by admin | May 7, 2018 | Browse All, Popular
Or, Perhaps Something Else? The /mezuzah/, traditionally affixed to the doorposts of the house by most Jews, contains two passages from the book of Deuteronomy — 6:4-9 and 11:18-20 — enjoining the faithful to write the words of God “on the doorframes of your house and...
by admin | May 8, 2018 | Browse All, Metal, Popular
We learn from these two amulets that people—at least some people—chose to refer to God by the more intimate term YHWH (יהוה). These four letters are unpronounceable and untranslatable. This anomaly stems from the fact that biblical Hebrew is written with only...
by admin | May 7, 2018 | Browse All, Ceramics, Inscriptions, Masada, Popular, Pottery
The emperor Nero sent three legions—the Fifth, Tenth, and Fifteenth—under the command of General Vespasian to Judea in the spring of 67 CE. By the end of that year, Vespasian has reduced the Galilee and the Golan. He returned the following spring and campaigned in...
by admin | May 4, 2018 | Browse All, Inscriptions, Metal, Popular
Two small silver amulets— blessings and magical phrases used to ward off bad luck and danger—were found in a burial cave in Jerusalem in 1979 during archaeological excavations at a place called /Ketef Hinnom/ (the shoulder of the Hinnom [valley], just on the hill...
