A Tale of Two Scales
A metaphor for the ultimate judgment in two ancient cultures - despite their differing interpretations - still has meaning today.
A Tale of Two Scales Read More »
A metaphor for the ultimate judgment in two ancient cultures - despite their differing interpretations - still has meaning today.
A Tale of Two Scales Read More »
Today’s religious Jews recite a benediction every time they successfully complete a trip to the bathroom. Might this practice have its roots in ancient Israelite ritual?
A Prayer in the Privy Read More »
Intense economic activity in the biblical era centered on a copper mine not far from the Red Sea. Archaeologists have found a tabernacle similar to the one described in the Hebrew Bible at the site.
Mining the Evidence Read More »
The unforgiving desert of Saudi Arabia has had periods of lushness. Did the Israelites flee Pharaoh just as the wilderness was greening? Do we still remember the Exodus because of an extraordinary series of lucky breaks? And how will we remember the extraordinary events we are living through today?
Being a teen is rough these days. But it was undoubtedly rougher for Israelites about to become a slave to Pharaoh in Egypt.
The Brink of Slavery Read More »
Fun fact: No camels were used during the Exodus. The “ships of the desert” only came into wide use centuries later. But what was it really like for Israelites to live as slaves in ancient Egypt, and what skills did they need to survive once they’d escaped? The modern nomads of the Levant, the Bedouin, provide some clues.
How to Escape from Pharaoh Read More »
Hi, I’m Bonnie J. Gordon, and this is my Google Earth flyover for the route the Israelites might have taken as they fled from Pharaoh in Egypt in the biblical stories of the Exodus.
Narration for Exodus Route Flyover Read More »
Of all the miracles in the book of Exodus, the most impenetrable to scientific reasoning would seem to be the parting of the Red Sea. By comparison, the Ten Plagues are fodder for a high school Enviro syllabus: Toxic algal blooms or “red tides,” like the annual scourge in Lake Erie, can lead to mass die-offs of marine life – potentially producing an invasion of frogs and the disease-laden insects that they would otherwise have eaten. But who has ever seen waters part so that a crowd of people could cross on dry land? The answer: Climatologists.
In 2015 thousands of graves of children and teens from biblical-era Egypt were found at the archaeological site of Tell el-Amarna, once the capital city of the monotheistic pharaoh Akhenaten. The skeletons showed signs of heavy labor, and had been wrapped only in rough matting before being dumped into the ground. Their families were unknown.
A Times of Israel reporter, Amanda Borschel-Dan, asked Amarna Project director Barry Kemp whether these skeletons could be the remains of Israelite slaves under Pharaoh.
His answer was a quick no.