write their names in the ancient scripts!”

The third person consulted was Dr. Majeed Khan, an archaeologist retired from the Saudi Department of Antiquities.  He is a specialist in the rock art of Saudi Arabia and worked on the comprehensive archaeological survey of the Jebel al-Lawz region for the Saudi Department of Antiquities.  Dr. Khan also believes that the stone with the inscription is a recent forgery.  He says, “Such false stones are on sale in Yemen and Najran area [of Saudi Arabia].  You can buy many stones like these particularly in Yemen.  All are false and recently sculptured.”  Dr. Khan personally worked on the comprehensive survey of the Jebel al-Lawz area, where this sculpture is said to have come from, and he never saw anything like this sculptured rock.

It is claimed that the inscription has the Divine Name “Yahweh” (yhwh) on the rock.  Is this a valid claim?  The side with the face on it (the “obverse”) is presumably the beginning of the inscription.  As with many Semitic languages, South Semitic scripts included, the inscription should be read from right to left.  The first letter, to the right of the nose, is transliterated as a “w”, not a “y.”  The second letter, to the left of the nose, is an “h with a dot under it” (?).  Macdonald points out that this is an entirely different letter from the “h” in “Yahweh.”

On the reverse side of the stone are two more letters.  The letter on the right is transliterated as “h with a line under it” (?).  Macdonald observes that it is pronounced as a “kh” (like the last sound in Scottish “loch”).  This letter is not present in the name “Yahweh” and is not a “w.”  The last letter, to the left of the “?”, is a “y” and not an “h.”

If these letters did form a single word, which is highly unlikely, it would be spelled “w??y”, and not “yhwh.”  Macdonald points out that “the letters would make no sense as a single word or name in a Semitic language since the sounds ‘kh’ and ‘h with a dot’ cannot occur in the same word.”  Younger further comments: “This is an impossible word in any Semitic language which would never have these two gutturals in a row.”  He continues, “This is absolute proof that the inscription is a forgery!”  On a lighter note, Younger says, “It yields a word that could not be pronounced!  It would ruin someone’s throat trying!”

Younger sums it up this way: “I can say most emphatically this is not the Hebrew divine name Yahweh (yhwh).  There is an obvious wrongness to the order of the consonants, and the consonants themselves are wrong!”  Macdonald and Khan concur.

These are very important questions and serious objections that need to be answered by the BASE research team.  It is hoped that an answer will be posted to all these questions and objections, as well as a report from a professional epigraphist as to the stone’s authenticity in the very near future.  A good place to share the answers to these questions and objections would be under the “Investigations” category of the BASE Institute website.  There is no article in the “Inscriptions” file, except four short paragraphs.  The last one says: “Continue to check back here at the Institute for further information release.”  This statement has been up for about two years.  Now (October 2009), would be the time to add a report about the “Yahweh Inscription.”

Another important question raised is that the inscription was alleged to be found at a site other than a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula.  Mount Sinai is located in the Sinai Peninsula according to all the biblical data, and not at Jebel al-Lawz in Saudi Arabia where the discovery was allegedly made.  Ancient writers included the Sinai Peninsula within the province of Arabia in the first century AD.  The Apostle Paul was perfectly consistent with these ancient writers when he stated in Galatians 4:25, “Mount Sinai in [first century AD] Arabia.”  Mount Sinai is named in accordance with the Sinai Peninsula (not Arabia), and thus does not lie in the boundaries of modern Saudi Arabia, which excludes the Sinai Peninsula (Franz 2000: 101-113).

Conclusions
To sum up: the sculpture of the bearded man or deity is thus more than likely a modern-day forgery carved thousands of years after the Exodus.  It was also not written in genuine paleo-Hebrew and can not be translated “Yahweh.”  The facts surrounding the chronology and paleography of this inscription would negate this artifact as being clearly connected with the visit of the Children of Israel to Mount Sinai.
The men that attended the Promise Keepers events and heard this presentation, or those who view the video clip, should not share this information with others as proof that the Bible is true.  The Bible is true regardless of whether this discovery has any biblical significance.  The assertion that Mount Sinai is at Jebel al-Lawz in Saudi Arabia still lacks credible and verifiable historical, geographical, archaeological, or biblical evidence.

For further reading:

Bibliography

Franz, Gordon
2000    Is Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia?  Bible and Spade 13/4: 101-113.

Macdonald, Michael
1992    Inscriptions, Safaitic.  Pp. 418-423 in Anchor Bible Dictionary.  Vol. 3.  Edited by D. N. Freedman.  New York: Doubleday.

By Gordon Franz

One day a friend sent me an invitation to a church meeting and asked me if I knew anything about the subject. On the flyer was a picture of a human skeleton with crooked teeth and a rock embedded in his forehead. The title above the skull read: “They’ve Found Goliath’s Skull!” Needless to say, that caught my attention.

I read with great interest what was written on the flyer. It reported: “Diggers in Israel believe they’ve made a giant discovery. For they’re convinced they’ve come across Goliath’s skull! And what’s more, they say, the stone from David’s slingshot is still embedded in the forehead. Archaeologist Dr. Richard Martin says: ‘We found the skull in the Valley of Elah, in the foothills of the Judean Mountains, where David’s battle with Goliath took place. The skull is huge and clearly belongs to a man of enormous statue.’ Tests show that the skull is between 2,900 and 3,000 years old – about the right time for the biblical battle. Dr. Martin says: ‘This is the archaeological find of the year.’ Wrong, doc. If you’re correct, the skull could be the archaeological find of the century! Make no bones about it!” [The identity of the church and its pastor will remain hidden to save them some major embarrassment]. What was the source for these claims? At the bottom of the flyer it cited the “Jewish Telegraph/UK/11 June 93″. That sounded like a respectable publication from Great Britain.

I wrote to one of my students in the UK and asked him if he could chase down a copy of this edition of the “Jewish Telegraph” for me (this was before the age when you could find anything and everything on the Internet). He was successful and it said basically the same thing that was on the church flyer. I did some more “digging around” and discovered the original source was an article by David Hudson in the May 25, 1993 edition of an American publication called “Weekly World News.” On one issue of the newspaper it boasted that they were “The World’s Only Reliable Newspaper.” In case you are unaware, the “Weekly World News” used to be a supermarket tabloid like the “The National Enquirer” and “The Sun” and was a very unreliable source of information (its last issue was August 2007). This is the publication that reported Elvis sightings and had articles such as “Hillary Clinton Adopts Alien Baby,” “Aliens Capture Top-Secret NASA Moon Base!” and “Garden of Eden Found.” (Folks, I’m not making this up … they did!). The latter article claims the Garden of Eden was in Colorado and even the original apple that Eve ate was found!

The front page of the May 25^th edition had the same picture of the skull with the rock in the forehead as the flyer. The headline said: “Goliath’s Skull Found in Holy Land! Dramatic discovery proves the Bible story true!” As I read through the article, red flags and warning bells began to go off. I knew of most of the leading Israeli and American archaeologists working in Israel, but I had never heard of this “Dr. Martin.” I was living in Jerusalem in the spring of 1993 when the alleged discovery was made on March 23, 1993 and never heard about the supposed “news conference” in Jerusalem given by “Dr. Martin” when he and his associates announced this “discovery.” I was perplexed by the fact that Goliath’s skull was found in the Elah Valley when the Bible says David took his head up to Jerusalem, presumably as an act of intimidation against the Jebusites (I Sam. 17:54). I was suspicious about the “test” that showed the skull was 2,900 to 3,000 years old and wondered if it had been published, or would be published, in a scientific peer reviewed publication. It is safe to say, this whole story, both on the flyer and in the article, was fabricated. There is not a shred of evidence for any of these bogus claims.

The most important lesson we can learn from this story is that we should do a thorough search in order to find out what the original source of a story was. In this case, the bogus story came from an unreliable tabloid. One should look for, and seriously consider, material that has been published in scientific peer reviewed publications. This so-called “skull of Goliath” was never published in any archaeological journal by “Dr. Martin.” This fabrication came from the fertile imagination of David Hudson and should not be used as proof that the Biblical account of the battle between David and Goliath is true.

]]> http://www.lifeandland.org/2009/02/david-goliath-and-tabloid-archaelogy/feed/ 0 http://www.lifeandland.org/2009/02/asher-shall-dip-his-foot-in-oil/ http://www.lifeandland.org/2009/02/asher-shall-dip-his-foot-in-oil/#comments Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:33:32 +0000 sherri http://www.lifeandland.org/?p=180 By Gordon Franz

Petrolium Oil Or Something Else?

Everybody loves a treasure hunt! As a young boy, I liked adventures. On occasions, I would play “pirate” by taking a wooden cigar box and putting several rolls of pennies (a lot of money in those days for a boy my age) and other goodies and burying them in the backyard. Then I made a treasure map with various landmarks in the area and put an “X” on the spot where the treasure was buried. I would then proceed to rollup the map and put it in a bottle and seal it with a cork. The next morning I “found” the bottle “floating” in my backyard and set off to find the treasure. I will never forget the excitement of the discovery.

Years later, while a graduate student in Israel, I worked on an excavation of the edge of the Hinnom Valley in Jerusalem. We were excavating caves from the period of the Judean Monarchy (Iron Age). On the first day we found some bronze bracelets that had corroded and turned green and some silver earrings that had turned gray. I asked the excavator, Gabriel Barkay, if it was possible to find gold. He answered in the affirmative. Since the silver and bronze were corroded, I asked Goby what gold would look like if I found it. He said, “Don’t worry, you’ll recognize it when you see it!” The next day, I remember carefully brushing away the dirt with a paintbrush to reveal a beautiful gold earring that was 2,600 years old and looked just like new. I still remember finding my first gold object as if it was yesterday.

Today some Christian geologists and oilmen, encouraged by some prophecy teachers, are looking for greater treasures … oil … black gold, with the Bible as their “treasure map”! They are so convinced that Israel will soon be awash in fabulous oil wealth that they have invested millions of dollars of their own money as well as that of well-meaning Christians. Did the Creator leave a “treasure map” for modern geologists to find a huge deposit of oil under Israel? Would Israel then “bless” all nations by providing a steady flow of reliable oil to the world that is so dependent on OPEC? Or would the hungry bear, Russia, invade Israel to take the “spoil” (drop the “sp” and you have “oil”!, cf. Ezek. 38:13)? Does the Bible make such fantastic claims and should it be used as a magical divining rod for the discovery of black gold?

Israel, like the rest of the industrialized world, is dependent on a steady flow of oil from reliable sources. After capturing the Sinai Peninsula in the Six Days War in June of 1967, Israeli petroleum explorers discovered and developed the Alma Oil Fields on the western side of the Sinai Peninsula. These fields provided Israel with a reliable source of oil. However, Israel “lost” the oil fields in the negotiations for peace with Egypt. Part of the Camp David Peace Accord, signed in Washington, DC in 1979, included the return of these oil fields to Egypt in exchange for compensation and a promise of the sale of oil to Israel. Israel not only gave up land, but also a steady supply of oil with the agreement. Today, Israel does not have a steady, reliable supply of oil.

As of this writing (2004), there has been no major source of oil discovered in Israel. There are a few wells here and there that pump out small quantities of oil, but nothing like the Persian Gulf area. Several Christian oilmen have tried to discover a marketable amount of oil, but to no avail. Some, using the Bible as their treasure map and guide, have tried to get the faithful to invest in their oil operations. A number of years ago an expose appeared in the Wall Street Journal with the headlines, “Prophets and Profits Motivate Evangelicals Hunting for Israeli Oil” (Getschow 1985:1). The article describes some of the personalities and operations, and then goes on to list several states that have prohibited the sale of “penny stock” because of the suspect nature of these groups and their operations. At one prophecy conference a book by Rev. Jim Spillman entitled The Great Treasure Hunt (1981) outsold the Bible (Getschow 1985: 16). This article will analyze the verses used by the prophecy teachers to find petroleum oil. Are they really referring to petroleum oil, or is it something else?

“… fruitful bough by a well” (Gen. 49:22)

As the patriarch Jacob laid on his deathbed in Egypt, he set out to bless his twelve sons. The account begins with Jacob calling them together to tell them what will befall them “in the last days” (Gen. 49:1). Most prophecy teachers automatically assume the phrase “the last days” are the days we are living in now. Is that the case? The phrase is used 14 times in the Old Testament. The context must determine if it is used of a day still in the future, or of subsequent years from the prediction. A clear example of a future day is Isaiah 2:2 which describes a future day when Jerusalem will be exalted (Varner 1987: 24). The “blessings of Jacob” were fulfilled in the subsequent years in the history of Israel after they entered the Land of Israel and settled it.

With regards to the blessing of Jacob, Spillman found several “cryptic” references in this passage. In verse 22, there is a “well” and in verse 25, “the Almighty … will bless you (with) … blessings of the deep that lies beneath.” He says the key to unlocking this cryptic message is an oilrig discovering oil deep in the ground (1981: 22-24). Is this speaking about an oil well in the Hill Country of Ephraim and Manasseh?

Unfortunately sometimes the prophecy teachers, on their trips to Israel, are so caught up in the contemporary society that they overlook some of the culture that has gone on for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. An appreciation of this “time capsule” is overlooked, and an understanding that would come to the true meaning of the text.

Would you join me for a short trip to a Palestinian home in the Hill Country of Samaria (West Bank)? In 1980, I worked in Jerusalem on the restoration of the pottery from a burial cave found by Joseph Free at ancient Dothan. It was like putting a jigsaw puzzle together without even seeing the picture! At the end of our time restoring pottery, the project supervisor, Dr. Robert Cooley, took his volunteers to visit Tel Dothan as well as have lunch at one of the ancient capital of Israel, Samaria. On the way home, we stopped at a village near Samaria to visit with relatives of the taxi driver. By western standards it was a “primitive” rural setting. The afternoon was hot and we appreciated the shade of the grape vine that spread out over the porch. I noticed the vine that was near a cistern so the family could water it on a regular basis. The blessing that Jacob bestowed upon Joseph was … WATER! The grape vine (Ps. 80) that was planted by a well of water will shoot its branches over the wall. The blessing from heaven is the rains that will come in their proper seasons when the people are obedient to the Word of God (Deut. 11:9-17). The waters will seep down into the rock and reach the water table and provide water from the deep, i.e. the well. Jacob’s father Isaac had blessed him with “the dew from heaven” to provide the essentials for life, i.e. grain, oil and wine (Gen. 27:28).

The searcher has misinterpreted this so-called cryptic message.

“… to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock” (Deut. 32:13)

Spillman continues his search for petroleum oil with his “treasure map” in front of him when he turns to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 32 and the last part of verse 13: “he made him draw honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock.” He thinks it is absurd to understand the oil as olive oil because it came from crushed olives and honey could not be bee’s honey because it comes from beehives. According to him, the honey is “earth” honey, symbolic of petroleum (1981: 36,37). It is true that the word translated “draw” does have the idea of “suck” or “eating to satiety” (Cassuto 1971: 108). But to read, “pump” and find an oilrig is a bit far fetched.

Prophecy teachers would do well to read the accounts of the 19^th-century explorers to the Holy Land. The visit by these men opened up a whole new realm of Biblical study. They wrote about their experiences and the Palestinian folklore and how these illustrated the Biblical passages and ways. Rev. William Thomson, an American missionary in the region from 1833 to 1879, traveled extensively and wrote a three-volume set, The Land and the Book, about his experiences.

On one of his trips he observed a phenomenon that illustrated Deuteronomy 32:13. “In the clefts of a precipice overhanging Wady el Kurn swarms of bees made their home. The people of M’alia, several years ago, let a man down the face of the rock by ropes. He was entirely protected from the assaults of the bees, and extracted a large amount of honey; but was so dismayed by their number that he could not be induced to repeat the exploit. One is reminded by this incident of the expression concerning Israel in the farewell ode of Moses, Deut. 32:13: ‘He made him to suck honey out of the rock.’ And Asaph. In the eighty-first Psalm, thus sings: ‘With honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee’” (Thomson 1882: 2: 259). Unfortunately Rev. Thomson does not describe the extraction process, but it is clearly referring to honey produced by wild bees.

When I was a freshman at Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture in Doylestown, PA, I had an interest in beekeeping so I joined the apiary society. At one time I asked the director of the society, a renowned beekeeper himself, if the beekeepers could “suck” honey out of the rock? His response was, “I strongly suspect that the term draw or suck simply means remove or extract. If the term ’suck’ is accurate, there is no reason that the honey gatherers couldn’t have inserted hollow tubes into the honey combs and sucks honey into them” (Personal correspondence from Dr. Robert Berthold, August 31, 1994).

Prof. F. S. Bodenheimer, a noted Israeli biologist, has stated: “In Israel of Biblical times wild honey hunting only was known, whereas at the same time real and extensive beekeeping was carried out in Egypt and Anatolia. In our country the first documents on beekeeping are found in the Mishnah tractate Ohaloth” (1959: 402). The writings of the Mishnah are much later than the Biblical period. The director of Neot Kedumim, the Biblical Gardens near Tel Aviv, Nogah Hareuveni, states: “Honey is mentioned several times in the Bible, but never is there an implication that it is a cultivated product. Apiculture developed many centuries later …” (1980: 12). The honey was public property and had to be gathered (Prov. 25:16; Judges 14:8,9; I Sam. 25,26). Spillman is wrong to two counts. First, the honey referred to is wild bee’s honey that does come from the rocks, and not petroleum. Second, the ancient Israelite farmer did not cultivate honey in beehives during the Biblical period.

In order to determine what the oil is in verse 13, one must take a careful look at the context in which it appears. Note all of verses 13 and 14. “… he might eat the produce of the field; … honey … oil … curds … milk … lambs … rams … goats … wheat … wine.” It is obvious from the context that the oil has to be olive oil because it is something that one eats. One does not eat, or drink, petroleum oil!

The flinty rock refers to the kind of soil that the olive trees grow in. Rev. Thomson again observed, “The substratum of this plain [near Beirut] is chalky marl, abounding in flint, and the sand is merely an intruder blown in from this desert on our left. The olive is found, also, in places where there is no rocky basis; but it is in soil such as this that the trees flourishes best, both in crevices of this flinty marl, and draws from thence its stores of the rock beneath. I am told the tree languishes, and its berries are small and sapless” (1882: 3: 34). An alternative view set forth by Dr. David Eitam, an Israeli archaeologist whose expertise is olive presses, suggests this might allude to the rock-cut olive presses (1979: 154). The landmark on the “treasure map” has been misread. The oil is olive oil, not petroleum oil.

“Asher shall dip his foot in oil” (Deut. 33:24)

Before Moses died, he blessed the children of Israel. Of Asher he said, “Asher is most blessed of sons; let him be favored by his brothers, and let him dip his foot in oil. Your sandals shall be iron and bronze; as your days, so shall you strength be” (Deut. 33:24,25).

This was the verse that set Andy Sorelle, a Texas oilman and co-owner of Energy Exploration, Inc., on a new search for oil in Israel. In 1979 a college friend of Sorelle sent him a map of the territories of the twelve tribes of Israel. As he recounts the event, “There’s a passage in Deuteronomy 33.24 where Moses, talking about the blessings of the twelve tribes, said Asher would dip his foot in oil. Well, on the map, the leg of Asher started in Lebanon; the heel of the foot was drawn at Haifa, and the toe at Caesarea. I suddenly realized that the only area we had not surveyed in Israel was that between Caesarea and Haifa” (Gafen 1981). On February 12, 1981, Sorelle began his first well in Israel on the Israeli naval base at Atlit. At 5,200 feet there was a small amount of oil evident but they continued to a deeper level. On December 1, 1981 they stopped their operation at 17,296 feet because the oilrig they were using could not go any deeper. It took almost a year to get a bigger rig in place; by the beginning of 1983 they commenced operations again. Due to problems, they had to stop again at 21,428 feet (Gaverluk and Lindsted 1984: 11,24). I’m sure Mr. Sorelle is very sincere in his belief that there is a large amount of marketable oil in the area, but is there a Biblical basis for his belief? Should Christians be investing in this, or other oil operations based on this verse of the Bible? Two issues need to be addressed. First, what is the oil that is being referred to? Second, are the oilrigs in the tribal territory of Asher?

It is clear from the context that the oil in this passage is olive oil. The Hebrew word “shemen” is used 190 times in Scripture for “generally olive oil whether pure or prepared for various uses as perfume or ointment” (Austel 1980: 2: 937), and is never used for petroleum oil. Interestingly, the early rabbinic writings understand it to mean olive oil as well. In the tractate Menahoth on regulations concerning the meal offering in the Temple, the rabbis taught, “And let him dip his foot in oil: this refers to the territory of Asher which flowed with oil like a fountain” (Menahoth 85b). The context is talking about olive oil.

The second issue is the location of the oil wells. Sorelle placed his well near the ancient Crusader fortress of Atlit. Others placed them on Mount Carmel. Are these oil wells in Asher’s territory? A careful study of the tribal-city list of Asher (Josh. 19:24-31) suggests otherwise. While it is true, a couple of Bible atlases place Asher’s territory down in the Sharon Plain, south of the Carmel range, most place the tribal territory north of Mount Carmel (Carta Bible Atlas [2002] maps 71 and 72; Zondervan NIV Atlas of the Bible [1989] pages 99 and 102; The Moody Atlas of Bible Lands [1985] map 49). A very careful analysis of the tribal list by Zvi Gal, the district archaeologist for Galilee, in whose jurisdiction “Asher” falls, has demonstrated that the southern border of Asher’s territory was the Kishon River just north of Mount Carmel (1992: 101-104; 1985: 115-127). Another careful and detail study of the tribal territory of Asher was done by Dr. Zecharia Kallai, a professor of Historical Geography of Eretz-Israel at Hebrew University (1986: 204-224, 427-433). Where Sorelle and others have put their oil wells have been in Manasseh’s tribal-territory, not in Asher’s!

The context of Moses’ blessing to Asher is that there will be an abundance of olive oil in his territory. Has that been the case? Another 19^th-century explorer who visited the area of Asher, Canon Tristram, a missionary and a naturalist, recorded his impressions as he traveled over Rosh ha-Niqrah, or the “Ladder of Tyre” (on the northern border of Israel today), and viewed the Plain of Acco for the first time. He described it as “… a green cultivated plain many miles in extent, stubbed with olive groves, with their grey-blue hue spangling the carpet, and each grove half concealing a village” (Wilson 1980: 70).

Two Presbyterian ministers from Scotland took a journey to the Holy Land in 1839. On one trip they recorded their impressions of an area two hours from Tyre: “… the summits, were sprinkled over with groves of olives, showing how fertile and how suitable for the cultivation of the olive this range must have been in former days. This was more remarkable, because we were now in the tribe of Asher; and the prophetic blessing pronounced upon Asher, was, ‘Let him dip his foot in oil’” (Bonar and McCheyne 1973: 265). How discerning these two students of the Scripture were!

Only a few excavations have been conducted in the Israeli part of the tribal territory of Asher. The part in Southern Lebanon has not been touched at all, except the ancient city of Tyre. With a limited amount of excavations, archaeology could not shed light on the culture and agriculture of the day … until recently.

Zvi Gal excavated a small fortress on a ridge on the slopes of Western Lower Galilee. This site, called Hurvat Rosh Zayit (Khirbet Ras el Zeitum in Arabic), is translated “the ruins of the head of the olives.” A discerning reader will notice that the name of the site has something to do with olives. It also lies less than a mile north of the Arab village of Kabul, which preserves the name for the site of Biblical Cabul (Josh. 19:27). When he excavated the site he discovered a small fortress, 80 feet by 80 feet with a wall preserved to the height of 10 feet, dating to the time of King Solomon. The mostly Phoenician pottery from the excavation dated from the late 10^th to mid-9^th century BC. This led the excavator to suggest that this was one of the twenty cities that Solomon gave to Hiram, king of Tyre. After examining the sites, Hiram did not like them and called the place “Cabul-land” (I Kings 9:10-14; Gal 1993a: 39). The most significant discovery for our study is three large olive presses. Gal states, “These settlers based their economy largely on the production of olive oil. A large complex of oil presses is now being excavated on the west side of the site. Within a well-built structure, we have found at least three presses, and another press outside the structure has been excavated and reconstructed. These presses, together with the many rock cut installations found on the surface around the area, make this the largest known oil-press complex in Galilee” (1993a: 84; 1993b: 128-140). This complex dated to the 8^th century BC and has Israelite features. It was destroyed by Tiglath-Pileser III in 733/32 BC (Gal 1990:91).

I believe with further excavations in the region, more olive oil installations will be uncovered, thus confirming the truth of Moses’ blessing on Asher.

The last part of Moses’ blessing says, “Your sandals shall be iron and bronze.” Spillman suggests that this is referring to oil derricks that are made of iron and brass to prevent sparks from igniting a fire on the rigs as iron on iron would (1981: 49). Sorelle said this verse did not make sense until recent times because he believes that “this area will be such a developed oil field that from a helicopter it will look like he is wearing shoes of iron and brass” (Webber n.d.: 21). There is a better understanding for this passage.

To produce olive oil, there are three stages that must be gone through in order to get olive oil. First, the olives are crushed. Then, the olive pulp is pressed to express the liquid that is oil and watery lees, or impurities. Finally, the oil floats to the top and is separated from the impurities (Frankel 1994: 26). This process could, until recently, still be observed in some settings in one simple installation. The farmer would crush the olives with a stone, or treading them while wearing some kind of shoes (cf. Micah 6:15). The crushed olives were pressed with a stone and the liquids collected in a vat and the oil skimmed off after separating from the watery lees (Gal 1993b: 133). A better explanation for the “sandals of iron and brass” would be that these are the shoes used by the farmer to crush the olives. This was the method used by the ancient Israelite farmer before the large stone olive crushers came into use during the Iron Age in Israel (Gal 1993b: 135).

It is interesting that Micah 6:15 mentions the “treading of olives.” One cannot tread, or crush, olives with bear feet. Quite possibly the shoes were of iron and/or brass. However, Oded Boronski says this phrase can “not be taken literally since this method is ineffective and the stones might cause harm to the feet of the treader.” The phrase should be “a poetic expression for oil pressing” (1987:119).

However, Rafael Frankel, an expert on the olive oil industry in antiquity, has observed, “Despite the fact that olives were usually crushed by rolling stones over them on flat surfaces, a special Greek word … exists for the shoes which were worn while treading olives. It appears that olives were trodden in much the same way as grapes, except that the latter were trodden barefoot” (1994: 78).

The blessing of Moses to Asher should be understood in light of its ancient Near Eastern context. Asher was literally blessed with an abundance of olive oil and he would crush the olives with special shoes made of iron and/or brass in order to allow the oil to run out. To imagine an oilrig in this passage and to get Christians to invest in “penny stock” is not a good interpretation of this passage.

Jacob’s Blessing of Asher (Gen. 49:20)

When Jacob blessed Asher he said, “Bread from Asher shall be rich, and he shall yield royal dainties” (Gen. 49:20). The Hebrew root for the word “rich” is “shemen” which is translated “oil or fatness”. Again, the hint is of olive oil. But Jacob goes on to say this food shall be for the royal tables. Has this ever happened? Do people eat or drink petroleum oil at their tables?

Very little history was recorded in the Scriptures regarding the tribe of Asher. We do know that each tribe provided food for the royal court one month a year during the reign of King Solomon (I Kings 4:7, 16). I’m sure the people in the palace looked forward to the rich food from Asher. It must have been exquisite. Of course, olive oil is very healthy for a person as well.

Another case where food from Asher landed on the royal tables was Hiran, king of Tyre. In exchange for cedars and cypress wood from the Lebanon Mountains, Solomon promised him food for his household (I Kings 5:9). This food included 20,000 kors of wheat and 20 kors of pressed oil each year (I Kings 5:11; II Chron. 2:10, 15). The closest tribal to Tyre with this kind of food was Asher.

Just as Moses’ blessing on Asher was literally fulfilled, so Jacob’s blessing. The abundant food did end up on the table of royalty.

The Conclusion of the Matter

It has been demonstrated that the search for petroleum oil with the Bible as a treasure map or a magical divining rod is unwise and fruitless. The serious student of the Scriptures is to properly exegete the passage, i.e. take out from the passage that which is in the text, rather than reading into the text that which is not there, which is what these oilmen and prophecy teachers are doing. The prophecy teachers should heed the words of James, “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing we shall receive a stricter judgment” (3:1). Bible teachers are responsible for properly interpreting the Scriptures and will be held accountable by the Lord for their teachings.

The Holy Spirit has several tools at His disposal to help the Bible student properly interpret the Biblical text. We have noted at least four in this paper. First, there are good linguistic tools available that will help the student understand the proper meaning of the words. Invest in a good lexicon or Bible dictionary. Second, there are the 19^th century explorers who visited the Holy Land and wrote of their experiences. One should visit the local library and check out these books, they are fascinating reading. Third, one can glean insights into the Scriptures by visiting the contemporary Palestinian culture that still reflects the ancient ways of doing things. This gets harder and harder to find as the Palestinians improve their lot financially. And finally, there have been many archaeological discoveries that have added much light to the Biblical text and the material culture of the days of the Bible.

The blessings of Jacob and Moses to Asher are referring to olive oil, not petroleum oil. When I was a field trip instructor at the Institute of Holy land Studies in Jerusalem, I always enjoyed the Sharon Plain field trip because we would end up at Mukrakah on Mount Carmel. This was the place where Elijah had the encounter with Ahab and the prophets of Baal (I Kings 18). As we journeyed the winding roads on Mount Carmel to Mukrakah we passed an abandoned oilrig. I would chuckle to myself because the rig was situated in a huge olive grove, probably owned by the local Druze. If only the oilmen had taken the time to look around them, they would have seen one of the essential blessings for daily life in ancient Israel, olive oil, not petroleum oil.

On one field trip I pointed to the oilrig and expounded the Scriptures of Asher’s blessing and hammered the point that it was olive oil and the rig was in Manasseh’s territory. Later, while having lunch at Mukrakah, a student sheepishly came up to me and confessed that he had lost a lot of money investing in those “penny stocks”. He said, “I wish I knew then what you just related to us from the Scriptures. I would not have lost my money.” I encouraged him to continue searching the Scriptures just like the Bereans (Acts 17:11).

Should Christians invest in oil exploration and operations in Israel? If the exploration is based on sound geological data, by all means. But if it were based on the imagination of some prophecy teacher who is not properly interpreting the Scriptures in their historical-grammatical, geographical and material context, it would be very unwise. The Christian should be discerning and invest his or her money elsewhere. After all, we are stewards of the money that the Lord has entrusted to us.

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