Posted on 12/04/2006 6:07:52 AM PST by NYer
Archaeologists claimed yesterday to have uncovered one of the world's first churches, built on a site believed to have once housed the Ark of the Covenant.
The site, emerging from the soil in a few acres in the hills of the Israeli occupied West Bank, is richly decorated with brightly coloured mosaics and inscriptions referring to Jesus Christ.
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According to the team, led by Yitzhak Magen and Yevgeny Aharonovitch, the church dates to the late 4th century, making it one of Christianity's first formal places of worship.
"I can't say for sure at the moment that it's the very first church," said Mr Aharonovitch, 38, as he oversaw a team carrying out the final excavations before winter yesterday. "But it's certainly one of the first." He said the site contained an extremely unusual inscription which referred to itself, Shiloh, by name.
"That is very rare and shows early Christians treated this as an ancient, holy place," said Mr Aharonovitch. According to the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the two tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, was kept by the Israelites at Shiloh for several hundred years.
It was eventually moved to the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem temple that the Bible says was built by King Solomon around 1000 BC. When the temple was sacked by the Babylonians 400 years later, the Ark was lost, sparking theories about whether it had been hidden or destroyed.
The team at Shiloh is considering whether to dig under the beautiful mosaics that they have uncovered, in order to find traces of the Ark. "We have to decide whether to fix the mosaics here or take them to a museum," said Mr Aharonovitch.
Jewish residents in the modern settlement of Shiloh, which sits on a hill amidst Palestinian villages, want the team to keep digging.
David Rubin, a former mayor of Shiloh, said: "We believe that if they continue to dig they'll reach back to the time of the Tabernacle," referring to the portable place of worship where the Israelites housed the Ark.
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Good Grief Guys.
That is a very Arabesque looking mosaic..........
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Yeah me too.
Declaration that this is the 1,217th holiest site in Islam -- and that all non-Muslims, especially Joooos, must never set foot there ever again -- in 5, 4, 3...
COOL! I'm in Jerusalem as I type this and was BLOWN AWAY by the excavations at the City of David. Look it up on the net: you won't believe what is going on here, and the things they're finding. Never have I seen so much hard proof of the accuracy of the Bible. Never. It's astonishing. Go to www.cityofdavid.org if you want to learn more. I am just visiting but hooked up with those folks and they showed me around. It's STUNNING stuff.
Shalom from Israel PING, btw!
Thanks for the reference!
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
Don't forget, Arabs and Jews are really 'blood brothers,' and that's one reason they hate each other. That old Ishmael thing, ya know.
More proof that the Bible is the word of God.
I would love to visit Israel someday and see the sights.
How'd they make them perfect overlapping circles back then?
They didn't use Microsoft Paint, did they?
I think it has more to do with that whole region, than with the Arab people. Sure, the Arabs brought that style with them when they were conquering regions. Spain, for example, has wonderful examples of what was considered Moorish architecture and ornamentation, but I don't think it's exclusively ARAB.
Makes more sense to take them up, dig underneath to seee if they find any more artifacts, then put them back in place, restoring the Church as much as possible, if not as a place of worship, then as a wonderful example of ancient art.
Thank you for your service. God Bless you.
Correct reference: http://www.bibleplaces.com/areag.htm
Straighten up.
1,219th holiest site. Gad, I hate it when the facts are bungled up.
:~)
go! we went last fall ('05) and enjoyed it immensely - a life-changing experience, especially for a Christian. never felt unsafe, everybody was cool, even muslims during ramadan.
Hey, that looks just like my kitchen tile!!
What religion do you suppose the Arabs practiced for 800 years between the Resurrection of Our Lord and the depradations of the followers of Mad Mo the Deranged?
This was a major event for the DFW Monday morning commute. Cars were force to go two by two!
Well, since it's a church, how about getting the input of Christians?
My guess is that this church was named after the Ark, just as a church today may be named after a saint.
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Gorgeous mosaic.
Very Ezekial-ish...
Or at least Copper Scroll-ish...Or something...
BTW, I just finish the "Copper Scroll"...Would just be like "Joel R." to leave us hanging like that...
Great post, awesome find. I do have to add, there are some mighty big clues in the Bible about where that Ark and its contents went.
How could the "first church" have been built at the end of the fourth century?
"Don't look, Marion! Keep your eyes shut!" ...
Ah (that explains a lot!) -- thanks!
I heard from a Muslim I worked with one summer years ago that, pre-Mohammed, Arabs practiced animism. He didn't go into detail, so I can't. :-)
Actually, I know this sounds crazy, but it's very possible that the lost Ark is in Ethiopia, having been removed from Jerusalem by descendants of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who became the royal line of Ethiopia.
If you want to read a really interesting story, which I posted here when it came out, have a look at this:
http://www.crisismagazine.com/julaug2002/feature2.htm
The author doesn't absolutely KNOW where the lost ark is, but his travels and hypotheses are extremely interesting. And it's apparently true that the ancient Ethiopian strand of Christianity involves--the Ark.
Thanks for that. A friend of ours went there last year for work and said the same thing. As a Christian, I think it would be so powerful to go there and walk around.
It dates to the late fourth century and they are calling it the first church? That's decades after even Emperor Constantine dedicated the Church of the Holy Apostles (AD 330), even if one takes the unusual position that ancient houses of worship were not "churches."
Sorry, Alouette, I meant to give you this link, too:
http://www.crisismagazine.com/julaug2002/feature2.htm
Not sure if you've seen this before, because I posted it in the forum when it came out, but it's a very interesting read.
Mad Mo formed his "religion" by mixing Christianity, Arianism (a Christian heresy), Arab paganism, and Jewish ritual practice. It's almost as much of a mess asn Scientology.
Indy Jones, my first thought, too!
Joooos, is that pronounced the same way the liberal commentators pronouce Boooosh?
Cool.
Some did, but not all. I understand that Saudi propaganda claims there were no Christians living there before Mohammed. My sister and her husband lived in Saudi Arabia for four years and spent a lot of time exploring in the hinterlands. Out in the middle of nowhere, they found the remnants of an ancient church that had recently been uncovered by blowing sands. Christian symbols carved into the structure left no doubt what it was. There is a lot of history that remains to be discovered beneath the mountains shifting sands.
"I would love to visit Israel someday and see the sights."
I visited Israel 20 years ago, and you will love it!
High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel, WOT
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