• 04Feb

  The Synagogue on the Island of Delos and the Epistle of James

  Archaeology and the Bible Comments Off on The Synagogue on the Island of Delos and the Epistle of James

  By Gordon Franz

  Introduction

  Sefar Ya’akov, written by Ya’akov Ben-Zavdai, was addressed to Messianic Jews residing in the Diaspora, outside of Eretz Yis-rael.   This small epistle, only five chapters long, has a distinct Jewish flavor based on the teachings of Yeshua ha-Mashiach.

  I believe that James, the son of Zebedee, wrote this epistle soon after AD 30, as a follow-up letter, in order to encourage Jewish believers in the Lord Jesus who had come to faith during the annual pilgrimage of Shavuot (Pentecost) in Jerusalem (Acts 2).

  In the First Century AD, there was a Jewish community living on the island of Delos.   This island, situated at the center of the Cyclades Islands, was famous in Greek mythology as the birthplace of the god Apollo and his sister, the goddess Artemis.

  This article will give a brief overview of the history of the island, and will discuss the Jewish and Samaritan communities that resided on the island, as well as the synagogue that was discovered during the archaeological excavations in 1912-13.   The setting of the epistle of James is a synagogue in the Diaspora.   I will use the Delos synagogue to illustrate several passages in the epistle.   Using our “sanctified imagination,” we will try to comprehend how a Jewish believer in the Lord Jesus on the island of Delos would understand the word-pictures in the epistle in light of the First Century AD history, geography, and material culture.   The archaeology of the islands of Delos and Rheneia, an island opposite Delos, will help to illustrate the word-pictures.   To conclude this study, I will discuss the implications for the dating of the epistle of James.

  A BRIEF GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF THE ISLAND OF DELOS

  Delos is a small island in the center of the Cyclades.   Pliny describes these islands as “lying round Delos in a circle which has given them their name”.   He goes on to state, “By far the most famous of the Cyclades and lying in the middle of them, Delos, celebrated for its temple of Apollo and for its commerce” ( Natural History 4.12:65; LCL 2: 165,167).

  If one climbs to the top of Mt. Cynthus on a clear day, the islands of Siros can be viewed to the west, Tinos to the north, Mykonos to the northeast, Paros and Naxos to the south.

  The island is 5 km long in a north-south direction.   At its widest, it is 1.3 km in an east-west direction.   The highest mountain is Mt. Cynthus which rises 112 meters above sea level.   From a spring on the side of the mountain, flowing for 1.2 km, is the River Inopus, that flows into the Bay of Scardanas.

  The first settlement on the island of Delos was discovered on Mt. Cynthus dating to the 3^rd millennium BC.   It did not seem to last long and the island was abandoned until the late Mycenaean period (1580-1200 BC) when the plain below the mountain was inhabited.

  It was colonized by the Ionians about 750 BC.   At this point in history, the island takes on its sacred status.   Homer’s Odyssey (Book 6, line 162; LCL 1: 233) and the Homeric Hymns, written about 700 BC, said that Delos was an important religious center.   It becomes important because, according to Greek mythology, the island of Delos offered Leto a place to safely give birth to Apollo and Artemis from the fury of Hera, the wife of Zeus ( To Delian Apollo LCL 325-337).

  Athenian influence was exerted over the island in the 6^th century BC.   They “purified” the island by removing all the burials from the area around the Temple of Apollo in 540 BC.

  The Persian Wars broke out about 490 BC.  An alliance of Greek city-states was formed, called the Delian League, against the Persians in 478/7 BC.   Delos became the center for this league and the treasury was kept on the island.

  In the winter of 426/5 BC the second “purification” of the island occurred.   This time all the burials from the island were removed and reburied in what the archaeologists call the “Purification Trench” on the island of Rheneia (Catling 1996:443).

  From 314-166 BC, Delos enjoyed a period of independence and prosperity.   The island began to develop as a commercial center with public and private banks.   There was extensive building activity and foreigners began to populate the island.

  In 166 BC the Romans gained control of the island.   They put Athens in charge of the island and made it a free port.   With economic prosperity came foreign influence.   Foreigners from Italy, Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, Israel brought their cults with them and built temples and shrines to their gods.

  In 88 BC, Menophanes, an officer of Mithradates VI, “razed Delos itself to the ground”.   If one can believe the reports of Appian and Pausanias ( Description of Greece III:23.3-5; LCL 2:147), upwards to 20,000 people were killed on the island in this attack.   In 69 BC, the pirates of Athenodorus, sacked the island, and it never regained its glory.   It’s religious and commercial influenced waned.   As Strabo put it, “When the Romans again got the island, after the king withdrew to his homeland, it was desolate; and it has remained in an impoverished condition until the present time” ( Geography 10.5.4; LCL 5: 167).

  However, in 58 BC, the Roman Senate confirmed privileges on the people of Delos.   Throughout the First Century AD, there was a community on the island, and life went on under the control of the Athenians.

  In the second century AD, during the reign of Hadrian, the Athenians put the island up for sale, but there were no takers!   In fact, Pausanias states, “Delos, once the common market of Greece, has no Delian inhabitants, but only the men sent by the Athenians to guard the sanctuary” ( Description of Greece 33:2; LCL 4: 69).

  At the end of the 3^rd century AD, there was a small Christian community on the island.   Toward the end of the 7^th century AD the island becomes abandoned.

  For a detailed history of the island, see Laidlaw 1933.

  THE JEWISH AND SAMARITAN COMMUNITIES ON THE ISLAND OF DELOS

  Jewish and Samaritan communities on the island of Delos are well attested to in the contemporary literature as well as inscriptions discovered in the excavations on Delos and Rheneia.

  The first mention in the literature to a Jewish community on the island of Delos is in I Macc. 15:16-23.   This passage contained a letter from the Roman proconsul, Lucius Calpurnius Piso (140-139 BC).   It affirmed that the Jews were friends of Rome and the various kings should protect them.

  During the reign of Julius Caesar, two edicts were given that protected the rights of the Jews on the island of Delos, both are recorded by Josephus ( Antiq. 14: 213-216; LCL 8: 561-563 and 14: 231-232; LCL 8: 571-573).

  Two funerary stela of Jewish women who were murdered on Delos were found on the island of Rheneia.   Each stela contained a prayer for vengeance against the murderers (Deissmann 1995: 413-424).   Interestingly, the Greek form of “El Elyon” (“God, Most High”) is used on both inscriptions.   This name also appears on one inscription found in the synagogue.

  Recently, two Samaritan inscriptions were found 90 meters to the north of the synagogue building.   One read, “The Israelites on Delos who make offerings to hallowed Argarizein crown with a gold crown Sarapion, son of Jason, of Knossos, for his benefactions toward them” (Kraabel 1984: 44).   The second one said, “[the] Israelites [on Delos] who make offerings to hallowed, consecrated Argarizein …” (Kraabel 1984: 45).

  One can assume that both communities were engaged in the trade and commerce on the island.

  THE SYNAGOGUE ON THE ISLAND OF DELOS

  Excavations on the island of Delos began in 1873 and were conducted by the Greek Antiquities Service and the Ecole Francaise d’Archeologie at Athens.   The most intensive excavations were carried out between 1902 and 1914.   During the 1912-13 excavations, a synagogue building was discovered by the excavator, Andre Plassart.   The site was later re-excavated by Philippe Bruneau in 1962 and published by him in 1970 and 1982.

  The structure is located in a residential area in the northeast part of the island.   It consists of several rooms.   The main room, the hall of assembly, measures 16.9 meters north-south by 15.04 meters east-west, with a triportal entrance.   The assembly hall was divided into two rooms, probably after the War of Mithridates in 88 BC.   In the northern room, there are marble benches that line the wall.   In the center of the west wall is a kathedra (throne) with a footstool.   The entrance to a cistern is located In the southern room.

  Four inscriptions were found in the excavations.   Each contained the words, Theos Hypsistos (“God, the Most High”) or Hypsistos (“the Most High”).   The former is translated El Elyon in the LXX (cf. Gen. 14: 19,20,22; Goodenough 1957).   This name of God also appears on the “Vengeance Inscription” from the island of Rheneia.   One also contained the word proseuchai, sometimes translated “prayer halls” and could refer to a synagogue.

  The excavator concluded that the synagogue was in use from the First Century BC into the Second Century AD.   Recently, Monika Trumper published a comprehensive article advocating that this structure is the oldest original synagogue building in the Diaspora (2004).   She contents that there were five phases of occupation from the 2^nd century BC to the 2^nd century AD.   This, however, is not the final excavation report.

  The identification of this structure has been hotly debated.   The original excavator, Andre Passart, identified it as a Jewish house of worship (1913).   E. L. Sukenik, in his Ancient Synagogues in Palestine and Greece, followed this identification (1934).   In 1935, Belle D. Mazur came out with a study, Studies of Jewry in Ancient Greece disputing this identification.   As a result of this study, Sukenik reversed his position on the structure (1949).   Edwin R. Goodenough, in his monumental work, Jewish Symbols of the Graeco-Roman Period (1965:2: 71-75) anaylized Mazur’s work and offered counter arguments.   However, he concluded that the structure “might almost certainly … be taken, without any protest, to be probably a synagogue” (2: 74).   So much for archaeological dogmatism!

  Hershel Shanks concluded that the structure was actually a temple to Zeus (1979: 43-45).   There have been other studies by L. Michael White (1987) and A. T. Kraabel that reaffirm the synagogue interpretation.   For the purpose of this paper, the synagogue interpretation will be accepted and followed.

  THE SETTING OF THE EPISTLE OF JAMES

  It is not the intent of this article to imply or suggest that the epistle of James reached the island of Delos, or that James had this synagogue in mind.   This synagogue is used only as an example of a First Century AD Diaspora synagogue to illustrate two passages in the epistle.   Nothing more is implied.   James was writing to Jewish believers in the Lord Jesus in the Diaspora (James 1:1).

  The setting of the epistle of James is a synagogue in the Diaspora.   The Diaspora is a technical Jewish term, in Greek, for the Jewish people living outside of the Land of Israel.   James 2:2-4 says, “For if there should come into your synagogue a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing fine clothes and say to him, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ and say to the poor man, ‘You stand there,’ or, “Sit here at my footstool,’ have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?” [2]

  The early church met in synagogues before there was the split between the Church and the Synagogue (Acts 26:11).   The Delos synagogue can illustrate James 2.   On the west wall of the assembly hall was a kathedra (throne) of white marble that has been identified as a “seat of Moses.”   This was the most prominent seat in the synagogue where the rabbi would teach the congregation the Torah.   Below his feet was a footstool.   When the rich man came in, he was given a “good place”, probably the seat next to the “seat of Moses” on the bench reserved for the elders.   On the other hand, the poor man was relegated to stand in the corner or sit at the footstool of the rabbi.

  The kathedra, or seat of Moses, illustrates the second passage.   James 3:1 says, “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.”   The teacher of the Word of God, like the rabbis, scribes and Pharisees, would sit in the “seat of Moses” and expound the Scriptures.   James warns the teacher about living a life that is contrary to what he is teaching.   James still has the words of the Lord Jesus that he heard only a short while before ringing in his mind.   “The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat, therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works, for they say, and do not do” (Matt. 23:2,3).

  Most English Bibles translate the Greek word “synagogue” as either “assembly,” “congregation,” “meeting,” “place of worship,” or even “church”!   If we see the epistle of James in its Jewish Diaspora context it should be translated, as the New Jerusalem Bible translates it, “synagogue.”   For a full discussion and debate of the word “synagogue,” see Kee 1990; Oster 1993; Kee 1994.

  THE WORD PICTURES FROM THE EPISTLE OF JAMES

  Permit me to use my “sanctified imagination” for a moment.   Let’s assume that the epistle of James did reach the island of Delos and believers in the Lord Jesus read it.   How would they understand the word pictures used by James in the book?   They, like us, read the Bible in the context of the world in which the reader lives.   The believers on Delos would understand the epistle from the surroundings of their world.

  Perhaps the believers were meeting on the Lord’s Day in the synagogue of Delos when somebody came from the harbor carrying a copy of the epistle of James.   With great anticipation they began to read it.   “James, a servant ( doulos) of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:1a).   Delos had an earlier reputation as a great slave market.   Strabo describes the slave market of Delos in these terms: “… Delos, which could both admit and send away ten thousand slaves on the same day; whence arose the proverb, ‘Merchants, sail in, unload your ship, everything has been sold.’   The cause of this was the fact that the Romans, having become rich after the destruction of Carthage and Corinth, used many slaves” ( Geography 14.5.2; LCL 6:329).

  James goes on to say, “To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” (1:1b).   The Jews who had come to faith were descendents of the tribe of Judah.   Also living on the island of Delos were Samaritans, those of the northern tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh.

  They continued to read, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.”   James wrote this epistle to encourage the people as they go through trials and testings in their walk with the Lord.   He recounts the words he heard the Lord Jesus say on the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:11,12).   He then writes about testings from without (1:2-12) and temptation from within (1:12-18).

  The believer who doubts the wisdom of God in testings is described as “a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind” (1:6).   James had in mind the eastern windstorms that he had experienced while fishing on the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 8:23-27 // Mark 4:35-41 // Luke 8:22-25 and Matt. 14:22-33 // Mark 6:45-52 // John 6:15-21).   The reader on Delos knew from experience the description of “holy Delos” given by Callimanchus.   “Surely all the Cyclades, most holy of the isles that lie in the sea. …Wind-swept and stern is she set in the sea, and, wave-beaten as she is, is fitter haunt for gulls than course for horses.   The sea, rolling greatly round her, casts off on her much spindrift of the Icarian water” ( Hymn to Delos 4; LCL 85).   One can experience the winds and the waves today on the ferry from Mykonos to Delos.

  When he describes temptation he uses a word from fishing terminology, “enticed” (1:14; Kent 1986:51).   James the son of Zebedee used this word from his own fishing profession.   The readers on Delos would understand this word picture from their personal experience as well.   Callimachus continues in his Hymn to Delos, describing Delos as a place where “sea-roaming fishermen have made her their home” ( To Delos 4; LCL 85).   In the excavations of Delos, a number of fish hooks and implements used for mending nets (cf. Mark 1:19) were discovered.   The term “entice” depicts a live bait, either a worm or fish on a hook to prompt the fish to bit it.   The fish is deceived and caught.   The temptation to sin is the same way.   It looks alluring (Heb. 11:25), but when partaken of, it leads to death (James 1:15).

  James gives an outline for the rest of the book in verse 19 (Hodges 1994: 15,16).   “Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”   James expands on the theme, “be swift to hear” in James 1:21-2:26.   The believer is not just to hear the Word of God, but is also to do it (1:22).   The second section, “be slow to speak” is expanded on in chapter 3.   The third section, “be slow to wrath” is expanded on in James 4:1-5:6.   The final section of the book gives the key for going through trials and temptation.   James says the believer is to have patience (waiting for the Lord’s return) and pray (5:7-20).

  The first section, “be swift to hear” is set in the synagogue, with its “seat of Moses” and footstool.   James admonishes the believers to be swift to hear the Word of God and apply it to ones life.   The setting of the synagogue has already been discussed.   However, within the context of the synagogue in James 2, James quotes the Hebrew Scriptures in verse 8 (cf. Lev. 19:18) and verse 11 (Ex. 19:13,14).   Passages that would be found in the Torah scrolls of the synagogue.   In his discourse on “faith and works” he says, “You believe that there is one God, you do well” (2:19).   The statement “one God” comes from the Shema (Deut. 6:4) that was recited in the synagogue as well as the Scriptures contained within the tefillin (Ex. 13:1-10; Deut. 6:4-9; Ex. 13:11-16).   Tefillin were used in the First Century as attested to by the ones discovered at Qumran (Yadin 1969:13).   James then gives two examples of people who expressed their faith before their fellow human beings by their works, Abraham and Rahab (2:21-25; cf. Matt. 5:16; Tit. 3:5,8).   He concludes this section with verse 26, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”   The Delians had an interesting custom concerning the dead.   Strabo describes Rheneia, the island opposite Delos, in these terms.   “Rheneia is a desert isle within four stadia from Delos, and there the Delians bury their dead; for it is unlawful to bury, or even burn, a corpse on Delos itself” ( Geography 10.5.5; LCL 5: 167).   Since Delos was a “holy” island, nobody could be born on the island for fear of infant mortality, nor die there.

  The theme of “slow to speak” is addressed in James 3.   James admonishes the teacher who would sit in the “seat of Moses” and expound the Scriptures.   James uses seven illustrations from the Sea of Galilee to describe the effect the tongue has on other people.   At least six of these would be clearly understood on Delos.

  The first illustration is the bit in the horses’ mouth that turns his body (3:2b,3).   On the walls of one of the houses was found a painting of a man riding a horse with the bit in the horses mouth.   The Delians would understand this because of the hippodrome on the island.   As previously mentioned, Callimachus mentions the course for horses.   Few archaeological remains of a hippodrome were discovered to the east of the sacred lake.

  The second illustration is that of a small rudder on a large ship (3:4).   James the son of Zebedee, being a fisherman, knew the power of the rudder to turn a ship in the wind.   The Delians understood the workings of the rudder from watching the ships maneuver as they came and went from this maritime trading center in the midst of the Aegean Sea.

  The third illustration is that of a forest fire (3:5,6).   James the son of Zebedee painted this word picture from the summer fires that were in the forests of Galilee and the Golan (cf. Amos 7:4; Joel 1:19,20; 2:3).

  The fourth illustration is of the animals (3:7).   The “creatures of the sea” would be understood by James as the fish in the Sea of Galilee.   The Delians would understand it as the sea creatures in the Aegean Sea.

  The fifth illustration is that of a spring (3:11,12).   James would have understood the contrast between the fresh water and bitter water from the time he spent at Tabgha, the fishing grounds for Capernaum.   There were seven springs there; some were bitter and some very sweet.   The island of Delos had only one source of fresh water, a spring on the side of Mt. Cynthos creating the Inopos River that flowed down to the salt water of the sea.

  The sixth illustration James uses is of fruit trees, figs, olives and grapes.   These trees were local to the Sea of Galilee as well as most of the Land of Israel.   Today, if one visits Delos, it appears to be devoid of fertile land.    The reason for that is twofold.   First, during the nineteenth century, the island was used a pastureland for the sheep from Mykonos.   Second, today it is an archaeological park under the auspices of the World Heritage Federation and farming in not permitted (Reger 1994:95).   There are a few fig trees scattered here and there, but in antiquity there were farms that engaged in agricultural activity (1994:127-145).   One can see vines on funerary monuments from Rhenea that would have reflected the earthly activities of the dead.   Callimachus also mentions olive trees on the island ( Hymn to Delos 4; LCL 105).

  In the final word-picture, James describes the “wisdom that is from above” as being “without hypocrisy” (3:17).   The word “hypocrisy” is a Greek theatric term for an actor that performs for the applause of the audience.   James was well aware of at least three theaters in the area of the Sea of Galilee.   From the northern shore of the Lake, one could see the Tiberias, Hippos and Gadara theaters.   The recipients of the letter on Delos knew the theatric term “hypocrisy” because of the theater on the island.   Also, a common motif of the period is painted masks on the walls and mosaics on the floors.   In a private house called the House of the Masks one can see such examples.

  The third section, “be slow to wrath,” begins in chapter 4.   James asks, “Where do wars and fights come from among you?”   The implication of that verse is that the believers were fighting in the church meeting.   Whenever I speak on this passage in a church I ask, tongue in cheek, “Christians don’t fight, do we?”   I usually hear snickering from the audience.   Of course we always justify our fighting and bickering by saying, “We fight in Christian love!”   James also states that some believers murder and covet (4:2).   A sword found in the excavations reminds us of potential weapons that could be used to carry out this gross and sinful deed.   A wall painting of two boxers fighting each other from one of the houses would illustrate the fighting.

  In this context as well, James says that some believers are adulterers and adulteresses (4:4).   Most commentaries say this is spiritual adultery, but in the context of the Greco-Roman world, it could be both physical as well as spiritual.   On the island of Delos, there were temples to a host of deities that would try to lure the believer away from the Lord Jesus Christ.   Some cults even used sexual immorality to attract people to it.   The most notable one on Delos would be the cult of Dionysos, the god of wine and merrymaking.   His shrine, called the Stoibadeion, was “a rectangular exedra which at both ends has a pillar which supported an oversize phallus, the symbol of Dionysos” (Zaphiropoulou 1993:32).   Dionysos was also discovered on mosaics in private houses on the island (1993:34-37).

  In the section on “slow to wrath”, James addresses the source of the problem, which is pride (4:6,10).   James goes on to describe the arrogant merchants as saying, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit'” (4:13).   James reminds them that they don’t even know what tomorrow brings because life it like a vapor.   Most of the Jewish community on the island of Delos probably engaged in trade and commerce.   For the self-sufficient believer, this would strike home.

  After the tragedy of September 11, 2001, I was watching an interview with several New York firefighters.   One of them recalled the words of the chief chaplain of New York’s bravest, Mychal Judge, who died in the collapse of the World Trade Center.   He said, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him what you are going to do tomorrow!”   This caught the essence of James 4:13-17.   In this passage, James describes the arrogant merchants who plan their buying and selling activities and anticipate a profit, yet they do not realize that life is like a vapor.   James admonishes them to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall do this or that” (4:15).   It is a humbling thought to realize Someone else holds our future!

  James goes on to address the rich in James 5:1-6.   During the Hellenistic period, Delos was a very wealthy island.   Several residential quarters of the city had very luxurious two and three story houses with beautiful mosaics and frescos on the walls.   There were farms on Delos that grew wheat and barley (Reger 1994:95-101).   James reflects the farmer / reaper who is being taken advantage of by the wealthy farm owner (5:4)

  In the final section of the book, James returns to the opening theme, trials and suffering (5:7-20).   He encourages the believers to have patience and look for the Lord’s return (5:7-12) and to be persistent in prayer (5:13-20).   In each of these sections, the believer on Delos has a decision to make, either to follow the Lord Jesus Christ or one of the deities on the island.

  In the first section, James encourages them to look for the Lord’s return and follow the example of the prophets.   Delos was famous as the birthplace of Apollo, the god of prophecy, poetry and music.   His temples stood in the center of the island.   An individual could go to his oracles to consult the future, but the believe in the Lord Jesus has a “more sure word of prophecy,” the Bible (II Pet. 1:19).   The prophetic Scriptures were given to encourage the believers to godly living, comfort in times of sorrow, and patience as the believer preservers through trials (I John 3:2,3; I Thess. 4:13-18; Rom. 8:18-30; Blackstone 1989: 181-183).

  James asks the question, “Is anyone among you sick?” (5:14).   Most of the people on the island would go to the Asclepion at the headlands of the Fourni Bay for healing (Zaphiropoulou 1993: 52).   James instructs the believers to “call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.   And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up” (5:14,15a).   The response of the believer would be different than the society around.

  THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DATING OF THE EPISTLE OF JAMES

  The epistle of James was written by James the son of Zebedee (Bassett 1876), and not the half-brother of the Lord as most commentators suggest (Davids 1982: 2-7; Hiebert 1992: 24-32).   The view that James the son of Zebedee wrote the book is based on the internal content of the book and well as the word pictures.   Many of the statements in the epistle are based on the teachings of the Lord Jesus, primarily the Sermon on the Mount and parables given in Galilee.   James the son of Zebedee was an “ear witness” to these sayings.   Many of the word pictures that are used in the epistle are from the Sea of Galilee.   The authorship and date of the epistle will be discussed in greater length in another article.

  It is also believed that the epistle was written soon (one or two years) after Pentecost ( Shavuot) of AD 30 to encourage those believers in their new found faith in the Lord Jesus as they return to their family and friends in the Diaspora (Acts 2:8-11,41; James 1:1).   These early Hebrew-Christians (or Messianic Jews) met in the synagogue buildings until the break with their Jewish brethren (Acts 26:11).

  Archaeology and geography can add a third dimension to Biblical studies.   The black and white (and sometimes red!) letters on the pages of Scripture can be placed in a historical and geographical context that can be visualized.   The reader can say, “Now I see what the inspired writer is talking about.”   Just as the readers on Delos could “see” the word pictures used by James when they read the epistle, so we can as well.   Might we not just see the word pictures, but also apply them to our lives.   As James admonishes us, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only” (1:22).

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  1965       Jewish Symbols of the Graeco-Roman Period.   13 vols.   New York: Pantheon.

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  1998    Odyssey.   Books 1-12.   Vol. 1.   Translated by A. T. Murray.   Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.   Loeb Classical Library.

  Homeric Hymns

  2000       Hesiod, Homeric Hymns Epic Cycle, Homerica .   Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White.   Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.   Loeb Classical Library.

  Josephus

  1980       Jewish Antiquities.   Book XV-XVII.   Vol. 8.   Translated by R. Marcus and A. Wikgren.   Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.   Loeb Classical Library.

  Kee, Howard Clark

  1990       The Transformation of the Synagogue after 70 C.E.: Its Import for Early Christianity.   New Testament Studies 36: 1-24.

  1994       The Changing Meaning of Synagogue.   A Response to Richard Oster.   New Testament Studies 40: 281-283.

  Kent, Homer

  1986       Faith That Works.   Studies in the Epistle of James .   Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books.

  Kourtara, Vasso

  1995       Mykonos Delos .   Athens: Toubis.

  Kraabel, Alf Thomas

  1979    The Diaspora Synagogue: Archaeological and Epigraphical Evidence since Sukenik.   Pp. 477-510 in Aufstieg und Niedergang der Romischen Welt II.   Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter.   Pp. 95-126 in Ancient Synagogues.   D. Urman and P. Flesher, eds.   Leiden: E. J. Brill.

  1981       Social System of Six Diaspora Synagogues.   Pp. 79-121 in Ancient Synagogues.   The State of Research. J. Gutman, ed.   Chico, CA: Scholars.

  1983       The Roman Diaspora: Six Questionable Assumptions.   Journal of Jewish Studies 33/1-2: 445-464.   Pp. 1-20 in Diaspora Jews and Judaism.   J. Overman and R. MacLennan, eds.   Atlanta, GA: Scholars.

  1984        New Evidence of the Samaritan Diaspora has been Found on Delos.   Biblical Archaeologist 47: 44-46.

  1985    Synagoga Caeca: Systematic Distortion in Gentile Interpretations of Evidence for Judaism in the Early Christian Period.   Pp. 219-246 in “To see Ourselves as Others see Us:” Christians, Jews, “Others” in Late Antiquity.   J. Neusner and E. Frerichs, eds.   Chico, CA: Scholars.   Pp. 35-62 in Diaspora Jews and Judaism.   J. Overman and R. MacLennan, eds.   Atlanta, GA: Scholars.

  1991       Unity and Diversity among Diaspora Synagogues.   Pp. 21-33 in Diaspora Jews and Judaism.   J. Overman and R. MacLennan, eds.   Atlanta, GA: Scholars.

  Laidlaw, W. A.

  1933    A History of Delos.   Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

  Levine, Lee, ed.

  1981    Ancient Synagogues Revealed.   Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

  Mazur, Bella

  1935    Studies on Jewry in Greece.   Athens: Hestia.

  Oster, Richard

  1993       Supposed Anachronism in Luke-Acts’ Use of Synagogue.   New Testament Studies 39: 178-208.

  Overman, J. Andrew

  1992       The Diaspora in the Modern Study of Ancient Judaism.   Pp. 63-78 in Diaspora Jews and Judaism.   J. Overman and R. MacLennan, eds.   Atlanta, GA: Scholars.

  Pausanias

  1993       Descriptions of Greece .   Books III-V.   Vol. 2.   Translated by W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod.   Cambridge, MA: Harvard university.   Loeb Classical Library.

  1995    Descriptionsof Greece.   Books VIII.22-X.   Vol. 4.   Translated by W. H. S. Jones.   Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.   Loeb Classical Library.

  Plassart, Andre

  1914       La Synagogue Juive de Delos.   Revue Biblique 11: 525-534.

  Pliny

  1989       Natural History .   Vol. 2.   Translated by H. Rackham.   Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.   Loeb Classical Library.

  Reger, G.

  1994       Regionalism and Change in the Economy of Independent Delos, 314-167 B.C.   Berkeley, CA: University of California.

  Renov, I.

  1975       The Seat of Moses.   The Synagogue: Studies in Origins, Archaeology and Architecture.   H. Orlinsky, ed.   New York: Ktav.

  Shanks, Hershel

  1979       Judaism in Stone.   The Archaeology of Ancient Synagogues .   New York: Harper and Row.

  Strabo

  1988       The Geography of Strabo .   Vol. 5.   Translated by H. L. Jones.   Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.   Loeb Classical Library.

  1989       The Geography of Strabo .   Vol. 6.   Translated by H. L. Jones.   Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.   Loeb Classical Library.

  Sukenik, E. L.

  1934       Ancient Synagogues in Palestine and Greece .   London: Oxford University.

  1949       The Present State of Ancient Synagogue Studies.   Louis M. Rabinowitz Fund for the Exploration of Ancient Synagogues Bulletin I: 8-23.

  Trebilco, Paul

  1991       Jewish Communities in Asia Minor .   Cambridge: Cambridge University.

  Trumper, Monika

  2004       The Oldest Original Synagogue Building in the Diaspora.   The Delos Synagogue Reconsidered.   Hesperia 73: 513-598.

  Urman, Dan

  1995       The House of Assembly and the House of Study are they one and the same?   Pp. 232-255 in Ancient Synagogues, Historical Analysis and Archaeological Discovery.   D. Urman and P. Flesher, eds.   Leiden: E. J. Brill.

  White, L. Michael

  1987       The Delos Synagogue Revisited: Recent Fieldwork in the Graeco-Roman Diaspora.   Harvard Theological Review 80/2: 133-160.

  1990       Building God’s House in the Roman World .   Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University.

  Yadin, Yigael

  1969    Tefillin from Qumran.   Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

  Zaphiropoulou, Photini

  1992       Delos Monuments and Museum .   Athens: Krene.

  ben Zeev, Miriam Pucci

  1996       Who Wrote a Letter Concerning Delian Jews?   Revue Biblique 103/3: 237-243.

  ---

  1  This article is dedicated to my fellow travelers: Richard, Donna, Zion and Judy (June 4, 2002), Alan, Heather, John, Karin and Stephen (Oct. 26, 2002) who tromped all over the island of Delos with me and listened to my “crazy idea” on the epistle of James.

  [2] All Scripture quotes are from the NKJV.
• 04Feb

  Job in the Land of Uz

  Archaeology and the Bible Comments Off on Job in the Land of Uz

  By Gordon Franz

  The Book of Job, the oldest book in the Bible, has its historical-geographical setting in the Land of Uz. The book begins, “There was a man in the Land of Uz, whose name was Job; and the man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1 NKJV).

  THE LAND OF UZ

  Scholars are divided on the location of the Land of Uz. Some have suggested it was near Damascus; others, based on Lamentations 4:21, have placed it in the Land of Edom. Jeremiah wrote, “Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the Land of Uz!” The Edom location makes geographical sense in light of the Biblical statement of Jeremiah and the flora, fauna and material culture mentioned in the book.

  The ancient territory of Edom is located to the east and west of the Aravah, the Jordan Rift Valley that goes from the Dead Sa to the Red Sea, also known as the Gulf of Akaba or Eilat. On the west side of the Aravah, in Israel today, it goes from the Wilderness of Zin in the north to Eilat in the south. On the east side of the Aravah, in Jordan today, it goes from the Wadi Hasa (Brook Zered) in the north to Eilat in the south (Crew 2002: 2-10).

  THE OUTLINE OF JOB

  The book of Job is divided into three sections. Chapters 1 and 2 describe Satan’s diabolical attack on Job. All through this section, Job does not have a clue where his suffering is coming from. He does not see the “big picture” and understand that Satan is behind these attacks. Yet through it all, he could say, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD” (1:21). His dear wife, seeing the situation he was in says, “Do you hold to your integrity? Curse God and die!” (2:9). Bless her heart, she must have had the gift of encouragement!

  The second section is Job’s debate with his friends. As the old saying goes, “With friends like these, who needs enemies!” This goes from chapter 3-37. Job begins the debate by cursing the day he was born, but he does not curse God. The final section is God’s one-sided dialogue with Job in chapters 38-42. In this section, God asks Job a series of questions out of the whirlwind. He begins by asking, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (38:4). In other words, “Job, were you with me at the Creation?” The book ends with Job’s confessing his lack of knowledge, and he turns from his rebellious ways (42:1-6). The Lord restores double what Job has lost (42:7-17).

  THE THEME OF JOB

  Most commentators and preachers would say that suffering is the theme of the book. But a careful examination of the book seems to reveal a slightly different theme: that of lessons learned from suffering. The emphasis is on the lessons learned.

  The two key verses in the book are Job 13:15 and 37:23, 24. Job expresses his faith by saying, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust Him.” “As for the Almighty, we cannot find Him; He is excellent in power, in judgment and abundant justice; He does not oppress. Therefore men fear Him; He shows no partiality to any who are wise of heart.”

  CHRONOLOGICAL SETTING

  The Patriarch Job lived soon after the Noahic Flood. This fact is reflected in the book. Job recalls this event several times (Job 9:5-8; 12:14-16; 26:11-14; 28:9). Job also recalls the post-Flood period when the earth is dried up (Job 14:11, 12). His friend Eliphaz mentions it in his third discourse. He said, “Will you keep to the old way which wicked men have trod, who were cut down before their time, whose foundations were swept away by a flood? They said to God, ‘Depart from us! What can the Almighty do to them?'” (Job 22:15-17). The Lord reminds Job of the Flood as well. When the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, He asked Job if he was at the creation (Job 38:4-7). The interrogation began, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (38:4). God then asked Job if he was at the Flood in verses 8-11 (Morris 1988: 23-33).

  After Job’s encounter with Satan and the LORD he lived another 140 years (42:16). Job might have been close to 200 years old when he died. Job would have been a Neanderthal (Cuozzo ????). His age would put him in the period of the Patriarchs. Perhaps he was a contemporary of, or slightly before, Abraham who lived to be 175 years old (Gen. 25:7).

  At this point, we should raise the issue of the place of Job in the archaeological chronology. If we assume a Biblical date for the universal, worldwide Flood in Noah’s Day, with no gaps in the chronology, than the date for the flood would be 2459 BC (Whitcomb and Morris 1973: 478). If there are gaps in Genesis 11, then the Flood could be several hundred years before (Whitcomb and Morris 1973: 474-483). It is important to note, we are talking hundreds, not thousands or millions of years.

  If you look at the standard archaeology chronological tables the so-called “Prehistoric” period for human history is as followed: The Paleolithic period – 1 million down to 18,000 BC. The Mesolithic period – 18,000 to 8,300 BC. The Neolithic period – 8,300 to 4,500 BC. The Chalcolthic period – 4,500 to 3,300 BC. This is in obvious conflict with the Biblical chronology. This is where evangelical archaeologists need to “rethink early earth’s history.”

  Using round numbers for a moment, if the Flood is at approximately 2450 BC and Abraham is about 2000 BC, then one must take the archaeological chronology and compress 1 million years into 450 years! It will take an individual, or individuals, who will devote a lifetime (or at least a doctoral dissertation) to reading excavation reports, archaeological journals, paleontology journals and books on assorted subjects to rethink this chronology. One will have to define what the presuppositions of the evolutionary assumptions are in archaeology and remove the underpinning of those assumptions. Then, using a Biblical framework, harmonize the known archaeological and paleontological data with the Biblical record. Where exactly Job fits in the archaeological chronology, I do not know for sure.

  THE FLORA, FAUNA AND MATERIAL CULTURE OF THE LAND OF UZ

  The flora, fauna and material culture of the book of Job fits the Aravah / Wilderness. In his discourse on wisdom (Job 28), Job describes the mining operations in the Aravah region. “Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore. Man puts an end to darkness, and searches every recess for ore in the darkness and the shadow of death. He breaks open a shaft away from people; in places forgotten by feet. They hang far away from men, they swing to and fro” (28:1-4). While scholars debate the precise archaeological period of Job, the Timnah Copper mines just north of Eilat, did have small-scale mining activities during the Chalcolithic period (Rothenberg 1972: 24-64). It is interesting that the rock engravings from Chalcolithic Site 191 have ostriches on them, an animal mentioned several times in the book of Job (1972: 55, Fig. 14; cf. Job 30:29; 39:13-18).

  When I take the Tablot Seminary students to the Timnah Copper mines during their January “Biblelands” program, I always have the host of the program, Dr. Richard Rigsby, read Job 28 at the deepest mine. Dr. Rigsby was the one who translated Job in the New King James Bible.

  The most intensive exploitation of the Timnah Copper mines was during the Ramesside period by the Egyptians with Midianite help. There was also mining activities during the Roman period and Medieval Arab period.

  In his discourse on wisdom, Job also mentions coral. “No mention shall be made of coral or quartz, for the price of wisdom is above rubies (28:18).” Coral was found in the excavations at the Timnah Copper mines. They came from some of the most beautiful coral reefs in the world, the eastern branch of the Red Sea. The port of Eilat is famous for its snorkeling in the coral reefs. Unfortunately, the coral reefs in the Red Sea are dying off today because of pollution. It is obvious; man does not have wisdom!

  Elsewhere in the book, the (Red) sea with its sea serpents, fish of the sea, and ships are mentioned (Job 6:3; 7:12; 9:8, 26; 12:8; 26:12).

  A number of animals mentioned in Job are indigenous to this region, most of which can been seen in the Hai Bar (Yotvata) Biblical Wildlife Reserve (Clark 1981: 22-35). Avraham Yoffe founded this reserve in 1968 in order to preserve species that were indigenous to this region in antiquity. One of their goals is to breed species that are on the verge of extinction and then have a controlled release of various species back into their open, natural habitat (Clark 1981: 22-35).

  At Hai Bar, one can see the wild donkey and onager (Job 6:5; 11:12; 24:3, 5; 39:5-8). Mountain goats, also known as ibex are in the reserve (Job 39:1-4; Ps. 104:18). The deer, or gazelle (Job 39:1); the cobra and viper (20:14-16); jackal (30:29); ostrich (30:29; 39:13-18); hawk (39:26); eagle (9:26; 24:3; 39:27); stork (39:13) and locust (39:20) are in the reserve as well.

  In Job 38:39-39:30, God asks Job questions concerning the animal kingdom. Of the ibex He asks, “Do you know the time when the wild mountain goat bears young?” Interestingly, when Dr. Rigsby translated the book of Job for the NKJV, he had not had the privilege of visiting the Hai Bar Reserve. If he had the chance to retranslate Job, he would have changed “wild mountain goat” to “ibex”.

  One of my favorite animals in the Hai Bar is the oryx. This animal with its straight horns is classified in the antelope family. It is the Biblical re’em [Heb.] and has been identified by some scholars as the “unicorn” in the King James Bible (Clark 1984: 66-70). It has also been translated “wild ox” in some translations (Job 39:9-12; also mentioned in Num. 32:22; 24:8; Deut. 33:17; Ps. 22:21; 29:6; 92:10; Isa. 34:7). These animals also are depicted on the rock carvings of the Timnah Copper mines. There is also a relief found in Egypt with a side profile of this animal and it looks like it has only one horn! Interestingly, the Los Angeles Zoo presents this possibility on the plaque in front of the oryx pen.

  The Cloisters in upper Manhattan has the famous “Unicorn Tapestry.” Usually artists depict the unicorn as a horse with a single horn. Yet if one looks at the unicorn tapestry closely, the unicorn is depicted, not in the equine (horse) family, but rather the antelope family (Clark 1984: 68). Perhaps the oryx is the basis of the unicorn legends. People might have seen a side profile of the oryx from a distance and thought the animal only had one horn.

  The Lord asks Job some questions about this creature. “Will the re’em be willing to serve you? Will he bed by your manger? Can you bind the re’em in the farrow with ropes? Or will he plow the valleys behind you? Will you trust him because his strength is great? Or will you leave your labor to him? Will you trust him to bring home your grain, and gather it to your threshing floor?” (39:9-12).

  The oryx is a fascinating creature. It can live indefinitely without drinking water, but gets its water through the vegetation that it eats and the dew it licks off stones in the early morning hours. It hardly perspires and has a high concentration of urine and dry feces. It’s white hairs are hollow and create excellent insulation and acts like Styrofoam. Its only problem is man. When threatened, it will stand and fight. With the introduction of firearms, the oryx was hunted and is now on the verge of extinction. The Hai bar Reserve is breeding a herd for controlled release into the Maktesh Ramon.

  Another animal that has personality at the Hai Bar is the ostrich. The Lord says of the ostrich, “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork’s? For she leaves her eggs on the ground, and warms them in the dust; she forgets that a foot may crush them, or that a wild beast may break them. She treats her young harshly, as though they were not hers; her labor is in vain, without concern, because God deprived her of wisdom, and did not endow her with understanding. When she lifts herself on high, she scorns the horse and its rider” (39:13-18).

  The ostrich can weigh up to 150 kg and stand 2.5 meters high. They are birds, but flightless ones. Their wings are too small to allow the bird to fly. However, the wings are good for helping the bird make sudden stops and shape turns as they run at speeds up to 60 kph.

  The Lord contrasts the ostrich with the stork. The ostrich lays her eggs in the sand and has other eggs lying around. Some think as decoys for predators or food to nourish the newly hatched chicks. While the ostrich seemingly abandons her eggs, the stork guards them carefully. The stork has its nest high up and watches over the eggs and cares for the young after they are hatched. The Hebrews used the word hesed, usually translated “loving kindness”, as a characteristic of the Lord. He was lovingly loyal to His people, guarding them, watching over them, and nourishing them. The stork had been named chasidah. This afforded the Hebrew a vivid word picture of God’s character.

  The Lord says that He deprived the ostrich of wisdom and did not endow it with understanding. Arabs in the Middle East will call someone “stupid as an ostrich” as a sign of reproach. We in the West have a similar concept. A billboard was put up on a road near my house that had an ostrich sticking his head in the ground. The caption said: “Only a bird brain crosses without looking.”

  Two animals not in the Hai Bar are the Behemoth (Job 40:15-24) and the Leviathan (Job 41:1-34). Job describes the Behemoth, apparently a dinosaur of some sort, as moving his tail like a cedar. The indication is that he had a thick tail, something an elephant or hippopotamus does not have (40:17). He is found lying under lotus trees and willows, and in the reeds and marshes of the Jordan River (Job 40:21-23), probably just north of the Dead Sea near Jericho. Job knew the Leviathan, a marine dinosaur of some sort, from his travels to the Red Sea, known today as the Gulf of Eilat / Akaba (Job 41).

  Footprints of land dinosaurs have been discovered in Israel. In 1962 an Israeli found some three-pronged prints in the bedrock of his garden at Beit Zayit, a suburb of western Jerusalem (Avnimelech 1966). The area was exposed and more tracks uncovered. Most likely the dinosaurs that made these prints were the Struthiomimus and laid down toward the end of Noah’s Flood.

  A plant that is indigenous to the area is the broom tree ( rotem Heb.). The white broom is not an edible plant, but can be sold to earn bread (Job 30:1-4). The young men who scorned Job made embers from the root of the white broom to sell in the marketplace. What lowlier livelihood could there be in the eyes of a once wealthy Job than one that involves sitting by a fire night and day, black with soot and reeking with smoke?

  Yehuda Feliks (1981), a professor of Biblical and Talmudic Botany, gives a number of examples of plants mentioned in the book of Job and which are indigenous to the region of the Wilderness and Aravah.

  JOB’S SPIRITUAL LIFE

  What are we to learn from the life of Job? He was a blameless and upright man who feared the Lord (1:1). He would offer sacrifices for his children (1:5) and believed he needed a mediator between him and the Lord (9:33; 25:4; 33:23). Yet one of the most profound statements in the book of Job comes from his lips when he proclaims, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God. Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (19:25-27). Neanderthals had superior physical, cultural, technical and intellectual abilities (Cuozzo 1998). Because of evolutionary influences, I do not think we give the Patriarchs enough credit for knowing about the Lord Jesus Christ. Job knew about the Redeemer and the resurrection.

  In reality, the Lord Jesus Christ is the answer to Job’s problems. It was the death of the Lord Jesus on Calvary’s cross that put an end to sin, defeated Satan and conquered the grave so there could be a resurrection. Just as Job trusted the Lord through his difficult situation, so each and every individual needs to trust the Lord Jesus for his or her salvation. A person’s salvation is not dependant upon his or her good works, church membership or baptism. It is dependent solely upon faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone as the one who died and paid for all sins and rose again from the dead.

  When it comes to trials and testings in our lives, Dr. Henry Morris summarizes the message of the book of Job in this way: “God’s central message to Job, and to us, is not an explanation of why the righteous suffer, but rather a call to sound belief in creation and an emphasis on our stewardship over creation, under God. Afflictions that come our way can then be placed in proper context. We belong to Him, both by creation and by redemption, and He has the right to do with us whatever He will. We can trust Him, no matter what comes our way in this life, knowing that in the balances of eternity the Judge of all the earth will do right” (Morris 1988: 108, 109).

  James, the son of Zebedee, sets forth Job as an example of patience. He writes, “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. … My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord – that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful” (5:7a, 10, 11). Might we learn the lessons of Job as well.

  Bibliography

  Avnimelech, Moshe A.

  1966 Dinosaur Tracks in the Judean Hills. Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

  Clark, Bill

  1981 Animals of the Bible. Living Links to Antiquity. Biblical Archaeology Review 7/1: 22-35.

  1984 The Biblical Oryx – A New Name for an Ancient Animal. Biblical Archaeology Review 10/5: 66-70.

  Crew, Bruce

  2002 Did Edom’s Original Territories Extend West of ‘Wadi Arabah? Bible and Spade 15/1: 2-10.

  Cuozzo, Jack

  1998 Buried Alive. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.

  Feliks, Yehuda

  1981 Nature and Man in the Bible: Chapters in Biblical Ecology. London, New York: Soncino.

  Morris, Henry

  1988 The Remarkable Record of Job. Grand Rapids: Baker.

  Rothenberg, Beno

  1972 Timna. Valley of the Biblical Copper Mines. London: Thames and Hudson.

  Whitcomb, John; and Morris, Henry

  1973 The Genesis Flood. Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed.
• 04Feb

  Remember, Archaeology is NOT a Treasure Hunt!

  Archaeology and the Bible Comments Off on Remember, Archaeology is NOT a Treasure Hunt!

  By Gordon Franz

  Introduction

  The headline of the Science Section of the New York Times for Tuesday, September 28, 2004 read, “Solving a Riddle Written in Silver.” I recognized the picture underneath the headline right away. It was a portion of a silver amulet that was discovered in Jerusalem in 1979. The article described the scholarly debate concerning the date assigned to the amulets by the excavator and his team in the latest issue of the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. They claim that these two objects contain the two oldest Biblical text ever discovered to date. Unfortunately the BASOR article is very technical. It discusses the style of the letters and how this is used to date the amulets. This, however, is important to answer the critics who have suggested the amulets were not as old as the excavator claims they were. This article will not deal with the technical aspects of the debate, as important as they are, but rather, I would like to take you behind the scenes and share some of the human interest stories relating to the discovery, unrolling, announcement and publication of these two amulets.

  Monday morning, July 30, 1979 is as clear in my mind as if it were yesterday. It was about 6 AM when I arrived at the excavations below the St. Andrew’s Scottish Presbyterian Church, a site that would later be known as Ketef Hinnom, “the shoulder of Hinnom”.

  The director of the excavation, Gabriel Barkay, known to his students and friends as Goby, asked me, “Gordon, how energetic are you?” I replied, smiling, “As energetic as a 25 year old person could be.” “Good,” he said, “I want you to clean out that cave over there with three junior high Israeli students.” I was up to the challenge. As I headed for the cave, Goby confided, “By the way, the cave might be loaded. But remember, archaeology is NOT a treasure hunt.” Thus began one of the most interesting weeks of my life.

  This was one of the first archaeological excavations I ever worked on and now I was an area supervisor of three junior high Israeli students. I was about to receive a crash course with on the job training in Methodology of Archaeological Excavations 101, also known as, how to excavate a burial cave when you don’t know what you are doing. Fortunately, I was a quick learner and Goby was a great teacher.

  The Burial Cave

  The repository, the place where the bones and any burial gifts for the dead were deposited after the flesh had decayed, measured 3.69 meters long, by 2 meters wide. The ceiling stood 2.23 meters from the floor. The ceiling had collapsed which suggested to Goby that there might be a sealed layer underneath with archaeological artifacts.

  As we began to work, I realized three problems. First, there was a lack of light. We were dependent upon the sunlight or its reflection that came through the 51 cm by 61 cm door of the repository that stood about a meter an a half above us. Once our eyes adjusted to the darker cave we could see fairly well. Second, there was a communication problem. I did not speak any Hebrew and the Israelis did not speak any English. Third, the three junior high students were just that, junior high students.

  Goby gave them instructions in Hebrew to clean around any objects they found and leave them in situ so they could be measured, described, drawn and photographed in their original location. Do you think these junior highers listened to Goby or me? At first they would dig little pits until they found something and then hold it up and say, “Tireh ma matzati!” (Translation: “Look what I found!”). Frustration was setting in very quickly.

  Goby instructed me to divide the cave into six quadrants and excavate one or two at a time. I put a string across the top of the ceiling of the repository and leveled it with a line level. This was our datum line. Using tape measures and a plumb line, I was able to draw an outline of the cave, then plot and draw many of the pieces that were uncovered. This was a learning experience for me. Goby stressed the importance of measuring all the objects from their lowest point. I am glad I listened to him because years later, it would prove very important in the dating of the amulets.

  During one of our breaks the first morning, Goby said to me, “Gordon, I want you to find me an inscription. If you do, I’ll give you a party.” I laughed because I knew from his Archaeology of Jerusalem classes that inscriptions in Jerusalem are very rare. Nevertheless, I half jokingly said, “I’ll find you an inscription on the last day and in the last square.” Little did I know how prophetic that statement would be.

  By Tuesday afternoon we had realized just how important this cave was, so we replaced the junior high students with adults from the Institute for Holy Land Studies across the valley on Mt. Zion. Late in the afternoon we had run out of boxes and bags to put our “special finds” in, so Goby and I went shopping for these items. We could not get these items from the Department of Antiquities because they were temporarily closed due to a police investigation.

  We had already found bronze and silver objects that had corroded. I asked Goby if there was a chance of finding any gold objects. He answered in the affirmative and mentioned that a burial cave in the Silwan Necropolis across from the City of David had an inscription that mentioned there was no silver or gold buried in the cave and concluded with a curse on anyone who opened it (Avigad 1953: 143). I did not like that last line. Seeing the corroded objects that we had found, I asked Goby what gold would look like when it was uncovered. He said, “Don’t worry, you’ll recognize it when you see it.” How true that was, the next day I found a gold earring that looked like it was made the day before.

  We were afraid that if certain elements in the population from the nearby neighborhoods found out about the jewelry objects they would visit the site at night and clean the place out. Since the site was out in the open and people were coming and going, we had to speak in code. Silver objects were called “gray matter,” gold was “lemon,” coins were “buttons,” and bones were called “Napoleons” (as in Bone-apart).

  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were normal eight-hour days, but time was of the essence. Thursday we worked from 5:30 in the morning until 5:30 at night, 12 hours. Friday we worked from 5:30 in the morning until 9:30 at night, 16 hours. While Goby and I were sifting in the late afternoon, two individuals with black hats and black coats were walking down the Hebron road on their way to the Western Wall for Shabbat prayers. They saw us and we saw them. Goby remarked to me with a serious tone in his voice, “We have to finish tomorrow because if we don’t they will be back Sunday morning with their friends to protest our excavations.” Thanks to Rev. Tom Houston, the pastor of St. Andrews, we were able to use an electrical outlet above the cave. Jim Monson, a professor at the Institute of Holy Land Studies, provided a light bulb and electrical cord so we were able to work into the night.

  Saturday morning, August 4, we began work at 6 AM with the help of students and staff of the Institute. We divided into two groups with one excavating inside the cave, and the other outside sifting for the small finds that might have been missed by those in the cave. I was running between the two groups recording and drawing the objects. Earl Hagar was photographing the finds as they were uncovered.

  About mid morning, Judy Hadley, an archaeology student at Wheaton College (now a professor at Villanova University) brushed aside some dirt to reveal a rolled up piece of silver. I described it in my journal as a “silver roll” and recorded it as object 31 from Area D, located at a level of 188 cm and then drew it on my plan. It was given basket number 481. Later, it would be called Ketef Hinnom amulet I. Goby suspected it might have an inscription on it, but it first had to be cleaned and unrolled and that would take time. We finished cleaning out the dirt from the cave at 1 AM Sunday morning. It had been a 19-hour marathon day!

  Sunday and Monday we continued sifting the material that was excavated after dark on Saturday. Sifting is best done in daylight so we took the dirt from each quadrant and placed them in labeled buckets, boxes, trays or whatever containers we could find so the dirt could be sifted in daylight. A second silver roll came up in the sifting during one of the afternoons. It would become known as Ketef Hinnom amulet II.

  Monday, in one of the last buckets to be sifted, a seal was discovered. Using his son’s Play-doh, Goby made an impression of the seal and it revealed the name “Paltah”. Unbeknownst to us, this was only the first inscription.

  A summary of the excavation has been published in preliminary form, but not a final excavation report (Franz 1986; Barkay 1994).

  Opening the Scrolls

  The two silver amulets were given an initial cleaning at the labs of Tel Aviv University. Museums in England and Germany were given the opportunity to unroll the objects, but declined because they were afraid of damaging the fragile objects. Three years after their discovery, the delicate job of opening them was finally entrusted to Joseph “Dodo” Shenhav of the Israel Museum. Under his able direction, the amulets were successfully unrolled during the fall of 1982 (Rasovsky, Bigelajzen and Shenhav 1992: 192-194).

  On one Friday morning, Dr. Yaakov Meshorer, the curator of the numismatics section of the Israel Museum, looked at one of the amulets under a microscope. He recognized the paleo-Hebrew writing. He tried to call Goby but because Goby had just moved he did not have a phone in his apartment. Yaakov left a message with Goby’s wife saying “Urgent, call Yaakov.” In Israel, when somebody gets a message like that it usually means that someone died and the funeral is that day. When Goby finally got the message he quickly called Dr. Meshorer who conveyed the good news about the writing on one of the amulets. Unfortunately for Goby, it was Friday afternoon and the museum labs would be closed until Sunday morning, so he had to wait until then to view the inscription.

  That Friday night I took some students from the Institute to their homes after Shabbat dinner and vespers. Since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to stop by Goby’s new apartment to see his succa (booth made of branches for the Jewish holiday Succoth) that his family had on their porch. He said with excitement in his voice, “Gordon, I have good news for you. One of the scrolls was opened and it has the word yod – hey – vav – hey on it.” My Hebrew still wasn’t that good, but I recognized the spelling right away. It was the name of the Lord, YHWH. This was the first time the Lord’s name was found in an archaeological context in Jerusalem.

  Goby entrusted the drawing of the two scrolls to one of his graduate students from the Institute, Bill J. Wilson. He would take the scrolls from my room, because I had them under lock and key, to the Israel Museum in order to draw each and every line he could see using an electronic microscope, the best in Israel at the time. It was a painstaking job, but Bill did an outstanding job of recovering and drawing 90% of the inscription but it still did not make sense.

  The First Public Announcement

  The first public announcement of this discovery was on Sunday afternoon, January 9, 1983, at a public lecture at the Rockefeller Museum sponsored by the Albright Institute and Hebrew Union College. These lectures usually last from three until four in the afternoon. As it turned out, this lecture was hosted and moderated by Professor Avraham Biran, the doyen of Israeli archaeology. There was a bit of irony in this setup. Avraham Biran is notorious for going over his allotted time when he presents a paper at professional meetings. Of course, no moderator would have the heart to stop an enthusiastic Dr. Biran in the middle of an exciting presentation, much to the consternation of the presenter that follows him! On the other hand, when he is moderating a session, he is famous for stopping a presenter in mid sentence if the person went over his or her allotted time.

  Before the lecture to a packed auditorium, Goby told Dr. Biran about the two amulets and he would announce the discovery that afternoon. When he was introduced, Dr. Biran told the audience that Goby had an important discovery to announce.

  The lecture started promptly on time (vintage Biran). Bill Wilson and I were sitting in the second row, right behind Dr. Biran. We were amused to see him sitting on the edge of his seat with excitement as each slide was put up on the screen showing a different discovery. Goby started his lecture with the topography of the site, then he talked about the Byzantine church and monastic complex. He moved on to the Roman burials and finally the Iron Age burial caves. I looked at my watch and it was five minutes to four and Goby had not started to talk about Cave 25. I thought to myself, “Biran is going to yank Goby off the stage even before he has time to reveal the amulets.” At 4 PM Goby finally got around to talking about Cave 25 and proceeded to talk about each discovery in the cave for another 15 minutes. Finally, the last five minutes he dropped the “bombshell” about the amulets and the Name of the Lord appearing in an archaeological excavation in Jerusalem for the first time. With that, Goby finished and the audience broke out in a thunderous applause. Avraham Biran was beside himself with excitement and publicly congratulated Goby on his “sensational” discovery.

  After Goby talked with his colleagues and friends, I had a chance to speak with him. I said, “Goby, knowing Biran’s habit of cutting people off in mid sentence, did you deliberately go overtime?” He gave me a devilish grin and said, “Yes.” To this day, Goby is the only person known to have gone overtime during a session moderated by Professor Biran and gotten away with it.

  The Oldest Biblical Texts

  In 1986, the Israel Museum wanted to have a “display of the month” devoted to the excavations at Ketef Hinnom. In preparation for the exhibit, Adi Yardeni of the Israel Museum redrew the amulets. One morning she had a chance conversation with a religious colleague at the museum. She mentioned she was drawing a text with the name of the LORD written three times on it. He replied, “Three times? Maybe it’s the priestly blessing.” When Yardeni returned to her work, she tried to read the passage of Numbers 6:24-26 into the inscription. Much to her amazement, it worked. Thus, the first Biblical inscription from the First Temple period was deciphered (Rabinovich 1986: 16, 17).

  When the exhibition opened at the Israel Museum in June of 1986, the announcement of the two oldest Biblical texts was made. The next day it was in every newspaper in America.

  On Saturday, June 21, 1986, I was attending a church picnic in New Jersey. One of the elderly gentleman from church asked if I had heard about an important Biblical discovery in Israel. I asked him questions about it, but he was vague on the details. He just remembered it was the oldest Biblical text ever discovered. He promised to bring the article from the paper to church the next day.

  The next day he showed me the article. I got the shock of my life. As I was reading the article I began to realize, “This is the excavation I worked on. Those amulets were in my room. I’ve held them in my hand!” That afternoon I entertained the preacher for the day, Mr. T. Ernest Wilson, a retired missionary from Angola. In the course of our conversation he asked me if I knew anything about this discovery. I smiled and said, “Would you like to see a drawing of it?” At this point the drawings had not been published and Bill Wilson and I were the only ones in America that had a drawing of the amulets.

  The Publication of the Texts

  Archaeological protocol gives the right of publication in a timely fashion to the director of the excavation or to someone designated by the excavator. Goby has always been a thorough and meticulous scholar and will only publish something after he has completely studied the issue.

  When I was in graduate school (1986-87) I was invited to give a paper on the amulets at the Southeast Regional Evangelical Theological Society meeting in Columbia, SC. I called Goby to ask his permission to give the paper. He hesitated at first, but then asked, “Will the people in the audience be theologians or archaeologists?” I replied, “Theologians.” He said, “Fine, go ahead and give the paper.” I appreciated Goby giving me permission because he still had not published the amulets in a technical fashion. The first article in Hebrew was in 1989 (Barkay 1989) and then translated and published in English in 1992 (Barkay 1992).

  A Description of the Amulets

  The larger amulet, Ketef Hinnom I, was 27.5 mm wide, with a diameter of 11 mm. In the center was a hole 2 mm in diameter, used to thread a string through in order to wear around the neck. When unrolled, the plaque measured 97 mm long and 27 mm wide. The weight of the object was 7.6 grams.

  This amulet was almost pure silver. The metal analysis showed a 99% silver content and a 1% copper. These plaques might be the beaten (hammered) silver brought from Tarshish mentioned in Jeremiah 10:9.

  The letters were incised on the plaques. Jeremiah, a contemporary of these amulets, describes how the writing was possibly done, “with a pen of iron, with a point of diamond” (17:1, NKJV).

  At the top of the amulet is a group of letters that at first did not make sense. After re-photographing the amulets in 1994, the group of letters became readable (Barkay, Lundberg, Vaughn, Zuckerman, Zuckerman 2003). With more letters, the text became more understandable. The first fourteen lines read, “…]YHW … the grea[t … who keeps] the covenant and [G}raciousness toward those who love [him] and those who keep [His commandments … …]. The Eternal? […]. [the?] blessing more than any [sna]re and more than Evil. For redemption is in Him. For YHWH is our restorer [and] rock” (Barkay, Lundberg, Vaughn and Zuckerman 2004: 61). It was observed that the “substance of the reading for lines 2-7 is reasonably secure because these lines fit, at least loosely, a biblical parallel attested to in Dan. 9:4 and Neh. 1:5 (with a similar reading in Deut. 7:9)” (2004:55).

  The end of the amulet has part of the priestly blessing. The last portion of it, however, was lost when the scroll was unrolled.

  The smaller amulet, Ketef Hinnom II, is 11.5 mm wide and 5.5 mm in diameter in a rolled up position. Unrolled, it is 39.2 mm long and 11 mm wide. Unfortunately, the bottom third was missing. The priestly blessing on it says, “The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face to shine upon you, and give you peace.” The passage in Numbers 6:24-26 upon which it is based has fifteen words in it. The scribe of the amulet left out five words in order to create a shorter blessing. And we thought the Reader’s Digest Bible was a modern invention!

  The Dating of the Amulets

  The burial cave in which the amulets were found was carved in the mid-seventh century BC. The pottery assemblage comes from three discernable periods. The first period is the end of the Iron Age. This pottery style parallels the pottery from Lachish, Level II, and the City of David, Level X. These levels are dated to the end of the Judean Monarchy, or 587 BC. The second period is the Babylonian period when most of the Judeans were in captivity in Babylon. The prophet Jeremiah mentions people who remained behind after the Babylonians carried away, or killed, most of the Judeans (Jer. 41:5; 39:10). The third period represented was the Hellenistic period. The few finds from this period were confined to the area around the entrance of the repository of the burial cave.

  Based on the style of the letters, or paleography, Goby dated the amulets to the late seventh century BC, or very early sixth century BC (Barkay 1992). Several scholars challenged this date and argued that it was much later, during the Hellenistic period. One of the reasons was the existence of the eight Hellenistic pottery pieces in the cave.

  The importance of careful records cannot be overestimated. Goby had to go back and look at the journal that I kept and the plan of the burial cave with the objects plotted on them. It was observed that the average depth of the deposits in the repository was 65 cm deep. The Ketef Hinnom I amulet was found 7 cm above the floor. This demonstrated that the amulet was one of the earliest objects thrown into the repository. Ketef Hinnom II was found in Area A, the back quadrant. Goby observed that this was also one of the earliest deposits.

  On paleographic grounds, these two inscriptions should be dated to the end of the seventh century BC. This fits well with the corresponding archaeological data as well as historical considerations. Clearly these are the two oldest Biblical texts found to date. They predate the Dead Sea Scrolls by at least 400 years.

  Implication for Biblical Studies

  There is at least one important implication for Biblical studies. According to the critical scholars, Numbers 6:23-27 should be attributed to the so-called “P source” which is generally dated to the Post-Exilic, or Persian Period. It is obvious that we now have two examples of this text that were written prior to the Babylonian captivity. This makes it impossible to assume that the Priestly Benediction was crystallized during the Post-Exilic period.

  A word of caution is in order. These amulets cannot be used to prove when the priestly blessing was originally composed, or even who wrote it. The only thing they can tell us is that at the end of the seventh century BC the priestly blessing existed. We have to turn to the Bible to find out that Aaron, the brother of Moses, first gave the blessing and Moses wrote it down sometime during the last half of the 15^th century BC.

  Conclusion

  These amulets were worn around the neck to protect the wearer from evil or to surround themselves with the name of the Lord for protection. We observe the same phenomenon today when people wear religious objects, hoping that God would be gracious to them and protect them. It seems that the Biblical passages are added on at the end of a “prayer request” for protection from some evil person or calamity, or for blessing in the wearer’s life.

  These two silver objects with Scripture verses on them could be the forerunner to the phylacteries of the later periods. It is interesting, Torah instructed the people to “wear the Word of God.” In Exodus 13:9,16 it says, “And it shall serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth” (NKJV, cf. also Deut. 6:8; 11:18; Prov. 6:21; 1:9: 3:3, 22; 7:3).

  The people literally wore the Word of God. The LORD gave this injunction in order to keep the Word of God constantly before His people, that they might learn it and obey it.

  Even today this is still a good practice. In memorizing the Word of God, a poster or picture with a Scripture verse on it is helpful. But more important than wearing the Word of God, or hanging it on our wall, is to have it abiding in our hearts. King David declared, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee” (Ps. 119:11 NKJV).

  Bibliography

  Avigad, Nahman
  1953 The Epitaph of a Royal steward from Siloam Village. Israel Exploration Journal 3: 137-152.

  Barkay, Gabriel
  1989 The Priestly Benediction of the Ketef Hinnom Plaques. Cathedra 52: 37-76 (Hebrew).

  ______1992 The Priestly Benediction on Silver Plaques from Ketef Hinnom in Jerusalem. Tel Aviv 19: 139-192.

  ______1994Excavations at Ketef Hinnom in Jerusalem. Pp. 85-106 in Ancient Jerusalem Revealed. Edited by H. Geva. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

  Barkay, Gabriel; Lundberg, Marilyn; Vaughn, Andrew; and Zuckerman, Bruce
  2004 The Amulets from Ketef Hinnom: A New Edition and Evaluation. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 334: 41-71.

  Barkay, Gabriel; Lundberg, Marilyn; Vaughn, Andrew; Zuckerman, Bruce; Zuckerman, Kenneth
  2003 The Challenge of Ketef Hinnom. Near Eastern Archaeology 66: 162-171.

  Franz, Gordon
  1986 The Excavations at St. Andrews Church in Jerusalem. Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin 27: 5-24.

  Rabinovich, Abraham
  1986 Word for Word. The Jerusalem Post International Edition. August 9, pages 16,17.

  Rasovsky, Marima; Bigelajzen, David; and Shenhav, Dodo
  1992 Cleaning and Unrolling the Silver Plaques. Tel Aviv 19: 192-194.
• 04Feb

  Nahum, Nineveh And Those Nasty Assyrians

  Archaeology and the Bible Comments Off on Nahum, Nineveh And Those Nasty Assyrians

  By Gordon Franz

  [Disclaimer: If there are any similarities in this discussion between Ashurbanipal II and his Assyrian troops and Saddam Hussein and the Republican guards, it is purely coincidental. Having said that, it is my position Saddam Hussein is not discussed in the Book of Nahum, nor are automobiles on the LA Freeway (cf. Nahum 2:3)!]

  If I mentioned the city Nineveh, what would come to your mind? Most likely you would say Jonah. We’ve all heard the story about Jonah being swallowed by the great fish and then going to Nineveh to preach against the city. His message was short and to the point, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” The city, from the king to the dogcatcher, repented. Have you ever wondered what happened to Nineveh after that? The short prophetic book of Nahum tells us “the rest of the story.”

  During the summer of 2002, I had the privilege of spending three days in the British Museum in London. Wow, what an experience! I have been studying and teaching archaeology for over twenty-five years and never had the opportunity to see the many objects on display in the museum that have Biblical connections

  The main interest of my visit was the objects in the Assyrian Rooms, especially the rooms containing the bas-reliefs of Ashurbanipal II (ruled 668-631 BC), the last great king of Assyria. Several years ago I taught the book of Nahum at my home church. I endeavored to illustrate my messages with archaeological discoveries relating to the text. In my studies, I was surprised at the number of references to objects in the British Museum. When I first visited the rooms with the reliefs, I was not disappointed. With the book of Nahum opened before me, most of the word pictures in the book could be illustrated, in one way or another, from the reliefs of Ashurbanipal II. In this article we will visit the galleries associated with the book of Nahum and visualize the “rest of the story.”

  The Date of the Book of Nahum

  Scholars have long debated the date of the book of Nahum. A wide range of dates has been suggested, from the 8^th century BC (Feinberg 1951:126,148) to the Maccabean period, early 2^nd century BC (Haupt). Yet the book gives us internal chronological parameters in order to date the book. Nahum describes the conquest of Thebes (No-Amon) by Ashurbanipal II in 663 BC as a past event, thus the book could not have been written before that date. The entire book is a prediction of the fall of the city of Nineveh in 612 BC. Thus, the book was written somewhere between 663 and 612 BC.

  A case can be made for the proclamation of the message, and writing of the book, about 650 BC. If this is the correct date, the Spirit of God used this book to put King Manasseh into a position where he could come to faith and to bring Judah back to the LORD. Up until this point in the reign of King Manasseh, the kingdom, led by the king, was “more evil than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel” (2 Chron. 33:9). The LORD sent seers (prophets) to speak to the nation, but the nation would not listen to the Word of God (33:10, 18). While not named, one of the seers was probably Nahum. His vision concerning the total destruction of Nineveh would be seen by the Assyrian overlords as fomenting rebellion and insurrection, and possibly seen as support for Shamash-shum-ukin, the king of Babylon, in his current civil war with his brother Ashurbanipal II. If a copy of the book of Nahum fell into the hands of the Assyrian intelligence community, King Manasseh would have had to give account for this book. The Biblical records state, “the LORD brought upon them [Judah] the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon” (2 Chron. 33:11). This event would have transpired in 648 BC, the year that Ashurbanipal II temporarily ruled Babylon after he eliminated his brother as a result of the four-year civil war (Rainey 1993: 160).

  Dragging someone off with hooks in their nose would be in keeping with Ashurbanipal’s character. In the excavations of Sam’al (Zincirli) a stela was found with Esarhaddon holding two leashes attached to the nose-rings of Baal of Tyre and Usanahuru, a crown prince of Egypt. Flanking the stela, watching intently, is Esarhaddon’s son, Ashurbanipal on the left and his brother Samas-sumu-ukin on the right. Ashurbanipal observed his fathers brutality and followed his example (Parpola and Watanabe 1988:20, 21).

  During Manasseh’s interrogation by Ashurbanipal II (and it must have been a brutal one, the text uses the word “afflicted”), he “implored the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and He received His entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God” (2 Chron. 33:12,13).

  Upon his return to Jerusalem, Manasseh began building projects in the city as well as elsewhere in Judah and removed the idols and altars he had placed in the Temple (2 Chron. 33:14-15). “He also repaired the altar of the LORD, sacrificed peace offerings and thanks offerings on it, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel” (33:16). This activity was in accord with what Nahum had challenged the people to do. “Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace! O Judah, keep your appointed feast, perform your vows. For the wicked one shall no more pass through you; he is utterly cut off” (1:15). The challenge was for Judeans to renew their pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the thrice-yearly feasts of Pesach (Passover), Shav’uot (Pentecost) and Succoth (Tabernacles) (Ex. 23:14-17; 34:22-24; Deut. 16:16, 17). There was also a command for the remnant that faithfully prayed to the Lord desiring to bring the nation back to Biblical worship and to bring the king to the Lord. They were to perform the vow they had made to the Lord. The Bible records a half-hearted attempt to return to Biblical worship. “Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed on the high places, but only to the LORD their God” (2 Chron. 33:17). The only true place of worship was the Temple in Jerusalem, not the high places.

  Nahum prophesied the destruction of Nineveh, the capital of the sole superpower, at the zenith of Assyria’s power and glory. He boldly proclaimed a message that was not popular, nor “politically correct.” In fact, most Judeans would think his prediction of the downfall of Nineveh was impossible.

  The Reliefs From Ashurbanipal’s Palace in the British Museum

  Ashurbanipal II reigned in Nineveh from 668-631 BC. At the beginning of his reign he lived in Sennacherib’s “palace without rival.” Ashurbanipal refurbished the palace about 650 BC. In Room XXXIII, he placed his own wall reliefs. Ashurbanipal’s other major construction project was the North Palace for the crown prince (Russell 1999: 154).

  Nahum was from Elkosh (Nah. 1:1). Some scholars have suggested Elkosk was located at the village of Al-Qush, 25 miles north of modern day Mosul, a city that is across the Tigres River from Nineveh. These scholars take this position because: (1) the names are similar, (2) the local Christian tradition holds that Nahum was from there and his tomb was there, and (3) Nahum’s writings show his familiarity with the city of Nineveh. Some speculate that Nahum was an Israelite captive who lived in the area and was an eyewitness to the city.

  There is, however, another possibility. Elkosh was in southern Judah and Nahum was part of the Judean emissary that brought the yearly tribute from King Manasseh to Nineveh. While in Nineveh, he would have observed the broad roads (Nah. 2:4), walls (Nah. 2:5), gates (Nah. 2:6), temples and idols (1:14), and its vast wealth (2:9). I’m sure the minister of propaganda would have shown him the wall reliefs in Ashurbanipal’s residence. These reliefs were intended “as propaganda to impress, intimidate and instigate by representing the might of Assyrian power and the harsh punishment of rebels” (Comelius 1989: 56). Or as Esarhaddon would say, “For the gaze of all my foes, to the end of days, I set it [stela] up” (Luckenbill 1989: II: 227).

  Let us examine the reliefs found on the walls of Ashurbanipal’s palace and see how they illustrate the word-pictures used by Nahum in his book.

  Blasphemy against Assur (Nahum 1:14)

  In 650 BC, Nahum would have seen the newly opened Room XXXIII in the Southwest Palace of Nineveh (Sennacherib’s “palace without rival”) with the reliefs depicting the campaign against Teumman of Elam and Dunanu of Gambula in 653 BC. One particular relief would have caught his attention (WA 124802, Slab 4). On it, a pair of Elamite captives is being depicted as having their tongues pulled out and being flayed. The caption above stated, “Mr. (blank) and Mr. (blank) spoke great insults against Assur, the god, my creator. Their tongues I tore out, their skins I flayed” (Russell 1999: 180; Gerardi 1988: 31). These two individuals are identified in Ashurbanipal’s annals as Mannu-ki-ahhe and Nabu-usalli (Russell 1999: 163).

  It was with great boldness that Nahum proclaimed, “The LORD has given a command concerning you [the king of Assyria]: ‘Your name shall be perpetuated no longer. Out of the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and molded image. I will dig your grave, for you are vile'” (1:14). These words were a direct attack on Assur and the rest of the Assyrian deities, as well as the king. Yet Nahum boldly proclaimed the message God gave him, in spite of the potential threat to his life!

  Chariots, Not Volkswagens! (Nahum 2:3,4)

  The second chapter of Nahum describes the fall of the city of Nineveh to the Babylonians and Medes in 612 BC. He describes in detail the shields, chariots and spears of the Assyrian foes. While we do not have any contemporary Babylonian reliefs of their chariots, there are Assyrian reliefs of Assyrian chariots riding furiously. These chariots are depicted on the reliefs of the Assyrians attacking the Arabs.

  Nahum mentions the broad roads of Nineveh. Ashurbanipal’s grandfather, Sennacherib, was the one who improved the streets of Nineveh. In the “Bellino cylinder” he boasts, “I (Sennacherib) widened its (Nineveh’s) squares, made bright the avenues and streets and caused them to shine like the day” (1:61).

  In the context of the book, Nahum sees a vision of chariots in the streets of Nineveh, not Volkswagens, as some prophecy teachers have speculated!

  Take the Booty and Run! (Nahum 2:9,10)

  Nineveh was the Fort Knox of mid-7^th century BC Mesopotamia. On every Assyrian campaign they always removed the silver, gold and precious stones and other items from the cities that they sacked. When they bragged about the booty that was taken, silver and gold always topped the list. As an example, after the fall of No-Amon (Thebes), Ashurbanipal bragged that he took: “Silver, gold, precious stones, the goods of his palace, all there was, brightly colored and linen garments, great horses, the people, male and female, two tall obelisks. … I removed from their positions and carried them off to Assyria. Heavy plunder, and countless, I carried away from Ni’ (Thebes)” (ARAB II: 296, para. 778). There are also reliefs of Assyrian scribes writing down the booty that was taken from other cities.

  In Nahum’s vision he saw someone say, “Take spoil of silver! Take spoil of gold! There is no end of treasure, or wealth of every desirable prize. She is empty, desolate and waste!” (2:9,10a). The Babylonian Chronicles (BM 21.901) described the spoils taken from Nineveh by the Babylonians and the Medes in these terms: “Great quantities of spoil from the city, beyond counting, they carried off” (ARAB II: 420, para. 1178).

  One of the excavators of Nineveh has commented, that there has been very little gold and silver found in the ruins of the city. The Medes and Babylonians “cleaned house” after they conquered the city, just like Nahum predicted.

  Diodorus, a Greek historian from Sicily, writing in the 1^st century BC, described the final hours of the king of Nineveh, Sardanapallus, in these words: “In order that he might not fall into the hands of the enemy, he built and enormous pyre in his palace, heaped upon it all his gold and silver as well as every article of the royal wardrobe, and then … he consigned [his concubines and eunuchs] and himself and his palace to the flame” (Book 2. 27:2; LCL 1:441). Unfortunately the Babylonian account is broken at this point. It says, “On that day Sin-shar-ishkun, king of Assyria, fled from the city (?) …” (ARAB II: 420; para. 1178).

  If Diodorus is correct, the king of Assyria tried to take his wealth with him. At best, the gold and silver melted and were collected later. The Bible is clear that people cannot take their wealth with them to the afterlife, but it can be sent on ahead. The Lord Jesus admonishes His disciples to “lay up for themselves treasures in heaven” (Matt. 619-21).

  The Lion Hunt (Nahum 2:11-13)

  David Dorsey, in his outstanding book, The Literary Structure of the Old Testament (1999:301-305), places the lion’s den verses (2:11-13) at the center of the book’s chiastic structure. In commenting on the pattern of the structure he says, “This progression underscores the certainty of Nineveh’s fall: Yahweh’s prophet not only believes that it will happen; he composes dirges as though it has already happened. The placement of the eulogy over the ‘lion’s den’ in the book’s highlighted central position reinforces this sense of certainty” (1999:304, italics mine).

  Nahum used the lion and lion hunt motifs that both the Judeans and Assyrians would have been well familiar. The Assyrians had a long history of depicting their king and warriors as mighty lions or great lion hunters (Johnston 2001:296-301). The Bible also depicts the Assyrian warriors as roaring lions (Isa. 5:29) and Yahweh as a lion who will tear up His prey and carry it off to His lair (Hosea 5:14, 15; 13:7, 8; Johnston 2001:294, 295).

  According to Ashurbanipal’s annals, at the beginning of his reign, two deities, Adad and Ea blessed the land of Assyria with plenty of rain. This rain caused the forests to thrive and the reeds in the marshes to flourish. This blessing resulted in a population explosion among the lions. They exerted their influence in the hills and on the plain by attacking herds of cattle, flocks of sheep and people. Many were killed (ARAB II: 363, para. 935). Ashurbanipal II, following in the footsteps of his predecessors, took charge of the lion hunts in order to control the lion population (ARAB II: 392, para. 1025).

  Ashurbanipal also engaged in lion hunting as a sport. Apparently lions were captured alive and put in cages in the king’s garden in Nineveh and used for staged lion hunts (Weissert 1997:339-358). One relief that was found in the North Palace at Nineveh and had apparently fallen into Room S from a second floor had three panels depicting a lion hunt. On the top panel, a lion is released from a cage and Ashurbanipal is shooting him with arrows. The central panel is interesting because it shows the bravery of the king. On the right side of the panel, soldiers are distracting a lion. On the left side, Ashurbanipal sneaks up and grabs the lion by the tail as he rears to his hind legs. [I dare anybody to try this stunt at a zoo today!] The inscription above says, “I, Ashurbanipal, king of the universe, king of Assyria, in my lordly sport I seized a lion of the plain by his tail and at the command of Urta, Nergal, the gods, my allies, I smashed his skull with the club of my hand” (ARAB II: 391, para. 1023). The king attributes his bravery to the deities. Dr. J. E. Reade, one of the keepers of the Western Asiatic Antiquities at the British Museum has observed, “It is notable that much of the lion’s tail has been chipped away, so that the lion has been, as it were, set loose; this defacement was probably the action, at once humorous and symbolic, of some enemy soldier busy ransacking the palace in 612 B.C.” (Curtis and Reade 1995:87). On the lower panel, Ashurbanipal is pouring out a wine libation over the carcasses of four lions. In the inscription above, the king boasts of his power by saying, “I, Ashurbanipal, king of the universe, king of Assyria, whom Assur and Ninlil have endowed with surpassing might. The lions which I slew, – the terrible bow of Ishtar, lady of battle, I aimed at them. I brought an offering, I poured out wine over them” (ARAB II: 392, para. 1021). The king attributes his mighty power to the gods, Assur and Ninlil.

  In contrast, Ashurbanipal boasts that kings and lions are powerless before him. At the beginning of one of his annals (Cylinder F) he states, “Among men, kings, and among the beasts, lions (?) were powerless before my bow. I know (the art) of waging battle and combat. … A valiant hero, beloved of Assur and Ishtar, of royal lineage, am I” (ARAB II: 347, para. 896). Ashurbanipal has tied his lion hunting and military conquests together in one statement.

  In the vision of Nahum concerning Nineveh, Nahum asks a rhetorical question, “Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion walked, the lioness and lion’s cub, and no one made them afraid?” (2:11). He sees Nineveh as a lions den that has been destroyed and the lions are gone. The “prey” in verse 12 is apparently the booty that the Assyrians have taken from all the cities they conquered in recent memory. In verse 13, the LORD states directly, “Behold, I am against you. I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messenger shall be heard no more.” The phrase “the sword shall devour your young lions” draws our attention to another relief showing Ashurbanipal thrusting a sword through a lion. The inscription associate with this relief says, “I, Ashurbanipal, king of the universe, king of Assyria, in my lordly sport, they let a fierce lion of the plain out of the cage and on foot … I stabbed him later with my iron girdle dagger and he died” (ARAB II: 392, para. 1024).

  The book of Nahum sets forth an ironic reversal of the Assyrian usage of the lion motif. Dr. Gordon Johnston has observed, “The extended lion metaphor in Nahum 2:11-13 includes the two major varieties of the Neo-Assyrian lion motif: the depiction of the Assyrian king and his warriors as mighty lions, and the royal lion hunt theme. While the Assyrians kept these two motifs separate, Nahum dovetailed the two, but in doing so he also reversed their original significance. While the Assyrian warriors loved to depict themselves as mighty lions hunting their prey, Nahum pictured them as lions that would be hunted down. The Assyrian kings also boasted that they were mighty hunters in royal lion hunts; Nahum pictured them as the lion being hunted in the lion hunt. By these reversals Nahum created an unexpected twist on Assyrian usage. According to Nahum the Assyrians were like lions, to be sure; however, not in the way that they depicted themselves: rather than being like lions on the prowl for prey, the hunters would become the hunted!” (2001: 304).

  Nahum was keenly aware of the culture that he was writing to and was able to effectively use it to convey a powerful message from the Lord.

  Nineveh, a Bloody City (Nahum 3:1)

  Nahum pronounced “woe to the bloody city (of Nineveh)” (3:1). The city and the Assyrian Empire had a well-earned reputation for being bloody. Just a casual glance at the reliefs in the British Museum from the palaces of Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal show the “gory and bloodcurdling history as we know it” (Bleibtreu 1991:52). There are reliefs with people being impaled, decapitated, flayed, tongues pulled out, making people grind the bones of their dead ancestors, even vultures plucking out the eyes of the dead!

  One panel graphically shows the disrespect for human life. On it, a commander is presenting a bracelet to an Assyrian soldier who had decapitated the five or six heads at his feet. There are two scribes behind him recording the event. This bracelet, perhaps a medal of valor, is worth five or six lives! In Assyrian thinking, life was cheap.

  Countless Corpse (Nahum 3:3)

  There is an old adage that says, “What goes around, comes around.” The Bible would use an agricultural metaphor, “You reap what you sow” (cf. Gal. 6:7). This is true in the geo-political realm as well as the personal realm. The Assyrians, over their long history, were brutal and barbaric people. Yet there came a point in history where God said, “Enough is enough,” and He removed the offending party (Nahum 2:13; 3:4).

  Nineveh fell in 612 BC, yet is wasn’t until the 1989 and 1990 seasons of the University of California, Berkeley excavations in the Halzi Gate that graphic evidence of the final battle of Nineveh was revealed. Upwards to 16 bodies were excavated in the gate, all slain (Stronach and Lumsden 1992: 227-233; Stronach 1997: 315-319). Archaeological excavations have vividly confirmed the words of the Biblical text. “Horsemen charge with bright sword and glittering spear. There is a multitude of slain, a great number of bodies, countless corpses – they stumble over the corpses” (Nahum 3:3).

  The Fall of No-Amon (Thebes) (Nahum 3:8-11)

  Nahum taunts the Assyrians for trusting in their fortifications for protection and security. Nineveh was a heavily fortified city, yet the Lord had decreed its demise.

  He asked rhetorically, “Are you better than No-Amon (Thebes) that was situated by the (Nile) River, that had the waters around her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall was the sea?” (3:8). No-Amon is the Egyptian word for “city of (the deity) Amon” commonly known today by its Greek name, Thebes.

  Esarhaddon had taken Egypt on his second invasion in 671 BC. When he died, the Egyptians revolted and Ashurbanipal went to Egypt to put down this revolt. He cleared the Delta of the Cushites (Ethiopians) in 667/666 BC and the Cushite ruler, Taharqa fled to No-Amon. On Ashurbanipal’s first campaign against Egypt, he took 22 kings from the seacoast, with their armies, to help him fight the Egyptians. Ashurbanipal claims that he “made those kings with their forces (and) their ships accompany me by sea and by land” (Rainey 1993:157). One of those kings was Manasseh, king of Judah, with his army. On his second campaign, he went to No-Amon and defeated the city and razed it in 663 BC. There were Judeans in the Assyrian army that saw this event. When they heard or read the words of Nahum they would have been encouraged. The Assyrians were able to defeat a strong and impermeable No-Amon, and God would now fulfill His Word and Nineveh will fall.

  Ashurbanipal had a relief of the fall of No-Amon. It is labeled “an Egyptian fortress” in the British Museum. Yadin cautiously states, “The crowning achievement of Ashurbanipal’s expeditionary force to Egypt was the capture and destruction of Thebes ‘of the hundred gates’ (the Egyptian capital during the XXVth Dynasty) in the year 663 BC. It is most probable that this is the event which the Assyrian artist depicted in such detail here in his portrayal of an attack on an Egyptian city” (1963:462). If this is the case, we have a very graphic illustration of the Biblical text. The top of the relief has the Assyrians besieging the city with ladders, soldiers undermining the walls and a soldier torching the gate. A close examination of the defenders reveals that there are two ethnic groups defending the city. One group with the Negroid features is the Ethiopians and the others are the Egyptians. Nahum said, “Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength. And it was boundless” (3:9a).

  On the left of the relief, above the Nile River, are Ethiopian captives being taken out of No-Amon. A careful examination of these captives reveals chains on their ankles. Nahum prophesized, “Yet she was carried away, she went into captivity. … They cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains” (3:10).

  Another remarkable illustration of the Biblical text is the group of twelve Egyptians to the right side of the relief awaiting their fate on the banks of the Nile River. As I stared at the group I noticed three children. Two were seated on the donkey and one was on the shoulder of his father. I could not help but wonder if these children knew the fate that awaited them. The words of the prophet were, “Her young children also were dashed to pieces at the head of every street” (3:10). Thankfully the Assyrian artist did not have the audacity to carve this scene on the relief!

  An interesting side note should be mentioned. Manasseh was with Ashurbanipal II when he conquered No-Amon, the city of the deity Amon, in 663 BC. That was the year that a son was born to him, the future king of Judah, Ammon. Apparently Manasseh named his son after the Egyptian deity Amon. This is consistent with Manasseh’s character of following after other gods. But why an Egyptian god and not an Assyrian one, I do not know.

  The Fig Trees and the Forts (Nahum 3:12)

  After asking Nineveh, “Are you better than No-Amon?” Nahum proceeds to describe the rapid fall of the cities and fortressed surrounding Nineveh. He says, “All your strongholds are fig trees with ripened figs: if they are shaken, they will fall into the mouth of the eater” (3:13). When the figs are ripe, they drop easily from the tree when shaken. This is a word-picture that the Ninevites knew from personal experience. Figs were common in Nineveh, as attested to by their appearance on reliefs.

  A Locust at the Banquet (Nahum 3:15b-17)

  One of the most pathetic reliefs in Ashurbanipal’s palace is one of a royal banquet that commemorated the defeat of the king’s most hated foe, Teumman, the king of Elam. On this relief, Ashurbanipal is reclining on a couch under a grape vine in his garden sipping wine with his consort. There are servants around them with fans, while other servants are bringing food and playing musical instruments. From Ashurbanipal’s vantage point on the couch he could gaze on the trophy head of the Elamite king hanging from a ring in the fir tree.

  In a warped perversion of a Biblical description of peace, that of every man sitting under his vine and fig tree (Micah 4:1-4), this relief commemorated the cessation of war with the Elamites after nine years. Ashurbanipal attributes his victory to “the Assyrian pantheon, and in particular, the deities Ashur and Ishtar of Arbela. Thus the human head may be viewed as more than a memorial to a successful battle; it is symbolic of a major threat to the Assyrian throne, a threat that was decisively eliminated through divine might” (Albenda 1977:35). Yet Micah says that real peace will come when the nations go to the LORD’s House in Jerusalem and worship Him. Then “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nations shall not lift up sword against nations, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Micah 4:3).

  There is one detail in this relief that should not be missed. In the upper left hand corner is one locust sitting on top of a palm tree. To its right is a bird swooping down as if to catch it. One art historian describes the scene this way: “Related to this is the image of a locust alight upon an upper branch of a tree, a short distance from the severed head of Teumman. A bird sweeps down toward the insect as if to devour it. This apparently minor detail may have special meaning, for in the annals Ashurbanipal describes the Elamites as a ‘dense swarm of grasshoppers’ [ARAB II: 329, para. 855]. Within this context, the locust may signify the last vestige of a once dreadful enemy, now virtually eliminated” (Albenda 1977:31,32).

  At the end of the book of Nahum we have another reversal of fortune. Instead of the Elamites being the locusts, the Assyrians are, and they are about to be eliminated! But Nahum does not describe the destructive aspects of the locust plague, but rather, the flight of the locusts after they have done their damage. In Nahum 3:17 he states, “Your commanders are like swarming locusts, and your generals like great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges on a cold day; when the sun arises they flee away, and the place where they are is not known.”

  One of the pioneer Israeli biologists, Prof. F. S. Bodenheimer, puts this aspect of Nahum’s mention of locusts in scientific terms. He describes his observations of the body temperature of the Desert Locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) in the fifth hopper stage thus, “Since dawn the locusts had been turning their bodies towards the rays of the sun to ‘drink’ the maximum of heat. Intensive migration set in only when the body temperature had reached about 40 degrees C. This utilization of sun radiation we called heliothermy” (1959:202). He attributes the first mention of heliothermy to Nahum (1959:201).

  The Fall of Nineveh

  Prior to the beginning of the 20^th century, commentators discussed the date for the fall of Nineveh. The possibilities for this event ranged from 716 to 709 BC. In 1923, C. J. Gadd published a tablet from Babylon in the possession of the British Museum. The tablet was called the “Babylonian Chronicles” (BM 21.901) and it covered the years 616-609 BC, or the 10^th to the 17^th year of Nabopolasser, king of Babylon. The annals place the fall of Nineveh in the 14^th year of his reign, the year 612 BC. This event provides the student of history with an absolute chronological peg for Biblical and Assyrian history.

  Conclusions

  We have journeyed through the halls of the British Museum in this article pointing out the reliefs and objects that help to illustrate the text of the small, yet important book, of Nahum. My hope is that this discussion has helped make the Biblical text “come alive” and has given the student of the Scriptures a more accurate visual aid to the Bible.

  Bibliography

  Albenda, P.
  1977 Landscape Bas-Reliefs in the Bit Hilani of Ashurbanipal. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 225: 29-48.

  Bleibtreu, E.
  1991 Grisly Assyrian Record of Torture and Death. Biblical Archaeology Review 17/1:52-61,75.

  Bodenheimer, F.
  1959 A Biologist in Israel. Jerusalem: Biological Studies.

  Comelius, I.
  1989 The Image of Assyria: An Iconographic Approach by Way of a Study of Selected Material on the Theme of “Power and Propaganda” in the Neo-Assyrian Palace Reliefs. Old Testament Essays 2: 55-74.

  Curtis, J., and Reade, J.
  1995 Art and Empire. Treasures from Assyria in the British Museum. London: British Museum.

  Diodorus Siculus
  1998 Library of History. Book I-II.34. Vol. 1. Trans. C. Oldfather. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library.

  Dorsey, D.
  1999 The Literary Structure of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker.

  Feinberg, C.
  1951 Jonah, Micah and Nahum. The Major Messages of the Minor Prophets. New York: American Board of Missions to the Jews.

  Gerardi, P.
  1988 Epigraphs and Assyrian Palace Reliefs: The Development of the Epigraphic Text. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 40: 1-35.

  Johnston, G.
  2001 Nahum’s Rhetorical Allusions to the Neo-Assyrian Motif. Bibliotheca Sacra 158: 287-307.

  Luckenbill, D. D.
  1988 Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia. London: Histories and Mysteries of Man (ARAB).

  Masters, P.
  2000 A Tour of Biblical Evidence in the British Museum. Bible and Spade 13/2: 35-55.

  Mitchell, T. C.
  1988 The Bible in the British Museum. Interpreting the Evidence. London: British Museum.

  Parpola, S., and Watanabe, K.
  1988 Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths. State Archives of Assyria. Vol. 2. Helsinki: Helsinki University.

  Rainey, A.
  1993 Manasseh, King of Judah, in the whirlpool of the Seventh Century B.C.E. Pp. 147-164 in kinattutu sa darati. Raphael Kutscher Memorial Volume. A. Rainey, ed. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University.

  Russell, J.
  1999 The Writing on the Wall. Studies in the Architectural Context of Late Assyrian Palace Inscriptions. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.

  Stronach, D.
  1997 Notes on the Fall of Nineveh. Pp. 307-324 in Assyria 1995. Eds. S. Parpola and R. M. Whiting. Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.

  Stronach, D., and Lumsden, S.
  1992 UC Berkeley’s Excavations at Nineveh. Biblical Archaeologist 55/4: 227-233.

  Ussishkin, D.
  1982 The Siege of Lachish by Sennacherib. Tel Aviv: Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University.

  Weissert, E.
  1997 Royal Hunt and Royal Triumph in a Prism Fragment of Ashurbanipal (82-5-22.2). Pp. 339-358 in Assyria 1995. S. Parpola and R. Whiting, eds. Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.

  Yadin, Y.
  1963 The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands. Vol. 2. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• 04Feb

  Earthquakes: On The Increase? Or Warning Of Judgment To Come?

  Archaeology and the Bible Comments Off on Earthquakes: On The Increase? Or Warning Of Judgment To Come?

  By Gordon Franz

  Earthquakes are awesome natural phenomena that intrigue geologists who study them and terrorize victims who experience them. People caught in an earthquake often refer to it as one of the most terrifying experiences of their lifetimes. An earthquake, with its epicenter at Northridge in the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles, California, jolted people awake in the early morning hours of January 17, 1994. The quake rumbled for 30 seconds.

  This earthquake was the second-costliest natural disaster in America behind Hurricane Andrew. The quake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, with 62 deaths and over 9,000 injuries. Twenty thousand people were left homeless, 10,000 homes were destroyed and another 46,000 were damaged. Experiencing this earthquake and the aftermath was traumatic. A friend of mine, Jessica, experienced the earthquake and relates this account.

  “I’m a native of Los Angeles, which translates into one fact: I’ve been through many earthquakes. As a little girl, the 1971 Sylmar shaker, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, toppled a small statue in my parents’ house and knocked my doll collection to the floor. Several years ago the Whittier earthquake got my blood pumping enough to finally put together an earthquake survival kit: a can of tuna fish, a can of pineapple chunks, some Band-Aids and a sewing kit. Well, even if I remembered where my simple earthquake kit was hidden, it certainly would not have done me any good on January 17, 1994. After the 6.8 shaker, which left me feeling dizzy for days as the ground continued to rock and sway like a drunken sailor, I was in no mood to eat or sew!

  “The truth is, nothing prepared me for that morning. I was fast asleep. Suddenly, I felt the shaking and heard a loud noise and woke up. One would have thought I would have jumped out of bed immediately, but I was an old earthquake pro. Thoughts of riding out the quake under the warmth of my blankets crossed my mind. But the shaking got stronger and the noise more intense. My adrenaline kicked in. Leaping out of bed I discovered that the house was rocking so hard I could not move. The cacophony of sounds was frightening. Car alarms blasting, dishes crashing to the floor, buildings cracking, windows blowing out. Through it all, the sound of the earth, belching with a mighty jolt from its bowels, struck terror to my heart. It was a horrible sound. One which no one could ignore. A noise which woke up each and every one of us.

  “There was no question in my mind that this was an earthquake. If, what I was feeling in Sherman Oaks was so strong that I could not even walk because the floor was moving so violently, I wondered what it must have been like at the epicenter. My fear was that hundreds of people must have died there. When the shaking finally stopped, I simply stood there, trapped by a mountain of books. Quietly I gave thanks to the Lord because I had survived. I would like to say that my faith prevented fear, but to be honest, I was petrified. My mouth was so dry I could barely speak. My limbs felt like rubber. My thoughts turned to my family, scattered in various parts of L. A. Were they hurt? Or the unmentionable, were they dead?

  “The earthquake of January 17^th made every previous quake I had been through seem like a gentle tap. Minutes, hours and days passed. Neighbors screamed, cried and evacuated. Homes were condemned as unsafe and uninhabitable by the city. It turned out that my neighborhood, only a few miles from the epicenter, was one of the worst streets in the earthquake. It was later named one of the 14 ghost towns, an eerie souvenir of January 17^th. Almost every building on my street was “red tagged”. This meant that people had to pack up and leave their homes behind. Yet there was one townhouse building, comprised of forty units, which had the overall structure and foundation left intact and deemed safe. That was my home. I knew that the Lord had not only saved my life, but also spared my home. I got on my knees and thanked Him with a grateful heart, ‘Thank you Lord, for Your hand of protection upon me.'”

  EARTHQUAKES AND BIBLE PROPHECY

  Earthquakes play a role in Bible prophecy. They are mentioned in the Book of Revelation (6:12-17; 8:5; 11:13,19; 16:16-21) as well as the books of Isaiah (2:19,21; 5:25; 24:19), Ezekiel (38:19,20), Joel (2:10; 3:16) and Zechariah (14:4,5). A number of prophecy teachers point to what they assume to be an increase in the number of earthquakes and associate these quakes with the words of Jesus to show we are in, or near, the last days (cf. Matt. 24:7). As one writer puts it, “One of the major birthpangs Jesus predicted would increase in frequency and intensity shortly before His return is earthquakes” (Lindsey 1994: 83). Two questions should be raised: First, has there actually been an increase in earthquake activities? And second, does Jesus really say there will be an increase in earthquakes before He returns?

  In order to understand the purpose of earthquakes in the End-times, one must examine God’s purpose for earthquakes in history. In the middle of the 8^th century BC, the “Big One” hit the Middle East. Let us examine the Biblical record and the archaeological evidence for this earthquake.

  THE EARTHQUAKE IN THE DAYS OF THE PROPHET

  AMOS AND KING UZZIAH

  My study of this earthquake began during the summer of 1987 when I was working on the excavation at Tel Lachish in the Shephelah of Judah. One day I got “Sennacherib’s revenge” (that is the Middle East version of “Montezuma’s revenge”) and was confined to bed, except for the occasional “turkey trot” to the outhouse in the eucalyptus grove some 50 meters from our camp. Trying to keep from getting bored, I began reading the excavation report from Tel Sheva and came across a reference to the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah.

  There is considerable evidence to suggest that the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah dealt considerable damage to the Middle East. Dr. Yohanan Aharoni identifies Tel Sheva as Biblical Beer Sheva. Aharoni suggests that Stratum III (the third level of occupation) was partially destroyed by an earthquake during the days of King Uzziah, but quickly rebuilt by its inhabitants (1973: 107,108). The excavator at Tel Lachish concluded that the same earthquake destroyed Stratum IV. When I returned home at the end of the summer, I compiled a list of sites which where effected by this earthquake. The list raised the questions, “What does this mean? Can we tell anything about this earthquake? Where was the epicenter? How strong was it?” For answers, I turned to my friend Dr. Steve Austin, a geologist at the Institute for Creation Research in San Diego. I gave him the list of sites with copies of the excavation reports and asked the question, “What does this all mean?” His reply was intriguing and exciting.

  The Archaeological Evidence

  The most vivid archaeological evidence for this earthquake was unearthed at Hazor, in the northern part of Israel, during the 1956 season. The area supervisor, the late Prof. Y. Aharoni, described the destruction to the walls of the houses. Some were cracked and others tilted or fell in a southerly or easterly direction (Yadin 1960: 24). One house had an ivory cosmetic spoon with a woman’s head on the backside. Yigel Yadin, the excavator of the site suggested it depicted a fertility goddess (1975: 154,155), something that Isaiah condemned (Isa. 2:8, 18, 20).

  This and other small finds gave indication of the material prosperity of the Northern Kingdom in the mid-8^th century BC, something which the prophet Amos cried out against two years before this earthquake (Amos 1:1; 6:4). Renewed excavations by Hebrew University have uncovered further evidence of this earthquake (Dever 1992: 27*-35*).

  Another city with archaeological evidence for this earthquake is the Jordanian site of Deir ‘Alla. This site is situated about two-thirds of the way down the Jordan Rift Valley between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. This site also had walls tilting to the south and east as well as evidence for a rainstorm just prior to and during the earthquake (Franken and Ibrahim 1977-78: 68).

  None of the excavations, which have been conducted in Jerusalem thus far, have unearthed clear-cut evidence for the earthquake in the mid-8^th century BC. However, the literary evidence does suggest some destruction. Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, connected the earthquake with the time King Uzziah was struck with leprosy. He says at the time “… the Temple was raven, a brilliant shaft of sunlight gleaned through it and fell upon the kings face…” He goes on to say, “… while before [to the east of] the city at the place called Eroge [possibly Ein Rogel] half of the western hill [of the mount of Olives] was broken off and rolled four stades [730 meters] till it stopped at the eastern hill [the City of David] and obstructed the roads and royal gardens [in the Kidron Valley]” (Antiquities 9: 224,225; LCL 6: 119). The later reference probably refers to a landslide that resulted from this earthquake. The archaeological evidence from Deir ‘Alla suggests that there was a rain storm prior to the earthquake. This would make the soil more susceptible to landslides. Recent studies by Israeli geologists show the western slopes of the Mount of Olives is landslide prone and there is strong evidence that three ancient landslides existed (Wachs and Levitte 1983; 1984: 118-121). Josephus probably referred to the one just above the southern end of the Silwan Village. This landslide would have filled in part of the Kidron Valley and probably covered Ein Rogel (“the springs of Rogel”) with large amounts of dirt. It might have been Uzziah, or his son Jotham, who sank a deep well, known today by the Arabs as Bir ‘Ayyub (the “well of Job”) to reach the waters of the spring. The prophet Zechariah (14:4,5) refers to this landslide as well (Wachs and Levitte 1984: 119,120, editor note). The noise generated by this landslide, especially as the sound echoed off the Kidron and Hinnom Valleys, must have been great. No wonder the people fled. The noise would have been enough to put the fear of the Lord into anybody!

  Lachish, located about 28 miles southwest of Jerusalem in the Shephelah, has no visual evidence of this earthquake. However, certain considerations lead the excavator, David Ussishkin, to conclude that this earthquake destroyed Level IV (1977: 14-27).

  Tel ‘Erany, located a few miles to the west of Lachish, had uprooted walls and split paved floors in the Level VI city as evidence of this destruction as well (Yeivin 1979: 168).

  During the 1990 season at Tel Gezer, evidence for this earthquake was unearthed in the area of the “Outer Wall”. Here, large blocks were cracked from top to bottom. In another place, the upper two courses were displaced upwards and outwards, as though they had violently “jumped” off their foundation (Dever 1992: 30; Younker 1991: 28). Randy Younker, the associate director of the excavation, eventually convinced Dr. Dever, the director, that this was evidence for an earthquake based on his first hand experience with earthquakes in California (Dever 1992: 30).

  A final site with archaeological evidence of this earthquake is ‘En Hazeva, identified as Biblical Tamar, in the Aravah. In the gate area there are walls bowed outward with cracked stones on multiple courses. The excavators concluded, “based on the destruction debris and its configuration, we believe that the quake mentioned in Amos and Zechariah was responsible for the destruction of the Stratum 5 fortress gate complex…” (Cohen and Yisrael 1995: 231).

  These are some of the sites that have clear evidence of an earthquake in the mid-8^th century BC. While we are dealing with a limited amount of evidence, a clear picture is emerging, i.e. a very violent earthquake in the middle of the 8^th century BC with the tremor originating north of the land of Judah and Israel.

  The Geological Evidence

  Much research has been done on earthquakes in antiquities (Amiran 1951: 223-246; 1952:48-65; Amiran, Arieh and Turcotte 1994: 260-305; Amiran 1996: 120-130). Unfortunately there were no seismometers in the 8^th century BC to measure earthquakes. If there were, we could determine where the epicenter was as well as the magnitude on the Richter scale. We do, however, have the observations of the destruction at archaeological sites that may help determine the intensity of the earthquake.

  I gave this information to Dr. Steve Austin at the Institute for Creation Research. Using a modified Mercalli scale, he was able to suggest that the epicenter was probably located to the northeast of Hazor in Lebanon (Austin, Franz and Frost 2000:666,667). Austin based his suggestion on the direction of the collapsed and leaning walls and isoseismals. He also proposed that the magnitude of this earthquake was about 8.2 on the Richter scale! (Austin, Franz and Frost 2000: 667.669). This earthquake was the largest in the last 4,000 years on the Dead Sea-Jordan Rift.

  The Biblical Evidence

  Assigning a date would help to put this earthquake into perspective. Unfortunately the chronology of the 8^th century is a thorny issue and scholars cannot agree on some dates. For the sake of convenience, this discussion assumes the standard chronology of Edwin Thiele who places it in the year 750 BC. Josephus and the Rabbinic sources state that the earthquake took place the same time King Uzziah was struck with leprosy. Josephus also seems to hint that the earthquake took place on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Antiquities 9: 222-227; LCL 6: 117-121). This would also fit the evidence for a rainstorm found at Dier ‘Alla. Yom Kippur is at the beginning of the early rains.

  The prophet Amos brings his message of impending judgment to the high place at Bethel “two years before the earthquake” (1:1). In this sermon he predicts there will be a strong earthquake (Amos 4:11; 6:11; 9:1) and other calamities in the near future if the people do not turn back to the Lord, His Word and His Temple in Jerusalem and away from oppressing the poor and needy. The ultimate judgment would be captivity by the Assyrians. Amos appears to use this earthquake as a “proof” that his words about the captivity would be fulfilled. If the epicenter were in the Mediterranean Sea, one would expect a tsunami phenomenon (tidal waves). Interestingly enough, some of the rabbinic sources seem to refer to such a phenomenon. Amos 5:8 and 9:6 state, “Who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth” (Luria 1987: 259-262). Because Amos was able to predict this earthquake two years before it happened, something modern geologists cannot do, Dr. Austin has begun to call this earthquake “Amos’ earthquake”!

  The prophet Isaiah ministered in Jerusalem to the Kingdom of Judah and was a contemporary of Amos, also mentions this earthquake. Isaiah 2-6 gives a vivid picture of the moral conditions of the Kingdom of Judah during the reign of King Uzziah (II Chron. 26). The king began his reign following the Lord, but because of his strength, his heart was lifted up with pride (26:16, cf. Prov. 16:18). The people of Judah saw this arrogant attitude and followed the example of their leader. [Who said character does not matter?!] In the second chapter of his book, Isaiah addresses the deep seeded problem in Jerusalem and Judah, the sin of pride. He demonstrated the proper use of prophecy by describing the “latter days” (2:1) and encouraged the people to walk in light of what it shall be like some day in the future (2:2-5). There is a day coming when Jerusalem will be exalted (2:2), yet the people were exalting themselves (2:11, 17). There would be a day coming when the people would learn the Word of God (2:4), yet the people were neglecting to apply the word of God to their lives (2:6-9). There would be a day when there would be no more military activity because the people would beat their swords into plowshares (2:4), yet the expansionist policies of King Uzziah dictated he build up his military forces (II Chron. 26:6-15). In light of what it shall be like some day in the future, the proper response of the people should have been to live in light of the Word of God today. The Apostle John sets forth this same principle for the Church today (I John 3:1-3). Isaiah predicted that a strong earthquake would be used as an instrument of God’s judgment, if the people did not humble themselves and turn back to the Lord (2:19,21, “…when He arises to shake the earth mightily”).

  When Dr. Austin sent me his conclusions on the geology of this earthquake, he included a map with a proposal that the epicenter was a point north of Hazor with the isoseismal lines emanating from it. My mind immediately went to Isaiah 2:13-16 and wondered if Isaiah knew of the direction of the shock waves. These verses reflect the north-south progression of the shock waves emanating from this earthquake. “Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up [the territory of Lebanon], and upon all the oaks of Bashan [the Golan Heights], upon all the high mountains [Upper Galilee], and upon all the ships of Tarshish [those ships anchored at Ashdod, now controlled by Uzziah (II Chron. 26:6), and destroyed by the seismic sea-wave (tsunami)]. I cannot be dogmatic on this point, but it is a possibility.

  Isaiah, the (Biblical) political activist, composed a song expressing God’s displeasure with His people after all He had done for them. They had neglected the two pillars of social concern, justice and righteousness. Instead, there was oppression and weeping (5:7). In his explanation of the song he pronounced “woes” against the people of Judah (5:8-25). He singles out the pleasure seekers (party animals), among others, for their excessive drunkenness because “… they do not regard the work of the Lord, not consider the operation of His Hand” (5:12).

  My only experience in an earthquake was on April 23, 1979 while studying at the Institute of Holy Land Studies in Jerusalem. It registered a 5.1 magnitude on the Richter scale (Amiran, Arieh and Turcotte 1994: 284). As I recall, I was sitting in my room listening to the afternoon news broadcast. It was an eerie feeling as the quake hit and I watched the walls swayed as if elastic. When I realized what was going on, I got out of the building as quickly as possible. The “party animals” (5:11,12) probably saw the walls of their houses swaying the morning of Yom Kippur, after a night of feasting and drinking, instead of fasting, as they should, and thought nothing of the swaying. They reasoned, “The walls always appear to sway when I am drunk!” Not recognizing the hand of the Lord, they stayed in their houses as the roofs collapsed and killed them. Sheol, the place of the departed dead, is pictured as enlarging itself (5:14, 15), indicating that a considerable number of people were killed as a result of this earthquake. During the reign of Jotham and Jeroboam II, a census was taken (I Chron. 4:17), probably to determine how many people survived this devastating tragedy.

  Some time after the earthquake, possibly around 735 BC, Isaiah reminded the people in the Northern Kingdom of their pride and arrogance by describing the aftermath of the earthquake. “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stones; the sycamores were cut down, but we will replace them with cedars” (9:8-11; Hayes and Irvine 1987: 184-186).

  The Psalms of the sons of Korah, in my opinion, were composed in the 8^th century BC, probably during the reign of King Hezekiah. The psalmist may be referring back to this earthquake in the beginning of Psalm 46. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with swelling. Selah.” This could be a description of the shock waves as well as landslides around the Sea of Galilee. There appears to be evidence for ancient landslides on the eastern and western shores of the Sea of Galilee.

  The prophet Zechariah, more than 250 years after the earthquake states: “You shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah” (14:5). Recent studies of the Mount of Olives by Israeli geologists may be able to shed light on this passage (Wachs and Levitte 1984: 118-121). They think a landslide might be connected with the “splitting” of the Mount of Olives. In an extensive note by the editors, it was observed, “Regarding this passage there exists two conflicting interpretations. The more common reading of the text following the mention of splitting of the Mount of Olives is ‘And ye shall flee to the valley of my mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel…’ as in the Masoretic text … The Revised Standard Version (King James) Old Testament gives instead, ‘And the valley of my mountains shall be stopped up for the valley of the mountains shall touch the side of it…’ The source of this discrepancy lies in the confused reading of the Hebrew word for ‘shall be stopped up’…, and for ‘ye shall flee’… The vowels in both words are identical, but when the diacritical points were added to the Hebrew Bible at a later period to facilitate reading, the text was apparently misunderstood and the meaning changed in this case. … The present authors, relying on their geological knowledge as elaborated in this article, have adopted the ‘shall be stopped up’ reading as more plausible in relation to the natural phenomena described” (Wachs and Levitte 1984: 119,120 editor note). This is something to consider.

  The earthquake in the mid-eighth century BC served as a warning of a greater judgment to come, captivity by the Assyrians. It confirmed the messages of the prophets Amos and Isaiah. Yet the people did not respond in a positive manner to the message of God.

  EARTHQUAKES IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION

  The Book of Revelation, written about A.D. 95, mentions at least five earthquakes (6:12-17; 8:5; 11:13, 19; 16:16-21). The final earthquake, mentioned in the seventh bowl of wrath, is described as “a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath” (Rev. 16: 18, 19).

  The First century readers of the Book of Revelation would be “shaken” (no pun intended) by the statement “a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth.” Some of the elderly people of the cities of Asia Minor would have remembered the earthquake of AD 17. Pliny described this earthquake in his Natural History. “The greatest earthquake in human memory occurred when Tiberius Caesar was emperor, twelve Asiatic cities being overthrown in one night” (2:86:200; LCL 1: 331). Tacitus, in his Annals, described this earthquake as well. “In the same year, twelve important cities of Asia collapsed in an earthquake, the time being night, so that the havoc was the less foreseen and the more devastating. Even the usual resource in these catastrophes, a rush to open ground, was unavailing, as the fugitives were swallowed up in yawning chasms. Accounts are given of huge mountains sinking, of former plains seen heaved aloft, of fires flashing out amid the ruin. As the disaster fell heaviest on the Sardians, it brought them the largest measure of sympathy, the Caesar promising ten million sesterces, and remitting for five years their payments to the national and imperial exchequers” (2:47; LCL 3: 459). The elderly people of Asia Minor would have remembered the devastation of the AD 17 earthquake and thought to themselves, “If that was the worst recorded earthquake in human history and Revelation 16 predicts one even worst, I would not want to be around when that one hits!”

  IS THERE AN INCREASE IN EARTHQUAKES?

  After each major earthquake around the world, the pop-prophecy literature seems to contain articles regarding earthquakes and Bible prophecy. Invariably these articles point to the increase in earthquakes as proof that Jesus is coming soon. One writer states, “In the first century, Jesus Christ predicted an increase in earthquakes as a sign of His Second Coming” (Church 1994: 12). He then proof-text his point by quoting Matthew 24:7: “For nations will rise against nations, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.” Note the passage only says there will be “earthquakes in various places”. It does not day there will be an increase. It is amazing how some prophecy teachers read into the passage something that is not there.

  Two of the most popular prophecy teachers make similar statements. One says, “Earthquakes continue to increase in frequency and intensity, just as the Bible predicts for the last days before the return of Christ. History shows that the number of killer quakes remained fairly constant until the 1950s – averaging between two to four per decade. In the 1950s, there were nine. In the 1960s, there were 13. In the 1970s, there were 51. In the 1980s, there were 86. From 1990 through 1996, there have been more than 150” (Lindsey 1997: 296). His source is the United States Geological Survey (USGS), yet he gives no documentation for these statements. Another prophecy teacher, also citing the USGS says, “However, since A.D. 1900, the growth in major earthquakes has been relentless. From 1900 to 1949 it averaged three major quakes per decade. From 1949 the increase became awesome with 9 killer quakes in the 1950s; 13 in the 1960s; 56 in the 1970s and an amazing 74 major quakes in the 1980s. Finally, in the 1990s, at the present rate, we will experience 125 major killer quakes in this decade” (Jeffrey 1996: 194).

  The geologist, who developed the Richter scale, apparently had some contact with prophecy teachers. In 1969 he wrote, “One notices with some amusement that certain religious groups have picked this rather unfortunate time to insist that the number of earthquakes is increasing. In part they are mislead by the increasing number of small earthquakes that are being cataloged and listed by newer, more sensitive stations throughout the world. It is worth remarking that the number of great earthquakes from 1896 to 1906 (about twenty-five) was greater than in any ten-year interval since” (Richter 1969: 44).

  Two prophecy researchers wrote to a number of reputable seismologists around the world and asked three questions of them. “(1) Do you feel that there has been a tremendous increase in major earthquakes during this century compared with earlier centuries? (2) Do you feel that the earthquake activity in this century is in any way unique? (3) Do you know of any other seismologist who holds that our time has seen an unusually large number of earthquakes?” In an appendix a selected number of letters were reprinted. All the responses were unanimous that there has NOT been a dramatic increase in earthquakes, as prophecy teachers would like to have us think (Jonsson and Herbst 1987: 46-87, 237-248).

  More recently, a notice appeared on the US Geological Survey website entitled “Are Earthquakes Really on the Increase?” They state, “Although it may seem that we are having more earthquakes, earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater have remained fairly constant throughout this century and, according to our records, have actually seemed to decrease in recent years.” They go on to explain why. “In the last twenty years, we have definitely had an increase in the number of earthquakes we have been able to locate each year. This is because of the tremendous increase in the number of seismograph stations in the world and the many improvements in global communications. In 1931, there were about 350 stations operating in the world; today, there are more than 4,000 stations and the data now comes in rapidly from these stations by telex, computer and satellite. This increase in the number of stations and the more timely receipt of data has allowed us and other seismological centers to locate many more small earthquakes which were undetected in earlier years, and we are able to locate earthquakes more rapidly.” [http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/

  general/handouts/increase_in_earthquakes.html]

  Dr. Steve Austin has demonstrated that the lists of the number of earthquakes given by the popular prophecy teachers are incomplete and poorly documented. If their analysis is correct, two assumptions should be true. “(1) a comparative infrequency of big earthquakes occurred in the first half of the century, and (2) an obvious increase in the frequency of big earthquakes occurred since 1950″ (Austin and Strauss 1999: 34). Dr. Austin demonstrates in his article that both assumptions are false and concludes the exact opposite. “(1) a comparative excess of big earthquakes occurred in the first half of the century, and (2) an obvious decrease in the frequency of big earthquakes occurred since 1950″ (Austin and Strauss 1999: 34). It behooves the prophecy teacher to be meticulous and complete in ones research and properly and completely document ones findings.

  What do prophecy teachers do when confronted with the evidence that earthquakes are not on the increase? One prophecy teacher dismisses the evidence as unreliable because the geologists were “schooled with the uniformitarian secular viewpoint” (Church 1997:337)! This teacher is asking his readers to ignore the geological evidence and to blindly accept his interpretation of the text. It should be pointed out that Dr. Austin is a “young earth creationist”!

  Are earthquakes on the increase? It might be hard to convince my friends in Southern California and some prophecy teachers, but the answer is “No!” Yet the prophetic Scripture does not state there will be an increase, it just states there will be earthquakes in “different places”. Let us not read into the verse more than is there.

  APPLICATION

  It would have been interesting to take a survey of all the churches in Los Angeles on the Sunday after the earthquake (January 23, 1994) and see how many preachers spoke on the “increase in earthquakes” as a sign of Jesus’ soon return. One would hope that many preachers spoke in the vein of Isaiah and Amos, warning the people in the area to return to the Lord and His Word.

  John Chrysostom, a priest in Antioch (in present day Turkey), took advantage of a similar situation after an earthquake devastated that city in AD 388 or 389. In his sixth sermon on Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16), given a few days after the earthquake, he warned the people of Antioch of a greater judgment to come (Roth 1984: 15, 16, 97-124).

  My friend Jessica sent me an insightful handout prepared by her pastor, Jack Hayford of “The Church on the Way” in Van Nuys after the earthquake (Hayford 1994). He pointed out the every believer has three assignments in this life. They are: “(1) to show forth good works (Matt. 5:16); (2) to shine forth a clear witness (I Pet. 3:15); and (3) to sustain a life of effective, spiritually impacting prayer (Rom. 8:26-28)”. Churches acted as relief distribution centers for supplies that came into the area from various Christian organizations (Kellner 1994: 56, 57). What an opportunity for believers in the Lord Jesus to show forth “good works” (Tit. 3:8; Gal. 6:10). This testimony afforded the opportunity to share the Scriptures to those who were asking “Where is God in the middle of all this?” The rest of Hayford’s handout provides the answer to this question from the Bible. All natural disasters are the result of the Fall (sin), but there is hope for those who would put there trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. The third issue he focused on was prayer. As Pastor Hayford commented, “We need to pray. We need to pray in confidence that it IS true – things would have been worse without what prayer there has been offered, AND, things will be worse if we don’t continue to intercede”. These comments on prayer are in the vein of Amos (7:1-6). He prayed, God heard, and judgment was stayed.

  Are earthquakes on the increase? No. Are they a warning of greater judgment to come? Yes. Just as Amos and Isaiah warned the Northern and Southern Kingdoms respectively, of a violent earthquake to come and their words were confirmed by that earthquake a few years later. History has bore out the fact that the Northern Kingdom did not heed the words of Amos after the earthquake and they continued in their sinful ways. Since they did not take this warning to heart, Amos’ other prediction, captivity by the Assyrians, was fulfilled more than 25 years later. Today, earthquakes should be understood as signposts pointing to a greater judgment, separation from God for all eternity in Hell if an individual does not come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.

  The 1994 Northridge earthquake hit the pornography industry very hard. This industry, centered in and around Northridge, had every major studio and distribution center hit during the quake. One pornography film director said, “Can you imagine how the fundamentalist are going to leap on this when the smoke clears? They will say it’s God’s retribution” (Ferraiulo 1994: 57). Retribution? Probably not. God still loves them, yet hates their sin. In love, He has given them a warning and longs for them to trust Him as their Savior so they will not be separated from Him for all eternity. Pastor Hayford observed, “It seems as though the earthquake forced these people to get honest. It has stirred many to the deepest points of introspection, and if just one of them is turned away from the filth they’re involved in, it is a major victory” (Ferraiulo 1994: 57). More realistic is the comment by a Los Angeles Police Department detective, “I don’t think there’s anything that will drive these people out of the area, it’s a billion dollar business” (Anonymous 1994: A11). The industry, and Los Angeles, will probably continue along their merry, sinful ways just like the Northern Kingdom did in the years after the earthquake, yet later suffered destruction and captivity. Will they, or anyone else, continue to turn their hearts from the warning God has given? Or will they examine their own lives, admit they are sinners and can not save themselves and put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as the One who paid the penalty for their sin?

  The believer in the Lord Jesus should see earthquakes as the “whole creation groans and labor with birth pangs … even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:22,23). The believer can look forward to a perfect creation wherein righteousness and the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ dwells.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Aharoni, Y.

  1973 Beer-Sheba I, Excavations at Tel Beer-Sheba, 1969-1971 Seasons. Tel Aviv: Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University.

  Amiran, D.

  1951 A Revised Earthquake Catalogue of Palestine – I. Israel Exploration Journal 1: 223-246.

  1952 A Revised Earthquake Catalogue of Palestine – II. Israel Exploration Journal 2: 48-65.

  1996 Location Index for Earthquakes in Israel Since 100 B.C.E. Israel Exploration Journal 46: 120-130.

  Amiram, D., Arieh, E., and Turcotte, T.

  1994 Earthquakes in Israel and Adjacent Areas: Macroseismic Observations since 100 B.C.E. Israel Exploration Journal 44: 260-305.

  Anonymous

  1994 Tremor Slows “Porn Capital”. The New York Times January 31, 1994, p. A11.

  Austin, S., and Strauss, M.

  1999 Are Earthquakes Signs of the End Times? A Geological and Biblical Response to an Urban Legend. Christian Research Journal 21: 30-39.

  Austin, S., Franz, G., and Frost, E.

  2000 Amos’s Earthquake: An Extraordinary Middle East Seismic Event of 750 B.C. International Geology Review 42: 657-671.

  Church, J.

  1994 More Earthquakes Predicted for Southern California. Prophecy in the News 14/4: 12.

  1997 Riders of Revelation 6, Mount Up. Foreshocks of Antichrist. Eugene, OR: Harvest House.

  Dever, W.

  1992 A Case-Study in Biblical Archaeology: The Earthquake of ca. 760 BCE. Eretz Israel 23: 27*-35″.

  Ferraiuolo, P.

  1993 God’s Wrath Upon Pornography? Christianity Today (March 7, 1994), p. 57.

  Franken, H. and Ibrahim, M.

  1977-78 Two Seasons of Excavations at Deir ‘Alla, 1976-78. Annual of the Department of antiquities of Jordan 22: 57-79.

  Hayes, J. and Irvine, S.

  1987 Isaiah The Eighth-Century Prophet. Nashville, TN: Abingdon.

  Hayford, J.

  1994 Are Earthquakes Natural Disasters or the Result of Judgment for Sin? Living Way Ministries, Van Nuys, CA 91405.

  Kellner, M.

  1995 Relief, Rebuilding Efforts Unite Churches, Neighbors. Christianity Today (March 7, 1994), pp. 56,57.

  Jeffrey, G.

  1996 The Signature of God. Toronto: Frontier Research.

  Jonsson, C. and Herbst, W.

  1987 The Signs of the Last Days – When? Atlanta, GA: Commentary Press.

  Josephus

  1987 Jewish Antiquities. Book 9-11. Vol. 6. Translated by R. Marcus. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.

  Lindsey, H.

  1996 Planet Earth – 2000 A.D. Palos Verdes, CA: Western Front.

  1997 Apocalypse Code. Palos Verdes, CA: Western Front.

  Luria, B.

  1987 “He Summons the Waters of the Sea and Pours Them Over the Land …” Beth Mikra 101: 259-262 (Heb.).

  Pliny

  1979 Pliny Natural History. Vol. 1. Translated by H. Rackham. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.

  Richter, C.

  1969 Earthquakes. Natural History (December 1969). Pp. 36-45.

  Roth, C., translator

  1984 St. John Chrysosyom, On Wealth and Poverty. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary.

  Tacitus

  1992 Tacitus, The Histories, Books IV-V and The Annals, Books I-III. Vol. 3. Translated by C. Moore and J. Jackson. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.

  Ussishkin, D.

  1977 The Destruction of Lachish and the Dating of the Royal Judean Storage Jars. Tel Aviv 4/1-2: 14-27.

  Yadin, Y.

  1960 Hazor II. Jerusalem: Magnes.

  1974 Hazor, The Rediscovery of a Great Citadel of the Bible. New York: Random House.

  Yeivin, S.

  1978 The Divided Kingdom: Rehoboam-Ahaz/Jeroboam-Pekah. Pp. 161-172 in The World History of the Jewish People. The Age of the Monarchies: Political History. Jerusalem: Massada.

  Younker, R.

  1991 A Preliminary Report of the 1990 Season at Tel Gezer: Excavations of the “Outer Wall” and the “Solomonic” Gateway (July 2 to August 10, 1990). Andrews University Seminary Studies 29/1: 19-60.

  Wachs, D., and Levitte, D.

  1983 Earthquake Risk and Slope Stability in Jerusalem. Jerusalem: Geological Survey of Israel.

  1984 Earthquakes in Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives Landslide. Israel – Land and Nature 9/3: 118-121.

  This paper was read at the plenary session of the ETS Eastern Regional Meeting, “Biblical Prophecy for a New Millennium”, held at Evangelical School of Theology, Myerstown, PA, on March 26, 1999.
• 04Feb

  Mary’s Magnificat— The Mercy Of God (Luke 1: 46-55)

  Life of Christ Comments Off on Mary’s Magnificat— The Mercy Of God (Luke 1: 46-55)

  By Gordon Franz

  Introduction

  I would like to tell you a story that the tabloids would love to put in print. If they did, however, they would distort and twist the account. But unlike the tabloids, the story I am going to tell you is true. I am not making it up.

  This story is about two Jewish women who are about to become mothers. Their Hebrew names are Elisheva and Miriam and they are cousins. The older one, Elisheva, was six months along in her pregnancy. The younger one, Miriam, had just gotten pregnant. She did not show it, but she knew she was pregnant. She came from her hometown in the north of the country to visit with her much older cousin in the Hill Country of Judah.

  What would have interested the tabloids is this: Elisheva was “well advanced in years,” perhaps collecting “social security” and Miriam was a teen-ager. The second pregnancy might not surprise us today with the teen pregnancy rate the way that it is, but this pregnancy was different. The tabloids would have had a field day with both of them.

  I would, however, like to look at these two pregnancies from God’s perspective because both were miracle pregnancies. Elisheva had been barren all her adult life. Since this was before the days of fertility drugs, she had all but given up hope of having a child. One day her husband, Zacharias, returned from Jerusalem, where he had been ministering in the Temple and he was mute. He could not talk! He motioned to her that the Lord had said they would have a child. If she was like Sarah, she would have laughed and said, “Yeah right!” (cf. Gen. 18:12-15). If she was a woman of faith, and I believe she was, she would have bowed her head and said, “Thank you, Lord.” However she responded, God was true to His promise and she became pregnant in her old age. This was miracle pregnancy #1. The other woman, Miriam, was an even greater miracle. You see she was a virgin. She had never had sexual relations with any man. This was miracle pregnancy #2.

  Miriam knew she was pregnant because the angel Gabriel appeared to her in Nazareth and said, “Do not be afraid, Miriam, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.” The Holy Spirit conceived the child that Miriam carried. She was to be the most blessed and most privileged mother ever to walk the face of the earth. She was the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. You do not have to go to the tabloids to read about this. Just turn to the gospel of Luke, chapters 1 and 2.

  We should always thank God for our mothers and also thank God for Mary. Without mothers, none of us would be here today. Without Mary, none of us would have a Savior because she gave birth to the Savior of the World, the Lord Jesus Christ.

  Let us look at Mary, not through the eyes of theologians, Church Fathers, or even Church councils, but through her own eyes. She left us a psalm (song) that she composed to express the innermost thoughts and feelings of her heart.

  The Song

  The song (Luke 1:46-55) was originally composed in Hebrew and then later translated by Dr. Luke into Greek (Aytoun 1917: 281-283). As Dr. Randall Buth, a Bible translator for Wycliffe Translators has observed in an article on the verb tenses of this poem, “This phenomenon of poetic tense shifting points specifically to Hebrew – not Greek, not Septuagintal Greek and not Aramaic – as the original language of the poem… It was an originally Hebrew poem that Luke and others have carefully transmitted” (1984: 75, 76).

  This psalm can be divided into four stanzas of four lines each (Warfield 1885: 305). The overall psalm has two literary units with two stanzas in each unit. The key word in each literary unit is “mercy” (1:50 and 54). The overriding theme of this psalm is the mercy of God bestowed upon Mary and all those who fear the Lord (1:46-50), as well as God’s covenant people, Israel (1:51-55).

  In this psalm, Mary said (1:46-55):

  My soul magnifies the Lord,
  And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
  For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
  For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.

  For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
  And holy is His name.
  And His mercy is on those who fear Him
  From generation to generation.

  He has shown strength with His arm;
  He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
  He put down the mighty from their thrones,
  And exalted the lowly.
  He has filled the hungry with good things,
  And the rich He has sent away empty.

  He has helped His servant Israel,
  In remembrance of His mercy,
  As He spoke to our fathers,
  To Abraham and to his seed forever.

  Mary must have had a godly upbringing by parents who taught her the Word of God at home as well as took her to the synagogue in Nazareth to hear the Word of God read, or sung, and also proclaimed by the rabbi on Shabbat. She had a keen mind that absorbed the truths of the Scriptures. The song that flowed from her heart is packed with excellent Biblical theology concerning the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Avraham, Yitzaq, va-Ya’akov) and His relationship to His covenant people, including Mary.

  God’s Mercy is Bestowed on Mary and Those Who Fear Him. 1:46-50

  In the first literary unit, Mary proclaims the mercy of God toward herself and those who fear Him (1:46-50). This unit has two stanzas. In the first, Mary magnifies the Lord because He is her Savior (1:46-48). In the second stanza, Mary magnifies the Lord because He is mighty, holy, and merciful (1:49, 50). This first unit is intensely personal on Mary’s part.

  Mary Magnifies the Lord Because He is Her Savior. 1:46-48

  Human beings are made in the image of the Triune God. The Triune God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. .. so God created man in His own image” (Gen. 1:26, 27). Just as God is a Triune being, so are human beings. We are made up of a body, soul and spirit (cf. 1 Thess. 5:23). Mary involves her whole being in the composition of this song as she bursts into praise. She says with her mouth (her body): “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.”

  Mary began her song with a paradoxical statement. She said she magnifies the Lord. How can one magnify Someone who is already infinite and eternal in His Person? The Lord is omnipotent (all powerful), omnipresent (everywhere present), omniscient (all knowing), omni-sapient (all wise), eternal, immutable (unchanging), all loving, merciful, gracious, faithful, and infinitely holy. How are you going to magnify that?!

  One could conjecture that Mary had seen a glass globe filled with water (the forerunner to the magnifying glass) in the Roman administrative center of Sepphoris, just over the ridge from Nazareth. Being fascinated with this object she noticed that it enlarged an object three times its normal size. The closer glass globe got to an object, the bigger it looked (cf. Seneca, Natural Questions 1: 6: 5; LCL 7:57, 59; Tameanko 1989: 26, 27; Lewis 1997:40, 41). Perhaps Mary saw herself as a magnifying glass. She realized that the closer she got to the Lord, the bigger He became in her life. It is obvious from this psalm that Mary knew large portions of the Hebrew Bible (the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings) as well as Biblical theology (Koontz 1959: 339). Even as a teenager, she had been taught well at home and in the synagogue.

  By her praise, she made an infinite and eternal God even bigger! She had learned something one of her ancestors, the sweet psalmist of Israel, King David instructed all of us to do. He sang: “I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the LORD; The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together” (Ps. 34:1-3). He also sang: “But I am poor and sorrowful; Let your salvation, O God, set me up on high. I will praise the name of God with a song, And I will magnify Him with thanksgiving” (Ps. 69:29, 30). In Mary’s composition, she both exalts the name of the Lord and expresses her thanksgiving for what God has done for her.

  In her life, that infinite and eternal God became even bigger to her. As she memorized and studied the Scriptures, she understood how vast and infinite her God was, yet He was also a personal God who was interested in everything she said and did.

  She goes on to say that her spirit rejoices in God her Savior. In order for a person to have a Savior, they must be a sinner. Mary, like all of us, was a sinner! The Child she carried in her womb was God manifest in human flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was born so that He could die on Calvary’s cross in order to pay for all the sins of all humanity (1 John 2:2). In so doing, He became the Savior of the World (John 4:42). Only a sinner needs a Savior. If a person was sinless, that individual would have no need for a Savior.

  The statement that Mary made, that she rejoiced in God her Savior shows Mary knew her spiritual state better than anyone. She understood that she was a sinner and needed a Savior. The closer she got to the Lord, the more she realized her own sinfulness because, as she states in the next stanza, the Lord is holy (Luke 1: 49).

  Perhaps Mary recalled the words of the prophet Isaiah when he saw the Lord, high and lifted up, and heard the seraphim say, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Host; the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isa. 6:1-3), he humbly said, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have see the King, The LORD of Hosts” (6:5). When Mary did, she too realized she was a sinner and needed a Savior.

  Mary had not seen the Lord of Hosts, but she had seen the angel Gabriel. She reflected on his visitation in Nazareth and his statement to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” The angel went on to describe the ultimate destiny of the One whom she would give birth to. He said: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS (Yeshua). He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:28, 30-33). The ultimate destiny of the Lord Jesus will be to rule upon the throne of David from Jerusalem forever.

  After her conception, I am sure Mary compared notes with her betrothed husband Joseph. An Angel of the Lord had paid him a visit in his dreams. The angel said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:20, 21).

  Both heavenly visitors said that this Child would be named JESUS. In Hebrew, His name would be “Yehoshua” which is translated into Greek as “Jesus.” The name means “YHWH is salvation.” However, Joseph was told by an Angel of the Lord what this Child would accomplish during His first coming to the earth: He would save His people from their sins. How this would be accomplished, the angel does not say. I am sure that Joseph would have recalled the passages from the Psalms that described in prophetic terms the crucifixion of the Messiah (Ps. 22) and His subsequent resurrection (Ps. 18). He would also recall the words of the Prophet Isaiah as he looked down the corridors of time to see the Messiah as the Suffering Servant on Calvary’s cross when he wrote: “He [the Messiah] is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (53: 3-6).

  The angel Gabriel, on the other hand, told Mary that her Son would rule forever on the throne of David. Mary would recall the Davidic Covenant given by Nathan the prophet (2 Sam. 7:4-17). She would also recall the psalms that extol the Davidic Covenant (Ps. 89 and Ps. 110). Both angelic messengers give us a complete picture of the prophetic program of the Messiah. One tells of the purpose of His first coming: to pay for sins. The other tells of the plan for the second coming: to rule from Jerusalem on the throne of David.

  Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum has pointed out that: “The Davidic Covenant promised four eternal things: An eternal throne, an eternal house or dynasty, an eternal kingdom, and an eternal descendant. All four eternal things came out in Gabriel’s message. Concerning the throne he said: the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. Concerning the house or dynasty-he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. Concerning the kingdom-of his kingdom there shall be no end. Concerning the eternal descendant, Gabriel said: The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God. The four eternal things which were promised in the Davidic Covenant were restated here to be fulfilled through Jesus the Messiah. The eternality of the house, throne, and kingdom is guaranteed because the seed of David culminates in a Person who is Himself eternal” (1992:17).

  Mary continues her psalm by telling us why she magnified the Lord and rejoiced in God as her Savior. “For (or because) He has regarded the lowly estate of His maidservant” (1:48a).

  God’s ways are not always our ways. If we were going to pick somebody to give birth to the Savior of the World, who would also be the King of Israel, we would probably pick a young lady who was from a rich and powerful, politically connected family. Even though Mary was from the House of David, she said that God regarded her “lowly state.” Mary was not referring to her humility, but rather to the social status and economic condition of her family. She lived in Nazareth: a small, obscure, and unimportant village in the hills of Lower Galilee. We know from the excavations that were conducted in Nazareth, that the village was small. It consisted of about 20 houses, and none of the houses were villas like in Sepphoris, just over the ridge from Nazareth. The villagers in Nazareth were simple farmers and shepherds with a low economic status. The words “lowly state” also implies that Mary was probably the youngest in her family.

  Mary identifies herself in this psalm as a “maidservant,” the Greek word doule means female slave. This recalls her statement to the Angel Gabriel after he announced to Mary that the child she would give birth to would be conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35-37). Mary humbly said, “Behold the maidservant (doulas) of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (1:38). Here we see Mary’s humble submission, as a slave, to the Lord and His will. She would trust the Lord that He would take care of her reputation as she carried the Son of God to term.

  Mary’s trust is expressed in the rest of the verse where she states: “For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed” (1:48b). Later, during the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus, the religious leaders said to Jesus, “We are not born of fornication; we have one father – God” (John 8:41). The implication of that verse is that some people thought Mary committed fornication. There are some ancient sources, both Rabbinic and pagan, which state Mary had sexual relations with a Roman soldier named Pantera / Pandira and that he was the father of Jesus (Tabor 2006: 59-72; For a refutation, see Fisher 2006:4-12)! This blasphemous statement aside, Mary knew she was a virgin when the Holy Spirit conceived the Lord Jesus in her and she had done nothing wrong. She firmly believed that God would uphold her reputation.

  As history has shown, her statement has proved correct. All generations have called her blessed. This began with the Angel Gabriel when he said, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” (Luke 1:28). Then her cousin Elizabeth said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (1:47).

  Please notice that both the angel and her cousin said she was to be blessed among women, not above women. Mary is not to be worshipped. She should be thanked for giving birth to the Lord Jesus, but not worshipped. Only God is to be worshipped. As Solomon so eloquently sang, “His name [the LORD] shall endure forever; His name shall continue as long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in Him; all nations shall call Him blessed. Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, Who only does wondrous things! And blessed by His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and amen” (Ps. 72:17-19).

  The Lord Jesus spoke to large crowds during His earthly ministry. On one occasion a women cried out, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!” (Luke 11:27). The Lord Jesus responded, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!” (11:28). Jesus acknowledged the blessedness of His mother, just as she predicted in her “magnificat,” but Jesus drew people’s attention to something far more important – obedience to the Word of God.

  Mary Magnifies the Lord because He is Mighty, Holy and Merciful. 1:49, 50

  After her conception, Mary went to visit her older cousin Elizabeth in a city in the Hill Country of Judah, most likely a place called Ein Karim, situated in western Jerusalem today. When Mary arrived at her house, Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit said: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe [John] leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of these things, which were told her from the Lord” (Luke 1:41-45). Elizabeth asked a very profound question. Why should the mother of her Lord come to visit her? Elizabeth, who was filled with the Spirit, understood that the baby in Mary’s womb would be her Lord! Here we have an early hint at the deity of the Lord Jesus.

  In the second stanza of Mary’s psalm, she says, “For He [the Lord and God who is her Savior] who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation” (Luke 1: 49, 50).

  Mary extols three attributes of God. He is mighty, He is holy, and He is merciful. The first attribute she extols is the omnipotence of God. He is all mighty. She says of the One who is mighty that He has done great things for her. At the announcement of her conception by the Holy Spirit, the Angel Gabriel states, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). It was the “power of the Highest” that brought about the conception of the Son of God.

  Isaiah, in one of his great Messianic prophecies predicted the dual nature of the Lord Jesus and His names when he said: “For unto us a Child is born [His humanity], Unto us a Son is given [His deity]; And the government shall be upon His shoulders. And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God [El Gebor], Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (9:6, 7). Isaiah predicted that Mary’s Son would be called the “Mighty God.”

  The second attribute was the holiness of God. One can imagine the tongues wagging at the well of Nazareth when the women went to get water. “Did you hear? Mary is pregnant! She claims she was a virgin when the Holy Spirit conceived the child in her! We don’t believe that. She ought to be stoned.” Mary’s reputation, and Joseph’s honor, was at stake. Yet Mary could say in her innocence, “Holy is His Name.” One of the names given to the Lord Jesus was Holy (Rev. 3:7).

  The final attribute that Mary extols is the mercy of God. Some believe that the mercy of God is the key to understanding this psalm. The word appears twice in this psalm at the end of each literary unit (Luke 1:50 and 54). J. H. Bernard states: “In the first stanza [literary unit] the singer praises God for His overwhelming Mercy which rests upon her, as it will upon all who fear Him, for ever. She sings of personal mercies, and that with no loud protestations, but with a humble thanksgiving which is sacred indeed. And then, in the second stanza [literary unit], the hymn bursts out uncontrollably – as it seems – into a paean of national hope” (1907: 204).

  In the last line of this stanza (1:50), we observe three things associated with the mercy of God. First, God’s mercy is unmerited. Second, God’s mercy is selective, and finally, God’s mercy is unending.

  Mercy, by its very nature, is unmerited. Grace and mercy is the flip side of the same coin. Grace is getting what we do not deserve because Someone has already paid for it. Mercy, on the other hand, is not getting what we do deserve. Mary knew she was a sinner and deserved to be separated from God for all eternity in Hell. She also knew that if she put her trust in God that He would provide a Savior to pay for her sins. The One she carried in her womb was born to die! Her Son, the Son of God, would die to pay for all her sins as well as the sins of the whole world. God’s mercy is unmerited.

  The mercy of God is also selective. God’s mercy is on all those who fear the Lord. The word “fear” has the idea of reverential awe and trust. If a person receives the grace of God, and trusts the Lord to provide a Savior, as Mary had done, they would receive the free gift of eternal life, a home in heaven, the forgiveness of sins, and the righteousness of God. God’s mercy is selective for those who fear (trust) Him.

  The mercy is God is unending; as Mary put it, “from generation to generation.” After the death of the Lord Jesus on Calvary’s cross, myriad of men, women and children, from every kindred, tongue, and nation, would put their trust in the Lord Jesus as the One who died and paid for all their sins and rose from the dead three days later to prove that sin had been paid for, death has been conquered and Satan defeated. Truly God’s mercy is unending.

  God’s Mercy is Bestowed on His Covenant People, Israel. 1:51-55

  In the second literary unit, Mary proclaims God’s mercy toward His covenant people, Israel (1:51-55). As in the first literary unit, this unit is divided into two stanzas. In the first stanza (1:51-54a) we see God demonstrating His mercy by His action. In the second stanza (1:54b-55), God remembers His mercy because of His covenant with Abraham and his Seed, the One whom Mary is carrying in her womb.

  The first stanza has a beautiful literary structure. The first line (1:51a) says, “He has shown strength with His arms.” The verb “He has” goes back to verse 49 where Mary uses the same verb when she states that “He (the Mighty One) has done great things for me.” She will continue the thought of what great things God has done for her and expand that to include what He has done for Israel. She will also use the same verb again in verses 51b, 53a, 53b, and 54a. In verses 51b to 54a Mary contrasts two groups of people. The first group is the “proud” (1:51b) which He (the Mighty One) scatters (a negative statement), and the second group is “His servant Israel” (1:54a) which He helps (a positive statement). Between these two verses, Mary will describe the “proud” as mighty (1:52a) and rich (1:53b). In contrast to “His servant Israel” which is lowly (1:52b) and hungry (1:53a). Basically she says there will be a reversal of fortune between these two groups.

  The Mighty One demonstrates His mercy by His actions. 1:51-54a

  Mary begins this second literary unit by saying, “He (the Mighty One) has shown strength with His arms” (1:51a). God is invisible and no one has seen Him at any time. But sometimes, in order to have a clearer pictures or better understanding of who God is, anthropomorphic language is used that attribute body parts to God. In this case, Mary says God has shown His strength with His arms.

  The arms of God (or hands) are mentioned a number of times in the Hebrew Scriptures, usually in connection with the Exodus from Egypt. In Exodus 6:6, God said: “Therefore say to the children of Israel: I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptian, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgment.” [For context, read Exodus 6:2-9]. After the Israelites passed through the Red Sea, Moses composed a song of deliverance (Ex. 15: 1-18). In the song, he says that “Fear and dread will fall on them (the Philistines, the Edomites, the Moabites and the inhabitants of the Land of Canaan); by the greatness of Your arm” (15:16). See also Deut. 3:24; 4:34; 7:19; 2 Kings 17:36; Ps. 44:3; 89:13; 118:15; Isa. 30:30; Jer. 32:24. God redeemed Israel out of the Egyptian bondage because of His mercy. At the time this happened, the Israelites were worshipping the gods of the Egyptians (Ezek. 20:7-10). They did not deserve redemption, but God in love and mercy redeemed them and brought them out of Egypt.

  As the Children of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land, Moses wrote the words of the Lord: “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor chose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Therefore know that the LORD you God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments” (Deut. 7:6-9). Notice in these verses, “covenant” and “mercy” are tied together. The Israelites were worshiping the gods of the Egyptians and did not deserve to be redeemed, but God in mercy brought them out because of a covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

  The outstretched arm is also used of the “Second Exodus” when the Lord returns His people from the four corners of all the earth to the Land of Israel after the seven year period of Tribulation (Ezek. 20:23, 33, 34; Isa. 11:11; Matt. 24:29-31).

  Perhaps Mary also remembered the words of the prophet Isaiah when he stated: “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” Isaiah continued to describe the LORD as the “Man of sorrows” who would take all our iniquities upon Himself (53:3, 6). That “Man of Sorrows” was being nurtured in the womb of Mary as she sang this song.

  At this point in her thinking, Mary might be confused because the arm of the Lord would lead to a return to the Land as well as suffering. The Apostle Peter will clarify this confusion. He wrote in his first epistle (AD 43): “Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (1:10, 11). There would be two advents of the Messiah. The first time He would come to suffer and die for sin, but would subsequently be raised from the dead three days later. The second time He would come would be with His saints to the Mount of Olives and then re-gather the remnant of His People Israel and then establish His Millennial Kingdom (Zech. 14:4-9; Matt. 24: 29-31).

  In the next six lines (1:51b-54a), Mary will contrast what God will do with two different groups of people. The first group is the “proud,” and the second, “His servant Israel.”

  She says of the proud that God will scatter them in the imagination of their hearts (1:51a). The imagination of the heart shows the deep-rootedness of their problem. The proud are self-sufficient and have no need for God. In some cases, the individuals think they are gods.

  How much Mary knew about Caesar Augustus, the ruler of the Roman world, I do not know. The Jewish world was probably better informed than most in the Roman world. There were Jewish people living in the Diaspora (the area outside the Land of Israel) who would return to Jerusalem for the three pilgrim feasts: Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Pentecost) and Succoth (Tabernacles). As they mixed with their fellow Jews living in the Land of Israel, they shared the news of what was going on in the Roman world. Jewish pilgrims from Asia Minor would have told of an inscription that was executed by the proconsul Paullus Fabius Maximus in 9 BC. The people of Asia Minor acknowledged that “Providence … [gave] us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue [divine power] that he might benefit mankind, sending him as a savior, both for us and for our descendents, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance [“epiphany,” often used of Hellenistic rulers] (excelled even our anticipations), surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning for the world of the good tidings [gospel] that came by reason of him” (Boring, Berger, and Colpe 1995: para. 225). Was he proud? You better believe it. He thought he was a god!

  When Paul penned his first epistle to Timothy, he concluded with the thought that Jesus is the “blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (6:15). The word Potentate is the same word as mighty in Mary’s song. Timothy was ministering in Asia minor when he received the letter during the reign of Emperor Nero. While Nero never claimed to be a god, at least in Rome, the Greek world, of which Asia Minor is a part, considered the emperor a god. There was a coin minted in Laodicea that had a portrait of Nero and the word “theos” (god) by his name!

  There is a day coming, in the middle of the seven year Tribulation, when the Man of Sin will be revealed. He will be the Son of Perdition who will oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God! (2 Thess. 2:3, 4). Jesus refers to this event as the “Abomination of Desolation” predicted by Daniel the prophet (Matt. 24:15; cf. Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 12:11). Paul goes on to describe the end of this Lawless One when he says that the “Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thess. 2:8). That is the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus to earth.

  Mary goes on to say that the Mighty One has “put down the mighty from their thrones” (1:52a). The word “mighty” in this verse is the same as the word “mighty” used for God in verse 49. Perhaps Mary had in mind those rulers who thought they were a god. There is a proverb that every ruler, be it a king, president, prime minister, or whatever, should memorize. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Prov. 21:1). Every ruler should realize that they rule only as long as God allows. When He has used them to fulfill His purposes, whatever they may be, then they are removed from the scene.

  The list of rulers who have had a god-complex in history would include the pharaohs, Phillip II, Alexander the Great, Antiochus IV, Caesar Augustus, Caligula, and Domitian. Each and every one of them had their hearts in the hands of the Living God. When He was done with them, their hearts stopped beating.

  On the other hand, Mary goes on to say that God exalts the lowly. Her mind probably went back to her ancestor, King David. The LORD instructed Samuel the prophet to take a sacrifice to Bethlehem and anoint a king for Israel from the tribe of Judah and the house of Jesse (1 Sam. 16:1-13). Jesse brought his seven sons before Samuel, but each were rejected by the Lord because “man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart” (6:7). Finally, the eighth and youngest of Jesse’s sons is called while he was out in the Judean Desert tending the family flock of sheep. The Lord said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is the one” (16:12). God exalts the lowly (cf. 1 Cor. 1:26-31).

  In the next verse, Mary contrasts the rich and the hungry. “The ‘hungry’ are those conscious of a need, particularly the need of righteousness (Matt. 5:6) and a life acceptable with God. Their soul shall be satisfied (Ps. 107:9), but the self-satisfied, represented by the ‘rich’ shall be sent away devoid of the truth and destitute of spiritual wealth” (Koontz 1959: 347).

  Mary then concludes this section by saying: “He has helped His servant Israel” (1:54a).

  My sanctified imagination would like to think that Mary used this song as a lullaby for the Baby Jesus. I’m sure most of us can remember some of the songs that were sung to us as a little child. I’m sure Jesus would have remembered this one because when He began to teach His disciples He recalled the words from the song His mother sang, “He has scattered the proud,” so He instructed His disciples, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” His mother sang, “He has exalted the humble and meek.” He instructed His disciples, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” His mother sang, “He has filled the hungry.” He continued to instruct His disciples, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matt. 5:3, 5, 6). “The Beatitudes re-echo the phrases of [the] Magnificat, and fill them with a more spiritual meaning” (Bernard 1907: 205, 206).

  The Mighty One demonstrates His mercy because He remembered His covenant. 1:54b, 55

  The concluding stanza comes back to the remembrance of God’s mercy. It is not that God has forgotten, nor does He have short term memory loss or Alzheimer’s disease, but God remembers because He is celebrating His mercy towards Abraham and his Seed.

  Mary probably has in mind the last verse of the book of Micah: “You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn to our fathers from days of old” (7:20), when she says “In remembrance of His mercy to Abraham and to his Seed forever.” The phrase, “As He spoke to our Fathers” seems to be a parenthetical statement.

  God made an unconditional covenant with Abraham where He promised He would make of Abraham a great nation and make his name great. God would bless him and make him a blessing to others. God also promised a specific land to Abraham and his descendents (Gen. 12:1-3; 13:14-18; 15:1-21; 17:4-8).

  After, the LORD put Abraham through ten tests in order to see if he would be faithful to the Lord in all situations (Cassuto 1964: 294-296). Abraham failed some of the tests, yet God was merciful to him and still used him to fulfill His promises. The last test that God gave to Abraham was to see if he would offer his “son, [his] only son Isaac,” Abraham passed this test and God reconfirmed the covenant with Abraham by saying: “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son – blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendents as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashores; and your descendents shall possess the gates of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice” (Gen. 22:16-18).

  The Apostle Paul gave a divine commentary on this verse when he wrote to the church in Galatia: “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed,’ who is Christ” (Gal. 3:16).

  The promised Seed would come through Abraham, Isaac (Gen. 17:19; 26:1-5), Jacob (Gen. 28:10-15), Judah (Gen. 49:10), and David (Ruth 4:17-22). Nathan the prophet set forth the unconditional Davidic covenant in 2 Sam. 7, which promised that a descendent of David would sit upon the throne of David forever (7:4-17). The Seed whom Mary carried in her womb, the Lord Jesus Christ, would be the ultimate blessing to all the people of the earth (Luke 1:42).

  Applications

  What can we learn from Mary? First and foremost, we, like Mary, are all sinners. Because we are sinners, we need a Savior. That is the reason the Lord Jesus came to earth. He was born, the sinless Son of God, lived a perfect life, never sinning once, and then died on the Cross of Calvary as our Sin Bearer. He rose from the dead three days later to demonstrate that sin had been paid for, death had been conquered and Satan defeated. In grace, He can freely offer any sinner who puts their trust in Him, the forgiveness of sins, a home in heaven, and the free gift of eternal life (John 3:16; Rom. 4:5; Eph. 2:8, 9; I John 5:13). Mary trusted the Lord to be her Savior.

  Second, when we realize what God has done for us, we magnify Him by our lives and by our lips. This is called worship. At the Passover meal, right before Jesus was crucified; He took bread and wine and instituted the Lord’s Supper. He instructed His disciples to remember Him in this simple way often (Matt. 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:17-20; John 13:12-30). He apparently thought it important enough to also reiterate order and meaning of the Lord’s Table to the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 11:23-34). Our worship should lead us to witness to a lost and dying world around us. In essence, this song that Mary composed is her verbal testimony to her family and friends as to what God has done for her in her life.

  Third, like Mary, we need to know the attributes of God. The only way we can know the attributes of an eternal, holy God is to read about them in His Word. The challenge to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ is to know the Word of God. Mary, I am sure, had godly parents who helped her memorize the Scriptures, took her to the synagogue where she absorbed what was said by the rabbis and from the reading of the Torah scrolls.

  Fourth, in the second literary unit, Mary demonstrated her knowledge of the ways of God. She understood that God would ultimately set things in order and bring about the reversal of fortune of the proud and the people of God, if not in this life, then in the ages to come. Mary was also keenly aware of the Abrahamic Covenant and knew God would be faithful to His promises. Believers in the Lord Jesus should be diligent students of the Word of God in order to properly discern the ways of God as revealed in His Word (2 Tim. 2:15).

  Bibliography

  Aytoun, R. A.
  1917 The Ten Hymns of the Nativity in Their Original Language. Journal of Theological Studies 18: 274-288.

  Barns, Thomas
  1906 The Magnificat in Niceta of Remesiana and Cyril of Jerusalem. Journal of Theological Studies 7: 449-453.

  Benko, Stephen
  1967 The Magnificat. A History of the Controversy. Journal of Biblical Literature 86: 263-275.

  Wood, Irving
  1902 Tas Doulas in the Magnificat, Luke 1: 48. Journal of Biblical Literature 21: 48-50.

  Bernard, J. H.
  1906 The Magnificat. Expositor 7^th series. 3: 193-206.

  Burkitt, F. C.
  1906 Who Spoke the Magnificat? Journal of Theological Studies 7: 220-227.

  Buth, Randall
  1984 Hebrew Poetic Tenses and the Magnificat. Journal for the Study of the New Testament 21: 67-83.

  Cassuto, U.
  1964 A Commentary on the Book of Genesis. Part 2. From Noah to Abraham. Jerusalem: Magnes. Reprinted 1974.

  Davies, J. G.
  1964 The Ascription of the Magnificat to Mary. Journal of Theological Studies 15: 307-308.

  Fisher, G. Richard
  2006 The Jesus Dynasty. The Imaginary and Irrational Interpretations of James Tabor. The Quarterly Journal (Personal Freedom Outreach). 26/3: 4-12.

  Fruchtenbaum, Arnold
  1992 The Birth and Early Life of the Messiah. Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries. Manuscript number 127.

  Harris, J. Rendel
  1929-1930 Mary of Elizabeth? Expository Times 41: 266-267.
  1930-1931 Again the Magnificat. Expository Times 42: 188-190.

  Haupt, Paul
  1919 Magnificat and Benedictus. American Journal of Philology 40/1: 64-75.

  Jones, Douglas
  1967 The Background and Character of the Lukan Psalms. Journal of Theological Studies 19: 19-50.

  Koontz, John V.
  1959 Mary’s Magnificat. Bibliotheca Sacra 116: 336-349.

  Lewis, Bart
  1997 Did Ancient Celators Use Magnifying Lenses? The Celator 11/11: 40, 41.

  Machen, J. Gresham
  1912 The Hymns of the First Chapter of Luke. Princeton Theological Review 10: 1-38.
  1932 The Virgin Birth of Christ. New York and London: Harper and Brothers.

  Nolland, John
  1989 Word Biblical Commentary. Luke 1-9:20. Vol. 35a. Dallas, TX: Word Books.

  Seneca
  1971 Natural Questions. Books 1-3. Vol. 7. Trans. T. H. Corcoran. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library 450. Reprinted 1999.

  Tabor, James
  2006 The Jesus Dynasty. New York: Simon and Schuster.

  Tameanko, Marvin
  1989 Literature Points Out Knowledge of Magnifiers. The Best of the Celator
  1989. Lodi, WI: The Celator.

  Tannehill, Robert C.
  1974 The Magnificat as Poem. Journal of Biblical Literature 93: 263-275.

  Warfield, B. B.
  1885 Messianic Psalms of the New Testament. Expositor 3^rd series. 2: 301-309.

  Winter, Paul
  1954-1955 Magnificat and Benedictus-Maccabean Psalms? Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 37: 328-347.
• 04Feb

  The Tyrian Shekel and the Temple of Jerusalem

  Life of Christ Comments Off on The Tyrian Shekel and the Temple of Jerusalem

  By Gordon Franz

  Students of the Bible are aware of the connection between the Jerusalem Temple and the city of Tyre. Hiram, king of Tyre, sent cedars of Lebanon, cypress logs and artisans to Jerusalem to help King Solomon build the First Temple (I Kings 5; II Chron. 2).

  Most people may not be aware that there is a connection between the city of Tyre and the Second Temple in Jerusalem, the Tyrian shekel.

  Every year, a Jewish man, 20-years old and older, paid a voluntary half shekel Temple tax to the Jerusalem Temple. This tax, instituted by Moses (Ex. 30:11-16), was paid in either the Tyrian shekel (for himself and another person) or half-shekel (for only himself) during the Second Temple period ( Mishnah Bekhoroth 8:7; Babylonian Talmud Kiddushin 11a).

  The shekel, with the laureate head of Melqarth-Herakles (a pagan deity) on the obverse and an eagle (a graven image) on the reverse, averaged 14.2 grams in weight and contained at least 94% silver. These coins were minted in Tyre between 126/125 BC and 19/18 BC. After the Roman government closed the Tyre mint, these coins continued to be minted at an unknown mint, probably in or near Jerusalem, from 18/17 BC until AD 69/70. The Jewish celators continued to strike coins with the image of Melqarth-Herakles and the eagle. This was contrary to the clear teachings of the Word of God (Ex. 20:3,4: Deut. 4:16-18; 5:8). Yet the rabbis declared that the Tyrian shekels were the only legal currency that was acceptable in the Temple (Hendin 2001: 420-429; 2002: 46,47). The rabbis decided that the commandment to give the half-shekel Temple tax, with its proper weight and purity, was more important than the prohibition of who or what image was on the coin.

  The Tyrian shekel is mentioned at least twice in the New Testament. The first time it is mentioned is in Matt. 17:24-27 when the Temple Tax collectors asked Peter if he and his Master paid the Temple tax. Peter replied in the affirmative. The Lord Jesus, seeing a teaching opportunity on Biblical greatness, demonstrated humility by paying the Temple tax for Himself and Peter with a shekel coin from a fish’s mouth (Franz 1997:81-87). The second mention is in Matt. 26:14, 15 when Judas betrayed the Lord Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, most likely Tyrian shekels from the Temple Treasury.

  Bibliography

  Franz, G.

  “Does Your Teacher Not Pay the [Temple] Tax? (Matt. 17:24-27). Bible and Spade 10/4: 81-87.

  Hendin, D.

  Guide to Biblical Coins. Fourth Edition. New York: Amphora.

  Tyre Coins and Graven Images. The Celator 16/2: 46, 47.
• 04Feb

  The Angelic Proclamation To The Shepherds Luke 2:8-15

  Life of Christ Comments Off on The Angelic Proclamation To The Shepherds Luke 2:8-15

  By Gordon Franz

  I would like to draw back the curtains on the Drama of World Redemption and take a peek at what was going on behind the scenes during the second half of the First Century BC. I will also consider the events leading up to the birth of the Lord Jesus and the announcement of that birth by the angels to the shepherds in the fields surrounding Bethlehem.

  This may seem like a daunting task; and I am not presuming that I have all the answers. I am like the Monday morning quarterback that analyzes the Sunday afternoon football game with 20-20 hindsight pointing out the team’s mistakes, analyzing why they lost the game, and showing how they could have won.

  As an archaeologist, historian and a student of the Scriptures, I will bring some of the “secular” and “sacred” sources together to see the announcement of the birth of the Lord Jesus by the angels in the greater context of world redemption and the “conflict of the ages,” the war between God and Satan. For a good Biblical overview of the conflict between God and Satan, see Renald E. Showers’s, What on Earth is God Doing? Satan’s Conflict with God (1973).

  An Overview of the Conflict of the Ages

  This drama, or conflict, actually began in the Garden of Eden. Eve, our first mother, was deceived by Satan who was disguised as a serpent. She fell into transgression and disobeyed the Word of God (I Tim. 2:13, 14). God cursed the serpent and said to him: ” And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen. 3:13). This was the first prophecy at the beginning of the long war between God and Satan.

  Years later, God made an unconditional covenant with Abraham where He promised a land to Abraham and his descendents (Gen. 12:1-3; 13:14-18; 15:1-21; 17:4-8). After God tested Abraham to see if he would offer his “son, [his] only son Isaac,” Abraham passed this test and God reconfirmed the covenant with Abraham by saying: ” By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son – blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendents as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashores; and your descendents shall possess the gates of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice” (Gen. 22:16-18).

  The Apostle Paul provided an inspired commentary on this verse when he wrote to the church in Galatia: “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed,’ who is Christ” (Gal. 3:16).

  The promised Seed would come through Abraham, Isaac (Gen. 17:19; 26:1-5), Jacob (Gen. 28:10-15), Judah (Gen. 49:10), and David (Ruth 4:17-22). Nathan the prophet set forth the unconditional Davidic covenant in II Sam. 7, which promised that a descendent of David would sit upon the throne of David forever (7:4-17).

  The kings of Judah were sometimes not on their best behavior. At one point, Satan thought he won a victory when he saw Jehoiachin (also called Jeconiah or Coniah) sinning grossly. God was so displeased with Jehoiachin that Jeremiah records this prophecy: ” Is this man Coniah a despised, broken idol – a vessel in which is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his descendents, and cast into a land which they do not know? O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the LORD: ‘Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for none of his descendents will prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling anymore in Judah'” (Jer. 22:28-30). Satan thought he had won a victory in the war with God, now there could be no Messiah to fulfill the Davidic covenant!

  Satan, however, was in for a big surprise. When the Lord Jesus was born, He could claim a legal right to the throne of David through His adoptive father Joseph. Joseph was related to David through David’s son Solomon, but there was still the problem of the curse against Jehoiachin (Matt. 1:1-17). The seeming victory of Satan was turned to defeat when he found out that the blood line of the Messiah came through his mother Mary, who was also related to David by another one of David’s son, Nathan (Luke 3:23-38). The Lord Jesus had a legal, as well as a blood claim, to the throne of David. Thus, He will be able to fulfill the Davidic covenant. One day in the future, He shall rule upon the throne of David from Jerusalem (Luke 1:30-33).

  Satan also knew the prophecies of Daniel chapter 9, verses 24-27, and knew it was about time for the Messiah to come to earth. His thinking was: “I will put one of my puppets on the throne of an empire that will rule the world and bring peace and prosperity. And I will have some of my messengers herald him as a savior. Perhaps the people of the world will fall for my messiah and his “heaven on earth” and forget about God’s Savior who will rule in Jerusalem.” Satan began to put him plan into motion.

  Octavian / Caesar Augustus

  On September 23, 63 BC (on the Julian calendar), Gaius Octavian was born in Rome just before sunrise. Apparently his father, Senator Octavius, was present at the birth of Octavian because he was late for work in the Roman Senate. When he arrived at the Senate building, he announced the birth of his son. A senator who heard the announcement, Nigidius Figulus, was also an astrologer, so he inquired as to the time of the birth. According to the Roman historian Suetonius, when he found out, he “declared that the ruler of the world had been born” ( Deified Augustus I: 94: 5; LCL 1: 267). Another Roman historian named Dio Cassius, records that Nigidius cried out, “You have begotten a master over us!” ( Roman History 45: 1: 3-5; LCL 4: 409).

  A numismatic scholar was able to cast Augustus’ horoscope and demonstrate from the ancient sources that the astrological charts “predicted” Augustus rule (Molnar 1994a: 6-15). He comments: “I believe that Augustus was certain that he had an ironclad astral license for imperial rule. I also suspect that he probably took advantage of this starry legacy by exploiting the superstition of his friends and foes. Friendly believers of astral fatalism would have been inclined to support him in achieving his ‘inevitable’ destiny, whereas his adversaries may have been reluctant to fight fate: a powerful formula for a self-fulfilling prophecy. Although it is pure conjecture, I cannot help but wonder how even Julius Caesar may have been influenced to adopt this distant nephew who had a wondrous horoscope claiming omnipotence and world rule” (1994a: 6, 7).

  Firmicus Maternus, an astrological writer in the 4^th century AD, wrote concerning Augustus’ horoscope, “[It] will make emperors whose rule extends throughout the whole world and whose power is so great that it approaches that of the gods” (Molnar 1994a: 12).

  Divination and astrology were widespread in the Roman world at this time. Satan used astrology, something that the Word of God condemns and forbids (Lev. 19:26; Deut. 18:9-24; Isa. 47:13-14), to set up his puppet to be the ruler of the world.

  Suetonius mentioned that he read an account of the conception of Octavian in a book called Theologumena (“Discourse about the gods”) by Asclepias of Mendes. According to the story, Attia was impregnated by a serpent in the temple of Apollo. After this happened, a discoloration on her body was seen in the form of a serpent. Ten months later, Octavian was born and he was regarded as the son of the god Apollo ( Deified Augustus 94:4; LCL 1: 265, 267). Dio Cassius also relates the same story ( Roman History 45: 2, 3; LCL 4:407-409). There were coins minted by Augustus with the inscription on it, “son of god.” While he was the adopted son of the deified Julius Caesar, he was also the son of the god Apollo.

  When Octavian was 19 years old, his uncle, Julius Caesar was assassinated in the Senate building on the Ides of March, 44 BC (something else the astrological charts predicted. See Molnar 1994b: 6-10). The two leading conspirators, Brutus and Cassius, fled to the east and raised an army to retake Rome and return it to a Republic and not the dictatorship that Julius Caesar had established. Two and a half years later (October 42 BC), an exhausted and undermanned army led by Octavian and Mark Antony met the armies of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi. As fate would have it, the armies of Brutus and Cassius were defeated and the two men committed suicide.

  In 40 BC Virgil (70-19 BC), a prophet of Satan, masquerading as a world renowned poet, wrote a poem called the “Fourth Eclogue” about a virgin and a divine child who will end the civil wars in the Roman world and bring peace and prosperity to the world. It would be a paradise on earth. Thus began the “golden age” of Rome. Peace seemed to prevail after the death of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII in Egypt in 30 BC when Octavian became the sole ruler of the Roman world.

  In January 27 BC, Octavian was given the title Augustus which means one who is worthy of honor and worship, like a god. The “secular Games” were celebrated in 17 BC in honor of Augustus’ rule of peace and prosperity. Coins were minted commemorating his rule. Some even had inscriptions on them that called Augustus the “son of god.” In 13 BC an altar of peace was dedicated in Rome. Also, the doors of the Temple of Janus, the god of war, were closed because Rome was not a war with anybody because Pax Romana, the peace of Rome, had prevailed.

  It was in this context, on May 14, 6 BC, the real Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus was born. According to one of the early Church Fathers, Clement of Alexandria (ca. 160-215 AD), the date given on the Egyptian calendar for the birth of Jesus was Pachom 25 ( Stromata 1:21; 1994:333b). On the Gregorian calendar, this date is May 14^th, 6 BC (Faulstich 1989: 3-14). Apparently Clement had access to records that we do not have today and I have no reason to doubt this date.

  The Angelic Announcement – 2:8-15

  Dr. Luke links the birth of the Lord Jesus with the reign of Caesar Augustus (Luke 2:1). Unbeknownst to Caesar Augustus, the decree that he made for the world to be registered, was used by God to fulfill the prophecy of Micah 5:2, ” But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”

  Mary, pregnant with Jesus, had returned to Nazareth. This decree brought her and Joseph from the village of Nazareth in Lower Galilee to Bethlehem in the Hill Country of Judah. God has a sense of humor as He used Satan’s puppet, Caesar Augustus, to bring about the fulfillment of Micah’s prophecy. Augustus was clueless as to what was going on behind the scenes in the “conflict of the ages.”

  At the birth of Octavian there were some impressive natal signs in the stars as far as the astrologers were concerned. But at the birth of the Lord Jesus, God does a “one-upman” on Satan and his prognosticators. The “glory of the Lord” shone around the shepherds. This glory of the Lord is known in the Hebrew Scriptures as the Shechinah Glory. This bright manifestation of God had resided in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, and also in Solomon’s Temple. But the Glory of the LORD departed from that temple right before the Babylonian’s destroyed Jerusalem in 587/6 BC (Ezek. 8-11).

  When a remnant of Judeans returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel after the Babylonian captivity the Temple was rebuilt. We know there were five things that were in Solomon’s Temple that were not in the Second Temple. They were: (1) The Ark of the Covenant which included the cover and the Cherubim, (2) the fire on the altar (cf. Lev. 1:7), (3) the Shechinah Glory (4) the Holy Spirit [of Prophecy], and (5) the Urim-we-Thummim (BT Yoma 21b; Moed 3: 94). The Glory of the Lord was missing from the Second Temple.

  The Shechinah Glory had not been seen for over 580 years. It showed up on the night of the birth of the Lord Jesus and then disappeared again. It will not be seen on earth again until after the seven year period of Tribulation and Jesus’ establishment of His Kingdom in Jerusalem and the building of the Millennial Temple (Ezek. 43:1-5). Ezekiel ends his book with the phrase, “The LORD is There.” He says that because the Shechinah Glory has returned to the Holy of Holies in the Temple.

  An Angel of the LORD also appeared when Jesus was born and said to the shepherds near Bethlehem: “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:10-12).

  Caesar Augustus had a natal sign in the stars at his birth, but the sign the angel gave to the shepherds for the location of the Messiah was that they would find him wrapped in swaddling cloth, lying in a manger! Hardly the sign one would expect for the birth of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who would one day rule the world.

  There was an interesting Greek inscription found in Priene in western Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). Part of this lengthy 84 line inscription said: “Since the Providence which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue [divine power] that he might benefit mankind, sending him as a savior, both for us and for our descendents, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance [“epiphany,” often used of Hellenistic rulers] (excelled even our anticipations), surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning for the world of the good tidings [gospel] that came by reason of him” (Boring, Berger, and Colpe 1995: para. 225). The Greek transcript of the whole inscription can be found in Dittenberger 1905:48-60; Inscription 458. The original is on display in the Berlin Museum and consists of two blocks of different types of stone. The upper block is blue limestone, while the lower one is white marble (Sherk 1969:329; For photographs, see Deissmann 1995; Figs. 70 and 71, between pages 366 and 367).

  This inscription was executed in 9 BC after “Paullus Fabius Maximus, proconsul of Asia, wrote to the provincial assembly urging the council to adopt the natal day of Augustus as the beginning of the official year in the province, and to change from the lunar to the solar reckoning of the Julian calendar. The assembly adopted the recommendation enthusiastically as a means of conferring honor upon the deified emperor. Copies of the decree were ordered to be engraved and set up in different cities” (Abbott and Johnson 1968: 331). Fragments of this inscription have also been found in Apamea (Latin fragments), Dorylaeum, Eumenia and Maeonia.

  My sanctified imagination chuckles at the thought of this Angel of the Lord watching the workmen at Priene chisel this inscription in the white marble and saying to himself: “You just wait! Three more years and the real epiphany will take place and good tidings will be given because Jesus will be born. He will be the true Savior of the World and also the Messiah and Lord, not Caesar Augustus!”

  After the shepherds were instructed as to where to find the Messiah, a multitude of the heavenly host appeared praising God and saying, ” Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14). The peace that the angels spoke about was not the Pax Romana, but a peace that only God could give.

  Today we hear much about the “separation of church and state” in the news, but believe it or not, this so-called separation is not found in the Constitution! The angelic announcement demonstrates that God is blatantly involved in the political affairs of the Roman Empire. These statements by the angels are a polemic against Caesar Augustus, and his foreign policies. Jesus is LORD and one day He will rule the world with justice and righteousness and only then will true peace prevail.

  Almost 12 years after the death of Caesar Augustus in AD 14, the Lord Jesus identified with His Covenant People, Israel, when He went to the Jordan River and was immersed into the water by John the Baptizer (Luke 3:21, 22). [Remember this: John was not a Baptist, he was a Jew!]

  The Spirit of God led the Lord Jesus into the Wilderness in order for Him to be tested (Luke 4:1). Satan picked up a rock and said: ” If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread” (Luke 3:3). Here is a hint at what Caesar Augustus did for the people of Rome. He gave them bread and games. His policy was to feed and entertain the people so that they would like him. Jesus rebuked Satan by saying: ” It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luke 3:4). Jesus points out to Satan that there is more to life than just food and entertainment. One must be obedient to the Word of God.

  When Jesus delivered His “Sermon on the Mount” He taught His disciples to pray, “Give us this day, our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11). He then goes on to give a commentary on what we commonly call the “Lord’s prayer” (Matt. 6:14-7:6). His commentary on the daily bread concept is found in Matt. 6:25-34. Jesus said not to be anxious, like the Gentiles, about what they are going to eat, drink or wear, but if they would seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all these things (food, clothing and drink) will be added to them (Matt. 6:31-33). For the believer in the Lord Jesus, we should be seeking God in our daily life and living for Him.

  Jesus is again tested by Satan when He is taken to a high mountain and shown all the kingdoms of the world (Luke 4:5). Satan again tempts Jesus by saying, ” All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be Yours” (Luke 4:6, 7). Was Satan discarding one puppet and trying to enlist another? Satan had given Caesar Augustus an empire that stretched from Britain, all around the Mediterranean Sea, and he even received tribute as far away as India. Jesus refused to play Satan’s game and made the statement: ” Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve'” (Luke 4:8). Satan was offering Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in order to get Him to avoid the Cross. Jesus was steadfast. He knew He had to go to the Cross and die and pay for all the sins of all the world. He had to defeat Satan and conquer death before He could claim the throne of David and rule triumphantly from Jerusalem.

  Later in Jesus’ ministry He was in the region of Caesarea Philippi at the base of Mount Hermon in the northern part of Israel. It was in this region that Herod the Great built a temple dedicated to the worship of Caesar Augustus after Caesar had visit the area in 20 BC ( Antiquities 15: 354, 363, 364; LCL 8: 171, 175, 177). Jesus asked His disciples: “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Matt. 16:16).

  The Lord Jesus acknowledged that Peter got the answer correct when He said, “Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:17, 18). At this point, Jesus begins to plainly tell His disciples that He would be going to Jerusalem to suffer and die, but He would be raised from the dead three days later (Matt. 16:21). Peter rebuked the Lord Jesus because he wanted to rule and reign with Christ. Jesus turned the tables on Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (Matt. 16:23).

  Augustus had said before he died that he hoped that he had laid the foundation for a kingdom that would last immovably. At Caesarea Philippi, in the shadows of the Augustan temple, Jesus declared, ” Upon this Rock, I will build My Church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18).

  Catch the irony of the historical contrasts. Caesar Augustus is dead and his ashes are in an urn buried in the Mausoleum of Augustus on the banks of the Tiber River in Rome. On the other hand, the Lord Jesus died on a cruel cross, but was raised from the dead from a tomb in Jerusalem and has ascended into Heaven where He is seated at the right hand of the Father. Caesar Augustus’ great empire was in total shambles only a few years after his death and it no longer exists today. On the other hand, the Church of Jesus Christ continued and will continue to be built until He returns to take His Church home to be with Himself (John 14:1-6; I Thess. 4:13-18).

  A discerning First-century AD Roman philosopher once stated: “Caesar can bring peace to the world; both on land and sea, but he can not bring peace to the hearts of men and women.” I am sure the Apostle Paul was aware of that statement when he penned the words to the church in Rome: ” Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1, 2). The word justified is a legal term for the act of God whereby He declares a sinner righteous. When a person places their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him alone, God declares that person righteous. Because that person is righteous, they have peace with God, something Augustus could not provide for the people of the Roman Empire.

  Caesar Augustus was a nice guy and very generous with his money (Suetonius, Deified Augustus 41; LCL 1: 189), helping people out whenever and wherever he could, but he was still a sinner and could not pay for his own sins, let alone the sins of the world. The Apostle Peter, writing from Rome, put it eloquently, yet simply: ” knowing that [we] were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold … but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (I Pet. 1:18, 19). Only the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in human flesh, could pay the debt that each of us owed a Holy God. On the Cross He cried, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). The Greek word, tetelestai, is an economic term for a transaction that has been paid in full. There is nothing we have to do, nor is there anything we can do, to pay for our salvation. It has already been paid for us by the Lord Jesus.

  To the church at Philippi in Macedonia, a Roman colony and the place where Octavian (later to be called Caesar Augustus) and Mark Anthony defeated Brutus and Cassius, Paul wrote about the ” Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” and he also wrote about the ” God of peace” (Phil. 4:7, 9); Something and some One which Caesar Augustus knew nothing about.

  Application

  How do we apply these words of the angels to our lives today? The shepherds responded by going to Bethlehem to see the Babe wrapped in swaddling cloth lying in a manger. These shepherds were no ordinary shepherds. According to the rabbinic sources, they were the ones who raised the lambs and sheep for the Temple sacrifices. They knew of the many lambs sacrificed in the Temple. They also knew that the blood of the lambs only atoned for, or covered the sins of, the nation, but the blood of these lambs never took away the sin. They knew better than most people the limitation of the blood of the lambs they raised for the Temple. Because of this limitation, they were looking forward to the day when the Lord would provide the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world forever (John 1:29). By faith, they understood that the baby Jesus (YHWH is salvation) would be their Savior and He would not only atone for sin, but would take their sins completely away forever.

  After seeing Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus, they returned to their sheepfolds ” glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them” (Luke 2:20). From Joseph, they would have heard that Jesus would “save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). How much these shepherds knew of the death of Christ, we are not told. But in a bit of irony, they had seen the Lamb of God who would put them out of business some 35 years later. When the Lord Jesus died on Calvary’s cross He paid for sin, once and for all, and there was no more need for the sacrifices in the Temple (Heb. 9:26-10:18). Have you accepted the good tidings that the angels spoke about? Have you trusted the Savior that they proclaimed? Or do you trust in one of Satan’s pseudo-messiahs? Are we looking for “heaven on earth” or are you searching for a happy life with one of Satan’s gimmicks?

  As the Apostle Peter says, ” We have a more sure word of prophecy” (II Pet. 1:19; cf. Isa. 8:19, 20). We do not need to read our daily horoscope in the newspaper, nor call 1-800-PSYCHIC, or have our palms read, or consult the dead at a séance in order to find out the future or to have a fulfilling life. All these things are condemned by the Scriptures, and forbidden for believers to be engaged in. In order to find fulfillment in our life and to discern God’s will for our life, we need to read the Word of God and understand the principles laid down in the Word for our lives and use these to determine what God’s will is for our individual lives. It is also the Word of God that tells us what the future will be for the Church, Israel and an unbelieving world. It also answers the question: Who will rule the earth? It will not be Caesar Augustus, or any other puppet in Satan’s closet, but it will be the Lord Jesus Christ who will rule for a thousand years on the throne of David in Jerusalem. Even so, come Lord Jesus!

  Bibliography

  Abbott, Frank F., and Johnson, Allan C.

  Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire. New York: Russell and Russell. Reprint from the 1926 edition.

  Boring, Eugene M.; Berger, Klaus; and Colpe, Carsten, eds.

  Hellenistic Commentary to the New Testament. Nashville, TN: Abingdon.

  Brown, Raymond

  1993 The Birth of the Messiah. New York: Doubleday.

  Clement of Alexandria

  1994 The Stromata, or Miacellanies. Pp. 299-402 in Ante-Nicene Fathers. Vol. 2. Edited by A. Roberts and J. Donaldson. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.

  Deissmann, Adolf

  Light from the Ancient East. Trans. by L. R. M. Strachan. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson. Reprinted from the 1927 edition.

  Dio Cassius

  Dio’s Roman History. Vol. 4. Trans. by E. Cary. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library 66.

  Dittenberger, Wilhelmus

  Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae. Hildesheim: Georg Olms. Reprinted from the 1905 edition.

  Epstein, Rabbi I., trans. and ed.

  The Babylonian Talmud. Seder Mo’ed. Yoma. Vol. 3. London: Soncino.

  Faulstich, E. W.

  Witness for Jesus the Messiah. Spencer, Iowa: Chronology Books.

  Josephus

  Jewish Antiquities. Books 15-17. Vol. 8. Trans. by R. Marcus and A. Wikgren. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library 410. Reprinted 1980.

  Molnar, Michael R.

  1994a Astrological Omens Commemorated on Roman Coins: Capricorn. The Celator 8/4: 6-15.

  1994b Astrological Omens Commemorated on Roman Coins: The Ides of March. The Celator 8/11: 6-10.

  Sherk, Robert

  Roman Documents from the Greek East. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins.

  Showers, Renald E.

  What on Earth is God Doing? Satan’s Conflict with God. Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers.

  Stauffer, Ethelbert

  Christ and the Caesars. Philadelphia: Westminster.

  Suetonius

  Lives of the Caesars. The Deified Augustus. Vol. 1. Trans. by J. C. Rolfe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library 31.
• 04Feb

  Mephibosheth: An Overcomers Forerunner

  Life of King David Comments Off on Mephibosheth: An Overcomers Forerunner

  By Gordon Franz

  This “testimony” of Mephibosheth was written for the Winter 1985 issue of The Overcomer a periodical of the Christian Overcomers of NJ, an organization serving physically disabled youth and adults.

  Thank you for allowing me to share my testimony with you this evening. As some of you noticed, I came to this banquet in a special chariot (archaeological note: this was the ancient forerunner to the wheelchair!). For thirty-six years I have had to get around in this or on the back of a donkey, depending on the roads.

  My life had a storybook beginning. When I was born, I was a healthy and happy baby. My dad was crown prince and my grandfather, king of the nation. They named me Merib-baal (“contender against Baal”) because they wanted me to grow up to love the LORD God of Israel and fight against Baal, a false god of our Canaanite and Philistine neighbors. What more could I ask for? I had everything going for me, the future looked bright! Yet one day double tragedy struck.

  The first tragedy was that my father, Prince Jonathan, and two of my uncles were killed in a battle with the Philistines on Mount Gilboa (I Sam. 31:2). During the same battle my grandfather, King Saul, committed suicide and soon after the Philistines mutilated his body (I Sam. 31:4, 9, 10).

  The second tragedy occurred when news of the defeat reached the palace. My nurse picked me up and started to flee but accidentally dropped me, leading to a paralysis of the lower legs. The doctors did all they could, but to no avail. The diagnosis was permanent paralysis. I would never walk again! (II Sam. 4:4). Emotionally, this was a very trying time for me, even at the tender age of five years old. My life was changed. I was different than other children my age.

  The next few years were the most difficult for me. My uncle, Ishbosheth, did not want me around while he struggled with my father’s best friend David for the throne. I think he felt threatened that someone might want to make me king instead of him. I was sent off to live with a family in Lo-Debar. Some of you know about that place. No respectable person in his right mind would want to live there! The city is situated in the Jordan Valley which is unbelievably hot in the summer; there is no pasture land anywhere, hence its name. It is only eight miles from the Philistine stronghold of Beth-shan! Talk about living conditions, it was unbearable! During the summers, I would often dream and long for the cool breeze that floated through the palace of Gibeah in the Hill Country of Benjamin. All the talk of royalty was over after the “high society” people sent me off to the middle of nowhere.

  Well, it was not all that bad. I did meet a very caring young lady and we got married. (Historical note: they married in their early teens back then). The LORD blessed us with a son, Micha, whose name means “Who is like the LORD” (II Sam. 9:12).

  Toward the end of my teenage years the isolation I experienced and my struggles took a dramatic turn for the better. By this time, King David secured the throne, consolidated the kingdom and built a lovely palace in his new capital Jerusalem. He inquired as to whether any relatives of my grandfather were still alive. He wanted to show them kindness for the sake of my father. A former servant named Ziba told him of my whereabouts and condition.

  I was very thankful for David’s attitude and the way he treated me. First, he reached out to me and accepted me for who I was, not what I was. He saw me as a person, not a problem and welcomed me to his family with open arms. Second, David did not pamper me or spoil me even though I ate at his table. He gave me the responsibility of administering the land and servants that formally belonged to my grandfather. To this day, I am an active contributing member of this society (II Sam. 9).

  Some of you are probably wondering how I got my nickname “Mephibosheth” which means “exterminating the idols.” After I settled in Jerusalem, I got involved in spiritual things. I could not move fast, but I could move, so I would go around smashing idols of Baal and other pagan gods which were in the shrines on the hill tops in the kingdom. Then I would try and turn the hearts of the people back to the Lord God of Israel (Deut. 11:8-32). Mind you, I had the full backing and blessing of the king when I did this. My paralysis slowed me down, but did not stop me. I am still involved in the work of the Lord, even with my handicap.

  I would like to close with the words of a song with which you are all familiar. It was written by King David when he fled from his rebellious son Absalom. Humanly speaking, David has lost everything. I think we can all relate to that experience sometime in our life. Through the trying time, David could still say:

  The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

  He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

  He leads me beside still waters.

  He restores my soul;

  He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

  I will fear no evil; for You are with me;

  Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

  You anoint my head with oil; My cups runs over.

  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;

  And I will dwell in the House of the LORD forever.
• 04Feb

  September 11, 2001: America in the “Valley of Decision”

  Other Studies Comments Off on September 11, 2001: America in the “Valley of Decision”

  By Gordon Franz

  On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, a friend called and said, “Gordon, turn on the television, a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center!” I was shocked and said, “Are you kidding me?” With urgency in her voice she said, “No!” I rushed down stairs and watched in horror as they replayed the video of the second plane hitting the Twin Towers and then saw the eventual collapse of both buildings.

  As a nation, our hearts and prayers go out to the family and friends of those who perished in this horrific attack. We are also grateful to the men and women of the Port Authority, police, fire and emergency medical services, as well as the many volunteers, who risked their lives to evacuate and rescue the people trapped in the doomed and collapsed buildings. Words can not express our appreciation for the leadership shown by the mayor, governor, and president.

  Six days later, on Monday afternoon, September 17, 2001, I crossed the upper level of the George Washington Bridge into New York City on my way to teach my classes at New York School of the Bible. It was a beautifully clear day and I took my usual look down the Hudson River in order to view the magnificent Manhattan skyline. But this time it was different, the Twin Towers were gone! It was an eerie experience.

  King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, stated that God had “put eternity in the hearts” of human beings but they could not “find out the work of God from beginning to end” (Eccl. 3:11). In other words, our God given desire is to ask why something happens and to seek the purpose or meaning of an event. Yet God has kept back the meaning or stated purpose of some things, seemingly so we will trust Him in our daily walk and learn to enjoy life because it is a gift from Him (Eccl. 3:13).¹

  We will never fully know, this side of eternity, why an event like this tragic attack happened. Yet the Bible gives us clues to help us contemplate this event and use it to piece together the jigsaw puzzle of life.

  The Ultimate Cause

  The ultimate cause of this tragedy, like any violent and wicked action, is sin. Sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed a Holy God (Gen. 3; Rom. 5:12). Since that point, the creation has been groaning as it waits for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:18-23).

  As a result of the Fall, every human being, except the Lord Jesus (God manifest in the flesh), has been born a sinner (Ps. 51:5; Eph. 2:3; Jer. 17:9; cf. Heb. 4:15; 7:26; II Cor. 5:21). There are all kinds of sinners in this world, moral and immoral, as well as pious and evil, but we are all sinners (Rom. 3:23)!

  One religious leader blamed this tragedy on civil libertarians, feminists, homosexuals, abortionists, the ACLU and liberal judges. If he thought this was God’s judgment then he was too selective in his list of sinners. He forgot to mention the adulterers, liars, murderers, the covetous idol worshippers that bow down to the altar of the Almighty Dollar, those who hate, as well as those who neglect the poor, and other such sinners (I Tim. 1:9,10; Gal. 5:19-21; Col. 3:5; Rev. 21:8). While it is true, America is a nation of sinners (James 2:10), one must be careful not to presume the mind of God and say that this was His judgment. What we can say for sure is that some sinful people performed diabolical acts of wickedness against fellow human beings that led to destructive consequences for both righteous and unrighteous people. While God hates sin, He somehow allowed this evil to happen. But we must understand clearly that He was not the Author of this horrific act. His nature is to do only good but His nature also determines that He brings good out of evil (Ps. 5:4; Gen. 18:25; 50:20; Rom. 8:28).

  One of the reasons Mr. bin Laden tried to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993 was because it was a fitting symbol of American (and Western) materialism and greed. In attacking what the terrorists said was a symbol of greed, they also sought to destroy the lives of people who were working or visiting these apparent monuments to all that the terrorists say was evil. The terrorists apparently see murder as less evil than greed. The Apostle Paul, writing to Timothy who was ministering in Ephesus, the commercial center of Asia Minor, reminds us that the “love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (I Tim. 6:10). But the believer should never conclude, as the terrorists apparently do, that all those people working in the World Trade Center were greedy, covetous, lovers of money and materialistic. My assumption is that they were simply normal people from America and 63 other countries who were doing their jobs on what they thought was a normal day of the week. There certainly is a “spirit of materialism” in America and the World Trade Center may symbolize that spirit.

  This time the terrorists attacked the chief financial and military centers of the United States. I am reminded of the proud King Uzziah and the people of Judah who emulated their king. Both were proud of their material possessions (II Chron. 26:6-8; Isa. 2:7a) and military might (II Chron. 26:9-15; Isa. 2:7b). Yet because of his heart being lifted up, Uzziah was struck with leprosy (II Chron. 26:16-19) and Judah was humbled by an earthquake (Isa. 2:19,21).² The principle that Solomon gave is borne out in Uzziah’s experience: “Pride goes before destruction and the haughty spirit before the fall” (Prov. 16:18). We must at least wonder if this recent attack is God’s way of humbling us, as individuals and as a nation, in order to bring believers back to Himself and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and to present the unsaved with their need of salvation.

  This tragedy might serve as a wake-up call to both America and to the world from a God who loves the world (John 3:16). America is far from a righteous nation, yet the Holy Spirit is doing His job of convicting men and women, boys and girls, of their sin (singular) of unbelief (John 16:8,9). Each individual must realize that he or she is a sinner and cannot save him or herself from the penalty of sin. The Lord Jesus, God manifest in human flesh, demonstrated the love of God for sinners by dying on the Cross of Calvary to pay for all our sins. Three days later He rose again from the dead to prove that all our sins had been paid for and He has conquered death. When people trust (believe) in the Lord Jesus Christ, God forgives their sins, gives them His righteousness and these believers can know for certain that they have a home in Heaven (John 3:16; 6:47; Acts 4:12; 13:38,39; 16:31; Rom. 5:8; II Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:9; I John 5:13). The gift of eternal life has been and is freely given by God to all who put their trust in His Son and not any merits or works of their own (Rom. 4:5; Eph. 2:8,9; Tit. 3:5).

  Unfortunately the hijackers/terrorists were tragically misinformed by their religious indoctrination which says that if they were martyred for the Islamic cause they would go to Paradise. One political cartoonist captured this delusion by drawing five hijackers dressed in Islamic cleric garb holding knives and looking around at the flames of Hell. Before them was Satan sitting behind a booth marked “Hell Information”. One of the terrorists ponders, “I’m confused, this doesn’t look like Paradise…”³ More than likely, none of these Moslems trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Because they rejected Him, they will spend eternity separated from God, and each other, in Hell. Unfortunately, the Biblical description of Hell is far worst than that which is depicted in the cartoon (Matt. 25:41; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-31; Jude 13; Rev. 20:10-15).

  The Prophetic Implications

  I believe that the Rapture of the Church will take place before the Seventieth Week of Daniel (the seven-year period of the Tribulation). The Rapture is a signless event. As I understand it, nothing has to be fulfilled before the Rapture of the Church and in my opinion, nothing has been fulfilled yet. The events we see in the world today could possibly be the “stage setting” for the final conflict. On the other hand, they may not be.

  Two radio talk show hosts were interviewing an Israeli intelligence officer. He correctly diagnosed the conflict as a religious one. This conflict is between an extreme form of Islam, on the one hand, and the Jewish State of Israel and the “Christian” Western World on the other. Let’s be honest, in the Western World, Biblical Christianity, sad to say, has taken a back seat to materialism, sports, and the worship of the Almighty Dollar, Yen, and the Euro!

  Mr. bin Laden confirmed the conflict was a religious one when he called for a Jihad (holy war) against “the new Christian-Jewish crusade led by the big crusader Bush under the flag of the Cross.”⁴

  Yet my mind was drawn to two passages of Scripture, Ezekiel 38 and Daniel 11. These two passages from the Word of God inform us that one day there will be an attack on Israel by a Middle Eastern confederation, possibly an Islamic one.

  Ezekiel 38 predicts an attack on the Land of Israel from Gog, Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Gomer and Togarmah (38:2, 3, 6). Contrary to most popular prophecy teachers, this is not a confederation of communist countries led by the Soviet Union or even Russia today. All these places are in the area of modern-day Turkey!⁵ At present, Turkey has treaties and is at peace with Israel. It is a secular Islamic republic, but it would not take much for it to adopt extremist religious and political leanings and quickly and violently turn on Israel. Ezekiel also predicts that Persia (modern day Iran), Ethiopia and Libya would join this coalition (38:5). The common denominator of all these states now is that they are Islamic, not Arab states.

  Daniel 11:40-45 predicts that the “king of the north” (Syria and Iraq) and the “king of the south” (Egypt) would come against Jerusalem. These are all Arab, as well as Islamic, states. This campaign against Jerusalem, described in Ezekiel 38 and Daniel 11, should be seen as a religious war, not a political one.

  I do not think we have heard the last from these evil people and their diabolical deeds. When and if a coalition of states wages a campaign against terrorism, they must do it with the utmost care. As this campaign could easily backfire and result in the Islamic world turning on the West and possibly leading to a war like that described by the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel. One example of a potentially dangerous comment was when President Bush said that going after Mr. bin Laden was a “crusade”. That word is a very volatile word in the Moslem world because they remember the barbarism of the “Christian” church during the Crusades of the 11^th to the 13^th centuries. A point not lost on Mr. bin Laden when he called President Bush “the big crusader!”

  Observations on “spirits”

  On Friday, Sept. 14, 2001, a National Prayer Service was held in the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. One of the opening prayers was to the “God of Abraham, Mohammed and Jesus Christ.” That invocation is emphatically not Biblical theology. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Who is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, is different than the Allah of Mohammed! Christians must beware of this revived “ecumenical spirit” that these tragic events have fostered. The Lord Jesus made it clear at the Last Supper that He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6; cf. I Tim. 2:5,6). The apostle Paul also warns of being “unequally yoked together with unbelievers” in spiritual matters (II Cor. 6:14-18).

  Another “spirit” to be aware of is the “patriotic spirit”, also called the “spirit of America”, and our self-reliance. While I am thankful to be an American and grateful to the Lord for this nation and the freedoms that we still have, we must realize we are not a perfect and righteous nation. As Christians, our first allegiance is to our heavenly citizenship (Phil. 3:20). I am also thankful for the initial measure of unity shown by the Congress and the outpouring of love and support by and for the people of New York. However, remember the account when some people approached Jesus and told Him about Pilate mingling some Galileans’ blood with their sacrifices and the tower of Siloam falling on 18 people and killing them? What was Jesus’ response? He said, “Unless you repent (change your mind) you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:1-5)! It is a strong and sober warning.

  As we watch the news, it is easy to identify the boast of our self-reliance. ” We will get through this”, ” we will rebuild”, ” we will not be intimidated”, yet only lip service is given to God when we sing “God bless America” or put up a sign with such words. Perhaps we bow our heads for a moment of silence, yet no mention is made of the Lord Jesus. In the two hour “Prayer for America” rally at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, September 23, Jesus was mentioned only five times!

  An interesting parallel can be seen in the instructions of Moses to the Children of Israel just before they cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Moses commands them to keep the commandments and to love the Lord with all their hearts. When God blesses them, they are not to say, “My power and the might of my hands have gained me this wealth”. Because if they forget the Lord and follow after other gods, they shall perish (Deut. 8:11-20; 11:8-17; cf. Lev. 26:18-39). The prophet Zechariah put it this way, “‘Not by might nor by power, but by My spirit.’ Says the LORD of Hosts” (4:6). What we do should be done in the power of the Holy Spirit in order to bring glory to the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 5:16).

  Perhaps the Lord would use these events to bring about genuine revival in America. During the days that the prophet Joel ministered, Judah was hit with a severe locust plague, famine, drought and fires. Revival began with one man, Joel, when he cried out to the Lord (1:19). He called on the spiritual leadership of the nation to fast and call a sacred assembly to petition the Lord (1:13, 14). He admonished them to return to the Lord and not rituals (2:12, 13). It appears that God heard their prayers and restored the Land (2:21-27). The foundation of Joel’s preaching was the Mosaic Law and the prayer of Solomon (Deut. 28, 30; Lev. 26; II Chron. 6:12-42; 7:13, 14).

  Our Personal Response

  What should be our response to this tragedy? There are several observations I have made in the course of these events.

  First, believers in the Lord Jesus must realize every breath we take is a gift from God (Acts 17:25). We never know when it will be our last. As I watched a TV interview with several NY City firefighters, one of them recalled the words of the chief chaplain of New York’s bravest, Mychal Judge, who died in the collapse. He said, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him what you are going to do tomorrow.” This caught the essence of James 4:13-17. In this passage, James describes the arrogant merchants who plan their buying and selling activities and anticipate a profit, yet they do not realize that life is like a vapor! James admonishes them to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” It is a humbling thought to realize Someone else holds our future!

  The second observation is that the “sword” is given to the state to fight evil (Rom. 13:1-4). We should pray for the Lord to give wisdom to our leaders for the heavy decisions that have to be made (I Tim. 2:1, 2).

  Third, as individual believers, we are not to repay evil for evil (Rom. 12:17). It is a shame that people would take matters into their own hands and try to run down Moslems on the street or even shoot them just because they are Moslems or Arab. More than likely most Arabs and/or Moslems living in this country do not agree with the thoughts or actions of extremists of the same nationality or religion. If someone attacks these Arabs and/or Moslems in the name of vengeance, it is not vengeance, but rather, unprovoked violence! While the Apostle Paul, quoting Deut. 32:35, states that “‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord”. The individual believer should “overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:19, 21).

  The fourth observation is that believers are to love their neighbors (Rom. 13:8-10). If the Lord put a Moslem family in your neighborhood it is for a purpose. If your colleague at work is a Moslem or you have a non-Christian person in class, it is for a purpose. If we show love for one another and love for our neighbor, then by life and lips we can win that family, friend, colleague, or classmate to Jesus Christ (John 17:21).

  The final observation is the most important for someone who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ as his or her own Savior. Nobody knows when life will end. I’m sure most of those people going to work in the World Trade Center, or the Pentagon, or boarding four ill-fated flights on the morning of September 11 did not think it would be their last day on earth. Each of them, within a split second, was ushered into eternity. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Now is the day of salvation” (II Cor. 6:2). A person’s eternal destiny is determined in this life. Will you trust the One Who loves you, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Who died for your sins and rose from the dead and be guaranteed a place in Heaven, or will you continue to reject Him and spend an eternity separated from Him in Hell? It is the most important decision anyone will ever make. Where will you spend eternity?

  A Final Thought

  King Hezekiah was sitting in his palace in Jerusalem receiving reports of the Assyrian invasion of Judah in 701 BC. One of his messengers brought a letter from Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, threatening him with the total destruction of Jerusalem (Isa. 37:8-13). Hezekiah received the letter and spread it before the Lord in the Temple. He prayed, basically, “Lord, this is Your problem, what are You going to do about it?” (Isa. 37:14-20). The Lord sent the prophet Isaiah with the promise that God would take care of the problem (Isa. 37:21-35). Hezekiah rested in the promise of “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, for in YAHWEH, the LORD, is everlasting strength” (Isa. 26:3, 4). The LORD was faithful to His promise and the Angel of the LORD destroyed the Assyrian army that had encircled Jerusalem (Isa. 37:36).

  On Sunday, September 16, I was at a small gathering of believers in southern New Jersey to remember the Lord Jesus in the Breaking of Bread. At the end of the service, one brother gave out a hymn written by Edward H. Bickersteth (1825-1906) based on Isaiah 26. The words of “Peace, Perfect Peace” were such a comfort and encouragement in this time of turmoil.

  Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?

  The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.

  Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?

  To do the will of Jesus, this is rest.

  Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round?

  In Jesus’ bosom naught but calm is found.

  Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away?

  In Jesus’ keeping we are safe, and they.

  Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown?

  Jesus we know, and He is on the throne.

  Peace, perfect peace, death shadowing us and ours?

  Jesus has vanquished death and all its power.

  It is enough: earth’s struggles soon shall cease,

  And Jesus call us to heaven’s perfect peace.

  ¹ J. S. Wright, The Interpretation of Ecclesiastes. Pp. 133-150 in Classical Evangelical Essays in Old Testament Interpretation. Edited by W. Kaiser, Jr. Grand Rapids: Baker Books.

  ² Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, records that these two events occurred at the same time. Antiquities of the Jews 9:222-227; Loeb Classical Library 6:117-121.

  ³ Cartoon by Sean Delonas, The New York Post, September 16, 2001, page 50.

  ⁴ New York Post, September 25, 2001, page 5.

  ⁵ E. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier (1982). Grand Rapids: Baker Books.

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