Page 19 - TORCH Magazine - Issue #19

Ancient Jerusalem’s eastern wall discovered
Archaeologists in the City of David National Park have uncovered a missing section of Jerusalem’s eastern wall, which was destroyed by the Babylonians when they invaded the city. Discovered near the Temple Mount, the 3,000 year old remains prove to historians that the ancient city of Jerusalem was surrounded by an impressive fortified wall, built by King Solomon, just as the Bible describes in 1 Kings.
Previous finds over the decades
had uncovered two sections, one stretching for 90 metres and the other 30 metres, but a 70-metre gap between those two segments left doubts as to whether the ancient city of Jerusalem, with its First Temple, was shielded by
an uninterrupted eastern wall. Not only did the discovery bring answers, but incredibly some of the structure was still standing.
Dr Filip Vukosavović of the Ancient Jerusalem Research Center, who coordinated the dig, was overcome with emotion, telling the Jerusalem Post: "When we exposed the first part of the wall, an area about one metre per one metre large, I immediately understood
what we had found. I almost cried." Archaeologists found evidence of the
ruthless burning described in 2 Kings 25:8-10 during the Babylonian invasion.
In addition to the wall, archaeologists found artifacts indicating what life was like in the Kingdom of Judah in those days.
“We found a bulla (amulet) of a person called ‘Tsafan’, which is an abbreviation
of ‘Tsafania,’ Zephaniah, which we find in the Bible as well. Just a few centimetres away, we found a Babylonian stamp
seal. So, we have a Judean and we have a Babylonian,” Vukosavović said.
They also found jar handles stamped with ‘L’melech’ meaning, ‘belonging to the King,’ and others with rosettes and circles.
“To find something, a really beautiful wall in so many ways and I don’t know how many years or hundreds of [hours of] manpower it took to build it, but it’s, you know – you touch something, or you walk on something or you lean against something and you know you and I did the same thing 2600 years [later]. So, it’s emotional.”
Evidence of earthquake confirming Bible event discovered in Jerusalem
Around 2,800 years ago, a powerful earthquake hit the Land of Israel. Whilst evidence has been found elsewhere in Israel, for the first time archaeologists have found evidence of the event in Jerusalem.
Excavation directors said, “We asked ourselves what could have caused
that dramatic layer of destruction we uncovered. Examining the excavation findings, we tried to check if there is
a reference to it in the biblical text.
Interestingly, the earthquake that appears in the Bible, in the books of Amos and Zechariah, occurred at the time when
the building we excavated in the City of David collapsed.”
They’re referring to the first verse of Amos, which reads, “The words of Amos, who was among the sheepbreeders of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel
in the days of Uzziah king of Judah,
and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the
CUFI.ORG.UK 179