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Title: Biblical Pool Uncovered in Jerusalem
Source:
LA Times
URL Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw ... 9aug09,1,1584700.story#Scene_1
Published: Aug 9, 2005
Author: Thomas H. Maugh II
Post Date: 2005-08-09 12:07:39 by BTP Holdings
Keywords: Uncovered, Jerusalem, Biblical
Views: 1290
Comments: 87
Biblical Pool Uncovered in Jerusalem The reservoir served as a gathering place for Jews making pilgrimages and is said in the Gospel of John to be the site where Jesus cured a blind man. By Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff Writer Workers repairing a sewage pipe in the Old City of Jerusalem have discovered the biblical Pool of Siloam, a freshwater reservoir that was a major gathering place for ancient Jews making religious pilgrimages to the city and the reputed site where Jesus cured a man blind from birth, according to the Gospel of John. The pool was fed by the now famous Hezekiah's Tunnel and is "a much grander affair" than archeologists previously believed, with three tiers of stone stairs allowing easy access to the water, said Hershel Shanks, editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review, which reported the find Monday. "Scholars have said that there wasn't a Pool of Siloam and that John was using a religious conceit" to illustrate a point, said New Testament scholar James H. Charlesworth of the Princeton Theological Seminary. "Now we have found the Pool of Siloam … exactly where John said it was." A gospel that was thought to be "pure theology is now shown to be grounded in history," he said. Religious law required ancient Jews to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem at least once a year, said archeologist Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa, who excavated the pool. "Jesus was just another pilgrim coming to Jerusalem," he said. "It would be natural to find him there." The newly discovered pool is less than 200 yards from another Pool of Siloam, this one a reconstruction built between AD 400 and 460 by the Empress Eudocia of Byzantium, who oversaw the rebuilding of several biblical sites. The site of yet another Pool of Siloam, which predated the version reputedly visited by Jesus, is still unknown. That first pool was constructed in the 8th century BC by Judean King Hezekiah, who foresaw the likelihood that the Assyrians would lay siege to Jerusalem and knew a safe water supply would be required to survive the attack. He ordered workers to build a 1,750-foot-long tunnel under the ridge where the City of David was located. The tunnel connected Gihon Spring in the adjacent Kidron Valley to the side of Jerusalem less vulnerable to an attack. The first Pool of Siloam was the reservoir holding the water brought into the city. It was presumably destroyed in 586 BC when Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar razed the city. The pool of Jesus' time was built early in the 1st century BC and was destroyed by the future Roman Emperor Titus about AD 70. The pool was discovered by a repair team excavating a damaged sewer line last fall under the supervision of Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority. As soon as Shukron saw two steps uncovered, he stopped the work and called in Reich, who was excavating at the Gihon Spring. When they saw the steps, Shukron said, "we were 100% sure it was the Siloam Pool." With winter approaching, the two men had to hurry their excavation so the sewer could be repaired before the rainy season. As they began digging they uncovered three groups of five stairs each separated by narrow landings. The pool was about 225 feet long, and they unearthed steps on three sides. They do not yet know how wide and how deep the pool was because they have not finished the excavation. The fourth side lies under a lush garden — filled with figs, pomegranates, cabbages and other fruits — behind a Greek Orthodox Church, and the team has not yet received permission to cut a trench through the garden. "We need to know how big it is," Charlesworth said. "This may be the most significant and largest miqveh [ritual bath] ever found." The excavators have been able to date the pool fairly precisely because of two fortunate occurrences that implanted unique artifacts in the pool area. When ancient workmen were plastering the steps before facing them with stones, they either accidentally or deliberately buried four coins in the plaster. All four are coins of Alexander Jannaeus, a Jewish king who ruled Jerusalem from 103 to 76 BC. That provides the earliest date at which the pool could have been constructed. Similarly, in the soil in one corner of the pool, they found about a dozen coins dating from the period of the First Jewish Revolt against Rome, which lasted from AD 66 to 70. That indicates the pool had begun to be filled in by that time. Because the pool sits at one of the lowest spots in Jerusalem, rains flowing down the valley deposited mud into it each winter. It was no longer being cleaned out, so the pool quickly filled with dirt and disappeared, Shanks said. The story of Jesus and the blind man, as told in John, is well known. Jesus was fleeing the Temple to escape either the priests or an angry crowd when he encountered the man. His disciples asked Jesus who had sinned, the man or his parents, to cause him to be born blind. Jesus said that neither had sinned, but that the man had been born blind so that God's work might be revealed in him. With that, he spat in the dust to make mud, which he rubbed in the man's eyes before telling him to wash it off in the Pool of Siloam. When the man did so, he was able to see.
Poster Comment: Holy water network Archaeologists uncovered an ancient water system outside Jerusalem. Two months of digging at Kibbutz Tzuba ended this week when the rock-hewn conduction network, dating to the time of King Hezekiah in the 8th century B.C.E., was unearthed. Last year the site received world-wide attention with the discovery of a cave said to have been used by John the Baptist and his followers for baptism. It was a monumental enterprise with a vertical shaft, an open horizontal corridor, a flight of stone steps above a tunnel and three external plastered pools, all of which was on a slope above an underground reservoir. Archaeologists say the new discoveries shed light on why this cave would have been chosen, out of the many thousands in the hills of Judah, for bathing rituals. “What baptizers wanted was a place, distant from nearby villages, large enough to contain groups of people coming to be immersed, and ancient enough so that the cultic side of the rituals was put into a context linking them to the time of the Israelite prophets,” said the dig’s leader, Shimon Gibson. http://jta.org/brknews.asp?id=153197
August 9, 2005
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#1. To: BTP Holdings, *Bereans* (#0)
A gospel that was thought to be "pure theology is now shown to be grounded in history," he said. Fyi...
(The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true good news)
I don't think anyone ever disputed certain archaeology or geography of the bible. They wrote about the Red Sea. The Red Sea lies between Egypt and the Arabian penunsula. Therefore everything must be true! Now if they could just come up with the talking donkeys, living 900 year old men and whales with ample living space and no digestive fluids and I will be converted. That's one soul saved! Surely the eternal kingdom has room for one more on it's gold-paved streets. They would need to change Revelation to state "144,001" souls though, not sure whom I can petition for that change.
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Send them some money. If the price is right they can squeeze you in.
If the price is right they can squeeze you in. Now wait a second. Wouldn't the people collecting the money thereby forfeit their place in Heaven based on Christ's insistence that the eternal kingdom is only for the lowly peasantry and biblical-day slaves that don't get their due on earth? Those who aspire to greatness, receive notoriety, make a decent living or otherwise distract from our only purpose of praising God have opted to receive their reward here and shouldn't expect eternal playtime. No wonder they call it a "flock".
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I wonder if it had a diving board?
Of course not, they take the money to heaven with them. Heaven is prime real estate, things are expensive and taxes are high. Doesn't the scripture say something to the effect that, For a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, he has to buy a pack of Camels or pass though the eye of a needle? Cigs in Heaven are over 9 bucks a pack ever since Hey-Sus shut down internet sales. Personally I prefer Marlboros but I don't make the rules there.
lol - they have... look in a mirror lately?
(The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true good news)
WWJD? Your tag line is good, but you are not winning any souls to Jesus by mocking people needlessly.
God is always good!
Every day Starwind, you did a great job of exposing badeye at El Pee. You spotted all the inconsistencies in this posts and proved to everyone he was a fraud May I suggest you look for similar inconsistencies in your rapture theology?
So, tell me what, precisely, is my rapture theology, and then if would kindly point out my inconsistencies thereby, and I'll address that, sincerely and honestly.
(The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true good news)
No doubt. He's great at timelines, but can't explain the biggest one: why the fossil record shows dinosaurs (equipped for carniverous bloodletting, mind you) far preceded Homo-Sapien, and the latter's naughty apple debacle is supposedly the reason animals are mean to each other. Or what a dozen other proven hominid species mean relative to the Creation story and which one exactly was made in "God's image". Or why we have DNA less than 2% disparate from chimpanzees. Or atrophied tails. Or how/why three distinct human races that have evolved to suit their respective climates in just the last 140,000 years.
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You do believe in "the rapture", right?
In some people it's a lot less
In some people it's a lot less I sometimes see evidence of this whilst riding the bus over in east DC and Maryland.
lol
Don't know if it's true, but I heard that Trace21230 is the last surviving specimen of Homo Erectus line. They didn't breed well and died out.
Remember this? I bookmarked the article but not the thread http://www.gewo.applet.cz/health/DNA_1e.htm I looks like God is a sloppy computer programmer.
And what is "the rapture" about which you believe my theology to be inconsistent?
(The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true good news)
Actually, scientists have unearthed a surviving colony which has banded together as "assclownposse" or something to that effect. Nobody is sure how they perpetuated their line. One theory has it that their cell-division is born of the love that dare not speak its name.
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That reminds me of when I started out in citizens band radio back in the mid-70s in Chicago. Living on the Northside, we had the darkies to the south of us on the west side. We called that area the "South 40" and I recall one of the base stations from that vicinity; his 'handle' was Go-rilla (pronounced just in that manner). We used to make fun of them all the time, and they never could walk over the top of the one guy who ran a one kilowatt foot warmer. He would turn the beams due south and just blast them off the air. LOL
"But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence; the least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of." Lord Byron
I asked a simple question and wanted a yes or no answer. It me try again, do you believe in the rapture? Here's another question (again, yes, or no, please): Do you believe Muslims worship the Devil, Satan?
Oh. Oh. Mr. Kotter. Can I answer this one?
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i'm amused.
As you very well know, you first asserted my rapture theology was inconsistent. I asked how so, and I said I'd give you an honest answer, depending on what you thought those inconsistencies were. Now instead of you explaining the inconsistencies in my rapture theology, you've backed tracked to asking me if I believe in the rapture. Seemingly now, you're not quite as sure as you thought what my theology was. Yes, I believe in what the bible describes as "the rapture" in 1Thes 4:16-17. Now what about that is inconsistent?
(The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true good news)
OK, so why don't Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox Churches believe in it? And what about Muslims, are they Devil worshipers?
lol - get them on this thread and ask them what they believe. Don't expect me to speak for them. I speak for myself, what I believe. We seem to be pretty far afield now from your initial assertions about my theologcal inconsistencies, to what others do or do not believe.
(The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true good news)
You left out Methodists, Lutherans to name only two and all partial and full preterists in many denominations.
Not at all, you're avoiding the question. The facts are that you and the rest of the rapture crowd are establishing doctrine on one single scripture (1Thes 4:16-17). This is a violation of a Biblical Principle: Gen 41:32 "And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. Deut 17:6"Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. Cor 13:1 This will be the third time I am coming to you."By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established." 1Thes 4:16-17 the only scripture that even suggests that believers will be "raptured" (caught up together with them in the clouds) Outside of a small minority of believers in this county, nobody else believes it. Now, what about Muslims.
Thank you, I stand corrected.
I can give ya some more :P
Dude, that's easy: Alien DNA spliced with whatever sort of primate they could get their hands on. They just kept trying 'til they got it right. We share like 95 percent of our DNA with frogs, fer chrissakes, so it obviously don't take much. I doubt Homo Sapiens was the first model made in "God's image". Maybe they just got tired of trying. Well, hell, it makes as much sense as any other mythology.
"I've decided it's just a lot more amusing to give out bad advice."
I hope you don't include my Church on that list. At The Holy Coptic Church of the Apocalyptic Neocon Rapture (501)(c)(3), we're "All rapture, All the time" Rev. Flint
LOL naw that one isnt on the list but the Church of Christ, the Christian Church, Espiscopalians, the American Baptists, the Church of God Anderson Indiana (as opposed to the Pentacostal Church of God), Presbyterian to name a few more.
You still don't know what I believe. You first asserted my theology was inconsistent, then you had to ask if I believed at all, and now you're again assuming you know something of my theology and that it also conforms to the "rapture crowd" whoever they are. Where was all that insight a few posts back? I don't know what the "rapture crowd" believes, and no, 1 thes 4:16-17 isn't the only scripture, though it is the one from which "the rapure" term comes, there are others from which the doctrine draws as well. Outside of an even smaller minority still, nobody else seems to belive in the entire bible - most decide to leave out the parts they find inconvenient and in conflict with what they want to believe. Those who choose to disbelieve the rapture choose to ignore Paul's clear teaching on it 1 Thes 4 and 1 Cor 15, and Jesus initially spoke of a similar event in Matt 24:37-42.
(The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true good news)
I thought so. Heinlein would suggest they be interned in Coventry with the rest of the snake shaking TV Evangelists.
Now I understand. You're right and everybody else is wrong; including some Orthodox Churches with well over 1500 years of history and study. They didn't figure it out after studying the Bible for 1500 years but you and the Schofield/Moody crowd did in an afternoon. It makes perfect sense.
A few more? Nazarenes, Wesleyan Church, Salvation Army, Russian Orthodox...
I believe the bible is right as written, and I don't know what everybody else thinks. I'm not with the Scofield/Moody crowd (though I recognize how utterly dependent you are upon labels and hyperbole to defend your viewpoint).
(The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true good news)
They're all wrong, they're all going to: Cop out
Comments (41 - 87) not displayed.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest"Scholars have said that there wasn't a Pool of Siloam and that John was using a religious conceit" to illustrate a point, said New Testament scholar James H. Charlesworth of the Princeton Theological Seminary. "Now we have found the Pool of Siloam 70; exactly where John said it was."
#2. To: Starwind (#1)
A gospel that was thought to be "pure theology is now shown to be grounded in history," he said.
#3. To: Dude Lebowski (#2)
They would need to change Revelation to state "144,001" souls though, not sure whom I can petition for that change.
Hey, Meester,wanna meet my seester?
#4. To: Flintlock (#3)
Send them some money.
#5. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
The pool was fed by the now famous Hezekiah's Tunnel and is "a much grander affair" than archeologists previously believed, with three tiers of stone stairs allowing easy access to the water,
#6. To: Dude Lebowski, Starwind (#4)
Now wait a second. Wouldn't the people collecting the money thereby forfeit their place in Heaven
Hey, Meester,wanna meet my seester?
#7. To: Dude Lebowski, Flintlock (#2)
Now if they could just come up with the talking donkeys,
#8. To: Starwind (#7)
lol - they have... look in a mirror lately?
#9. To: Starwind (#7)
look in a mirror lately?
Hey, Meester,wanna meet my seester?
#10. To: Flintlock (#9)
May I suggest you look for similar inconsistencies in your rapture theology?
#11. To: Flintlock (#9)
Starwind, you did a great job of exposing badeye at El Pee.
#12. To: Starwind (#10)
So, tell me what, precisely, is my rapture theology,
Hey, Meester,wanna meet my seester?
#13. To: Dude Lebowski (#11)
Or why we have DNA less than 2% disparate from chimpanzees.
Hey, Meester,wanna meet my seester?
#14. To: Flintlock (#13)
Or why we have DNA less than 2% disparate from chimpanzees.
#15. To: crack monkey (#14)
#16. To: Dude Lebowski (#11)
Or what a dozen other proven hominid species mean relative to the Creation story and which one exactly was made in "God's image".
#17. To: crack monkey, Dude Lebowski, Starwind, Christine (#14)
Hey, Meester,wanna meet my seester?
#18. To: Flintlock (#12)
You do believe in "the rapture", right?
#19. To: crack monkey (#16)
Don't know if it's true, but I heard that Trace21230 is the last surviving specimen of Homo Erectus line.
#20. To: crack monkey (#14)
I sometimes see evidence of this whilst riding the bus over in east DC and Maryland.
#21. To: Starwind (#18)
Hey, Meester,wanna meet my seester?
#22. To: Starwind (#18)
And what is "the rapture" about which you believe my theology to be inconsistent?
#23. To: Dude Lebowski (#19)
#24. To: Flintlock (#21)
May I suggest you look for similar inconsistencies in your rapture theology?
I asked a simple question and wanted a yes or no answer. It me try again, do you believe in the rapture?
#25. To: Starwind (#24)
Yes, I believe in what the bible describes as "the rapture" in 1Thes 4:16-17. Now what about that is inconsistent?
Hey, Meester,wanna meet my seester?
#26. To: Flintlock (#25)
OK, so why don't Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox Churches believe in it? And what about Muslims, are they Devil worshipers?
#27. To: Flintlock (#25)
OK, so why don't Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox Churches believe in it?
#28. To: Starwind (#26)
We seem to be pretty far afield now from your initial assertions about my theologcal inconsistencies, to what others do or do not believe.
Hey, Meester,wanna meet my seester?
#29. To: Zipporah (#27)
You left out Methodists, Lutherans to name only two and all partial and full preterists in many denominations.
Hey, Meester,wanna meet my seester?
#30. To: Flintlock (#29)
#31. To: Dude Lebowski (#11)
Or what a dozen other proven hominid species mean relative to the Creation story and which one exactly was made in "God's image".
#32. To: Zipporah (#30)
I can give ya some more :P
Visa and MasterCard accepted
Hey, Meester,wanna meet my seester?
#33. To: Flintlock (#32)
#34. To: Flintlock (#28)
Not at all, you're avoiding the question. The facts are that you and the rest of the rapture crowd are establishing doctrine on one single scripture (1Thes 4: 16-17).
Outside of a small minority of believers in this county, nobody else believes it.
#35. To: Zipporah (#33)
to name a few more.
Hey, Meester,wanna meet my seester?
#36. To: Starwind (#34)
Those who choose to disbelieve the rapture choose to ignore Paul's clear teaching on it
Hey, Meester,wanna meet my seester?
#37. To: Flintlock (#35)
#38. To: Flintlock (#36)
You're right and everybody else is wrong; including some Orthodox Churches with well over 1500 years of history and study.
They didn't figure it out after studying the Bible for 1500 years but you and the Schofield/Moody crowd did in an afternoon.
#39. To: Zipporah (#37)
A few more?
Hey, Meester,wanna meet my seester?
#40. To: Starwind (#38)
I believe the bible is right as written, and I don't know what everybody else thinks.
Hey, Meester,wanna meet my seester?
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