Ancient synagogue found in Israel

CNN ^ | September 11, 2009 | Kevin Flower

[SolidWood]

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- In what was slated to be the site of a new 122-room hotel, archaeologists say they have discovered one of the world's oldest synagogues in Northern Israel.

The site, which was unearthed as preparations were being made for construction of the hotel near the Sea of Galilee, is believed to date back some 2000 years from 50BCE to 100CE.

In the middle of the 120 square meter main hall of the synagogue archaeologists discovered an unusual stone carved with a seven branched menorah . "We are dealing with an exciting and unique find," said excavation director and Israeli Antiquities Authority archaeologist Dina Avshalom-Gorni.

The menorah engraving is the first of its kind to be discovered from the Early Roman period according Avshalom-Gorni who said the site joins just six synagogue locations that are know to date from the same time.

[SolidWood]

[SolidWood]

GGG Ping.

[umgud]

Ah yes, the rich Palestinian history........./s

[NurdlyPeon]

I sure with they would stop with this BCE and CE garbage.

[yarddog]

I agree, since they are still talking about the birth of Christ, they are clearly changing it so as to be a clear and knowing insult to Christianity.

I can think of no reasonable reason to change the wording, without changing anything else, just so they can eliminate the word Christ.

[SunkenCiv]

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[Bryanw92]

Biblical scholars agree that Christ wasn’t born and didn’t die in 1 AD, so that’s the “official” reason for the whole BCE/CE thing.

But, we all know that the real reason is anti-Christianity. If they could, they’d switch us over to the muslim calendar (if there is such a thing—and I don’t care enough to Google it).

I asked a BCE/CE advocate what happened in 1 CE to force the change in calendars. Like most liberals, he didn’t know why he supports something. He just knows that the talking head on the TV box told him to!

[Quix]

INDEED.

Clueless idiots.

Will be so overjoyed beyond measure

WHEN THE KING RETURNS . . .

BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD.
BLESSED BE THE WORD OF THE LORD.
BLESSED BE THE WAYS OF THE LORD.

LONG LIVE THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS, JESUS THE CHRIST, CREATOR OF ALL THAT IS, WAS AND WILL BE.

[Gurn]

But the rag-head so-called “Palestinians” were there first. Got it.

[married21]

“BCE and CE garbage”

---

Yep. But I’m surprised and pleased to report that my daughter’s history book (6th grade, public school) still uses A.D. I think it may be because the professor who wrote it has a special interest in religious history of the Reformation Period. It also contains an ok description of the Christian religion and the early Church, although from a non-believer’s point of view.

[rom]

Reading CE / BCE hurts my eyes. Even before I was a Christian — actually even as a kid, I knew it wasn’t right.

[kabumpo]

newslash everybody — the C.E. and B.C.E. was first implemented by Jews.

[rom]

So what? And what’s a “newslash” ;)

[RouxStir]

How long will it take the ROP to claim it as a holy site because Mohammed took a dump there centuries later?

[kabumpo]

sorry for the typo — I meant to write NEWSFLASH.
THe so-what is that this use of C.E. and B.C.E. hat posters were complaining has eradicated B.C. and A.D. comes from Jewish scholarship.

[charmedone]

CE= Christian Era
BCE= Before CE

nya nya 8’>

[Verginius Rufus]

There is a Muslim calendar which starts in A.D. 622 (the Hegira, or Muhammad's flight from Mecca to Medina), but since the Muslim year is about 11 days shorter than a solar year, it wouldn't be very practical to use.

Since they are talking about a synagogue from the early Roman period, why not use Roman dates? "A.U.C. 700 to 900" (counting from the founding of Rome in 753 B.C.). Or use Olympiads and get everyone totally confused.

[Verginius Rufus]

B.C. = Backwards Counting
A.D. = After dat

[Bryanw92]

>>but since the Muslim year is about 11 days shorter than a solar year, it wouldn’t be very practical to use.

You defame Isssslahm! I keel you! Durka durka JIHAD durka.

[Bryanw92]

>>newslash everybody — the C.E. and B.C.E. was first implemented by Jews.

No surprise there.

[TheOldLady]

ROFL!

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

newslash

You've coined a new word! Newslash. I like it!! Definition: News that is unpleasant, or a punishment to hear; news that you have to deal with, like it or not.

[wildbill]

All your calendars and days belong to us.!

[Nikas777]

Hellenistic era synagogue.

[Verginius Rufus]

I think the Hellenistic era is generally considered to end with the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 B.C. (but some may have a different ending-point), since that marks the end of the last major Hellenistic monarchy. Of course at the time people didn't know it was the Hellenistic period (the name was coined in the early 19th century, I believe), and many features of the Hellenistic period continue into the Roman imperial period (what it was like to live in a Greek-speaking city in Asia Minor or Syria, for example).

So if this synagogue is from the early part of the dates given, it would be Hellenistic.

[Nikas777]

The Hellenistic era/influence lasted well into Islamic times (the first Arab empire used Greek as the language of the court and commerce for a while).

[Nikas777]

PS: Since Rome was part of the Hellenistic world I don’t see how Cleopatra’s death ends that era. Also, I have never heard or read of that event being the end point of Hellenistic civilization.

[Verginius Rufus]

These labels are mostly a matter of convenience for moderns trying to make sense of the past. In many ways the Roman Empire is a continuation of the Hellenistic era in the eastern provinces, and the Romans were strongly influenced by Greek civiliation (as Horace said, "captive Greece took her rude captor captive"), but the Romans were not Greeks. They spoke Latin as their first language even if the upper classes were fluent in Greek too (and much of the population of Rome itself were Greek-speakers from the eastern provinces--"the Orontes flowed into the Tiber").

So I think it makes sense to call the period after Cleopatra's death the Roman imperial period. Of course the timeline is different in different provinces depending on when they became part of the Roman Empire. Politically it was different to be under a Roman governor instead of under an independent Greek-speaking monarch.

[Nikas777]

Hellenistic is a cultural label not a political one.