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Grave Fragment Found: Son of Second Temple High Priest
arutz 7 ^ | 10-06-08 | Hillel Fendel

Posted on 10/06/2008 2:11:25 PM PDT by Nachum

Archaeologists excavating north of Jerusalem have found a piece of a sarcofagus - a stone coffin - belonging to a son of a High Priest. The visible inscription reads, "the son of the High Priest" - but the words before it are broken off. It thus cannot be ascertained which High Priest is referred to, nor the name or age of the deceased.

Many other findings in the excavation are from the late Second Temple period, and archaeologists assume that the High Priest in question lived between 30 and 70 C.E.

Yoli Shwartz, Spokesperson for the Israel Antiquities Authority, notes that the release of the find so close to Yom Kippur, which occurs this Thursday, is notable: Yom Kippur was the only day of the year when the High Priest was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies in the Temple.

The precise location of the find is not being released, for security reasons.

The sarcophagus cover fragment - 60 centimeters (2 feet) long by 48 centimeters (19 inches) wide - is made of hard limestone, is meticulously fashioned, and bears a carved inscription in Hebrew letters that are both similar to today's script and typical of the Second Temple period.

A number of High Priests served in the Temple in its final decades - it was destroyed in 70 C.E. - and there is no way of knowing which one is noted in the fragment. Among the known High Priests of the end of the Second Temple period were Caiaphas, Theophilus (Yedidiya) ben Chanan, Shimon ben Baitus, Chanan ben Chanan and others.

The excavations were conducted by the Archaeological Staff Officer of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria, under the direction of Naftali Aizik and Benyamin Har-Even. Underwritten by the Ministry of Defense, the work is being carried out in the framework of the salvage excavations - mandated by law before construction in Israel - along the route of the counter-terrorism fence.

Other discoveries at the site include public and residential buildings, agricultural installations, pools and cisterns.

The area north of Jerusalem, known today and in Biblical times as Binyamin (Benjamin) because it was apportioned to that Tribe, is known as the place where the priests resided during the Second Temple period. The excavated site was an estate of one of the High Priests, though the sarcophagus fragment was not discovered in the estate itself, but was rather recovered from the debris of later remains. It appears that the fragment was plundered from its original location approximately 1,000 years ago and was used in the construction of a later Moslem building erected atop the ruins of the Second Temple period houses.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: biblicalarcheology; christianity; found; fragment; godsgravesglyphs; grave; judaism; religion; temple

1 posted on 10/06/2008 2:11:26 PM PDT by Nachum
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To: Nachum

Fascinating.


2 posted on 10/06/2008 2:12:37 PM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: Nachum

A little off topic but it’s so annoying that they use CE instead of AD.


3 posted on 10/06/2008 2:14:14 PM PDT by brytlea (Obama--Keep the change!)
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To: Nachum

bump


4 posted on 10/06/2008 2:16:14 PM PDT by VOA
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To: VOA
The first high priest of the temple was probably Zadok, during the reign of Solomon, but I don't know if the temple's second high priest's name is recorded.

Of course they're using "Second Temple" here as a chronological marker.

5 posted on 10/06/2008 2:36:23 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Nachum
Cool!
6 posted on 10/06/2008 2:40:15 PM PDT by Ciexyz
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To: brytlea

No kidding. It’s one of my pet-peeves...liberal humanists again trying to deny Christ’s influence on world history, by using fallacious “before the common era” & “common era” descriptors, that only work in English. Go to any other non-English speaking country, including post-Christian Europe, and they still retain the Christian reference. If they insist on CE and BCE, I’m going to refer to them as “Christian Era” and “Before the Christian Era”. Who do they think they’re going to fool, honestly?


7 posted on 10/06/2008 3:18:48 PM PDT by RedDogzRule ("Dalai-Bama...the true Antichrist?")
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To: brytlea

Thanks, I keep forgetting if CE was BC or AD. Must be the metric of dating.


8 posted on 10/06/2008 3:20:17 PM PDT by itsthejourney (Sarah-cuda IS the right reason)
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To: Nachum

Since it is Israel, it is unlikely they are not acknowledging the “Anno Domino” for secular reasons. :-)


9 posted on 10/06/2008 3:47:50 PM PDT by InMemoriam (This year, your prayers will do more good than your vote.)
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To: RedDogzRule

LOL thanks, I’m going to call them that too. :)


10 posted on 10/06/2008 4:37:11 PM PDT by brytlea (Obama--Keep the change!)
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To: itsthejourney

It’s the “We don’t want to have anything to do with Christianity” form of dating. The funny thing is, they still use the same beginning date—the birth of Christ!


11 posted on 10/06/2008 4:40:02 PM PDT by brytlea (Obama--Keep the change!)
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To: InMemoriam

It’s just become the thing among the educated elite. It’s nothing to do with anything else. They don’t want to tie dates to Christianity. PC.


12 posted on 10/06/2008 5:16:15 PM PDT by brytlea (Obama--Keep the change!)
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To: brytlea
Currently it the Jewish Year 5769. If they quoted the Jewish year 3731 rather than a secularized year, would it make things clearer or more confused?
13 posted on 10/06/2008 5:26:08 PM PDT by magooey (Is there actually a war on?)
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]

----------------------------

14 posted on 10/06/2008 5:27:15 PM PDT by SJackson (as a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station, Michelle O)
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To: magooey

For most of us, it would probably make us be concerned that we had been in cryogenic sleep for a few thousand years! ;) Seriously tho, it just irks me when something that is traditional and well understood is changed simply because some people might have their feelings hurt. Some folks just need to man up.


15 posted on 10/06/2008 5:29:59 PM PDT by brytlea (Obama--Keep the change!)
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To: brytlea
This is not about hurt feelings. The change BC to BCE (before Common Era) and AD to CE (Common Era) has been used for at least four decades as far as I know.

It is partially a Jewish reaction to the events of the last 70 years, both the misery and the restoration. If you have any Christian turn-the-cheek tolerance, just translate to your terms, and we will translate to ours while avoiding (but not forgetting) 1900 years of involved history.

16 posted on 10/06/2008 5:45:30 PM PDT by magooey (Is there actually a war on?)
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To: magooey

Yup, PC silliness. PC didn’t start yesterday. There is history back to something like the 1600s for use of Common Era, however the standard recognized term for much longer was BC and AD. Deal with it.


17 posted on 10/06/2008 6:05:04 PM PDT by brytlea (Obama--Keep the change!)
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Already got one like this, so just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution.

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18 posted on 10/12/2008 4:47:49 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile finally updated Saturday, October 11, 2008 !!!)
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To: brytlea
We have dealt with it. The mass murders, forced conversions, forced confiscations and expulsions for 1700 years means some people are just NOT going to use your terms. They will use BCE and CE. "Deal with it"? Are you a bigot or anti- semite? At least this, you are nasty.
19 posted on 10/13/2008 3:27:29 PM PDT by magooey (Is there actually a war on?)
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