Minus the bees.

A honey wannabe.

However, archaeology tells us more, leaving clues which lay out a clear scenario. During a dig at Tel Rehov, ancient beehives were uncovered at the Jordan Valley site, in the middle of a town with a population once upon a time of about 2,500.

Wow. One can only imagine what the price of real estate would be… right… next… to… 180… hives! About 2-1/2 feet long and one foot in diameter, mud brick clay pots looking like stacked pipes had caps at one end and a small opening for the bees at the other. Lead investigator and now Professor Emeritus at Hebrew University Ami Mazar found residue of honey and beeswax… from 3,000 years ago! Some of the dead bees pointed to Turkish origins.

So we have archaeological evidence of 1) cultivated hives with 2) imported honeybees. Researcher Guy Bloch, also of Hebrew University, states that Tel Rehov was the first site to point to what wall paintings and writings depicted regarding Ancient Near Eastern wax and honey production. Until this discovery, there was no archaeological corroboration of that fact.

Which only goes to show that occasionally, archaeology takes a few thousand years to prove its point! Just because a site or a feature has not been located, yet….

Throughout the Bible, honey serves as a literal and figurative reference to sweetness. Also, from what we know in modern times, a daily dose of raw honey possesses positive properties used in healing from the inside out. Antioxidants, fighting off disease and free radicals.

Bam! Take that!

(Maybe we should smear some sweet honey on radical-radicals, not just free radicals. Could do some good… you never know….)

God’s word is likened to sweetness, changing and healing from the inside-out all those who partake of it. “They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb” (Psalm 19:10).

Welcome to a sweet treat… that’s actually good for you!

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Quick chronologies. Speed-dating, if you will.

Here’s MB, in front of the Canaanite gate at Tel Dan, dated to the 18th century BC. We will not ask you to guess which one is older– MB or the gate? Yes, don’t answer that!

The midwives of old did not issue birth certificates. Not every war was recorded in stone. Kings came and went and some pharaohs wiped out the names of other pharaohs on their monuments.

Take that!

Not very nice.

So, dating can be dicey. Both the male-female kind, which makes a strong case for being respectful to your parents and having them arrange a good catch for you, as well as the assigning of a time period to ancient people, places, and things.

To give you a quick overview in a very general way: Abraham lived around the year 2000 BC (or in some academic circles, we say, BCE = Before the Common Era). The Exodus from Egypt happened circa 1446 BC. King David came on the scene in approximately 1000 BC.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem… well… it actually wasn’t the year 0… because King Herod was already gone and that really messes things up. Close enough for all intents and purposes.

However, if you’re ever quizzed in the future, it was most likely a few years before 0, let’s say 4 or 5 BC. Herod died right before Passover which came in mid-April of 4 BC (thank the Jewish-Roman historian Josephus for this info). We know that the king wanted to kill all Jewish baby boys in Bethelehem from the age of 2 and younger. Herod might have added a year, just to cover his bases, and ensure that he eliminate the young King of the Jews.

After the year 0 (and this countdown calendar was invented not until 525 AD hence being off by a few years), we see the numbers growing larger. To recap the BC to AD timeline: Big numbers… smaller numbers… zero… smaller numbers… bigger numbers. That’s the continuum.

The century is always larger than the chronological year to which it refers. For instance: Biblical archaeologists often argue that the Exodus occurred in 1446 BC, which would be the 15th century BC. The Crusades to liberate the Holy Land from Muslim rule spanned a 200-year period, from 1095 to 1291 AD, or the 11th century to the 13th century AD. Another example would be that we are now living in the 21st century AD. And, lest any religious input be foisted upon the institutions of higher learning, in academic parlance, we refer to AD as CE = the Common Era.

I use both, depending on my audience, because you know what? You really can’t wipe Him out. Jesus (Yeshua) is still there, changing history, transforming lives, making the Common Era anything but common!

The good news in chronological studies is that old age is always 15-20 years older than we are! The even better news is that we can learn from history and we can learn from the Lord to make the most of our time on Planet Earth.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

The post All About Dating & Biblical Time Periods appeared first on Postcard From Israel.

Many questions arise when trying to figure out the Biblical narrative concerning the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and the Conquest of Canaan. The first Passover happened and then the people of God hightailed it out of town.

Pretty exciting stuff.

Moses stretched his leadership staff over the Red Sea and it parted with a strong wind from the Lord. The people made it across to the other side, but Pharaoh’s army got caught as the waters closed over them. Anyone who’s read the Bible or watched the iconic “Ten Commandments” movie knows the story. Problem is, sometime during the last century, word started coming out that, in Hebrew, the Bible does not say “Red Sea”. It says “Reed Sea”.

This is true.

Yam Suph. The Reed Sea. That’s what it says. It could mean a sea of marshy reeds, or a sea with seaweed. The text does not say the Red Sea.

But you know what?

It doesn’t matter!

It’s the same general region, one of two or three bodies of water, and the translators thought, “They must be referring to the Red Sea!”

Same idea.

The Red Sea points to red sandstone in the area. Esau became the father of the Edomites (adom is the word for red) who came to reside in the red sandstone region.

You might also remember that he sold his birthright for a pot of soup. Maybe it was a red soup or stew, you posit? Unfortunately, tomatoes were not around, yet, in the Middle East. Those came from South America and were first introduced to Europeans circa the contact period when Spaniards were exploring.

But we digress.

So—stick with the red sandstone reflecting into an otherwise blue sea and presto-chango: you get the Red Sea.

Which is called the Reed Sea in the Bible.

Not that it’s necessarily referring to the Red Sea, but some body of water which lay between Egypt on the west and another land to the east or northeast of the area.

Red Sea, Reed Sea, I say tomato and you say tomatoh—are you seeing a pattern develop here? Point is, it happened. Praise the Lord!

Thank you. Over and out.

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