Addition by subtraction: The deaths of James Lovelock and Ron Sider

British environmentalist James Lovelock died on July 26, 2022, his 103rd birthday. Dr. Lovelock, a physician by training, was also a climate scientist and futurist. He was best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, the idea that Earth itself is a living organism, with life forms interacting with inorganic surroundings to form a synergistic, self-regulating system. The hypothesis, named after the Greek goddess who personified the Earth, has been criticized by secular evolutionists, but has greatly influenced the increase in pagan nature worship that has become so popular in recent decades. I doubt that Dr. Lovelock is enjoying his present climate and environment.

On July 27, 2022, Ron Sider died at the age of 83. Dr. Sider, a native of Stevensville, Ontario, was involved with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship while an undergraduate at the University of Waterloo, and worked in apologetics with IVCF after earning a doctorate in history and master's in divinity from Yale University. He founded Evangelicals for Social Action in 1973, which might more accurately be called "Evangelicals for Socialism."

Dr. Sider was perhaps best known for his books Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (1977) and Nuclear Holocaust and Christian Hope (1983). Christian writer Lloyd Billingsley described the former as:

A textbook of zero-sum thinking and statist solutions presented in religious vocabulary. A compendium of economic fallacies. (Billingsley, Lloyd. The Absence of Tyranny: Recovering Freedom in Our Time, 1986, p. 196).

Mr. Billingsley said of the latter:

Nuclear Holocaust and Christian Hope, co-authored with Richard Taylor, is a kind of religious version of Jonathan Schell's Fate of the Earth. Like Schell, Sider and Taylor rely heavily on shock tactics--describing blasts, destructions, bombs, blood, vomit, burns, screams. The front, fictionalized section of the book where this occurs is a combination snuff film and nuclear pornographic novel.

Merchandising comes later, the radical Christian version of Jesus watches and frisbees. Sider and Taylor advocate measures like displaying peace bumper stickers (surely a distinctive Christian approach), keeping photos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the coffee table instead of Ansel Adams, buying stationery with a peace motif, and subscribing to the right magazines including the "rigorously biblical" Sojourners whose peace ministry co-author Taylor is a consultant.

To his great credit, Sider at least has the courage to carry his pacifism to its logical conclusion. The book may very well be the world's longest suicide note, suicide being the sure outcome of his nonmilitary defense plan, a new Anschluss on a larger scale.

The assumption is that, once conquered, we can all eventuall settle down to a peaceful, neo-Scandinavian existence. Germany was once thoroughly conquered; they did not so settle down. Sider's arguments for complete, not just nuclear, pacifism are buttressed with proof texts, but remain to me unconvincing.

It appears they are unconvincing to the authors as well. After three hundred gruelling pages filed with countless usages of "must," "should," and "ought," Sider and Taylor make this astonishing statement: "The authors of this book do not claim to have all the answers." Given this it is difficult to see their book as anything more than a public act of spiritual and political masturbation.

(Billingsley, Lloyd, The Generation that Knew Not Josef: A Critique of Marxism and the Religious Left, 1985, pp. 187-188).

I never for a minute believed that Dr. Sider was a Christian; I always figured he was a Communist masquerading as a Christian. When U.S. President Ronald Reagan delivered his "Evil Empire" speech to the National Association of Evangelicals on March 8, 1983, it was Ron Sider who immediately formed a group to protest against Mr. Reagan's views. Dr. Sider boasted about his participation in the "Witness for Peace" program in Nicaragua in the early 1980s, in which the participants acted as human shields to impede the efforts of the Contras who were fighting against Nicaragua's Sandanista regime. The actions of the "Witness for Peace" participants had the effect of aiding the Sandanista regime, a regime that committed genocide against the Miskito Indians and was persecuting Christians. For information on the Sandanistas' treatment of Christians, I recommend the book Breaking Faith: The Sandanista Revolution and its Impact on Freedom and Christian Faith in Nicaragua by former Sandanista Humberto Belli, published in 1985.

For more on Ron Sider and Evangelicals for Social Action, see my posts 30 years ago: Ronald Reagan, addressing the NAE, denounces the evil empire--and other evils (March 12, 2013) and 30 years ago: Carl McIntire critiques Evangelicals for Social Action's Chicago Declaration (May 1, 2014).

Rare 2nd century coin depicting moon goddess Luna found off Israel's coast

The coin bearing the image of Luna, the goddess of the moon. Below it appears a sign of cancer luck. Photo credit: Yaniv Berman, Israel Antiquities Authority

As reported by Israel365 News, July 25, 2022 (photo in original):

An exceptionally well-preserved spectacular rare bronze coin was recently recovered from the sea bed during an underwater archaeological survey conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority off the Carmel coast at Haifa.

The coin was minted under the emperor Antoninus Pius (138–161 CE) in Alexandria, Egypt. The reverse depicts the zodiac sign Cancer beneath a portrait of the moon goddess Luna. The coin bears the date ‘Year eight,’ the eighth year of Antoninus Pius’s rule, or 144/145 CE. It belongs to a series of thirteen coins, twelve depicting the different signs of the zodiac and another the complete zodiac wheel.”

According to Israel Antiquities Authority Maritime Archaeology Unit director Jacob Sharvit, “This is the first time such a coin has been discovered off Israel’s coast, and it is a rare addition to the National Treasures collection. Israel’s Mediterranean shores and waters have yielded many archaeological sites and finds that attest to connections in antiquity between Mediterranean ports and the countries along it. These finds, which were lost at sea and disappeared from sight for hundreds and thousands of years, have been remarkably well preserved; some are extremely rare, and their discovery completes parts of the historical puzzle of the country’s past.”

The coin was discovered during a survey conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority to locate, document, research, and preserve antiquities sites and ancient finds—cultural assets that are being endangered by accelerated marine development.

According to Israel Antiquities Authority’s Director, Eli Eskosido, “In the last decade, the State of Israel has changed its perception of the sea. Rather than marking the country’s border, the sea is now recognized as an integral part of its cultural heritage, in addition to security considerations and strategic and economic concerns. Israel’s territorial waters contain natural resources and cultural assets that must be explored and protected in light of different interests and potential development. The maritime survey off Haifa is part of this process. The rare coin recovered during the survey is a vivid reminder of the importance of the survey.”

Interestingly, the ruler who minted the coin, Antoninus Pius, was a Roman emperor whole ruled between 138 and 161 CE. Unlike his predecessors, he was not a military man and never participated in battle. His reign was the quietest during the whole of the Roman Empire and marked the height of the period of ‘Roman peace’ (Pax Romana) throughout the empire. Antoninus had a different approach to running the Roman Empire, preferring to deal with any foreign crises through provincial governors; in fact, he never left Rome himself. He encouraged and initiated the construction of temples, theaters, and magnificent mausoleums and promoted science and philosophy.

During his rule, the empire’s relations with the Jews were greatly improved, the decrees of Hadrian were revoked, and Jews were allowed to practice circumcision. These steps led to amicable relations between the emperor and Rabbi Yehuda ha-Nasi.

As reported by Maayan Hoffman of All Israel News, July 25, 2022:

...Pius ruled immediately after the Bar Kokhba Revolt against the Romans in Jerusalem - the final war between the Jews and the Roman Empire, which took place around 132-136 A.D.

The Jews lost the war and were exiled from the Holy City of Jerusalem, which was turned into a pagan city. According to tradition, the only time they were able to enter Jerusalem was to mourn their losses in the revolt on the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av - the same day on the Hebrew calendar that the First and Second Jewish Temples fell.

The coin is exceptionally well-preserved, despite its being lost at sea for thousands of years. Coins like this one, Shavit said, “are extremely rare and their discovery completes parts of the historical puzzle of the country’s past.

“Israel’s Mediterranean shores and waters have yielded many archaeological sites and finds that attest to connections in antiquity between Mediterranean ports and the countries along it,” he added.

The coin was discovered during a survey conducted by the authority, which is in the midst of efforts to document, research and preserve cultural and other assets that are at-risk from accelerated marine development.

This is the 13th coin of its type discovered. Twelve of them depict signs of the zodiac and another portrays the complete zodiac wheel, the authority said.

Luna is one of the Roman’s most ancient goddesses, dating back even before the foundation of Rome in 753 B.C. Her name is equivalent to the English word “lunar.” She was worshipped by the pagans at the new and full moons.

Much of the catalyst of the Bar Kokhba was the Jewish desire to drive the pagans out of Jerusalem.

In recent years, Israel has come to understand the importance of the sea for discovering the area’s cultural heritage, as much as serving strategic and economic aims, explained Israel Antiquities Authority’s Director Eli Eskosido.

“Israel’s territorial waters contain natural resources and cultural assets that must be explored and protected in light of different interests and potential development,” he said.

100 years ago: League of Nations Council confirms British Mandate for Palestine

And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,
And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;
That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.
If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:
And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. Deuteronomy 30:1-5

This is a slightly different version of my post 90 years ago: League of Nations supports Zionism (July 21, 2012).

On July 24, 1922, the League of Nations Council confirmed the text of the draft of the British Mandate of Palestine; Britain formally assumed control of Palestine on September 29, 1923. As reported by the Israel Bible, July 24, 2022 (links in original):

...On April 24,1920, 51 nations, so recently divided by World War I, sent representatives to the League of Nations in Sanremo, Italy. At the San Remo Conference, they agreed to divide up the Ottoman territories, putting Israel in the hands of the British. The decision incorporated the Balfour Declaration, written during the war in 1917, which established the basis for a Jewish state in Israel. The text of this agreement was confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations on July 24, 1922.

How did this all come to be?

In 1917, while the outcome of World War One was very much in the balance, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour sat down to write a letter to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. The letter was the first public expression of support for Zionism by a major political power, and was the result of rising sympathy among British evangelical Christians towards the “restoration of the Jews” to Palestine that had begun 80 years earlier.

In some ways the Balfour Declaration was the beginning of the process. It certainly was the seed from which the State of Israel grew, but it nearly became a meaningless piece of paper. When Lord Balfour put pen to paper, the British armies were stuck in Egypt and the British government had no political ability to carry out this vision.

On October 31, 1917, the remarkable charge of the Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade captured Beersheba from the German and Ottoman forces. This opened the way for the British forces to advance and capture Jerusalem six weeks later, making the Balfour Declaration relevant, and having practical implications for the Jewish people.

After the war, in 1920, the Paris Peace Conference founded the League of Nations, the first worldwide intergovernmental organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. That same year, the seven-day San Remo Conference was held. The full text of the Balfour Declaration became an integral part of the San Remo resolution and the British Mandate for Palestine, turning the letter of intent into a legally-binding foundational document under international law.

51 nations signed the resolution. No objections were raised from the Arab world. In fact, a signed agreement between Emir Faisal, the third son of Hussein ibn Ali al-Hashimi, King of the short-lived Kingdom of Hejaz, and Chaim Weizmann, a Zionist leader, was one of two documents used by the Zionist delegation at the Paris Peace Conference to argue that the Zionist plans for Palestine had prior approval of Arabs.

Faisal, who acquiesced to a Jewish state in order to gain support for his claim on Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, and Egypt, was the sole recognized representative of the entire Arab people in 1918. No other Arab states existed at the time. Ironically, the same San Remo Conference that paved the way for Israel also paved the way for the Arab nations that sprung into existence in the region, allocating 99% of the land to form new Arab states.

It took another 27 years and a new organization named the United Nations to formally establish the Jewish state, but the foundations were laid and confirmed by the League of Nations in San Remo in 1922.

See also my posts:

100 years ago: The Balfour Declaration paves the way for fulfillment of biblical prophecy (November 2, 2017)

100 years ago: British forces capture Jerusalem (December 11, 2017)

100 years ago: The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement (January 3, 2019)

Backlog: Egyptian journalist wants to sue Israel for damages caused by Old Testament plagues

To quote Winston Churchill out of context, "Here, surely, is the world's record in the domain of the ridiculous and the contemptible." The journalist in the article below at least performs a service in illustrating the absurdity of recent calls for reparations for alleged sins committed long before the births of those manufacturing grievances. The biblical account of the plagues can be found in Exodus 7:14-11:10; rather than Israel, the journalist should be suing God, since He was the one who sent the plagues. The following item was first published in 2014, but is more relevant now than ever. As reported by Ahuva Balofsky of Breaking Israel News (now known as Israel365 News), March 31, 2014:

Columnist Ahmad al-Gamal of Egypt’s Al-Yawm Al-Sabi daily has proposed his country sue numerous countries for damages – both physical and psychological – inflicted over the past several millennia. Notably, he wants to sue Turkey for the abuses of the Ottoman Empire, France for Napoleon’s invasion, Britain for its 72-year occupation and Israel for causing the Biblical plagues.

Media watchdog Middle East Media Research Institute first noted the March 11, 2014 column. In the column, al-Gamal demands compensation for the “backwardness” imposed on his country by Turkey. He accused the Ottoman Empire of plundering the country of its precious resources, as well as its human capital, conscripting both to the Empire’s own needs and plunging the country into intellectual darkness at a time when the rest of the world was experiencing development.

He likewise charged modern Britain with similar misdeeds, saying it “took part in preventing [Egypt] from realizing the fruits of its stupendous victory” against Israel in 1956, 1967 and 1973.

He added, “We want compensation for 72 years of British occupation that imposed backwardness and dependency upon us, stole the resources of our country, drove a wedge between the sons of the homeland and turned [the members of] one social stratum into [British] agents who took no pity on the Egyptian poor…” He traced the roots of this injustice to Napoleon’s 1798 invasion, and added France to the list of responsible countries.

Most startling, however, were the allegations leveled at Israel, or more to the point, their Biblical origins. Al-Gamal quoted the Hebrew Bible in asserting the country should repay Egypt for the harm caused by the plagues, as well as the theft of precious commodities used to build the Tabernacle in the desert.

He claims the Bible’s collective punishment of the Egyptian people was uncalled for, as it was Pharaoh himself alone who was responsible for the suffering of the Israelites. He does not afford the French the same assumption regarding Napoleon’s decisions, though.

“We want compensation for the [Ten] Plagues that were inflicted upon [us] as a result of the curses that the Jews’ ancient forefathers [cast] upon our ancient forefathers, who did not deserve to pay for the mistake that Egypt’s ruler at the time, Pharaoh as the Torah calls him, committed. For what is written in the Torah proves that it was Pharaoh who oppressed the Children of Israel, rather than the Egyptian people. [But] they inflicted upon us the plague of locusts that didn’t leave anything behind them; the plague that transformed the Nile’s waters into blood, so nobody could drink of them for a long time; the plague of darkness that kept the world dark day and night; the plague of frogs; and the plague of the killing of the firstborn, namely every first offspring born to woman or beast, and so on.

“We want compensation for the gold, silver, copper, precious stones, fabrics, hides and lumber, and for [all] animal meat, hair, hides and wool, and for other materials that I will mention [below], when quoting the language of the Torah. All these are materials that the Jews used in their rituals. These are resources that cannot be found among desert wanderers unless they took them before their departure…”

He went on to reference specific Biblical passages. “The stories of the Holy Scriptures state that the Israelites set off from the [Nile] valley at night and went to the Sinai Peninsula. This is known to be a desert, where there is no use for large quantities of gold, silver, precious stones, meats, oils, fabrics and the like. Therefore it is clear that the Israelites took all these things from Egypt before they left.

Chapter 25 of Exodus, on the [Israelites’] departure [from Egypt], states: ‘The Lord said to Moses: Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering… These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece. Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. Have them make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other [Exodus 25:1-12]’…

“[Exodus 38:24 states]: ‘The total amount of the gold from the wave offering used for all the work on the sanctuary was 29 talents and 730 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel…’

“I call upon everyone with an interest in Torah studies to instruct us on a scientific basis what is the [precise] meaning of the word ‘talent.’ How many grams is it currently worth, what was the weight of the sheqel during those days, especially as it was made out of solid pure gold and pure silver…”

It seems as though Mr. al-Gamal wasn't alone in allowing hatred of Jews to influence the Egyptian view of history; as reported by Simcha Jacovici of Breaking Israel News (Israel365 News), September 15, 2014:

The Egyptian archaeological community is in a tizzy. They are accusing foreign Egyptologists of being Israeli agents hell bent on altering their history. It seems Israel’s ultimate goal is to reclaim the Pyramids. This charge was recently laid by Amir Gamal of the “Non-Stop Robberies” movement. It was published in Egypt’s Elaph newspaper. Not long ago, Egyptian journalist Ahmad al-Gamal encouraged his government to sue the Jewish state for losses incurred during the 10 plagues, visited upon Egypt during the biblical exodus. Also, the Torah claims that the Israelite slaves took Egypt’s gold with them to the Promised Land. Al-Gamal wants the gold or an equal sum in U.S. dollars – with 3500 years of compounded interest – paid by Israel to Egypt.

Some of this is funny, and some of this is not. When I filmed archaeology in Egypt in 2004 for a documentary film on the biblical Exodus, the Egyptians were watching us like hawks. In Egypt, the bible is current history. Even though the Qur’an says that the biblical Exodus is a historical fact, modern Arab regimes see Mideast history as a zero-sum game – if it’s good for the Jews, it’s bad for the Arabs. So any archaeology connected to the biblical Exodus is suppressed for fear that it might support Israel’s claims in the area. For example, a statue discovered at Avaris in the Delta is thought by some scholars to be a representation of the biblical Joseph. Because of the possible connection with the Jewish patriarch, the statue has now “disappeared” from the Cairo museum. It wasn’t easy for the statue to disappear, since it weighs a ton.

More than this, Egypt’s obsession with biblical archaeology influences the views of Egyptologists. If you claim you have found proof of the biblical Exodus, they ban you from Egypt. If you’re an Egyptologist, that’s a big problem. So – not surprisingly – Egyptologists tend to find nothing connected to the Israelites. Recently, Charles University professor Miroslav Barta tried to connect the bible to Egyptian archaeology. As a result, he’s being accused of working for the Mossad. His mission: falsify Egyptian history. Not exactly a climate for free academic debate.

Here’s what I think: they can keep the Pyramids, we didn’t build them. They had been around for a thousand years before Moses was born. Having said this, in return for us dropping our claims to the Pyramids, they should pay us for years of slavery and stop bullying Western academics.

On a related note, Jewish slaves built the Colosseum in Rome. Jewish masons cut the stone, and the money that financed the project came from the Roman looting in 70 C.E. of the Temple in Jerusalem. There is an inscription that proves this. We built it, we paid for it, it’s time to get it back. I would move it to Israel’s south, near the border with Gaza. First of all, I could get exclusive documentary filming rights to the process of moving the Colosseum from Italy to Israel. Besides, this feat of modern engineering would right a historical wrong, increase tourism to an area that has been suffering under Hamas rockets fired from Gaza and make the world more sensitive to those rockets – because instead of landing in Israeli towns, they would now be landing on a UNESCO cultural site.

Mysterious repeating radio signal traced to spiral galaxy 500 million light years from Earth

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? Psalms 8:3-4

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Psalms 19:1

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Revelation 4:11

As reported by Jennifer Chu of Massachusetts Institute of Technology News Office, July 13, 2022 (bold, link in original):

Astronomers at MIT and universities across Canada and the United States have detected a strange and persistent radio signal from a far-off galaxy that appears to be flashing with surprising regularity.

The signal is classified as a fast radio burst, or FRB — an intensely strong burst of radio waves of unknown astrophysical origin, that typically lasts for a few milliseconds at most. However, this new signal persists for up to three seconds, about 1,000 times longer than the average FRB. Within this window, the team detected bursts of radio waves that repeat every 0.2 seconds in a clear periodic pattern, similar to a beating heart.

The researchers have labeled the signal FRB 20191221A, and it is currently the longest-lasting FRB, with the clearest periodic pattern, detected to date.

The source of the signal lies in a distant galaxy, several billion light-years from Earth. Exactly what that source might be remains a mystery, though astronomers suspect the signal could emanate from either a radio pulsar or a magnetar, both of which are types of neutron stars — extremely dense, rapidly spinning collapsed cores of giant stars.

“There are not many things in the universe that emit strictly periodic signals,” says Daniele Michilli, a postdoc in MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. “Examples that we know of in our own galaxy are radio pulsars and magnetars, which rotate and produce a beamed emission similar to a lighthouse. And we think this new signal could be a magnetar or pulsar on steroids.”

The team hopes to detect more periodic signals from this source, which could then be used as an astrophysical clock. For instance, the frequency of the bursts, and how they change as the source moves away from Earth, could be used to measure the rate at which the universe is expanding.

The discovery is reported today in the journal Nature, and is authored by members of the CHIME/FRB Collaboration, including MIT co-authors Calvin Leung, Juan Mena-Parra, Kaitlyn Shin, and Kiyoshi Masui at MIT, along with Michilli, who led the discovery first as a researcher at McGill University, and then as a postdoc at MIT.

“Boom, boom, boom”

Since the first FRB was discovered in 2007, hundreds of similar radio flashes have been detected across the universe, most recently by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, or CHIME, an interferometric radio telescope consisting of four large parabolic reflectors that is located at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in British Columbia, Canada.

CHIME continuously observes the sky as the Earth rotates, and is designed to pick up radio waves emitted by hydrogen in the very earliest stages of the universe. The telescope also happens to be sensitive to fast radio bursts, and since it began observing the sky in 2018, CHIME has detected hundreds of FRBs emanating from different parts of the sky.

The vast majority of FRBs observed to date are one-offs — ultrabright bursts of radio waves that last for a few milliseconds before blinking off. Recently, researchers discovered the first periodic FRB that appeared to emit a regular pattern of radio waves. This signal consisted of a four-day window of random bursts that then repeated every 16 days. This 16-day cycle indicated a periodic pattern of activity, though the signal of the actual radio bursts was random rather than periodic.

On Dec. 21, 2019, CHIME picked up a signal of a potential FRB, which immediately drew the attention of Michilli, who was scanning the incoming data.

“It was unusual,” he recalls. “Not only was it very long, lasting about three seconds, but there were periodic peaks that were remarkably precise, emitting every fraction of a second — boom, boom, boom — like a heartbeat. This is the first time the signal itself is periodic.”

Brilliant bursts

In analyzing the pattern of FRB 20191221A’s radio bursts, Michilli and his colleagues found similarities with emissions from radio pulsars and magnetars in our own galaxy. Radio pulsars are neutron stars that emit beams of radio waves, appearing to pulse as the star rotates, while a similar emission is produced by magnetars due to their extreme magnetic fields.

The main difference between the new signal and radio emissions from our own galactic pulsars and magnetars is that FRB 20191221A appears to be more than a million times brighter. Michilli says the luminous flashes may originate from a distant radio pulsar or magnetar that is normally less bright as it rotates and for some unknown reason ejected a train of brilliant bursts, in a rare three-second window that CHIME was luckily positioned to catch.

“CHIME has now detected many FRBs with different properties,” Michilli says. “We’ve seen some that live inside clouds that are very turbulent, while others look like they’re in clean environments. From the properties of this new signal, we can say that around this source, there’s a cloud of plasma that must be extremely turbulent.”

The astronomers hope to catch additional bursts from the periodic FRB 20191221A, which can help to refine their understanding of its source, and of neutron stars in general.

“This detection raises the question of what could cause this extreme signal that we’ve never seen before, and how can we use this signal to study the universe,” Michilli says. “Future telescopes promise to discover thousands of FRBs a month, and at that point we may find many more of these periodic signals.”

This research was supported, in part, by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Click on the link to see the abstract of the original article Sub-second periodicity in a fast radio burst in Nature, 607, pages 256–259, July 13, 2022.

1st century Jewish ritual bath discovered in Jerusalem

As reported by Jewish News Syndicate, July 20, 2022 (photos in original):

Following a winter storm, melted snow and rain fill up several Herodian-period water installations. (Photo credit: Michal Haber/Hebrew University)

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced on Wednesday that it had unearthed an ancient Jewish ritual bath (mikveh) dating back to the Late Second Temple period, or the first century C.E.

The ritual bath was found inside a private village, the University’s statement said, “hewn into the bedrock and featuring a vaulted ceiling with fine masonry typical of the Herodian period.”

The bath is located on top of a cliff in the “Upper City”—a phrase coined by historian Josephus Flavius to describe the area of Herod’s City which housed Jerusalem’s elites, according to the statement.

“A plastered water cistern was uncovered near the same villa. It had been in use until the destruction of the Second Temple by Rome in 70 C.E., and held the remains of nearly 40 cooking pots, some still intact,” it added.

Intact Herodian-period cooking vessels collected from the bottom of the water cistern. (Photo credit: Michal Haber/Hebrew University).

The excavation, which began in February 2021, is also funded by Israel’s Jerusalem Affairs Ministry and the William Davidson Foundation.

Other finds in the area include an industrial pool built by soldiers of Rome’s Tenth Legion who were stationed in Jerusalem after the establishment of the Roman colony of “Aelia Capitolina” in 130 C.E., according to the university.

The pool lies on top of the remains of an earlier Roman oven, also installed by soldiers of the Legion. “The bottom contains a layer of tile bricks, one of which was stamped with the letters ‘LXF,’ alluding to ‘Legio X Fretensis,’ the full name of the Tenth Legion,” it stated.

As reported by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich of Israel365 News, July 20, 2022 (photo in original):

The steps of the ritual bath (Photo credit: Michal Haber/Hebrew University)

...In addition to the ritual bath, the excavations unearthed additional artifacts that span the Second Temple, Roman-Byzantine and Ottoman periods, including a network of plastered pools and channels. Among the finds were a section of the Ottoman-period phase of the “Lower Aqueduct” that transported water from Solomon’s Pools near Bethlehem all the way to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period; and an industrial pool built by soldiers of Rome’s Tenth Legion who were stationed in Jerusalem after the establishment of the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina in 130 CE. The pool lies on top of the remains of an earlier Roman oven, also installed by soldiers of the Legion. The bottom contains a layer of tile bricks, one of which was stamped with the letters “LXF,” alluding to “Legio X Fretensis,” the full name of the Tenth Legion.

Also discovered over the course of excavation was a fragment of Late Byzantine-period ceramic oil lamp, inscribed with the Greek formula “The Light of Christ shines for all.” This phrase may have its source in the ceremony of the Holy Fire, part of the Orthodox Easter celebrations in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Such oil lamps, dated primarily to the 6th and 7th centuries CE, may have been purchased by Christian pilgrims thronging to the Byzantine city, by then known as “Hierosolyma”.

Israelis Minister of Construction and Housing and of Jerusalem Affairs Ze’ev Elkin, inaugurated the Western Wall Elevator Project, noting “these rare finds, made during the Western Wall Elevator Project excavations, are truly exciting. They provide proof of a continuous Jewish presence in Jerusalem for millennia. Under my leadership, Israel’s Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage will continue to preserve and develop Jerusalem’s rich Jewish past and to transform the capital into a modern, innovative city.”

Surveying the unique finds, Gutfeld commented, “The excavation revealed remains dating from the Second Temple, Roman-Byzantine, and Ottoman periods. The amount of water channels, cisterns and pools discovered in the area reflect the central role played by Jerusalem’s water supply throughout the ages.”

As noted, the highlight of the archaeological dig was the ritual bath. Haber explained the significance of this find, “during the Herodian period, the area in question was home to the city’s wealthiest residents. While several other ritual baths have been unearthed in the area, the importance of this particular discovery stems from its striking proximity to the Temple Mount—raising the question of who lived in this grand villa on the eve of the city’s destruction. It may well have been a priestly family.”

Together with Dr. Amit Reem, chief archaeologist of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Jerusalem district, the ritual bath will be preserved and incorporated into the new Western Wall Elevator complex.

The Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs continues to develop Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter; current projects include the Western Wall Elevator, the Tiferet Yisrael synagogue, upgrades to the Herodian Quarter and the Broad Wall archaeological site.

As reported by Maayan Hoffman of All Israel News, July 21, 2022 (photos in original):

View of the ritual bath (left) and surrounding remains of Herodian-period structures (Photo credit: Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities Authority).

Archaeologists have unearthed a Jewish ritual bath dating back to the late Second Temple period, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced Wednesday.

The ritual cleansing bath, known in Hebrew as a mikveh, was discovered in a private villa reminiscent of those described by historian Josephus Flavius as belonging to the Holy City’s elite.

“During the Herodian period, the area in question was home to the city’s wealthiest residents,” explained Hebrew University’s Michael Haber, who led the excavation with Dr. Oren Gutfeld. “While several other ritual baths have been unearthed in the area, the importance of this particular discovery stems from its striking proximity to the Temple Mount—raising the question of who lived in this grand villa on the eve of the city’s destruction. It may well have been a priestly family.”

During the time of the temples, priests immersed themselves in the mikveh before carrying out their holy work. Today, some men still use these baths, especially those engaged in religious work. Orthodox religious women use them once a month, seven days after the end of their menstrual cycle.

The mikveh was discovered as part of excavations that began in February 2021 to provide handicap access between Jerusalem’s Old City and the Western Wall. The excavations were funded and spearheaded by Israel’s Ministry for Jerusalem Affairs and the William Davidson Foundation, and spearheaded by Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

The Western Wall, which sits below the Temple Mount in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem, is one of Jews’ holiest sites. Tens of thousands of people pray there on Jewish holidays – especially the three Jewish pilgrimage holidays of Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot – and thousands pray there daily throughout the year.

However, to get to the site from the Jewish Quarter, one has to walk down nearly 150 steps.

In 2017, the Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem received a permit to install two elevators to make the wall more accessible to visitors. However, the project has taken longer than expected, as researchers quickly discovered layers of archaeological gems.

The most recent reports said the elevators are expected to be up and running by 2025.

The private villa in which the mikveh was discovered was hewn into the bedrock and featured a vaulted ceiling with fine masonry, which researchers said is typical of the Herodian period. The villa is located at the top of a cliff in the “Upper City,” which Josephus Flavius said housed the city’s elite population.

There were several other relics discovered in the course of the excavation, including a fragment of a late Byzantine-period ceramic oil lamp that may have been purchased by Christian pilgrims thronging to the city around the 6th or 7th century A.D.

A fragment of a Byzantine-period (“Hierosolyma”) oil lamp with remains of a Greek inscription “The light of Christ shines for all” (Photo credit: Michal Haber/Hebrew University)

The lamp is inscribed in Greek with the words, "The Light of Christ shines for all." Researchers said that this phrase may have its source in the ceremony of the Holy Fire, part of the Orthodox Easter celebrations in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Artifacts from water cisterns to cooking pots dating from the Second Temple, Roman-Byzantine and Ottoman periods, were also found. A highlight was an aqueduct that is assumed to have transported water from Solomon’s Pools near Bethlehem all the way to the Temple Mount during the Second Temple period.

The Second Temple period is considered between 597 B.C. and 70 A.D., when the Temple was destroyed.

“These rare finds … provide proof of a continuous Jewish presence in Jerusalem for millennia,” said Israeli Minister of Construction and Housing and of Jerusalem Affairs Zeev Elkin.

The ritual bath will be preserved and incorporated into the new Western Wall Elevator complex, the Israel Antiquities Authority said.

Construction remains from the reign of Emperor Constantine discovered at Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem

As reported by All Israel News, July 16, 2022 (photo, link in original):

Construction remains dating from the period of Roman Emperor Constantine uncovered during renovations at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem (Photo: Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land)

An archaeological team readying the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem for the restoration of its pavement stones has found construction remains dating to the period of Roman Emperor Constantine.

The excavations have been ongoing since March, part of a two-year long restoration project. Beatrice Brancazi and Stefano De Togni, two Italian members of the archaeological team from the Sapienza University of Rome antiquities department, presented the finds to the leaders of the community affiliated with the church.

Professor Francesca Romana Stasolla, who led the project, announced the discovery to the public.

“The rock layers of the quarry have been found,” Stasolla said in a press release issued by the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land priory. “The operations of the Constantinian construction site had as their primary requirement that of bridging such unevenness of elevation to create a unitary and homogeneous plan to build the structures of the church and its annexes.”

Romana said that the team analyzed the construction methods of the ancient Constantinian era complex and unearthed mosaic tiles that were likely from floor pavements.

The team’s discovery confirms the tradition that the sacred church was built on top of a stone quarry that dominated the area up until the first century B.C., more than 2,000 years ago. Traces from this era are still visible in the oldest chapels that lie below the current church structure.

Emperor Constantine made Christianity the dominant religion of the Holy Roman Empire. In 326 A.D., Constantine ordered the construction of a church on top of former Emperor Hadrian’s temple to Jupiter on Capitoline Hill. Hadrian’s anti-Jewish policy extended to Jerusalem, where he sought to plant a Roman colony and to rename Jerusalem “Aelia Capitolina,” after the temple.

In addition to the Constantine era remains, the archaeological team discovered trenches dug in the 1960s by Virginio Canio Corbo, an archaeology professor and Italian Franciscan friar, who excavated many important religious sites in the Holy Land.

Corbo’s name is associated with excavations of the “Shepherds’ Field” close to Bethlehem, the ancient city of Magdala in the Galilee and a candidate for the place of Ascension on the Mount of Olives. Corbo died in Capernaum, beside the Sea of Galilee, in 1991.

In March, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced the discovery of the oldest Christian prayer house in the world, located at the current Megiddo Prison in northern Israel. Megiddo is traditionally known as the place of Armageddon.

“This structure is interpreted as the oldest Christian prayer house in the world … and, in fact, it tells the story of Christianity even before it became official,” wrote the IAA on social media.

“We have here archaeological evidence of an early Christian community, whose members also included Roman army officers, from a period prior to the recognition of Christianity as a religion and years before it became the official religion of the empire,” wrote Israeli archaeologist Dr. Yotam Tepper of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at Haifa University.

As reported by Abigail Klein Leichman of Israel21c, July 18, 2022:

...In the rotunda, the archeologists revealed more of a tunnel that had been partly exposed in previous searches, which is believed to be critical to the entire water outflow system of the edifice.

The archeologists have been excavating around the clock in the site since May, exploring the north nave of the church’s Arches of the Virgin Basilica and part of its northwestern rotunda.

“The work is carried out in a continuous cycle, day and night, and the processing of the materials produced is carried out in real-time between Jerusalem and Rome, where the rest of the team works,” said Stasolla.

Synagogue in Magdala contains oldest known menorah image

Archaeological site at Magdala near the Sea of Galilee (Photo: Shutterstock)

As reported by All Israel News, July 7, 2022 (liknks, photos in original):

If you are in the lobby of the Magdala Hotel in Migdal, Israel, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, you could be looking out a plate-glass window directly into the recently uncovered ruins of a first-century synagogue.

This synagogue is one of only seven that were known to exist during the time of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Its remains were first discovered in 2009, when preparations were being made for the construction of the hotel.

Though Magdala was only a fishing village, it is mentioned in Jewish texts as a major location during the First Jewish-Roman War (66–73 A.D.), including when the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.

Magdala is also identified in the Gospels as the hometown of Mary Magdalene, a former demoniac who became a financial supporter of Jesus during his ministry, and the first witness of the risen Messiah.

The main hall of the Magdala Synagogue was 120 square meters in size, and contained stone benches built against elaborately decorated walls.

The walls were found detailed with colorful frescos, the floor decorated with mosaic stones. The large Magdala stone – a carved representation of the Second Temple – depicted columns, amphoras (vases) and a menorah on a pedestal.

A replica of the Magdala stone is on display at the site, while the original has been removed for safekeeping. The stone is believed to have stood in the center of the synagogue, possibly used as a reading stand.

On one side of the stone – the side which faces Jerusalem – is a relief of a seven-branched menorah which is believed to be a replica of the menorah that stood in the Temple in Jerusalem.

The Magdala Stone (Photo: Hanay/Wikimedia Commons)

This is believed to be the earliest image of a menorah and is the first to be discovered in a Jewish context that dates to the Second Temple period or the beginning of the Early Roman Empire.

Since it was likely engraved when the Second Temple was still standing, it is assumed that the sculptor saw the original Temple menorah with his own eyes.

The stone also depicts pillars and arches that some archaeologists believe illustrate the entrance to the Holy of Holies in the Temple.

According to Hebrew University professor Rina Talgam, who specializes in Near Eastern art, the stone is said to have given the synagogue a special aura of holiness, making it like a second or lesser Temple.

This contradicts the previously accepted view that the synagogue was more a place of study than of worship, with worship occurring at the Temple in Jerusalem. Yet, the stone suggests that the synagogue was already becoming a replacement for the Temple, for acts of worship.

As most travel was on foot, it would not have been easy to travel from the Galilee to Jerusalem to worship.

The remains of the ancient Magdala Synagogue sit on land belonging to the Ark New Gate company, which has built a guest hotel and cultural center at the site.

The company has shown delight over the find, which lends itself to the goal of making their hotel a center for interfaith conferences, dialogue and mutual understanding between the faiths.

In the shadow of the modern city of Migdal, first-century city Magdala was the main base of Romano-Jewish historian Yosef Ben Matityahu (Josephus Flavius), a commander of the Jewish rebellion in the Galilee. The Jewish rebels here continued to resist the Romans after most of the Galilee, including Tiberias, had fallen.

At the end of the Second Temple period, Migdal was an administrative center on the western shores of the Sea of Galilee, and the only settlement of importance in that area until the founding of Tiberias in 19 A.D.

An area located south of the synagogue contains the remains of four well-preserved mikvot, or ritual baths, which were used in the first century. These were fed by subterraneous, flowing water, and they continue to function today. Adjacent to two of the baths is a room that reveals a mosaic floor with a pattern similar to that of the synagogue.

The synagogue and ritual baths together indicate an extensive Jewish presence in northern Israel during the period that the Temple was standing in Jerusalem.

Alongside the synagogue’s archaeological remains, the Magdala Guest House contains Duc in Altum [“Launch Out into the Deep”] Church, to offer Christians a place of prayer and worship. The church’s altar, in the form of a boat, with the help of floor-to-ceiling windows, appears to be floating on the Sea of Galilee.

The church contains several chapels designed to stress the location’s links to ancient Magdala:

One room contains a floor which may have been part of Magdala’s main fish market.

The women’s atrium includes mosaic patterns also found in the synagogue.

The design of one room, the Encounter Chapel, was inspired by the synagogue, and depicts a mural of the encounter between Jesus and the woman with the flow of blood (Mark 5:25).

The Duc in Altum Church has become an attraction for Christians and non-Christians alike.

It is an important site for fine art, music and culture; and has served as a setting for the Sea of Galilee International Choir Festival, the famous Israeli Udiana Choir and the Magdalena Institute’s Women´s Encounter.

The archaeological park is open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Check the website for entry fees.

"Stone of curses" from the time of King David has been discovered, 12 years after its discovery in Jerusalem

As reported by Israel365 News, July 6, 2022 (photo in original):

Near the Gihon spring in the City of David, a stone slab bearing a curse was discovered. The curse is inscribed on a rectangular stone tablet 26.7 cm wide and 20.8 cm long. The edges of the stone have only been partially preserved. Still, the inscription has been found in its entirety, and its preservation is excellent.

The stone slab was discovered by Eli Shukron, who conducted the excavation near the Gihon Spring area in 2010. In these excavations, a temple and a pillar were also unearthed.

Pillars room (Photo by Vladimir Neichin)

This monumental inscription has been deciphered by Prof. Gershon Galil, Head of the Institute for Biblical Studies and Ancient History, Israel, and the Department of Jewish History and Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa.

The inscription is a curse against the “Governor of the City” of Jerusalem (שר העיר) prepared by his opponents. It consists of 20 words and 63 letters in the ancient Proto-Canaanite script, similar to the Proto-Sinaic script, and may be dated to the end of the Middle Bronze Age II or the Late Bronze Age.

Transliteration and translation of the text: ARWR, ARWR, MT TMT; ARWR, ARWR, MT TMT; SR H’R, MT TMT; ARWR, MT TMT; ARWR, MT TMT; ARWR, MT TMT.

ארור, ארור, מת תמת; ארור, ארור, מת תמת; שר הער, מת תמת; ארור, מת תמת; ארור, מת תמת; ארור, מת תמת

Cursed, Cursed, you will surely die. Cursed, Cursed, you will surely die; Governor of the City, you will surely die; Cursed, you will surely die; Cursed, you will surely die; Cursed, you will surely die.

The stone slab, which dates to the end of the Middle Bronze Age IIB or the Late Bronze Age, is deliberately perforated, with about ten holes arranged in a round outline that resembles the shape of a head.

The holes were drilled inside the limestone but are not visible on the other side of the board. They were performed as a symbolic act, a kind of voodoo ceremony, intended to harm the governor of the city of Jerusalem against whom the inscription was composed.

The inscription indicates a conflict that probably broke out between the “governor of the city,” who was the most senior official of the King of Jerusalem at the time – a kind of “prime minister,” and other priests or officials of the king of Jerusalem, perhaps about economic or personal issues such as levies, temple grants, etc.

Conflicts between the governor and the city residents appear in a few places in the Bible, for example, in the story of Abimelech (Judg. 9). Many conflicts between Assyrian officials are also attested in Neo-Assyrian records.

The title “governor of the City” (שר העיר) appears on a few seal impressions in a similar spelling, on inscriptions 2.4-2.6 from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud and is also mentioned several times in the Bible (2 Kings 22:26; 23:8; 2 Chronicles 34:8).

The use of mater lectionis in the Jerusalem stone inscription and other ancient inscriptions was not uniform, as evidenced by the Ugaritic texts. In the Jerusalem stone inscription, only ’arur is written in plane spelling, not the other words.

Curses and cursing ceremonies are well known from the Egyptian execration texts written on pottery sherds or figurines from the Bronze Age (esp. the 20th-19th centuries BCE), which also mention the King of Jerusalem; as well as from magical ceremonies held against the Lamashtu in Mesopotamia. The Egyptian execration texts include references to enemy cities and kings in Canaan. These personal names and toponyms were written on pottery sherds or figurines, which were deliberately smashed to cause damage to the enemies of Egypt and to bring about the annihilation of the cursed Canaanite rulers.

Prof. Galil noted that: “The new inscription proves that Jerusalem was not only a fortified city but also a vital cultural and cultic center, where excellent scribes and sophisticated magicians managed to write this important monumental inscription, as well as hold voodoo ceremonies.” Prof. Galil also pointed out that, “being the earliest known inscription of this sort in Canaan, it must have served as a model for other writers and priests in later periods and in different places in the land.”

According to Eli Shukron, who led the excavation: “This is an important find as it helps to date the finds near the Gihon Spring to the Middle Bronze Age IIb.” He also added that: “Additional data unearthed in this area indicate that the mighty fortifications near Gihon existed continuously until the Eighth century BCE, and testify to the strength and resilience of Canaanite and Israelite Jerusalem, in the Middle/Late Bronze age, as well as in the 10th century, after King David turned the city into the capital of the Israeli Great Empire. In the days of David and Solomon, it was a fortified city and included walls (near the Gihon) whose height was preserved to a height of eight meters and a width of 3.5 meters.”

First mosaics of Deborah and Jael discovered in Galilee

As reported by All Israel News, July 9, 2022 (links, photo in original):

Mosaics uncovered the Huqoq synagogue in the Galilee: (Left) The Israelite commander Barak, (Right:) A fox eating grapes. (Photos: Jim Haberman via University of North Carolina)

A team of archaeologists at an excavation site in the ancient Jewish village of Huqoq in the Lower Galilee are the first to find depictions of the biblical heroines Deborah and Jael.

A team of specialists and students, led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Jodi Magness, excavated the mosaics, which are believed to be nearly 1,600 years old.

The team has been working on the excavation project of an ancient Jewish synagogue, known as the Huqoq Excavation Project, since 2011. The project was paused for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and only recently was taken up again.

The uncovered mosaics portray the story of Deborah the prophetess who went up to war against the Canaanite armies alongside Barak, as written in the book of Judges. Together, they defeated the armies of Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite army of King Jabin.

Barak had said he would only go to battle if Deborah joined him, and Deborah had prophesied in turn that a woman would defeat Sisera’s army. When facing defeat at the hand of the Israelites, the Canaanite commander would flee the battle and hide in the tent of a Jewish woman named Jael (Yael in Hebrew), who would kill him by hitting a tent peg into his head.

“This is the first depiction of this episode and the first time we’ve seen a depiction of the biblical heroines Deborah and Jael in ancient Jewish art,” Magness said.

“Looking at the book of Joshua, chapter 19, we can see how the story might have had special resonance for the Jewish community at Huqoq, as it is described as taking place in the same geographical region—the territory of the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun,” she said.

The newly found mosaics are in three sections; the first shows Deborah looking at Barak, the second shows a seated Sisera and the third shows Sisera lying on the ground after Jael has killed him.

According to the website of the Huqoq Excavation Project, the findings “have been bringing to light a monumental, Late Roman [early fifth century A.D.] synagogue paved with stunning mosaics depicting a variety of biblical scenes and the first non-biblical story ever discovered decorating an ancient synagogue.”

Among the newly found mosaics was a fragmentary Hebrew inscription inside a wreath flanked by panels. The panels feature two vases that hold sprouting vines in the shape of medallions; these frame four animals that are eating clusters of grapes—a hare, a fox, a leopard and a wild boar.

The archaeological revealing of the ancient Jewish synagogue has extracted a large variety of findings over the years.

The excavations have brought the synagogue’s aisles and main hall into views. Other panels discovered have depicted Samson from the book of Judges, Noah’s Ark, the parting of the Red Sea, Jonah being swallowed by three successive fish, the building of the Tower of Babel and animals identified as the four beasts representing the four kingdoms in the book of Daniel.

“The synagogue just keeps producing mosaics that there’s just nothing like and is enriching our understanding of the Judaism of the period,” said Magness in 2018, following the finding of a depiction of the 12 spies sent by Moses to explore Canaan. In the mosaic, the spies carry a pole bearing a cluster of grapes, an image in the book of Numbers, which is also used in the logo of Israel’s Ministry of Tourism.

“Every village has its own synagogue,” Magness said at the time. “In Huqoq, there’s a feeling that the villagers said, ‘We’re going to build the biggest and best.’ It’s as if they decided to throw everything into it.”

See also my post 1,600-year-old mosaic discovered in northern Israel (July 4, 2019)

Documents of Portuguese Inquisition digitized by National Library of Israel

As reported by Jewish Press Desk, July 8, 2022 (link, photos in original):

Nearly 500 years after the Portuguese Inquisition began, rare documentation of its proceedings and victims has been discovered in the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People at Jerusalem’s National Library of Israel and digitized for the first time. The 60-page manuscript, penned in the 18th century, documents the first 130 years of the Portuguese Inquisition tribunal’s activities, mainly in Lisbon. It includes detailed information about trials conducted by inquisitors against newly converted Christians accused of continuing to secretly practice Judaism.

The document, written in Portuguese, is known as “Memoria de todos os autos da fé que setem feito em Lisboa” (“An Accounting of All the Autos-da-Fé that Took Place in Lisbon”), and it includes information about autos-da-fé, public spectacles in which the sentences of Inquisition victims were read and executed by the authorities. Most of the information pertains to such ceremonies in Lisbon between the years 1540–1669, with a brief mention of trials in Tomar. The number of victims at each auto-da-fé, the trial dates, and locations, as well as the names of the priests who delivered sermons appear in the document.

The manuscript also contains the number of people burned at the stake. Among those prosecuted were “New Christians” accused of “Judaizing,” yet not all of the defendants mentioned in the document were Jews. “Old Christians”’ (defendants who came from families without any Jewish background) were also convicted of sodomy, bigamy, possession of forbidden books, and sacrilege.

In 1536, the Catholic Church initiated the Inquisition in Portugal following a mass influx into the country of Anusim (Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity) fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. The Portuguese Inquisition included particularly cruel punishments often carried out before large crowds gathered to watch autos-da-fé. Trials ceased after about 250 years, although Portugal’s Inquisition was not officially abolished until 1821.

Over the centuries, most of the Jews who converted to Christianity in Portugal abandoned any sign of their Jewish roots, yet some continued to keep some form of Jewish observance in private. For example, some would secretly celebrate Yom Kippur and Passover belatedly to confuse the authorities, or light Sabbath candles inside pottery vessels to conceal the flames. Children under the age of 12 were not permitted to attend these clandestine religious ceremonies to keep them from revealing secrets that might betray their families.

According to Dr. Yochai Ben-Ghedalia, Director of the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People at the National Library of Israel, “These discoveries shed light on the realities of a complex chapter in Jewish history, as well as on the Inquisition’s obsession with revealing any form of deviance, including traces of Jewish tradition. We hope the newly discovered document will help scholars better investigate this fascinating and difficult period of history.”

A page from the manuscript describing auto-da-fé trials in Lisbon. Courtesy of National Library of Israel

Title page of the auto-da-fé sermon of the priest Phillippe Moreira, printed in 1646. Courtesy of National Library of Israel

Discovery of ancient church in Mosul confirms Christian presence in Iraq

Restoration of the Syriac Orthodox Mar Toma Church in Mosul, Iraq (ALIPH)

As reported by Asia News, June 11, 2022:

Baghdad - A discovery of great historical, religious and cultural value that confirms - once again - the bond of Christians with Iraq and, more generally, with the Middle Eastern region of which they are the original people and an integral component since the first centuries.

Over the past few days, a dozen or so ancient relics and parchments belonging to some saints have emerged inside a church devastated by the Islamic State (IS, formerly Isis), which is now undergoing restoration.

The site of the discovery was the Syrian Orthodox church...of Mar Thomas in Mosul, once the economic and commercial capital of the north and in the recent past the stronghold of the Islamic "caliphate" established by Isis. Found inside were six stone containers bearing Aramaic inscriptions of saints and several manuscripts in Syriac and Aramaic languages.

The workers who made the discovery immediately called the leaders of the local Church, starting with the Syrian Orthodox Archbishop of Mosul Mor Nicodemos Sharaf. Among the relics that emerged was a stone container with an inscription relating to Saint Theodore, a Roman soldier born in the province of Corum, Turkey, in the 3rd century and beheaded for having converted.

The prelate immediately contacted Mor Ignace Ephrem II, the patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church who was in Damascus, with a video call to allow him to share the discovery live. At the conclusion of the excavations, five more reliquaries were collected: of Saint Simon 'the Zealot', a first-century apostle; relics of Mor Gabriel bishop of Tur Abdin (593-668); relics of Saint Simeon the Wise (1st century), an elder who welcomed the infant Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem; relics of Saint John, (Yohanan Shliha) apostle of Christ; relics of Saint Gregory Bar Hebraeus (1226-1286) Maphrien (regional primate) of the Syrian Orthodox Church from 1264 to 1286.

The latter was a great writer who compiled various works in the fields of Christian theology, philosophy, history, linguistics as well as being a poet and man of letters. For his contributions to the development of Syrian literature, he was acclaimed as one of the most knowledgeable and versatile writers among the Syrian Orthodox. Parchments written in Syriac, Armenian and Arabic, wrapped and protected in glass bottles, were also discovered in the ruins of the church...

As reported by All Arab News, July 1, 2022 (links in original):

Around a dozen ancient relics and parchments belonging to Christian saints were uncovered earlier this month inside an Iraqi church, undergoing restoration after being destroyed by ISIS.

The restoration project is part of the Mosul Mosaic initiative, which aims to preserve Mosul’s cultural heritage. The project began in December 2020, after the Iraqi Army cleared the site from mines and other explosive remnants of war.

Mosul was formerly an ISIS stronghold, especially during its short-lived “caliphate” led by the “first caliph” of the Islamic State Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The archaeological findings confirm the strong connection between Christianity and Iraq in ancient times.

The relics, six stone containers with Aramaic inscriptions of saints and several manuscripts in Syriac and Aramaic languages, were found inside the Syrian Orthodox Church of Mar Thomas in Mosul.

The church is believed to have been built in the 7th century A.D. on the site where the house of Jesus’ Apostle Thomas lived during his stay in Mosul, according to Christian tradition. The original church was destroyed during the Persian siege of Mosul – which was then part of the Ottoman Empire – in the 18th century and rebuilt by the 18th-century governor of Mosul, as a sign of gratitude toward the Christian defenders of the city...

...During its reign of terror in the years following the fall of Mosul in 2014, ISIS left Mosul in ruins and forced hundreds of thousands of Christians in the Nineveh province surrounding Mosul to flee. It is estimated that ISIS destroyed at least 14 churches in the Nineveh province alone during its onslaught on Christians and Christian culture and that it plundered and destroyed – frequently by simply blowing up – at least 28 historical religious buildings in Iraq in 2014 and 2015 alone.

Those buildings not only included churches but also “mosques, graves, shrines, churches and monasteries of historic character,” Iraqi deputy minister of Iraq said at the time.

The destruction by the members of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq was not limited to Christian artifacts. In 2014 and 2015, videos emerged that showed ISIS terrorists destroying ancient artifacts from multiple ancient civilizations with sledgehammers and jackhammers inside the Mosul Museum. Many of the artifacts were irreplaceable originals.

“Oh Muslims, the remains that you see behind me are the idols of peoples of previous centuries, which were worshiped instead of Allah. When Allah orders to us destroy these statues, idols and antiquities, we must do it, even if they’re worth billions of dollars,” the narrator of one of the videos said.

The project is being overseen by the French organization, l’Oeuvre d’Orient, in coordination with the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) of Nineveh and the French Institut National du Patrimoine.