From Foxnews.com we have this excerpt today:
A carved pillar discovered near Bethlehem may be linked to the Biblical King of Kings, David himself, or perhaps validate the scope of wise Solomon’s majestic kingdom.
If they ever get around to digging it up, that is.
When I realized the significance of the pillar, I told my boss who spoke with the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA),” Tropper, who works at the educational field school at Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, told FoxNews.com. “The IAA then told him, ‘that’s great, now shut up.'”
Tropper may have stumbled across further proof of the real-life world behind the Biblical stories related in the Old Testament. The 2,800-year-old stone pillar could help locate those legends on a map, archaeologists say, and connect the modern country of Israel with the historical roots of Judaism.
Israeli tour guide Binyamin Tropper, who thought he was the first to discover the major historical artifact, was astonished to find out that authorities had known about the pillar for decades — and had been keeping it a secret all that time.
…Tropper explained that in the last 20-30 years, an internal debate in Israel has ensued over the size and importance of King David’s kingdom as described in the Bible. This pillar’s design, he says, is consistent with the time period of the First Temple and would help provide concrete evidence of the Judean king’s existence in Israel.
“This pillar weighs (approximately) five tons, so you can’t move it,” Tropper said. “Because it is so big, we know it must belong to this location.”
King Solomon is credited with building the First Temple as detailed in the Old Testament. A place of worship for biblical Jews, it was said to be destroyed by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar II in 587 BCE.
Image from smoothstoneblog.com
This could be as big as the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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