Due to the amount of information I desire to communicate about Beth-shean, this site will require two posts: this post covers Old Testament Beth-Shean and Post #16 will cover New Testament Scythopolis. Beth-shean / Beth-shan / Tell el-Husn One of my favorite sites to visit in Israel is Beth-Shean (בֵּית שְׁאָן) — alternative spelling, Beth-Shan …
Hazor Tell el-Qedah (Hazor) is one of the most thoroughly excavated sites in all Israel, joining Megiddo with a similar reputation. The site sits about ten miles north of the Sea of Galilee in a well-watered pass between the Sea of Galilee and the Huleh basin. It watches over an ancient crossroads of major branches …
Capernaum The city of Capernaum in Galilee gained its greatest attribute when Jesus chose it as the location of His residence after leaving His boyhood home in Nazareth. The name of the city is more accurately Kepher Nahum, “the village of Nahum.” Capernaum was the seat of customs for goods entering Galilee and then on …
Sepphoris Excavations at Sepphoris (4 miles north of Nazareth) have uncovered beautiful mosaics (see picture above of the mosaic in a Roman villa triclinium; photo by Todd Bolen, Nov 1, 2006; Pictorial Library of Bible Lands, vol. 1, 2012). By 100 BC Sepphoris had withstood the attack of Egypt’s Ptolemy VIII because of the city’s fortifications. Of …
Nazareth Most of my posts in this series up to this point have involved sites more related to the Old Testament than to the New Testament. The New Testament alone specifically mentions the town of Nazareth. The town sits about 20 miles east of the Mediterranean Sea and about 15 miles west of the Sea …
Jezreel The meaning of “Jezreel” (יִזְרְעֶאל, yizre’e’l; LXX Ιεζραελ) appears to be either “God sows” or “may God make fertile/fruitful.” Jezreel sits opposite Shunem (1 Samuel 28:4; 2 Kings 4:8–10) and near halfway between Megiddo and Bethshan/Beth-shean with each being about ten miles distant from Jezreel. The junction of the Via Maris and the Way …
Megiddo Introduction. Some scholars date the city of Megiddo from as early as 5000 BC. Of all the sites excavated in Israel, this represents the richest of all. The history of Biblical archaeology, together with the progressive development of a variety of methods and techniques finds expression in the archaeological excavations conducted at Megiddo. Its …
Where should we expect to find the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah? I already addressed this matter in part in Post #9 about Lot’s Cave in the vicinity of Zoar. In that post I used the evidence of the biblical text, of toponomy (linguistics of place names), and the Medeba Map. In addition, we …
