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First time the name Bethlehem appears outside the Bible,discovery of a 2,700 year old bulla.

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posted on May, 24 2012 @ 07:18 AM
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Earliest History of Bethlehem Documented by First Temple Period Bulla from the City of David
Jesus’ Birthplace in Ancient Bethlehem Confirmed as an Israelite City Centuries Earlier

www.biblicalarchaeology.org...


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:


c1237914.r14.cf2.rackcdn.com...


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


Genesis 35

www.biblegateway.com...

35 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:

3 And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

5 And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

6 So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.

7 And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.

8 But Deborah, Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.

9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.

10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.

11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

13 And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.

14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.

15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.

www.abarim-publications.com...


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).
[

The name Bethlehem means House Of Bread, with the strong connotation of House Of Battle.

hmmmm
edit on 073131p://bThursday2012 by Stormdancer777 because: (no reason given)



posted on May, 24 2012 @ 07:35 AM
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reply to post by Stormdancer777
 


I like "House of Bread", and maybe all this new find is doing is telling someone to go down the block for pizza. How can they or you be sure it's referring to a city (no context is given in your post, except that it identifies an owner - so is it an "address"?).

F&S for putting up a thread which isn't about Ron Paul, UFO's attacking the sun, birds flying east, or Martin-Zimmerman catching hell from one another.
edit on 24-5-2012 by Aleister because: (no reason given)



posted on May, 24 2012 @ 09:26 AM
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reply to post by Aleister
 


Thanks for posting,Aleister




I like "House of Bread", and maybe all this new find is doing is telling someone to go down the block for pizza.


LOL I know what you mean,




(no context is given in your post, except that it identifies an owner - so is it an "address"?).


I don't know, only that it mentions the city of Bethlehem,


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.


was unearthed near the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem,
Bethlehem is located on the West Bank, just south of Jerusalem.
www.huffingtonpost.com...

www.timesofisrael.com...

Dig 'proves' Bethlehem existed centuries pre-Jesus
tribune.com.pk...

That's all I have.



posted on May, 24 2012 @ 03:07 PM
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I'm having trouble loading the links at the moment, so in the meantime: What's a bulla?



posted on May, 25 2012 @ 02:26 AM
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reply to post by Stormdancer777
 

Probably just a seal used by a bakery. Certainly not proof that Bethlehem ever existed.



posted on May, 25 2012 @ 05:49 AM
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From the first link offered:

“It seems that in the seventh year of the reign of a king (it is unclear if the king referred to here is Hezekiah, Manasseh or Josiah), a shipment was dispatched from Bethlehem to the king in Jerusalem."

But you all haters wouldn't have read the whole article, because you are not interested in this topic, because you don't Want it to be real. I personally don't have an opinion on the matter. Maybe it was a real city maybe not, it has no effect on me. But unlike SOME people I know... I tend to avoid embarassing situations like breezing through the article and then trying to sound like a know it all when I'm really a know nothing. I am interested in this topic and I read the whole article. But I guess the Excavation Director doesn't know what he's talking about. I guess we will see as time goes by if anyone else has any input or if other discoveries are made. Unlike SOME people I know, I'm not jump the gun and make these marvelous hokuspokus declarations like some kind of stubborn braying donkey that won't ever give any consideration to any other way of thinking.



posted on May, 25 2012 @ 07:38 AM
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reply to post by Stormdancer777
 


Your post makes it clearer, so it was a city name. I didn't know there was an argument about the long-time existence of oh-little-town-of Bethlehem. As it was the place to travel to and pay the taxes it's not surprising that it would be mentioned, and it's interesting that even more evidence isn't available concerning the existence of an important city from this time period. They did need more hotel space though, judging from accounts I've heard.
edit on 25-5-2012 by Aleister because: (no reason given)



posted on May, 25 2012 @ 01:59 PM
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Previously posted on ATS:

www.abovetopsecret.com...



posted on May, 25 2012 @ 03:02 PM
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There are many cities in The Bible, that actually existed, just like Mega-Man is in Japan and Spider-Man is in New York, and so on...



posted on May, 25 2012 @ 03:30 PM
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Hmmm....

I'm pretty sure Bethlehem existed in the same way I'm pretty sure Rome existed

And I'm pretty sure Bethlehem existed before it was mentioned in the New Testament in the same way I'm pretty sure Rome existed before it was mentioned in the New Testament.

And, for the record, I'm pretty sure Jericho existed 8,000 years before it was first mentioned in the Old Testament!

What next? New discoveries show that London existed before it was mentioned in Anglo Saxon Chronicles?



posted on May, 26 2012 @ 11:50 PM
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reply to post by AndyMayhew
 


The signifigance is that aside from the Bible there has been no evidence for its' existence. Now there is.



posted on May, 27 2012 @ 09:19 AM
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reply to post by AndyMayhew
 


The significance is that this is the first time the city name was ever found mentioned outside of the Biblical text.



posted on May, 27 2012 @ 09:20 AM
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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.


Thank you Occams, I should have read your post before I posted,

Yes



posted on May, 27 2012 @ 10:04 PM
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reply to post by Stormdancer777
 


No problem, your post was affirmation there is some sanity left at ATS.



posted on May, 27 2012 @ 10:23 PM
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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”

www.patheos.com...


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?

www.ancient-hebrew.org...


"Bat" is daughter in Hebrew and Aramaic.

www.jewfaq.org...

Doesn't seem right to me



posted on May, 27 2012 @ 10:45 PM
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reply to post by Danbones
 


There aren't any vowels there. The transliteration is wrong. It is beitlechem.



posted on May, 27 2012 @ 10:53 PM
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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)



posted on May, 27 2012 @ 11:04 PM
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Why would there be a mention of Jesus in a seal that predates him by several centuries?


I'm not sure that it "proves" anything. It simply suggests that Bethlehem has existed for some time, which few people dispute.



posted on May, 28 2012 @ 02:23 AM
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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)


Yes because in 2,000 years my home town of Beverly's seal will be found and will have my name on it. Do you have any idea how stupid what you just said sounds?

Now if in 2,000 years someone says I existed and came from Beverly, and no trace of Beverly is ever found it puts a dent in the theory. Suddenly, Beverly is proved to have existed, that does not prove I did, but it is evidence, strong evidence, for my having existed.

If you can't see that I can't help you.



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