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This exciting news was announced by the Israeli Antiquities Authority this past week:

Photo:  Skyview Company, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority

A synagogue from the Second Temple period (50 BCE-100 CE) was exposed in archaeological excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting at a site slated for the construction of a hotel on Migdal beach, in an area owned by the Ark New Gate Company. In the middle of the synagogue is a stone that is engraved with a seven-branched menorah (candelabrum), the likes of which have never been seen.

 

. . . 

According to the excavation director, Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “We are dealing with an exciting and unique find. This is the first time that a menorah decoration has been discovered from the days when the SecondTemple was still standing. This is the first menorah to be discovered in a Jewish context and that dates to the Second Temple period/beginning of the Early Roman period. We can assume that the engraving that appears on the stone, which the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered, was done by an artist who saw the seven-branched menorah with his own eyes in the Temple in Jerusalem. The synagogue that was uncovered joins just six other synagogues in the world that are known to date to the SecondTemple period”.

. . .

Photo: Moshe Hartal, Israel Antiquities Authority

The synagogue is located in Migdal (‘Magdala’ in Aramaic), which is mentioned in Jewish sources. Migdal played an important role during the Great Revolt and was actually the main base of Yosef Ben Matityahu (Josephus Flavius), commander of the rebellion in the Galilee. Migdal also continued to resist the Romans after both the Galilee and Tiberias had surrendered. ‘Magdala’ is mentioned in Christian sources as the place whence Mary Magdalene came, one of the women who accompanied Jesus and the apostles and who Christian tradition has sanctified. After it was conquered by the Romans, the city was destroyed and many of its residents were killed. At the end of the Second Temple period Migdal was an administrative center of the western basin of the Sea of Galilee. Until the founding of Tiberias in the year 19 CE, Migdal was the only important settlement along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. 

Although there are several textual and inscriptional references to synagogues during the period, there has been very little in terms of archeological evidence for synagogues dating prior to the 2nd century AD.  

According to GNews:

The largest cache of rare coins ever found in a scientific excavation from the period of the Bar-Kokhba revolt of the Jews against the Romans has been discovered in a cave by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan University.

Read the rest of the post for more info and some great photos.  

(via Todd Bolen)

I'm working as an assistant in Dr. Dennis Smith's Social World of Early Christianity class.  He has posted many of his own narrated videos and slide-shows from Greco-Roman sites such as Pompeii.  In addition to these, this week he had me provide links to the following clips on YouTube for the students in the class.

 The first clip is from The Godfather and serves as an example of the Patron-Client and Honor-Shame realities that dominated first century Roman culture and continue to exist in some Mediterranean cultures (such as Mafia culture) to this day.   The second is a sketch from Life of Brian that humorously points out the both anti-Roman attitudes in 1st century Palestine and the benefits of living under Pax Romana.

I don't know anything about the site, but Bible Study Magazine provides a chart of different canon lists for Jews and Christians.  Click the image below to see it:

(via Doug Chaplin)