P F Tinmore
Diamond Member
- Dec 6, 2009
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I dare you to watch this:
This has nothing to do with faith, even. You said that Israel was never Jewish in the past. If Gd spoke to Abraham or gave the Torah at Mount Sinai or split the Reed Sea, is a matter of faith. That is not what I was saying. Numerous archaeological findings, such as inscriptions on tablets by Egyptian, Assyrian and Sumerian kings say, without doubt, that there was a Kingdom of Judah in the past.
There are only 8 archaelogical inscriptions which mention in passing words that could be translated as "Israel"; one of which says that Israel was "exterminated". There is no consensus regarding who or what the word "Israel" refers to; a region, a tribal group, a petty warlord, etc. As for the "Kingdom of Judah" there is no archaeological/historical evidence for it's existance before 800BCE, long after the Sumerians were extinct. If anything there is more evidence that the Kingdom of Judah was created by the Assyrians either as a buffer state with Egypt or to exploit the Olive oil resources of the region.
In any event there is no extra-Biblical evidence of any uniform religious or ethnic groupings in that area at that time.
You totally reject the fact that the temple existed during the roman occupation? That they destroyed the temple? That judaism was the religion of the people in the land?
What of cyrus and the return of the jews and rebuilding of the temple.
There are a number of stele that mention Israel and david written by neighbors to Israel. Merneptah stele is from 1200 bce. Kurkh is 853 bce. Moabite is from 840 bce.
The land has been rebuild, over built and added to many times since the first civilizations. Keep digging down and there might be a wealth of archeological evidence. People are still finding everything from the ottoman to roman occupation. The deeper you go the older you find, much like the city of troy.
If they can find the cities around the dead sea from the time of abraham and lot, they might find more satisfying evidence for the rest of the history timeline as well. One of the problems is much of the ancient evidence is probably under existing building and no one is able to dig under and search of older evidence.
Who else was there at the time?
Well there weren't any Arabs, Muslims,or Palestinians. LOL
What were Native Americans called before it was America?