Free Republic

My father gave me Werner Keller’s The Bible as History when I was a kid. I’ve been a sucker for Biblical histories since then. Keller’s been superseded, both by the deconstructionists who claim the Bible isn’t true and by modern archeology, which has added to and reinterpreted many archeological findings since Keller’s time. And last week, in Jerusalem, an archeologist discovered an earring that helps confirms one of the most pivotal stories in the Bible: The destruction of Solomon’s Temple and the Babylonian captivity.The Bible describes how the Kingdom of Judah, under Jehoiakim, refused to pay tribute to King Nebuchadnezzar...

A 2,000-year-old mikvah (ritual bath) was recently uncovered in the Lower Galilee. Most people probably would never have heard about the discovery if not for the dramatic photos of the entire structure being carried by truck to a nearby kibbutz for preservation. The remarkable sight of a truck-borne mikvah, however, also makes one pause and reflect on the remarkable implications of the archeological find. It means that 2,000 years ago, the residents of the Lower Galilee were practicing the exact same religious rituals that Orthodox Jews throughout the world practice today. Those Galileans, in other words, were Jews. They weren't...

Ibrahim Khreisheh, the Palestinian Authority’s envoy to the UN Human Rights Council, recently said that it may "be useful" to ask Arab and European countries "to allow the Jews to return to their former lands and homes." "We never had people from Poland, the Ukraine, Switzerland, France, or England," he added. The comments were made in a February 4, 2016 interview with the official Palestinian Authority TV channel and were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). Video “But we, as Palestinians say: We are Jews, Christians and Muslims. So (Obama) did not invent anything new,” he added,...

The Israeli Cabinet on Sunday expanded its list of West Bank settlements eligible for government subsidies, a decision that came just days after the resumption of long-frozen peace talks and drew quick Palestinian condemnation. The Cabinet approved a range of housing subsidies and loans for more than 600 Israeli communities deemed “national priority areas,” expanding an earlier list. The list includes poor towns in Israel’s outlying areas, but also dozens of settlements. The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem—lands Israel captured in 1967—and renewed talks are to draw Israel’s borders with such...