Jabbok River valley inhabited and irrigated for millennia

A recent report by Dutch researchers calls attention to the relation of the irrigation, especially that in the Zerqa River triangle of Jordan, to population and the nature of the communities.

You can make major discoveries by walking across a field and picking up every loose item you find. Dutch researcher Eva Kaptijn succeeded in discovering – based on 100,000 finds – that the Zerqa Valley in Jordan had been successively inhabited and irrigated for more than 13,000 years. But it was not just communities that built irrigation systems: the irrigation systems also built communities.

Archaeologist Eva Kaptijn has given up digging in favour of gathering. With her colleagues, she has been applying an intensive field exploration technique: 15 metres apart, the researchers would walk forward for 50 metres. On the outward leg, they’d pick up all the earthenware and, on the way back, all of the other material. This resulted in more than 100,000 finds, varying from about 13,000 years to just a few decades old. Based on further research on the finds and where they were located, Kaptijn succeeded in working out the extent of habitation in the Zerqa Valley in Jordan over the past millennia.

Read the longer report here.

The Zerqa River is known as the Jabbok in the Bible. It is probably best known as the place where Jacob met with Esau as he returned from Paddan Aram, and where his name was changed to Israel (Genesis 32).

The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. (Genesis 32:22 ESV)

Jordan utilizes the water of the Jabbok (Zerqa) for irrigatation, especially in the Jordan Valley. This photo which I made last year shows the Jabbok a few miles from the Jordan Valley. The mountains are in the Biblical land of Gilead. Before the river reaches this point much of the water has been caught in reservoirs for use by the Jordanians.

The Jabbok (Zerqa) River near the Jordan Valley. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

HT: Biblical Paths.

Unique Archaeology Map of the West Bank and East Jerusalem

Suzanne Muchnic, of the Los Angeles Times, reports on a new online map that will be of interest to students of the archaeology of Palestine. Here is a portion of that report.

A searchable map detailing 40 years of Israeli archaeological work in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, developed for the USC Digital Library, has won the 2009 Open Archaeology Prize from the American Schools of Oriental Research.

Project leaders Lynn Swartz Dodd of USC and Rafi Greenberg of Tel Aviv University are expected to accept the award on behalf of an international team composed of Americans, Israelis and Palestinians.

The digital map apparently won the approval of jurors because it offers a body of information previously unavailable to the public about sites surveyed or excavated since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

USC’s website is part of an effort to establish a framework for the disposition of the region’s cultural heritage in the event of a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine. Interactive satellite maps on the website show about 7,000 archaeological locales, including Shiloh, where the original tabernacle of the Hebrews is thought to have been located, and the Qumran caves, where the Dead Sea scrolls were found.

The public can access the West Bank and East Jerusalem Archaeology Database at http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/wbarc. Users must have Google Earth to get full use of the information.

Read the complete article in The Los Angeles Times. A UCLS news release may be read here.

This is a remarkable map. It includes only sites in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that have been surveyed or excavated. A search may be made by archaeological period, or by type: burial, cave, cistern, winepress, synagogue, mikveh, tell, etc.

I have added a link to this map on the Biblical Studies Info Page under Scholarly/Archaeology.

This video features Lynn Swartz Dodd and Ran Boytner discussing the importance of this project.

Earlier we reported here on the interactive map of the Dead Sea by A.D. Riddle and David Parker showing the history of change. We look forward to more material of this sort in the years to come as scholars make their information available to the wider public.

HT: Joseph Lauer.

Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem

The Al-Aqsa (or Al-Aksa) Mosque is one of the two important buildings erected by Moslems on the platform built by Herod the Great. A Brief Guide to the Dome of the Rock and Al-Haram Al-Sharif, published in 1965, says the Al-Aksa Mosque was built in A.D. 693 or A.D. 705. The other significant building on the platform is called The Dome of the Rock or the Mosque of Omar. It is built over the rock where, according to tradition, Abraham offered Isaac (Genesis 22), and where the Temple of Solomon once stood (1 Kings 6).

This building has often been in the news. In 1951 King Abdullah of Jordan was assassinated in the Mosque. In 1969 an Australian tourist set fire to the building. Just a couple of days ago we saw news reports of disturbances in the Mosque. The Guardian of London headline reports,

Palestinians clash with Israeli troops at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. Demonstrations at holy shrine erupt into violence as youths fight battles with riot police.

Pressing on toward the goal

Paul’s admonition to the brethren at Philippi is often used in sermons.

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

Most often we hear speakers compare what Paul said to the effort put forth by individuals running in a race. This is certainly not inappropriate. However, many years back I ran across a statement by E. M. Blaiklock that changed my thinking. Blaiklock was a noted classicist. This particular comment comes from Cities of the New Testament.

One mark of the Roman colony is perhaps to be detected in the letter which Paul wrote, over ten years later, to the Macedonian church which he had come to love. It is a hidden metaphor from the chariot race. Exhorting his Philippians to effort and single-minded endurance, Paul writes: ‘This one thing I do-forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to those before, I make for the mark, the prize of the upward calling’.

Commentators generally have not marked the fact that Paul appears to have in mind, not the athletic contests of the Greeks, from which he commonly drew illustration, but the chariot racing of Rome. He was writing to a Roman colony. He was writing also from Rome itself, and never was there such rivalry of racing colours, and circus fever than at that time. The common talk of the soldiers of the soldiers was of the chariot racing, and Paul would gain a vivid impression of this most perilous of sports.

Such a race as that which forms the substance of Paul’s figure is described well in Ben HUR. The charioteer stood on a tiny platform over sturdy wheels and axle. His knees were pressed against the curved rail, and his thighs flexed. He bent forward at the waist, stretching out hands and head over the horses’ backs. This is surely what he means by ’stretching out to the things before’. The reins were wound round the body, and braced on the reins the body formed a taut spring. It can easily be seen how completely the charioteer was at the mercy of his team’s sure feet and his own fine driving skill. Euripides, in his Hippolytus, tells how the hero fell and was killed in such conditions. Ovid describes the same disaster in Book XV of his Metamorphoses. In his intense preoccupation the driver dare not cast a glance at ‘the things behind’. The roaring crowd, crying praise or blame, the racing of his rivals, all else had perforce to be forgotten. One object only could fill the driver’s eye, the point to which he drove at the end of each lap.

Here is a photo that might help to illustrate what Blaiklock said. It was made at the RACE show (Romy Army and Chariot Experience) at Jerash, Jordan.

Chariot race at the RACE show in Jerash, Jordan. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

This is a reprint from April 30, 2008, but with a different photo suitable for use in presentations. Click on the image for the larger photo.

Todd Bolen announces the Jerusalem CD

Todd Bolen has announced the publication of Jerusalem: Volume 2 of The American Colony and Eric Matson Collection. We mentioned this marvelous set of photographs earlier here. For more information on the current CD on Jerusalem click here

Todd Bolen’s new collection of old photos

Todd Bolen has produced a new collection of photos. These are not his photos. They are the famous photos of The American Colony and Eric Matson Collection. This set of 8 volumes features 4,000 high-resolution photographs taken by resident photographers in the Holy Land from 1898 to the 1940s.

Every Bible student who has been using Bible study resources for several years has seen the photographs of The American Colony photographers and Eric Matson. When I edited the Truth in Life Bible class literature in the early 1970s we purchased and obtained permission to use several of the photographs in the literature.

The American Colony in Jerusalem was founded in 1881 by Horatio Spafford (author of the famous hymn, It is Well With My Soul). Eric Matson, one of the photographers inherited the collection, added his own work, and later donated his negatives to the Library of Congress. These photos have been available to the public for some time, but it has been difficult to locate a particular photo. And the quality of some of them, after so many years, is not good.

Bolen describes the collection:

This collection includes more than 4,000 selected photographs of sites and scenes from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. All of the images are included in pre-made PowerPoint® files for quick and easy use, as well as in high-resolution jpg format, suitable for projecting or printing. Quotations from 19th-century travelers give additional context to many of the photographs.

The Collection Includes:

• Volume 1: Northern Palestine
• Volume 2: Jerusalem
• Volume 3: Southern Palestine
• Volume 4: Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan
• Volume 5: Egypt and Sinai
• Volume 6: Traditional Life and Customs
• Volume 7: Early 20th-Century History
• Volume 8: People of Palestine

The first volume has been released on CD. Other volumes are being released one CD a month. The complete 8-volume set is available now on 2 DVDs.

In recent weeks Todd has written about Shechem, Samaria, and Beth Shean. Almost every tour group visits Beth Shean, but many are unable to go to the other sites. Take a look here at the way Beth Shean looks now and the way it looked in the 1920s.

Complete information on this set is available at Life in the Holy Land.

A view from Qumran

This morning I wanted to share a photo made from Qumran on the western shore of the Dead Sea. Weather conditions were fairly good that day. You can see across the Dead Sea to the mountains of Moab.

View east across the Dead Sea to Moab. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

We associate the land of Moab with Ruth the grandmother of King David.

So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. (Ruth 1:22)

Virtual Qumran Reconstruction

Dr. Robert R. Cargill announced here that images and a movie of Virtual Qumran are available for free download. To view the images go directly to www.VirtualQumran.com. These images will be helpful in any teaching about Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Cargill is Chief Architect and Designer of the Qumran Visualization Project.

Virtual Qumran. North East View. UCLA Qumran Visualization Project.

Here is a photo I made at the reconstructed ruins of Qumran.

View of proposed study room at Qumran. View NE. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

The sign in the room reads,

The members of the Qumran Sect occupied themselves with studying the books of the Bible. Hundreds of pottery lamps were discovered in this room, validating the supposition that it was used for study during the night.

I am not sure this is a valid conclusion.

Qumran Potters Quarter. UCLA Qumran Visualization Project.

Check our earlier discussion of the Dead Sea Sect here.

Almond staff in the ark of the covenant

Three items from the period of the wilderness (desert) wandering of the children of Israel were considered significant enough to be included in the ark of the covenant.

Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. (Hebrews 9:3-5 ESV)

The picture below, made at the model of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, shows a replica of the Ark of the Covenant with the contents mentioned by the writer of Hebrews. For more information about the model read here.

Replica of the Ark of the Covenant showing contents. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

At Jerash in Jordan, young boys were selling small bags of green almonds. Not my preference, but apparently there is a market for them. “Jordan almonds” are famous for use at weddings. The fresh almond is bittersweet in taste, but the sugar coating adds sweetness. The “Jordan almonds” are still “Jordan almonds” even when they come from California!

Green almonds at Jerash, Jordan. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Jerash is thought to be the site of Gerasa, one of the cities of the Decapolis (Matthew 4:25). Perhaps it is the city belonging to the country of the Gerasenes (Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26,37).

One sows and another reaps

Jesus took advantage of the opportunity to teach the woman of Samaria at the well where they met (John 4). She went into the city and told the men about Jesus (John 4:28-29). When the disciples of Jesus returned from the city where they had gone to buy food they encouraged Jesus to eat. He said, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” The disciples misunderstood this, thinking He had reference to material food. This conversation led Jesus to say,

Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” (John 4:35-38 ESV)

The disciples apparently did not know that Jesus had been teaching the woman, and that she had gone into the city to tell others about Him. Jesus is reminding the disciples of a common thing in the agricultural practices of that time. One sows and another reaps. It may have been sowing time, but some were ready to be reaped. The fields were ready to be harvested.

The words of the prophet Amos provide insight into this episode. He said,

“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “When the plowman will overtake the reaper And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; When the mountains will drip sweet wine And all the hills will be dissolved. (Amos 9:13 ESV)

In modern times, with the use of some mechanical farm equipment, it is becoming difficult to find scenes exactly like the practices of the time of Jesus. But we still see things that remind us of these teachings. The photo below shows a field in Jordan just above the Jordan valley floor near Deir Allah. On a clear day one could see the valley.

The field has been plowed while grain grows nearby. Photo by F. Jenkins.

Notice the rocks in the field. The plowman has worked around them. In the days of broadcast sowing, like in the parable of the sower (Luke 8), this scene has all of the elements. Good soil, rocky soil, road, and certainly thorns.

Extend our view to the left in the photo above. You will see, in the photo below, sheaves in the field that has been plowed. Indeed, the plowman overtakes the reaper.

Harvested grain in a field already plowed for sowing. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

It is true today in the preaching of the gospel. One plows and another reaps. Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

If we had more sowing, there would be more reaping.