Don’t Let Your Kids Read This

from here

Screen exposure is eroding children’s creativity and perhaps ours too

POSTED APRIL 18, 2017

When Steve Jobs, the Co-Founder of Apple was asked what his kids thought about the iPhone, he said, “The kids don’t use it. We don’t allow it in the home.”

And before you think that was an atypical tech titan response, a school in the Bay Area of San Francisco is almost entirely tech-free. It’s called the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, and it doesn’t allow iPhones, iPads, computers, etc. The school says that 75 percent of the kids there have parents who are tech execs in Silicon Valley.

So, what is it about screens that some of the wealthiest innovators in the world don’t want their kids exposed to?

We are told that the prophet Samuel went to the house of Jesse to anoint the next King of Israel. As he arrived, he looked at seven handsome young men all of which appeared ready to be king. But the one that God has chosen was not the one that he would have thought.

“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance,but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7, NIV).

So, what was it about David that was preparing him to lead better than his brothers? The details we know show us that he spent a great deal of time in nature caring for animals and using his creativity to write and play music.

Speaking about character development, Ellen White, who wrote a lot about best practices for raising children and educating them, and in writing about Adam and Eve in Eden says that they were given “the occupation most favorable to development--the care of plants and animals” (Education, p. 43).

White also posits the radical idea that “the only schoolroom for children from eight to ten years of age should be in the open air, amid the opening flowers and nature's beautiful scenery. And their only textbook should be the treasures of nature” (Christian Education, p. 8).

Caring for plants and animals and spending inordinate amounts of time in the outdoors sounds revolutionary in a world of gadgets. So what’s the concern with screens?

“I've worked with hundreds of heroin addicts and crystal meth addicts, and what I can say is that it's easier to treat a heroin addict than a true screen addict,” says Nicholas Kardaras, author of Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids.

Kardaras is one of the country’s top addiction experts. In his book, he details how compulsive technology usage and reliance on screens can neurologically damage the developing brain of a child the same way that drug addiction can. Through extensive research, clinical trials with diagnosed screen addicts, and experience treating a variety of other types of addicts, the author explores the alarming reality of how children could be “stunting their creative abilities” by constantly turning on and tuning in.[1]

If you’re a parent or prospective one, that last line should arrest your attention. Could screen time in those formative years be stunting the life potential of a child? The answer seems to be yes.

Why is creativity so important? A study from Oxford University predicts 47 percent of jobs are at risk of being replaced by automation in the next twenty years. We need to make sure our children have a competitive advantage or even fighting chance to survive and thrive in the coming years in the global workforce. If automation is threatening half of our jobs, what will be the skill that sets us apart? Mark Cuban, American entrepreneur and billionaire, seems to believe that “employers will soon be on the hunt for candidates who excel at creative and critical thinking.”[2]

Parenting in today’s world is no easy task. When the stresses of life are pressing in on all sides, it’s just so easy to hand a child a smartphone or tablet for example and let them entertain themselves. Take video games for example; do we know what is going on in that developing mind?“With video games, however, the kid sits and plays for hours of adrenal-elevated fight-or-flight. It is not a good thing. Research has shown that this latest generation of games significantly raises dopamine levels, the key neurotransmitter associated with our pleasure and reward pathways and the key neurotransmitter in addiction dynamics. One study showed that video games raise dopamine to the same degree that sex does, and almost as much as cocaine does. So, this combo of adrenaline and dopamine are a potent one-two punch with regards to addiction.”[3]

And we all know the scenario too well. We see a kid who is so addicted to screens or their games that they would rather enjoy their digital world than the real one. “The reason why this effect is more powerful on children than adults—although we all know of many adults who are screen-addicted—is that children still don't have a fully-developed frontal cortex, the part of the brain that controls executive functioning, decision-making, and impulse control.”[4]

Neuropsychologists today now understand that the frontal cortex is the filter and command center that determines how we view the world and how we determine right and wrong. It’s also the place where Emotional Intelligence is determined. Research has discovered that this part of the brain doesn't develop until our early 20s and that it may not have fully developed until our mid to late 20s.[5]

I find that interesting because, in ancient Israel, a man could not be a priest until the age of 30.

“Research shows that both drug use and excessive screen usage actually stunts the frontal cortex and reduces the grey matter in that part of the brain. So hyper-arousing games create a double whammy. Not only are they addicting, but then addiction perpetuates itself by negatively impacting the part of the brain that can help with impulsivity and good decision making.”[6]

Often in Scripture, we find references to the forehead. God is putting his seal or mark there, or Lucifer is putting his mark there. The underlying concept is really talking about the pre-frontal cortex (i.e. the frontal lobe). It is the seat of judgment, morality, and character in addition to creativity and critical thinking.

“The people of God are sealed in their foreheads,” wrote Ellen White. “It is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved” (Maranatha, p. 201).

As we all put our hopes in the next generation to pass the baton of hope to, let’s be as innovative as possible, even if that means we need to go back to the future.

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[1]https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/how-screen-addiction-is-ruining-the-brains-of-children.

[2]https://www.inc.com/betsy-mikel/mark-cuban-says-this-will-soon-be-the-most-sought-after-job-skill.html.

[3] “How Screen Addiction,” ibid.

[4]Ibid.

[5]Arain M, Haque M, Johal L, et al. Maturation of the adolescent brain. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment. 2013; 9:449-461. doi:10.2147/NDT.S39776.

[6] “How Screen Addiction,” ibid.

Hebrew University Archaeologists Find 12th Dead Sea Scrolls Cave

information taken from here

08/02/2017

Hebrew University archaeologist Dr. Oren Gutfeld: "This is one of the most exciting archaeological discoveries, and the most important in the last 60 years, in the caves of Qumran."

Excavations in a cave on the cliffs west of Qumran, near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, prove that Dead Sea scrolls from the Second Temple period were hidden in the cave, and were looted by Bedouins in the middle of the last century. With the discovery of this cave, scholars now suggest that it should be numbered as Cave 12. [Photo links below]

The surprising discovery, representing a milestone in Dead Sea Scroll research, was made by Dr. Oren Gutfeld and Ahiad Ovadia from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology, with the collaboration of Dr. Randall Price and students from Liberty University in Virginia, USA.

The excavators are the first in over 60 years to discover a new scroll cave and to properly excavate it.

The excavation was supported by the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria, by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), and is a part of the new “Operation Scroll” launched at the IAA by its Director-General, Mr. Israel Hasson, to undertake systematic surveys and to excavate the caves in the Judean Desert.

Excavation of the cave revealed that at one time it contained Dead Sea scrolls. Numerous storage jars and lids from the Second Temple period were found hidden in niches along the walls of the cave and deep inside a long tunnel at its rear. The jars were all broken and their contents removed, and the discovery towards the end of the excavation of a pair of iron pickaxe heads from the 1950s (stored within the tunnel for later use) proves the cave was looted.

Until now, it was believed that only 11 caves had contained scrolls. With the discovery of this cave, scholars have now suggested that it would be numbered as Cave 12. Like Cave 8, in which scroll jars but no scrolls were found, this cave will receive the designation Q12 (the Q=Qumran standing in front of the number to indicate no scrolls were found).

"This exciting excavation is the closest we’ve come to discovering new Dead Sea scrolls in 60 years. Until now, it was accepted that Dead Sea scrolls were found only in 11 caves at Qumran, but now there is no doubt that this is the 12th cave," said Dr. Oren Gutfeld, an archaeologist at the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology and director of the excavation. "Finding this additional scroll cave means we can no longer be certain that the original locations (Caves 1 through 11) attributed to the Dead Sea scrolls that reached the market via the Bedouins are accurate."

Dr. Gutfeld added: “Although at the end of the day no scroll was found, and instead we ‘only’ found a piece of parchment rolled up in a jug that was being processed for writing, the findings indicate beyond any doubt that the cave contained scrolls that were stolen. The findings include the jars in which the scrolls and their covering were hidden, a leather strap for binding the scroll, a cloth that wrapped the scrolls, tendons and pieces of skin connecting fragments, and more."

The finds from the excavation include not only the storage jars, which held the scrolls, but also fragments of scroll wrappings, a string that tied the scrolls, and a piece of worked leather that was a part of a scroll. The finding of pottery and of numerous flint blades, arrowheads, and a decorated stamp seal made of carnelian, a semi-precious stone, also revealed that this cave was used in the Chalcolithic and the Neolithic periods.

This first excavation to take place in the northern part of the Judean Desert as part of “Operation Scroll” will open the door to further understanding the function of the caves with respect to the scrolls, with the potential of finding new scroll material. The material, when published, will provide important new evidence for scholars of the archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea caves.

"The important discovery of another scroll cave attests to the fact that a lot of work remains to be done in the Judean Desert and finds of huge importance are still waiting to be discovered,” said Israel Hasson, Director-General of the Israel Antiquities Authority. “We are in a race against time as antiquities thieves steal heritage assets worldwide for financial gain. The State of Israel needs to mobilize and allocate the necessary resources in order to launch a historic operation, together with the public, to carry out a systematic excavation of all the caves of the Judean Desert.”

to see more downloadable pictures see here in the bottom of the page

Japanese first as ancient Roman coins found in Okinawa ruins

Article found here

By SHUNSUKE NAKAMURA/ Senior Staff Writer

September 27, 2016 at 17:05 JST

An ancient Roman coin from the fourth century was discovered at the ruins of Katsuren Castle in Uruma, Okinawa Prefecture. (Shunsuke Nakamura)

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URUMA, Okinawa Prefecture--Ancient Roman coins have been discovered in Japan for the first time at the ruins of Katsuren Castle here, where they are thought to have arrived via the maritime trade in the 14th to 15th centuries with other parts of Asia.
 

Ten copper coins were excavated at the site, the city education board announced Sept. 26.

“This significant discovery will contribute to the study of world history including west Asia and the West,” said a city education board official.

Four of the coins, which bear what appear to be the faces of Roman emperors and Roman letters, are believed to have been minted in the fourth century.

The ancient coins, which measure from 1.6 to 2 centimeters in diameter, were found at a geological layer dating to the 14th to 15th centuries, which also contains Chinese ceramics.

One of the other pieces, found in another geological layer, bears Arabic letters and is believed to be an Ottoman Empire coin likely made in the 17th century. Five other coins are under analysis.

Registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000, Katsuren Castle was built around the 12th to 13th centuries.

The maritime intermediate trade thrived in Okinawa from the 14th to the 16th centuries, when the Kingdom of Ryukyu traded with China and realms in Southeast Asia.

“People involved with Katsuren Castle might have obtained these coins somewhere in Asia that had contact with the West,” said the education board official.

They added that the Ottoman coin was likely to have been brought to Okinawa a long time after the Roman coins in the haul.

Yasuhiro Yokkaichi, a researcher at Waseda University’s Institute for Central Eurasian History and Culture, urged a cautious stance on the discovery.

“Roman coins were also found in Southeast Asia, so the coins are likely to have arrived in Okinawa through trading with Southeast Asia," he said. "I want those who conduct an investigation of this discovery to closely examine different possibilities including that the coins came to be mixed in after much time had passed.”

Sabbath as Model for Restoration

article from here

Restored normalcy is a human goal for anyone who feels his or her life has been upset by family breakup, disease, economic crisis, natural disaster—or any disruption large or small. Yet seeking this homeostasis in the midst of our daily routines is not easy. God foresaw this reality and established an oasis in time, a place of communion with him. How could all humans, from all walks of life and from anywhere in the world, gain equal access to such a temple? Only through God’s establishment of a temple in time: the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is a weekly appointment between God and human, a respite from turmoil. It can take place in the confines of incarceration or a hospital bed just as well as in the liberty of health and freedom. In its ideal rendition it is shared with the family of God at home and at church, and through outreach to society. This article will explore several attributes of the Sabbath as it contributes to the restoration of our relationship with God, family, others, our churches, and with our world.

RESTORING HOLINESS THROUGH SABBATH

Evil is pervasive and seemingly ever-present. How can humans avoid evil and find holiness when we are so fragile and full of sin? There are those who seek justice by keeping the law and showing their good deeds as a sign of holiness—salvation by works. The heart of the law, however, makes this evident: We pursue holiness when we take 24 hours every week for personal rest as an act of worship to God. Even from the time of the Old Testament, the key to holiness was not salvation by works but, instead, was made clear in a commandment to rest in God.

The fourth commandment demands that we include all family members in this rest, but it does not stop there. We are also required to seek out our neighbors, to embrace the employees under our care in this rest and, in addition, to be ecologically minded and include the natural world in this rest with God! The words of Exodus 20:8–11, in effect, expand the rest promoted by this commandment into ever more encompassing concentric circles: from self (in the text, the male head of household), to family (male and female), to employees (slaves in the Old Testament context), to neighbors (the “alien” within our spheres), to the animals in our care.

Sabbath-keeping is about restoring justice in the home, within our families, within our communities, and within the church. A superb presentation of what is expected of Christians today was developed by John in the fourth chapter of his first epistle: “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen” (1 John 4:20). Many evangelicals have tied holiness with morality because in demanding particular behaviors, the Bible seems to tie them together. How then shall we best help one another to remember the Sabbath as a holy time for worship?

Perfect justice, if there is any on earth, comes through time distribution. Since we all get the same number of hours in a day and the same number of days in a week, we are all accountable to the same demand to devote our time toward Sabbath and cultivating holiness. In a cycle of seven days, we are called to one 24-hour period for Sabbath rest and worship. Of course, I am not talking about those who are trapped in any kind of indentured service, who do not control their time. But as evangelical churchgoers living in freedom, most of us control our time and what we do with it. It may feel like we do not control our time when we are obligated to complete assignments for school or tasks at work. But fundamentally, we are in control of our time. Sabbath keeping is about resistance, confronting the economics of work and accomplishments with the outlook of peace and rest.1

What shall we do with our time within the inner circles where we exercise most control in order to resist evil and promote justice at home, family, and church? We must make it a priority in our lives to keep the Sabbath, and in so doing, to seek holiness through rest and restoration.

SABBATH AS TESTIMONY

As the church seeks to follow Jesus Christ as Lord, it finds itself in an oppositional place vis-à-vis the world and the government of its land and country. It was so declared by Jesus:

If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you. (John 15:18–19)

On the other hand, as he prayed for the church, Jesus said, “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one” (John 17:15). Evangelicals are thus in opposition to the world but should not seek to leave the world. Instead, they must seek to avoid the sins of the world while engaging with the world through the sharing of their testimony. One of the testimonies to be shared is the way one spends his or her time, by radically setting aside a holy time for God, to be in communion with him.

God calls all his followers to set aside this weekly temple in time to come and rest in him—rest that is the very opposite of working for one’s salvation. Sabbath is a weekly 24-hour reminder of the righteousness by faith that comes from a God who is both creator and liberator. These two roles of God are enshrined in the fourth commandment as recorded in Exodus and Deuteronomy, while the New Testament book of Hebrews marries the Sabbath to righteousness by faith. To more fully understand the Christian Sabbath as expressed in the New Testament we must read the epistle to the Hebrews, specifically chapters three and four.

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RESTORING SABBATH
Lauren Winner
Mudhouse Sabbath: An Invitation to a Life of Spiritual Discipline
But there is something in the Jewish Sabbath that is absent from most Christian Sundays: A true cessation from the rhythms of work and world, a time wholly set apart, and perhaps above all, a sense that the point of Shabbat, the orientation of Shabbat, is toward God.

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SABBATH AS A SIGNPOST OF FAITH

In the book of Hebrews, Sabbath becomes the anti-works commandment: salvation is by rest in faith! In this book the Israelites’ Sabbath is presented as a signpost of faith, with rest afforded to those who are saved by the grace of God. The author of the epistle indicates that the Israelites who left Egypt died in the desert and did not enter into God’s rest in the promised land because they lacked faith: “And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief” (Heb 3:18–19). The argument that Sabbath rest can only come to those who have faith and can only be experienced in grace is brought to its climax in chapter four:

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “As in my anger I swore, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” though his works were finished at the foundation of the world. For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this place it says, “They shall not enter my rest.” Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he sets a certain day—“today”—saying through David much later, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another day. So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs. (Heb 4:1–11)

These passages from Hebrews define Sabbath rest as only achievable by those who have faith in the gospel message of Jesus as Savior of the world. Faith allows you to enter his rest; Sabbath is about rest, not about obedience to the law as a way of salvation.

We are invited to enter Sabbath rest, so do not harden your hearts, says the author of Hebrews. There is a Sabbath rest for us all: Will I enter that rest, or continue to work away at my salvation? Contrary to those who seemingly sought to achieve their salvation by seeking good works, God invites us every week to show that we are saved by faith and to embrace the righteousness Jesus offers us by keeping Sabbath rest in our community of faith.

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RESTORING SABBATH
Mark Buchanan
The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul By Restoring Sabbath
Sabbath is both a day and an attitude to nurture such stillness. It is both a time on a calendar and a disposition of the heart. It is a day we enter, but just as much a way we see. Sabbath imparts the rest of God—actual physical, mental, spiritual rest, but also the rest of God—the things of God’s nature and presence we miss in our busyness.

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RESTORING SABBATH THROUGH RELATIONSHIP, NOT CONFRONTATION

As Eusebius documented, Romanus, a deacon martyr in AD 302, was a zealous Christian seeking to dismantle the Roman Empire through his own power.2 This type of power fixes its eyes on what we can do, on what worldly propositional logic can accomplish with a righteous view of the Christian God. Romanus sought to force God into action through his own might, attempting to stop the daily pagan sacrifices of the Roman Emperor Diocletian by erupting into a verbal diatribe condemning Diocletian during a popular Roman festival at the public plaza. Romanus was arrested and a year later he was executed.

Today we evangelicals have a similar choice—one made clear by theologian Robert E. Webber: “Thus creation has the power to choose to be in union with God, to work in harmony and in concert with God, or to break away from God and to move in a direction that asserts independence.”3 Webber further indicates that there are epistemological differences between the old traditional and the new contemporary evangelical leaders and missionaries. The propositional logic of past evangelical missionaries and church leaders often focused on confrontational approaches that separated the church from the world—like Romanus going to the public square and decrying the Roman emperor’s pagan sacrifices as rituals offensive to the true God.

Many accomplishments came about historically through the work of evangelical missionaries following propositional truth, and for these undertakings we salute and celebrate them; we indeed stand today on the shoulders of giants. But the age of propositional logic they inhabited is gone. Says Webber, “Because the younger evangelical is turning away from theology as ruled by reason and scientific method toward theology as a reflection of the community on the narrative of Israel and Jesus,” new questions are emerging as central.4

The three questions proposed by Webber are all seemingly central to the Sabbath rest commandment: “(1) How are we to interpret the Genesis account? (2) How are we to view the stewardship of creation? (3) How is truth known?”5 A “new normal” has emerged for evangelicals—a normal that accounts for the limitations of historical models of doing church based on more of a rational approach. Youth now demand a logic of “doing”: how does it work, what does it do for me, how does it feel? This is radically different from the propositional truth of the old paradigm of Christendom, but it is nevertheless full of new possibilities.

The Sabbath commandment helps us respond to Webber’s first question about our interpretation of Genesis. Instead of addressing evolution-creation paradigms, Sabbath rest addresses the more fundamental question of “so what?” As creator, God provides for a relational rest that builds a community of faith interested in the ecological issues of the day. We’re not to fall into an “us versus them,” evolutionist-versus-creationist argument, but instead, as believers, to follow a God who calls on the powers of modernity to stop in its tracks once a week and acknowledge him as redeemer of our mess.

I dream of a community of faith that takes it further, impacting not only a renewed day of rest, but also impacting a way of living the other six days; the oikos of God being transformed one household at a time, one church institution at a time. It is a change that makes the kingdom of God on earth a kingdom based on love, not greed. This is the invitation of stopping in your tracks for 24 hours—moving toward a whole life of living out love as a community. Why 24 hours? Because the liturgy of God in Scripture invites us to be radical, and as difficult as this may be, the failure of our human efforts are overturned with the blood of Christ. “Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs” (Heb 4:11). This is the rest that comes from accepting our failures by submitting to the love of the gospel, a gospel that wants to change society. I call it the gospel message of a Sabbath rest, a Sabbath of the blood of our Savior—a paradigm to live and see the world as God does. We find ourselves in an ecological and personal mess that only a relational God can address to satisfaction—a mess that’s never addressed satisfactorily by declarations of dogma among ourselves.

The question proposed by Webber about creation’s stewardship can also be addressed by the only one of the ten commandments that involves the environment. The ecological niche we inhabit is to rest with us once a week; animals within our oikos (household) are to rest. The Sabbath thus forces a weekly accounting of our relationship with nature, even one as simple as how we view our pets. This kind of posture is not about the propositional truth of a set of commandments, but about a relational God who placed us in a web in which we are intertwined with nature, others, and God himself.

The last of Webber’s questions deals with a new definition of truth—one that points to Truth with a capital “T,” as in the person of Jesus: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6). Truth in a relational epistemology is about a triune God relating within the human web of relations, a personal God who defines Truth as a person. It is a Truth that came to be human and meets with us daily, particularly during our Sabbath rest. Are we keeping the appointment with him and with the natural world he created?

We humans live in a web of relations that cannot be disowned. The worldwide web of irreducible, inscrutable relational approach- es for accomplishing the missio Dei has replaced the propositional approaches of the past in the Christian West. The South comes to evangelize the North; the West comes to convert to Christianity the East; and, in the words of Walter Brueggemann, we all are now “irreducibly, inscrutably interrelated.”6

Remember the invitation in Hebrews: “So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs” (Heb 4:9–11). The justice we are seeking in this world will come via our rest—a sabbatical rest of faith and grace, of Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath.

Legalistic Sabbath-keeping places the emphasis on practices; God-fearing Sabbath-keeping places the emphasis on our relationship with Jesus—a relationship based on embrace: acknowledging his embrace and embracing one another, even those who offend us.

When we make space in our week to celebrate a narrative of creation, ecology, redemption, and faith in an irreducible, inscrutable relational community, then, as Brueggemann expresses it, the Sabbath commandment “provide[s] for rest alongside the neighbor. God, self, and all members of the household share in common rest on the seventh day; that social reality provides a commonality and a coherence not only to the community of covenant but to the commandments of Sinai as well.”7 We follow this commandment in fulfillment of God’s mission: to restore in all humans whom he loves an attitude of embracing rest for self and the other for life!

ENDNOTES
1. Walter Brueggemann, Sabbath as Resistance (Westminster John Knox, 2014).
2. Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, History of the Martyrs in Palestine, trans. William Cureton (Fort Worth, TX: RDMc Publishing, 2015).
3. Robert E. Webber, The Younger Evangelicals Facing the Challenges of the New World (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2002), 85.
4. Ibid., 87.
5. Ibid.
6. Walter Brueggemann, “Irreducibly, Inscrutably Relational,” from Fuller Seminary Payton Lectures, May 1, 2015, unpublished manuscript, p. 14.
7. Brueggemann, Sabbath as Resistance, 1.

article from here

Ancient city unearthed where David battled Goliath

Posted on September 9, 2016 by JNS.org 

By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman/JNS.org

Archaeologists believe they have found evidence of King David’s footprints in a mysterious two-gated city from 3,000 years ago, mentioned in the Bible’s story of David and Goliath

The site is known by its modern name, Khirbet Qeiyafa, in Israel’s Elah Valley.

After nearly seven years of excavations, the public can now explore the archaeological findings of Qeiyafa through “In the Valley of David and Goliath,” a new Bible Lands Museum exhibition that opened earlier this week in Jerusalem. The Qeiyafa findings have sparked debate and intrigued historians and archaeologists since they were first revealed. 

 

The site's casemate walls are reminiscent of the type of urban planning found only in Judah and Transjordan. Credit: Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman.

The city was discovered between Sokho and Azekah, on the border between the Philistines and the Judeans, in the place where David and Goliath battled. It’s mentioned in the Torah in 1 Samuel 17: 1-2.

Carbon-14 dating of some 28 charred olive pits found during excavations date the city as existing around the end of the 11th century BCE, until the early 10th century, in the days of Saul and David.

“No one can argue with this data,” said Prof. Yosef Garfinkel, Yigal Yadin Chair of Archeology at the Institute of Archeology at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He, along with Sa’ar Ganor from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Prof. Michal Hazel of Southern Adventist University of Tennessee, led the excavations.

Among the site’s highlights are its two gates: the western gate, which faced Philistia, and the southern gate, which faced Judah. Having two gates for a relatively small city of 5.7 acres is unusual, according to Bible Lands curator Yehuda Kaplan. Gates are the weakest part of any city. The two gates are what led excavators to identify the site with Sha’arayim (Hebrew for “two gates”), a city mentioned in the David and Goliath story in the Book of Samuel, which reads, “…And the slain Philistines lay along the way of Sha’arayim, as far as Gath and Ekron.” (1 Samuel 17:52) It’s also in Judges 16:5 and in Jeremiah 17:19-20.

The gates were corroborated by additional evidence of Jewish activity at Qeiyafa, including thousands of sheep, goat, cow and fish bones, and the absence of non-kosher pig bones, Kaplan said.

Evidence of cultic activity throughout the city was also unearthed, as well as two inscriptions written in the Canaanite script. One was incised on a jar and contains the Hebrew name Eshbaal, son of Beda. The second was inscribed on a pottery shard with only a few identifiable words, including “king” and “judge.” Many of the letters seem to reflect Hebraic writing.  Garfinkel suggests this is the earliest writing documentation of the Hebrew language discovered to date.

Among the pottery on the site, less than 2 percent was typical Philistine pottery. Kaplan said if the community had been Philistine, a minimum of 20 percent of Philistine design should have been found. Of the 24 weapons and tools discovered, 67 percent were made from iron and 33 percent from bronze. Use of iron during this period by other sites in Judah, such as Arad and Beersheva, helped archeologists identify Qeiyafa as a Judean site.

Bible Lands curator Yehuda Kaplan. Credit: Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman.

Finally, casemate walls - two thinner, parallel walls with empty space in between and a belt of houses abutting the casemates, incorporating them as part of the construction - are reminiscent of the type of urban planning found only in Judah and Transjordan.

Garfinkel explained that before the period of King David, people lived in small farming communities. Around 11th BCE, these agrarian communities became urban societies.

“In this, the biblical tradition has historic memory,” Garfinkel said. “If we ask, ‘Where is archaeology starting to support biblical tradition, Khirbet Qeiyafa is the beginning.”

There’s only one other archaeological reference to King David found in Israel, the Aramaic inscription from the mid-9th century BCE found at Tel Dan. This inscription, on display as part of the new exhibit, is attributed to Hazel, king of Damascus, who boasts about killing a king of Israel and a king of Judah, the latter of which is referred to in the inscription as “King of the House of David.”

While the site stirs the biblical imagination, it also serves a political role.

Biblical Minimalists, a band of biblical scholars and archaeologists trying to eradicate the connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel by claiming there’s not reliable evidence for what had happened in ancient Israel, can be negated by some of Qeiyafa’s findings. Within 10 days of his publishing the first paper on Qeiyafa, another article claimed the site as Palestinian, Garfinkel said.

“This happens a lot,” said Jacob L. Wright, associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Emory University in Atlanta. “In no other area of the world do you have such a connection to biblical imagination.”

Wright said there’s likely a middle ground. While he believes Garfinkel has placed Qeiyafa in the right time period and that it’s likely a Judean community, experts aren’t certain that King David had anything to do directly with the site.

“One has to separate the bible and archaeology,” Wright said. “The minimalists want to deny the state of Judah and Israel; they are politically driven and have a loose agenda. … But it does not help when the maximalists try to connect everything they find on the ground with Jesus or King David.”

Bible Lands’ Kaplan is confident in the exhibit and the story it’s telling of Qeiyafa.

“Everything you touch at Khirbet Qeiyafa brings you to this biblical period,” he said.

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