Free Republic

This multidisciplinary work merges radiocarbon dating, ancient handwriting analysis, and machine learning. In a recent development, AI has been deployed to date the Dead Sea Scrolls with astounding accuracy, radically challenging misconceptions regarding their age and the historical timelines they fall under. The results show that several of the Scrolls might actually be much older than what is assumed, and in some cases, could be from the era of the biblical figures that supposedly wrote them. Pioneered by the University of Groningen, this multidisciplinary work merges radiocarbon dating, ancient handwriting analysis, and machine learning. The outcome is Enoch, the first...

BB Netanyahu's message after Speaking to Donald Trump about Iran, Hezbollah, and the Hostages.

For decades it was merely a sidewalk stone at a home in the Middle East, its significance unbeknownst to its owner. Now, the oldest inscribed tablet of the Ten Commandments is set to auction for $1 million to $2 million... The relic is the only complete tablet of the Ten Commandments in existence from the Late Byzantine period, which ranged from 300–800 A.D. ... Sotheby’s is set to auction the 1,500-year-old piece on Dec. 18. ... This is really one-of-a-kind,” Mintz said. “It’s one of the most important historic artifacts that I’ve ever handled.” ... The marble relic weighs a...

Argentine President Javier Milei posted a message on social media in Hebrew to mark the anniversary of the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, demanding the return of Israel’s hostages to freedom. Milei’s message was both a declaration of support for Israel as it continues its self-defense operations against the Hamas jihadist organization in Gaza and its allies in Lebanon and a reminder to the world that Argentina lost citizens to the mass abductions that took place on October 7. At least seven Argentines are believed to be among the 101 people abducted from Israel on October 7, 2023,...

While much of the blame for America’s unprecedented border crisis falls at the feet of policies implemented by President Joe Biden, a network of government-funded, religiously-affiliated nonprofit organizations is spending massive sums of money to facilitate waves of illegal immigrants into the United States. These groups, which present as religious groups, have cemented roles in the importation of millions of migrants into the United States. They encourage migration along the Central American route that leads to the U.S. border, then offer cash, as well as legal and resettlement services, to many of the more than 10 million people who’ve attempted...

Hebrew out: 1933 by Nazi Wilhelm Frick; 2023/4 by Arab Islamic Nazis 2023/4Antisemitic incidents have surged 320% in Germany since Oct. 7. By Shura LI Bartov/JTA. Published: November 30, 2023 01:40. Jewish life is becoming less visible in Germany, as Jews refrain from wearing identifiable symbols and speaking Hebrew in public. 1933/4Infamous Nazi Wilhelm Frick - Instrumental in formulating laws that consolidated the Nazi regime (Gleichschaltung), as well as laws that defined the Nazi racial policy, most notoriously the 1935 Nuremberg Laws. In 1933 he bans Hebrew to be recognized, among other things. American Jewish Year Book. vol. 36. United...

As a child, the thing I found most startling about attending majority-black public schools was the fact that most of my fellow students had no idea what a “Jew” is. To them, I was just a white kid. A few of my schoolmates who had churchgoing parents had heard terms like “Hebrews” and “Israelites,” but there was little understanding of how those words applied to living people in the modern world. I recall one black classmate telling me she’d finally “figured out” what this Jew thing is all about: “You guys just wear the cross, but without the little man...

Since the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, the holy day of Yom Kippur has been observed with intense prayer and fasting. But the Bible mandates 15 specific sacrifices and many other rituals for Yom Kippur outlined in Leviticus chapter 16. This included the Kohen Gadol (high priest) wearing five different sets of garments, immersion in the mikvah (ritual bath) five times, and washing his hands and feet ten times. The temple service on Yom Kippur was the only time the Kohen Gadol entered the Kodesh Kedoshim (holy of holies) three times, the only day of...

Indonesian police have brought blasphemy and hate speech charges against the head of a controversial Islamic boarding school, following public uproar over its teachings, including unorthodox treatment of women and use of Hebrew. Panji Gumilang, head of the Al-Zaytun school in conservative West Java province, was named a suspect by police on Tuesday (Aug 1), national police official Djuhandhani Rahardjo told reporters, and faces a maximum 10 years in prison if found guilt of blasphemy and hate speech. Founded in 1996 and home to roughly 5,000 students, the boarding school has caused a stir with practices like allowing men and...

She says the new name means ‘lion of God.’ In Hebrew, it appears to be a typoKylie Jenner has changed her son’s name from Wolf to Aire (pronounced like “air”). She says it means “lion of God” in Hebrew. It doesn’t. The child was born to Jenner and rapper Travis Scott in February 2022. “His legal name is Wolf Webster so I’m going to do Aire Webster,” she said in a video, spelling out the name as “A-I-R-E.” “I just always wanted a name for him that had meaning and I like it’s a Hebrew name,” she said, adding:...

One of the latest discoveries in the world of biblical research comes as a result of ultraviolet light technology that allowed researchers to see and translate a portion of scripture written nearly 1,500 years ago.Historian Grigory Kessel from the Austrian Academy of Sciences published his work at Cambridge and explained how the new technology has provided more insight into the preservation of scripture:Kissel said that they found an ancient version of Chapter 12 in the book of Matthew in the Bible that had been hidden beneath a section of text for over 1,500 years. His discovering is one of the...

World’s Oldest Near-Complete Hebrew Bible Goes to Auction The Codex Sassoon could break auction records, becoming the most valuable historical document ever sold Sarah Kuta Daily Correspondent February 17, 2023 Bible open to a page in the middle, set against a black backdrop The Codex Sassoon, which measures 12 by 14 inches, dates to the late ninth or early tenth century. At more than 1,000 years old, the Codex Sassoon is the world’s earliest near-complete Hebrew Bible. Soon, it could also become the “most valuable historical document ever sold at auction,” according to a statement from Sotheby’s. The auction house...

JERUSALEM (AP) — One of the oldest surviving biblical manuscripts, a nearly complete 1,100-year-old Hebrew Bible, could soon be yours — for a cool $30 million. The Codex Sassoon, a leather-bound, handwritten parchment tome containing almost the entirety of the Hebrew Bible, is set to go on the block at Sotheby’s in New York in May. Its anticipated sale speaks to the still bullish market for art, antiquities and ancient manuscripts even in a worldwide bear economy. Sotheby’s is drumming up interest in hopes of enticing institutions and collectors to bite. It has put the price tag at an eye-watering...

The Codex Sassoon, believed to date from the late 9th or early 10th century, was bought at Sotheby’s by the American Friends of the ANU — Museum of the Jewish People.The oldest near-complete Hebrew Bible sold at Sotheby’s for $38.1 million on Wednesday, one of the highest prices for a book or historical document ever sold at auction.The volume, known as the Codex Sassoon, includes all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, minus about eight leaves, including the first 10 chapters of Genesis. Researchers have dated it to the late ninth or early 10th century, making it the oldest near-complete...

The artefact has inscriptions written in Hebrew, showing partially preserved lines of fragmentary names with letters and numbers carved onto a chalkstone (qirton) slab. The slab was originally used as an ossuary (burial chest), which was discovered in a tunnel previously excavated during the 19th century by British archaeologists. Although the slab was found outside of its original context, an analysis of the type of script and comparisons with contemporary examples suggests that it dates from the early Roman period or the late Second Temple period. During antiquity, the find-site would have been located along the Pilgrimage Road, a major...

On a site in modern-day Israel, academics believe they’ve found the oldest Hebrew text ever discovered, with an apparent link to a scene described in the Old Testament. The text is described as a “curse tablet” — with an inscription one might expect to find in some of the darker passages of the Old Testament. “You are cursed by the God YHW,” the text reads — using the sacred Hebrew name for God. “You will die cursed—cursed you will surely die. Cursed you are by yhw-cursed,” the tablet reads, according to the Jewish News Syndicate. *** Reference: https://www.jewishpress.com/news/archaeology-news/scholars-expound-on-mount-ebal-curse-tablet-with-oldest-hebrew-text/2023/05/12/

An early Hebrew inscription from Mount Ebal near Nablus that was found on a folded lead tablet during an excavation in the 1980s recently underwent x-ray tomographic measurements to reveal hidden text.Epigraphic analysis of the data revealed a formulaic curse written in a proto-alphabetic script likely dating to Late Bronze Age that predates any previously known Hebrew inscription in Israel by at least 200 years.

Two ancient clay tablets discovered in Iraq and covered from top to bottom in cuneiform writing contain details of a "lost" Canaanite language that has remarkable similarities with ancient Hebrew. The tablets, thought to be nearly 4,000 years old, record phrases in the almost unknown language of the Amorite people, who were originally from Canaan — the area that's roughly now Syria, Israel and Jordan — but who later founded a kingdom in Mesopotamia. These phrases are placed alongside translations in the Akkadian language, which can be read by modern scholars. In effect, the tablets are similar to the famous...

JERUSALEM – Israel displayed for the first time Wednesday a collection of rare coins charred and burned from the Roman destruction of the Jewish Temple nearly 2,000 years ago. About 70 coins were found in an excavation at the foot of a key Jerusalem holy site. They give a rare glimpse into the period of the Jewish revolt that eventually led to the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple in A.D. 70, said Hava Katz, curator of the exhibition. The Jews rebelled against the Roman Empire and took over Jerusalem in A.D. 66. After laying siege to Jerusalem, the Romans...

The quarter shekel coin, dated to 69 AD, is one of only four of its kind known to exist It took nearly 20 years of dogged detective work and a trail which crossed continents before the case of the missing $1m relic could be closed. "A cherished piece of history [is] finally going home," said a US official at a ceremony marking the occasion. That piece of history is a small silver coin rich in symbolism, minted during a Jewish revolt nearly 2,000 years ago. Looted in Israel in 2002, it was eventually tracked down, seized and is being returned...