Posted on 07/20/2026 8:47:11 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Biblical archaeology has always fascinated me. It’s interesting to see the findings that archaeologists come up with, particularly when the digs turn up evidence that bolsters the veracity of biblical accounts.
A recent find has scholars taking a look at the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 36:17-21 gives us that account:
Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels. He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
Sarah Katz writes at Israel365 News:
Charred beams pulled from the earth in Jerusalem’s City of David are forcing archaeologists to rewrite their timeline of the First Temple’s destruction — and offering the most tangible physical evidence yet of the catastrophe the Bible describes in stark, unflinching detail.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
[EXCERPT]
Excavators working the Givati Parking Lot dig, a joint project of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University inside the Jerusalem Walls National Park, uncovered massive wooden beams burned when Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian army destroyed the First Temple in 586 BCE. The beams once formed the roof of an inner courtyard in a First Temple-period building. When the structure collapsed in the fire, the beams fell to the floor — and there they stayed for roughly 2,600 years, preserved by an unlikely agent: melted plaster.
“The beams appear to have served as the roof of an inner courtyard in a building from the First Temple period,” said Efrat Bocher, who directed the excavation. “During the destruction, they collapsed onto the floor. We believe that the plaster cladding of the building’s walls, melted by the fire, covered the charred wooden beams, and ultimately enabled their exceptional preservation.”
Cool beans.
Very interesting, but the fact that the beams were so well preserved, with lots of tree rings, will enable the archeologists to pin-point the time of building of the temple, not its destruction, surely?
Ping!
Excellent point
Thx. The source article link was interesting, some good photos.
You’re thinking like a real scientist...
:)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.