Bible Dictionary
ARCHEOLOGY
ARCHEOLOGY
Archaeological science has developed greatly in the last sixty years and thanks to this today we can scientifically verify facts and statements of which the Bible was the only evidence that remained.
As a science, it studies the remains of civilizations in their environment and setting, and in their exact place, with special techniques that allow us to reconstruct the scenarios of the events mentioned in ancient texts.
The limits of biblical archeology are imposed by history: from the time of the patriarchs (around 1750 BC) to the 1st century AD; and by geography: Palestine and those places related to the protagonists of the biblical epic or whose cultures influenced the life of Israel: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Cyprus, Persia, Phoenicia, Syria, Greece and Rome.
A special branch of history, epigraphy, interprets the results of archaeological search; but it is evident that it cannot, in any way, prove or deny those statements that are above any science, because they are direct revelation from God, although it does prove to us that in such a situation and at such a time there existed a man or a people with the characteristics described in the biblical text.
These witnesses of the past, “hills of ruins” (called “tell”, “constructions”, tombs with the remains and accessories of the dead), are generally examined through excavations.
Biblical archeology directs its attention to the excavations and finds (weapons, ceramics, ornaments) of the biblical populations and seeks to historically establish any data that in one way or another is related to the Bible.
Its purpose is not to prove the truth of the Bible stories, but to find evidence of historical truth.
The history of Palestinian archeology begins in 1890 with Flinders Petrie’s excavations at tell “el-hesi”. His knowledge has been of importance for subsequent archaeological work:
(a) The hills that the Arabs call “tell” are artificial hills of rubble formed by different layers of overlapping villages. The first town is built on rock or on elevated land. It is then destroyed or abandoned.
The adobes fall apart. The following settlers flatten the land and build on the old ruins. The height of debris grows with the number of towns. The Megiddo tell, for example, reaches a height of 21 m.
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b) The purpose of an excavation is not to collect pieces for a museum, but to learn the history of a place. Therefore, all discoveries and especially the order of the layers have to be considered.
(c) The shapes of ceramics change in the various cultural periods. Sturdy fragments of fired clay are an important means of delimiting layers and fixing their era.
Other helps to determine the time of the layers of the excavations are the method of carbon radioactivity (for the time before 3,000 years BC) and the finds of coins (from the time of the Persians).
After Petrie, two methods of excavation have been developed: the first takes out the layers of the tell one after another. First the hill is measured, then the first layer is exposed, the plan of the walls found is searched, the layer is photographed, the findings are recorded, the marked fragments and coins are collected, the fragments are joined together, they are listed. , are described exactly and, if possible, dated.
Then the layer is removed and the same is done with the second part (example: Jasor). According to the cut method, used by Mortimer Wheeler and Cathleen Kenyon, the tell is cut in half by a deep trench. Afterwards, other rectangular cuts are made to the walls found (examples: Jericho, Ophel in Jerusalem).
Inscriptions and vestiges of writing are not frequent in excavations, and the finds of entire libraries such as those at Qumram only occur from century to century; But archaeological science has developed precise techniques that allow us to “read” the history of past civilizations with astonishing accuracy.
The analysis of pottery and flint has provided us with a chronology of events that, although relative, becomes absolute when written documents from certain periods are available.
Archeology has given us a more coherent and dynamic vision of the Middle East than we had from literary sources (when we were fortunate enough to possess them).
Thus it has been possible to verify that these cultures did not remain stagnant or in an unalterable situation, as the Pan-Babylonist school of the beginning of the century intended. Palestine and Syria were influenced by Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Aegean.
Archaeological finds have given new strength to the literary data of the Bible, and many archaeological finds from the Bible alone often receive confirmation.
It should never be forgotten that the historical documents and the archaeological remains of a given civilization are two different things, although they often complement each other.
Many library hypotheses that had been built based on purely theoretical analyzes fell to the ground as archeology illuminated the cultural evolution of ancient people and the daily life of the Palestinian people.
Think, for example, of the strange theories that circulated about the antiquity of the Holy Scripture. Thanks to archaeological science, there is in certain circles a higher appreciation of biblical stories and a more open attitude towards the message of the Bible.
Various Archaeological Institutes work in Palestine:
École Biblique et Archéologique Française, Deutsches Evangelisches Institut für Altertumswissenschaft des Heiligen Landes, Israel Exploration Society, American Schools of Oriental Research and others.
BETHEL
is the name of a Canaanite city in the ancient region of Samaria, located in the center of the land of Canaan, northwest of Ai on the road to Shechem, 30 kilometers south of Shiloh and about 16 kilometers north of Jerusalem.
Bethel is the second most mentioned city in the Bible. Some identify it with the Palestinian village of Beitin and others with the Israeli settlement of Beit El.
Bethel was the place where Abraham built his altar when he first arrived in Canaan (Genesis 12:8; Genesis 13:3). And at Bethel Jacob saw a vision of a ladder whose top touched heaven and the angels ascended and descended (Genesis 28:10-19).
For this reason Jacob was afraid, and said, “How terrible is this place! It is nothing other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven »and he called Bethel the place that was known as «Light» (Genesis 35-15).
Bethel was also a sanctuary in the days of the prophet Samuel, who judged the people there (1 Samuel 7:16; 1 Samuel 10:3). And it was the place where Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, was buried.
Bethel was the birthplace of Hiel, who sought to rebuild the city of Jericho (1 Kings 16:34).
When Bethel did not yet belong to the people of Israel, Joshua had to battle against the king of Bethel and other kings and defeated them (Joshua 12-16).
When the people of Israel had taken possession of the promised land, in the division by tribes it was assigned to the Tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18-22), but in later times it belonged to the Tribe of Judah (2 Chronicles 13:19).
It was one of the places where the Ark of the Covenant remained, a symbol of the presence of God.
In Bethel the prophet Samuel judged the people.
Then the prophet Elisha went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some boys came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him: “Go up, bald man; Come up, bald! When he looked back and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the forest and tore to pieces forty-two boys” (2 Kings 2:23).
After the division of the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam I, king of Israel, had a golden calf raised at Bethel (1 Kings 21:29) which was destroyed by Josiah, king of Judah, many years later (2 Kings 23:15). .
Bethel was also a place where some of the Babylonian exiles who returned to Israel in 537 BC gathered. (Ezra 2:28).
The prophet Hosea, a century before Jeremiah, refers to Bethel by another name: “Bet-Aven” (Hosea 4:15; Hosea 5:8; Hosea 10:5-8), which means ‘House of Iniquity’, ‘House of Nothingness’, ‘House of Vanity’, ‘House of Nullity’, that is, of idols.
In Amos 7: 12-13 the priest Amaziah tells the prophet Amos that he flee to Judah and no longer prophesy in Bethel because it is the king’s sanctuary, and the head of the kingdom.
The prophet Jeremiah states that “the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel” (Jeremiah 48:13), because of their idolatry and, specifically, the worship of the golden calf.
PUTEOLI
(lat.: “small fountains”).
Two days after arriving in Rhegium, the ship carrying Paul arrived at Puteoli, which was then an important maritime city.
The apostle found Christians there, and enjoyed their hospitality (Acts 28:13).
It was located on the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples, near the site of present-day Pouzzoles.
The entire surrounding region is volcanic, and the Solfatare crater rises behind the city.
PUT
Name of a nation related to the Egyptians and neighbors of their country (Gen. 10:6).
Put is mentioned with Egypt and other African countries, especially Libya (Nah. 3:9) and Lud (Ez. 27:10; Is. 66:19 in the LXX. Put appears between Cush and Lud in Jer. 46:9; Ez. 30:5).
In the LXX he is translated as Libyans in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Josephus also identifies it with Libya (Ant. 1:6, 2), but in Nah. 3.9 is distinguished from the Libyans.
Current opinion is divided between Somalia, Eastern Arabia and Southern Arabia (Perfume Coast).
PURPLE
A coloring substance that is extracted from various species of mollusks. The ancient Tyrians used two types of them: the “Murex trunculus”, from which the bluish purple was extracted, and the “Murex brandaris”, which gave the red.
The ink of its coloring matter varies in color depending on the region in which it is fished.
Piles of murex shells, artificially opened, have been discovered in Minet el-Beida, port of ancient Ugarit (Ras Shamra), which gives evidence of the great antiquity of the use of this purple dye (see UGARIT).
Due to its high price, only the rich and magistrates wore purple (Est. 8:15, cf. the exaltation of Mordecai, v. 2, Pr. 31:22; Dan. 5:7; 1 Mac. 10 :20, 62, 64; 2 Mac. 4:38; cf. v 31; Luke 16:19; Rev. 17:4).
The rulers adorned themselves in purple, even those of Midian (Judg. 8:26). Jesus was mocked with a purple robe (Mark 15:17).
Great use had been made of purple-dyed fabrics for the Tabernacle (Ex. 25:4; 26:1, 31, 36) and for the high priest’s vestments (Ex. 28:5, 6, 15, 33; 39: 29). The Jews gave symbolic value to purple (Wars 5:5, 4).
PURIM
(Heb., plural of “luck”).
Haman cast lots to determine a day of good omen for the destruction of the Jews.
As Haman’s designs were undone, the liberation of the Jews was marked by an annual festival (Est. 3:7; 9:24-32) on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar.
This festival is not mentioned by name in the NT, although there are exegetes who assume that it is the one referred to in Jn. 5:1.
This festival continues to be celebrated within Judaism: the book of Esther is read, and curses are pronounced on Haman and his wife, blessings are pronounced on Mordecai and the eunuch Harbonah (Est. 1:10; 7: 9).
PURIFICATION, PURITY
In the Mosaic Law four ways to purify oneself from contamination were indicated:
(a) Purification of contamination contracted by touching a dead person (Num. 19; cf. Num. 5:2, 3),
(b) Purification from impurity due to bodily emissions (Lev. 15; cf. Num. 5:2, 3).
(c) Purification of the woman in labor (Lev. 12:1-8; Luke 2:21-24).
(d) Purification of the leper (Lev. 14).
To this, the scribes and Pharisees added many other purifications, such as washing hands before eating, washing vessels and dishes, showing great zeal in these things, while inside they were full of extortion and iniquity (Mark 7: 2-8).
In Christianity the necessary purification extends:
to the heart (Acts 15:9; James 4:8),
to the soul (1 Pet. 1:22), and
to the conscience through the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:14).
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BETHEL
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