Yahweh Worshiped at Tel Dan

With Clyde Billington

King Jeroboam I of Israel erected golden calf statues at Dan and at Bethel, saying, "Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." (I Kings 12:28) The idols were meant to keep people from going to Jerusalem to worship in the temple. But who were the people worshiping when they came to Dan and Bethel? Apparently Yahweh and not pagan Canaanite gods, judging by a new analysis of archaeological finds from years of excavations at Tel Dan. Before that discussion with my colleague, professor Clyde Billington, we reviewed another news item from the news digests of the latest issue of ARTIFAX, our quarterly biblical archaeology magazine: the excavations at Tel Keisan, near Acre, the Persian military base from which King Cambyses II launched an attack on Egypt in 525 BC. Also discussed in this program, the discovery of a tiny beka stone, used for weighing the half-shekel temple tax that was assessed on each Jewish male.

tags: Persians Tel Dan Jezreel Valley golden calf idol Jeroboam I Tel Keisan Cambyses II beka temple tax half shilling

Byzantine Churches of the Galilee

With Mordecai Aviam

We did this interview withi Mordecai Aviam in his office at Kinneret College, on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee, where he is senior lecturer in the Department of the study of the Land of Israel. We dicussed his research into Byzantine churches of the Galilee, amongst the pagan populations that became Christian when Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire. He is in the middle of excavating a number of the church sites, looking for mosaics that give information about church history.

tags: Mosaics Galilee Churches pagan bishops Christianity Roman Empire

Paul's Riot in Ephesus, part 2

With James Edwards

Ephesus is mentioned more times in the New Testament than any other city, with the exception of Jerusalem. In this, the second of two programs with James Edwards, professor of Theology at Whitworth University, we review the city as Paul knew it and the archaeological evidence that is being uncovered in Ephesus today. And over the past 100+ years in fact, by an Austrian excavation. The most prominent feature of the ruins of Ephesus is the Roman theater, which was able to seat 25,000 people. Missing is the temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which drew pagan worshipers to the city in Paul's day and supplied a source of revenue for the city's silversmiths. What happened when the silversmiths got upset at Paul and filled the theater with angry Ephesians is recounted in Acts 19.

tags: Ephesus Apostle Paul Roman theater Artemis

Paul's Riot in Ephesus

With James Edwards

Ephesus is mentioned more times in the New Testament than any other city, with the exception of Jerusalem. In these two programs with James Edwards, professor of Theology at Whitworth University, we review the city as Paul knew it and the archaeological evidence that is being uncovered in Ephesus today. And over the past 100+ years in fact, by an Austrian excavation. The most prominent feature of the ruins of Ephesus is the Roman theater, which was able to seat 25,000 people. Missing is the temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which drew pagan worshipers to the city in Paul's day and supplied a source of revenue for the city's silversmiths. What happened when the silversmiths got upset at Paul and filled the theater with angry Ephesians is recounted in Acts 19.

tags: Ephesus Apostle Paul Roman theater Artemis