today we interviewed dr. gabriel barkay. we've interviewed him before but today we interviewed him at ketef hinnom (the shoulder of hell in hebrew), a site where he made the most famous discovery of his archaeological career. in 1979 he and his team excavated there and found the only untouched ancient repository in jerusalem. there they discovered two small silver amulets, each containing inscriptions of old testament passages from numbers and deuteronomy dating all the way back to 600 B.C. making this the most ancient biblical text ever discovered. on one of the scrolls several lines from the jewish priestly blessing is inscribed, the same blessing that 2600 years later, the jewish priests of today recite at the wailing wall on the jewish holiday of sukkot (the feast of tarbernacles). we were at the wall last year when the priests recited the blessing: click here to watch it.
JOEL AND BARKAY AT KETEF HINNOMover the past few weeks we've spent many days waking up at 3 in the morning and driving to the city of jericho to take footage for our feature documentary. today, in palestine there is a modern city of jericho surrounding the ancient tel of jericho. a tel is an artificial hill made up of several layers of occupation over many many years time. one city would be built and destroyed and another city would be built and destroyed on top of it until eventually you have a large hill comprised of ancient layers of civilization.
THE ANCIENT TEL OF JERICHO (IT'S A PILE OF DIRT, I KNOW)
out of all the ancient cities in israel, jericho is the most debated. several archaeologists have excavated at jericho, and while they all found the same things, they interpreted their findings differently. some say the walls of jericho fell just the way the bible records and others say that the city was destroyed by and earthquake long before the israelites would have ever arrived. the reason jericho is so crutial is because if it's true that jericho was destroyed by an earthquake long before the bible says the israelites came, than not only does that mean that the conquest never happened but neither did the exodus, and therefore the entire biblical history of the israelites coming out of egypt into the promise land is a myth. on the other hand, if what they found at jericho matches the biblical account, than not only does that support the conquest and the exodus, but jericho would then become one of the most prominent evidences for the validity of the scripture in regard to the conquest of canaan by the israelites. it's quite a battle among scholars, but with the insight of biblical archaeologist dr. bryant wood, we are convinced that there is reason to believe that the bible tells the story as it happened, as true history. keep checking back for more updates on how that documentary is shaping up. (the pictures throughout this entry are screen shots from the footage we've taken recently at ketef hinnom and jericho)
THE ANCIENT TEL OF JERICHO (IT'S A PILE OF DIRT, I KNOW)out of all the ancient cities in israel, jericho is the most debated. several archaeologists have excavated at jericho, and while they all found the same things, they interpreted their findings differently. some say the walls of jericho fell just the way the bible records and others say that the city was destroyed by and earthquake long before the israelites would have ever arrived. the reason jericho is so crutial is because if it's true that jericho was destroyed by an earthquake long before the bible says the israelites came, than not only does that mean that the conquest never happened but neither did the exodus, and therefore the entire biblical history of the israelites coming out of egypt into the promise land is a myth. on the other hand, if what they found at jericho matches the biblical account, than not only does that support the conquest and the exodus, but jericho would then become one of the most prominent evidences for the validity of the scripture in regard to the conquest of canaan by the israelites. it's quite a battle among scholars, but with the insight of biblical archaeologist dr. bryant wood, we are convinced that there is reason to believe that the bible tells the story as it happened, as true history. keep checking back for more updates on how that documentary is shaping up. (the pictures throughout this entry are screen shots from the footage we've taken recently at ketef hinnom and jericho)
CAMEL RIDERS OUTSIDE THE ANCIENT CITY OF JERICHO
JOEL FILMING FROM THE CABLE CAR SUSPENSION TOWER
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