NOTE: At first this seemed like just another interesting discovery. But look at the location and the timing! Was this “discovery” deliberately engineered? It was then that the rather casual reference to this being “the seventh such seal discovered” that my blood ran cold.
For those unfamiliar with The Book Of Revelation, I include the entire segment at the end of this article. While I recognise that Revelation uses symbolic language and imagery, not intended to be taken literally, I think the political timing bears close scrutiny.
Martin
Ancient 2,700-year-old artifact uncovered in Jerusalem may confirm Bible’s claims about city’s governance
A coin-shaped artifact dating back 2,700 years has been uncovered in Jerusalem which may support Biblical accounts of how the city was governed in ancient times.
The tiny clay seal impression was discovered by Israeli archaeologists on Monday while they were digging and sifting through clay at the Western Wall in the Old City.
Archaeologists said it belonged to a biblical governor of Jerusalem because ancient Hebrew script on it read “belonging to the governor of the city”.
Governors of Jerusalem are mentioned twice in the Bible, and this mysterious new discovery may reinforce the Biblical assertion as historical fact.
But the discovery was unearthed as tensions continue to mount over the contested city’s contemporary governance and control.
Last month Donald Trump enraged Palestinians, Middle East leaders and world powers by unilaterally recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
And today, Israel’s parliament passed an amendment that would tighten control over Jerusalem, making it harder to cede control over parts of the city in any future peace deal with the Palestinians.
Palestinians have condemned the move as a further blow any chance of reviving talks on statehood.
The artifact unearthed this week in the contested city depicts two men standing facing each other and wearing striped garments reaching down to their knees.
The seal was likely attached to a shipment or sent as a souvenir on behalf of the governor, the most prominent local position held in Jerusalem at the time, the Israel Antiquities Authority said.
“It supports the Biblical rendering of the existence of a governor of the city in Jerusalem 2,700 years ago,” an Antiquities Authority statement quoted excavator Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah as saying.
Governors of Jerusalem, appointed by the king, are mentioned twice in the Bible, in 2 Kings, which refers to Joshua holding the position, and in 2 Chronicles, which mentions Masseiah in the post during the reign of Josiah.
“It’s very important because it proves it’s not only in the Bible, but there really was a governor of Jerusalem around the late first temple period,” said Weksler-Bdolah, according to a YouTube video produced by the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“We were here for five years digging slowly, slowly from the level of the Western Wall plaza to bedrock,” said Weksler-Bdolah.
This rare find was one of seven seals found at the site. (my emphasis, MH)
As home to major Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy sites, Jerusalem’s status is one of the most sensitive issues in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Trump’s December 6 decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital sparked regional protests and prompted the Palestinians to rule out Washington as a peace broker in any future talks.
Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, described Trump’s policy shift on Jerusalem and the passage of the amendment as “a declaration of war against the Palestinian people”.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally.
It says the entire city is its “eternal and indivisible” capital.
Palestinians seek to make East Jerusalem the capital of a state they seek to establish in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.
The UN renounced America’s unilateral move and called for the withdrawal of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capiatal.
This UN security council resolution was backed by every council member apart from the US.
Revelation 8-9New International Version (NIV)
The Seventh Seal and the Golden Censer
8 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
3 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
The Trumpets
6 Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.
7 The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
8 The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, 9 a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
10 The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— 11 the name of the star is Wormwood.[a] A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
12 The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.
13 As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”
9 The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2 When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3 And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. 6 During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. 8 Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9 They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. 10 They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. 11 They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).
12 The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.
13 The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. 14 It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.
17 The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. 18 A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. 19 The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.
20 The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. 21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.
