Yahweh was an ancient Levantine deity, and national god of the Israelite kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Though no consensus exists regarding the deity's origins, scholars generally contend that Yahweh emerged as a "divine warrior" associated first with Seir, Edom, Paran and Teman, and later with Canaan. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age, if not somewhat earlier.
Neriah is the son of Mahseiah, and the father of Baruch and Seraiah ben Neriah. He is mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah of the Hebrew Bible.
The James Ossuary is a 1st-century limestone box that was used for containing the bones of the dead. An Aramaic inscription meaning "Jacob (James), son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" is cut into one side of the box. The ossuary attracted scholarly attention due to its apparent association with the Christian holy family.
The Jehoash Inscription is the name of a controversial artifact rumored to have surfaced in a construction site or Muslim cemetery near the Temple Mount of Jerusalem in 2001.
Oded Golan is an Israeli engineer, entrepreneur, and antiquities collector. He owns one of the largest collections of Biblical archaeology in the world.
The Gezer calendar is a small limestone tablet with an early Canaanite inscription discovered in 1908 by Irish archaeologist R. A. Stewart Macalister in the ancient city of Gezer, 20 miles west of Jerusalem. It is commonly dated to the 10th century BCE, although the excavation was unstratified and its identification during the excavations was not in a "secure archaeological context", presenting uncertainty around the dating.
The Biblical Archaeology Society was established in 1974 by American lawyer Hershel Shanks, as a non-sectarian organisation that supports and promotes biblical archaeology. Its current publications include the Biblical Archaeology Review, whilst previously circulating the Bible Review (1985–2005) and Archaeology Odyssey (1998–2006). The Biblical Archaeology Society also publishes books about biblical archaeology aimed at a general readership. The Society has, for more than 45 years, run seminars and tours offering an opportunity to learn directly from world-renowned archaeologists and scholars. It also produced videos (DVD) and CDs on archaeology and biblical archaeology.
"House of Yahweh" or "House of YHWH" is a phrase found throughout the Hebrew Bible, and on at least one extrabiblical inscription. Numerous "houses of (God)" are mentioned in the text of the Tanakh, and they did not always represent a physical structure – however, in the context of the "House of Yahweh", the phrase is primarily taken to refer to a temple dedicated to the worship of Yahweh.
The Lachish Letters are a series of letters written in carbon ink containing ancient Israelite inscriptions in Ancient Hebrew on clay ostraca. The letters were discovered at the excavations at Lachish.
Khirbet el-Qom is an archaeological site in the village of al-Kum, West Bank, in the territory of the biblical Kingdom of Judah, between Lachish and Hebron, 14 km to the west of the latter.
Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was a biblical Temple in Jerusalem believed to have existed between the 10th and 6th centuries BCE. Its description is largely based on narratives in the Hebrew Bible, in which it was commissioned by biblical king Solomon before being destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 587 BCE. Although no remains of the temple have ever been found, most modern scholars agree that the First Temple existed on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem by the time of the Babylonian siege, though there is significant debate over the date of its construction and the identity of its builder.
The Caiaphas ossuary is one of twelve ossuaries or bone boxes, discovered in a burial cave in south Jerusalem in November 1990, two of which featured the name "Caiaphas".
Miriam ossuary is a decorated limestone ossuary from a tomb in the Valley of Elah, Israel, which bears an inscription attributing it to "Miriam, the daughter of Yeshua."
The three shekel ostracon is a pottery fragment bearing a forged text supposedly dating from between the 7th and 9th centuries BCE. It is 8.6 centimeters high and 10.9 centimeters wide and contains five lines of ancient Hebrew writing. The inscription mentions a king named Ashyahu donating three shekels to the House of Yahweh. No king named Ashyahu is mentioned in the Bible, but some scholars believe it may refer to Jehoash, who ruled Judea 802–787 BCE.
The Trumpeting Place inscription is an inscribed stone from the 1st century CE discovered in 1968 by Benjamin Mazar in his early excavations of the southern wall of the Temple Mount. The stone, showing just two complete words written in the Square Hebrew alphabet, was carved above a wide depression cut into the inner face of the stone. The first word is translated as "to the place" and the second word "of trumpeting" or "of blasting" or "of blowing", giving the phrase "To the Trumpeting Place". The subsequent words of the inscription are cut off. The third word (...לה), which is incomplete, has been interpreted as either "declare" or "distinguish", giving either: "to d[eclare ]" or "to d[istinguish ]", where the words in square brackets represent scholarly conjecture.
Several kinds of archaeological remnants of the Jerusalem Temple exist. Those for what is customarily called Solomon's Temple are indirect and some are challenged. There is extensive physical evidence for the temple called the Second Temple that was built by returning exiles around 516 BCE and stood until its destruction by Rome in the year 70 CE. There is limited physical evidence of Solomon's Temple, although it is still widely accepted to have existed.
André Lemaire is a French epigrapher, historian and philologist. He is Director of Studies at the École pratique des hautes études, where he teaches Hebraic and Aramean philology and epigraphy. He specializes in West-Semitic old civilization and the origins of monotheism. He is a corresponding member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
The Ketef Hinnom scrolls, also described as Ketef Hinnom amulets, are the oldest surviving texts currently known from the Hebrew Bible, dated to c. 600 BC. The text, written in the Paleo-Hebrew script, is from the Book of Numbers in the Hebrew Bible, and has been described as "one of most significant discoveries ever made" for biblical studies.
The Khirbet Beit Lei graffiti are seven inscriptions in Hebrew in various states of preservation found in the excavations at Khirbet Beit Lei.
