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Holy Targets Suffer From Mob Mentality.
Source: BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY REVIEW Vol. 27 No. 01 January/February 2001
Middle East violence claims more than precious lives. On October 7, 2000 CE, the traditional site of Joseph's tomb near Nablus (ancient Shechem) and other cherished archaeological sites are being demolished by the WAQF (the Muslim religious trust). The Israeli government claims that Palestinians and other Muslims have been destroying sacred Jewish sties for many years. A partial list includes a Gaza Synagogue Mosaic between 1965 and 1967, a Menorah Relief on a column in the Great Mosque of Gaza between 1987 and 1993, and a Byzantine floor mosaic at a Jericho Synagogue in October 2000. In one case, prominent Israeli archaeologist said, "I visited many sites that I worked on, and saw terrible destruction in almost all of them. Right after, I wrote a polite letter to the director of the Archaeological Council of Egypt, reported to him and offered help in showing them other sites which were not yet ruined, but I never got an answer."
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Stone Circles Dating Back 13,000 years Found.
Source: BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY REVIEW Vol. 27 No. 03 May/June 2001
Numerous standing stones have been found in the Negev and Sinai deserts. The Hebrew Bible calls them masseboth (mah-tseh-vot; singular massebah), which translates a "pillars" or "standing stones." Most are circular in nature and have been set vertically into the ground, individually or in-groups, and are abundant in these desert regions. There are at least 142 independent masseboth sites and most face east, the direction of the rising sun. They date back to the 11th and 10th millennia BCE. The most common period was the sixth to the third millennia BCE and were continually being erected through the Biblical period and beyond. They were oriented to the cardinal points and were ritual sites that were sacred to the desert people. Here they connected the heaven and the earth to gain access to the sky, and in doing so, they were granted access to god. This was the same motivation for the construction of Stonehenge in England.
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A rare Babylonian astronomical text helps identify star of Bethlehem.
Source: BIBLE REVIEW Vol. XVII No. 06 Dec 2001
Many Biblical scholars and astronomers have been mystified in the attempt to explain the celestial phenomena that heralded the coming of the New Age some 2,000 years ago. There have been many candidates, but the most plausible was put forth by John Mosley of the Griffith Park Observatory, in his 1987 book The Christmas Star. Here he explains how a rare triple conjunction of Jupiter (king planet) and Venus (fertility planet) near the star Regulus (little king) from 03 BCE and 02 BCE in the constellation Leo (house of Judah) was the sign to the Magi to start the legendary journey.
Now, in Bible Review, Simo Parpola writes of newly discovered rare cuneiform tablets that recorded another earlier triple conjunction in 07 BCE. He claims that Jupiter (star of Marduk) and Saturn (star of the king) resided in Pisces for eleven months and, since this was the last constellation in the zodiac for the Babylonians, it foretold two events: the end of the old world order and the birth of a new savior king chosen by god. This event was so rare it only occurs every 800 years.
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