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The Israel Antiquities Authority announced the discovery of a 2,700 year old bulla bearing the an inscription reading “Bethlehem” on Wednesday, May 23rd. The discovery marks the earliest known mention of ancient Bethlehem, a city best remembered as Jesus’ birthplace centuries later.
A bulla, or stamped piece of clay used to seal a document or container, was used to mark the identity of the sender or author of a document, and was an essential means of marking ownership in ancient transactions. The 1.5 cm bulla found at the City of David in Jerusalem bears the inscription:
Ancient Bethlehem plays a central role in the Hebrew Bible before its New Testament prominence as Jesus’ birthplace. First mentioned in the Bible as Ephrath in Genesis 35 during the burial of Rachel,* ancient Bethlehem played an important role in the life (and birth) of King David
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The name Bethlehem consists of two words. The first word is bayit (bayit), the Bible's regular word for house but with connotations of one's family, household or direct sphere of economy. It is also used to mean temple, or place, or depository of certain items. Another name that uses this word bayit is Bethel, meaning House Of God. Please see the name Beth for a closer look at this marvelous word.
The second word of the name Bethlehem is the Hebrew noun lahem (lehem), bread. The Bible uses this word frequently in a much broader sense of food in general (proverbial: Genesis 3:19; Manna: Exodus 16:4; honey: 1 Samuel 14:24), and comes from he verb lahem (laham), eat, use as food. The concept of food is used often in a figurative sense: bread of wickedness (Pr 4:17), idleness (31:27); target of conquest (Numbers 14:9). It is against this broad background that the words of Jesus should be understood: "I am the bread of life," (Joh 6:35); "Give us this day our daily bread," (Matthew 6:11), as well as the bread part of the communion ritual (Matthew 26:26).
I like "House of Bread", and maybe all this new find is doing is telling someone to go down the block for pizza.
(no context is given in your post, except that it identifies an owner - so is it an "address"?).
a seal imprint, of a kind used to seal shipments of silver or goods paid as tax to the Kingdom of Judah in the late 8th and 7th centuries BCE, according to Shukron. The fragment also includes the Hebrew word “seventh” and what Shukron said was the end of a word meaning “for the king,” suggesting it was connected to a tax paid by Bethlehem in the seventh year of the rule of one of the kings of Jerusalem.
Originally posted by OccamsRazor04
reply to post by AndyMayhew
The signifigance is that aside from the Bible there has been no evidence for its' existence. Now there is.
This is what the inscription says:
בשבעת (Bishv’at)–”in the seventh” (reference to the year of the king’s reign)
בת לכם (Bat Lechem)–”Bethlehem”
למל ]ך] ([Lemel]ekh)–”to the king”
Bread (לחם lechem, Strong's #3899): The dough is placed on the table and it is kneaded by hitting it with the fists, rolling it back and forth, picking it up and turning it over, and... Kind of sounds like a fight doesn't it? Actually, the Hebrew noun lechem meaning "bread" comes from the verbal root lacham [str:3898], same Hebrew spelling as lechem) and means to 'fight.' The place called Bethlehem is actually two Hebrew words beyt [str:1004] meaning house and lechem meaning bread - house of bread. In Genesis 3:19 we read, In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread. Could this be because we have to fight the ground to bring up the crop, fight the grain to remove the husk from the seeds, fight the seeds to turn them into flour and fight the dough to make the bread?
"Bat" is daughter in Hebrew and Aramaic.
So, once more, for the Rediots: the bulla proves that, in the 8th or 7th century BC, a city called Bethlehem existed, was occupied, and was taxed by a Judean king.
Originally posted by Danbones
reply to post by _Del_
So, once more, for the Rediots: the bulla proves that, in the 8th or 7th century BC, a city called Bethlehem existed, was occupied, and was taxed by a Judean king.
www.patheos.com...
That is what the bulla "Proves"
6 or 7 hundered years is a long time to make such an assumption
no mention of anything else....like Jesus
edit on 27-5-2012 by Danbones because: (no reason given)