Posted on 07/02/2018 10:00:44 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I never get tired of talking about archaeology confirming biblical history. So let's talk.
Second Samuel 20 tells the story of a short-lived rebellion against the rule of King David led by a Benjamite named Sheba, a kinsman of David's predecessor, Saul. It's a short, almost enigmatic, tale involving, among other things, cloistered concubines, deadly beard-pulling, and an unintentionally—or perhaps not—comical siege scene that could have come out of a Monty Python movie.
Comic or not, the site of the siege was a real place that testifies to the historical nature of the biblical narrative.
In II Samuel, David, fresh off his tragic victory over his beloved son Absalom, is confronted with a new rebellion resulting from strife between the ten northern tribes and the tribe of Judah. The aforementioned Sheba takes advantage of the situation and rallies men under the cry, "We have no share in David, no part in Jesse's son!"
David sends his nephews Abishai and Joab, along with his "mighty men" (gibborim in Hebrew) in pursuit of Sheba. Sheba hides from them in the city of Abel Beth Maacah in what is now northern Israel and back then, at the crossroads of the ancient kingdoms of Israel, Damascus and Tyre.
As David's forces lay siege to Abel Beth Maacah, a "wise woman" asks Joab why they are attacking a "peaceful" and "faithful" part of the kingdom. He replies that if they hand over Sheba, he will withdraw his forces, to which she replied, "His head will be thrown to you from the wall." It was, and Joab did as he promised.
If you are a regular BreakPoint listener, you won't be surprised to learn that archaeologists have found the remains of Abel Beth Maacah. At this point, we shouldn't be surprised when archaeology confirms that the biblical narratives weren't simply making up places and people.
What is, if not surprising, then intriguing, is what the team of American and Israeli archaeologists found at the site: a tiny—about 2 inches by 2 inches—"intricately carved sculpture of what may be the head of a biblical king."
The carving, which is made of a glazed ceramic known as "faience," is of "a man with long, black hair and a beard who is wearing a yellow and black headband."
The archaeologists are reasonably certain it depicts an important person, probably a king given that the figure "was crafted with artistic precision almost unheard of for that time and region."
But who? The most tantalizing possibilities are, as hinted earlier, three kings mentioned in the Bible whose reign coincided with the timing of the carving, sometime in the ninth century B.C., which also corresponds with the years of the city's next biblical mention in 1 Kings 15. They are King Ahab, King Ethbaal of Tyre, the father of the notorious Queen Jezebel, and King Hazael of Damascus, who was anointed king by the prophet Elijah.
As the archaeologists admit, they're only guessing about who the carving represents. As one member of them put it, "It's like a hello from the past, but we don't know anything else about it."
But it's a "hello" from an actual, not mythical, past that we only know about because of the historical nature of the biblical accounts. These accounts tell the story of a God who has acted in human history and whose actions, in turn, have left behind artifacts.
One of my fav Bible stories........You can just see the doomed man’s head flying over the wall, Joab and Abishai looking at it and saying, “Yep, that’s him, Have a nice day!”...................
Joab is one of the most interesting personalities in the whole Old Testament.
He was a dangerous and murderous person. I think David was possibly afraid of him.............
Joab and his brothers were David’s nephews, sons of his sister. It’s possible that they were essential to keeping his older brothers from turning on him.
David’s brothers wer all older than him, and so would have been elderly at the time of David’s reign. Joab was the son of David’s sister. He was as unscrupulous as he was cunning. He murdered Absalom, was complicit in the death of Uriah, murdered Abner and sided with Adonijah instead of Solomon. David told Solomon to have him executed ASAP................
If you were a problem he killed you. No man, no problem.
In some ways that was good. His downfall was what he did to Abner. Killing him in a fair fight would have been one thing, killing him by treachery was quite another.
It kept the civil war going, caused bad feelings for decades after and deprived Israel of one of it's best military minds.
Sounds like a total clown show. I liked your exegesis.
Yep, that’s him, have a nice day.
Finish the siege ramp if you want.
Bye
In I Samuel 28 we find that Samuel has died and King Saul had put the mediums and wizards out of the land, just before the Philistines encamped nearby.
Seeing this Saul became very afraid and inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer.
Saul instructed his servants to seek out a woman who is a medium, that he may inquire of her.
Now they were searching in the city of Endor, where the people were very short in stature.
As the search continued Saul became more frantic and instructed his servants to post signs.
the signs read:
SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE.......
Please refer to Scripture to see how the story ends.....
Small stature at Endor??
I guess this would be a bad time to mention copyright infringement.......
(Scripture I fractured, this movie was unknown to me....)
bkmk
Saw the UnNatural Geographic’s latest special issue at the grocery store: is its atlas for Biblical areas worth buying? I trust little of their editorial positions on the world in general and popular science in particular, But this issue may be different .
A map is a map...............
Sylvester Stallone!
It looks like a star wars derivative....
As I recall:
The Big Reason to dispute the historicity of the Bible was the lack of independent verification for the existence of the sprawling Hittite Empire. No reasonable archeologist...
Then they dug up Hattushah, the capitol, in 1906. Oops.
But no real problem. They moved on to the next Big Reason without missing a beat.
That was all I needed to learn about academia versus the Bible.
Thanks Robert A Cook PE. I'll try to find the NG special you mentioned. By and large, anything can be interesting, and NG generally has an edge because they have such pretty pictures. :^)
Yes, and from the looks of the characters, its possible wizards and mediums were active in Endor......
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
