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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...

A nearly completely intact clay oil lamp from 2,300 years ago was found near a stone bath during recent conservation work at the Mount Gerizim National Park....said Netanel Elimelech, director of the park... “We found a lot of clay sherds lying around, but to find something complete with signs of its use is pretty nice. You can still see the black marks of burning from when the lamp was used. It throws you back (in time.)”The archaeological complex on Mount Gerizim, located outside of Nablus, was excavated in the 1990s under the leadership of archaeologist Dr. Yitzhak Magen. Recently conservation...

Published: 07/30/07, 5:56 PM Olmert Government Destroys Synagogue Next to Joseph's Tomb by Hana Levi Julian (IsraelNN.com) The Civil Lands Administration destroyed a one-year-old synagogue built on Mount Gerizim near the Samarian city of Shechem on Monday afternoon. The structure was built not far from one of the holiest sites in the Jewish world. Government officials maintained that the building was erected without a permit, and was not a synagogue. Dozens of Breslov Chassidim and other rabbis and students worshipped there daily, learning Torah between the services. The rabbinical students vowed not to give up the site without opposition. “If...

Palestinians 'Peoplehood' Based on a Big Lie Eli E. HertzThe Palestinians claim that they are an ancient and indigenous people fails to stand up to historic scrutiny. Most Palestinian Arabs were newcomers to British Mandate Palestine. Until the 1967 Six-Day War made it expedient for Arabs to create a Palestinian peoplehood, local Arabs simply considered themselves part of the 'great Arab nation' or 'southern Syrians.'"Repeat a lie often enough and people will begin to believe it." -- Nazi propaganda master Joseph Goebbels"All [that Palestinians] can agree on as a community is what they want to destroy, not what they want...

Can anyone out there enlighten me as to just what constitutes the differences among the Karaites, Sadducees, and Samaritans? Each is supposedly a "more ancient," "more authentic" form of Judaism (chas veshalom!) which rejects the Oral Torah and the authority of the Rabbinate, so why aren't they all the same thing? Does anyone out there have any insights on this topic?

  THE 400 YEARS BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS by Ray C. Stedman At the close of the book of Malachi in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel is back again in the land of Palestine after the Babylonian captivity, but they are under the domination of the great world power of that day, Persia and the Medio-Persian empire. In Jerusalem, the temple had been restored, although it was a much smaller building than the one that Solomon had built and decorated in such marvelous glory.Within the temple the line of Aaronic priests was still worshipping and carrying...

The Jews had significant competition in antiquity when it came to worshipping Yahweh. Archeologists have discovered a second great temple not far from Jerusalem that predates its better known cousin. It belonged to the Samaritans, and may have been edited out of the Bible once the rivalry had been decided. Clad in a gray coat, Aharon ben Ab-Chisda ben Yaacob, 85, is sitting in the dim light of his house. He strikes up a throaty chant, a litany in ancient Hebrew. He has a full beard and is wearing a red kippah on his head. The man is a high...

In some cases the traditional text is clearly superior, but in others the version in the scrolls is better. Thanks to the scrolls, more and more textual problems in the Hebrew Bible are being resolved. The notes in newer Bible translations list variant readings from the scrolls, and in some cases, the translations incorporate these readings in the text as the preferred reading. No one has ever seriously suggested that the Dead Sea Scrolls contain anything like an eleventh commandment; but the scrolls do help clarify numerous difficult phrases in the Hebrew Bible, and for textual scholars that is more...

It is a mystery in the desert hills near Los Lunas, New Mexico. It has puzzled experts for more than 50 years. It has been referred to by many different names -- Ten Commandments Rock, Mystery Rock, The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone. It is most commonly known as the Mystery Stone. Mystery Stone is located at the base of Hidden Mountain, on New Mexico state trust land, about 16 miles west of Los Lunas. It is a boulder weighing an estimated 80 to 100 tons and is about eight meters in length. Nine rows of 216 characters were chiseled at...

Imagine the following scene: Amid the pristine views from Mount Gerizim, in the heart of the small Samaritan community, as if it were a matter of course, two women who could be straight out of a different story are roaming around - Shura, who came from Ukraine and Lena, who arrived here from the plains of Siberia. Both are married to Samaritans. Shura is the daughter-in-law of the sect's high priest, Elazar Ben Tzadka, and is married to his son, Yair. A beautiful, blond Samaritan princess imported from the city of Kherson, in Ukraine. The two women's stories are told...

Mount Gerizim is sacred to the Samaritans who regard it, rather than Jerusalem's Temple Mount, as the location chosen by God for a holy temple... the Civil Administration is keeping the compound closed despite its huge tourism potential. It says planning at the site near Nablus in the West Bank is "too problematic." Over more than two decades, Yitzhak Magen, the administration's chief archaeology officer, dug up a 2,000-year-old city, once home to 10,000 people. It was preserved in its entirety. The site consists of streets lined with houses, a marketplace and town center. Thousands of bones of sacrificial animals...