Pisteuomen - πιστευομεν - T. Michael W. Halcomb

This is VERY cool! Workers undertaking a new subway project in the city of Thessaloniki have uncovered an ancient Roman road. During the excavations, ancient childrens' games, chariot wheels, tools, lamps, and columns have all been uncovered. I'm very eager to hear what else surfaces. I visited Thessaloniki several years ago, and while there's not very much there to see in terms of ancient Christianity (at the time the so-called "House of Jason" was en vogue), I wonder if any of these new finds will shed light on Paul's letters or the ancient church. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. For now, you can see at least one of the recent pictures to the left and read more HERE .

Today, the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced the discovery of an ancient bulla (or seal inscription) related to Bethlehem. Measured at 1.5 cm, the seal which you can see in the image just below, contains the following lines: בשבעת Bishv'at [in the seventh] בת לחם Bat Lechem [Bethlehem] למלך [Lemel]ekh [for the king] Archaeologists, who found the seal while sifting soil at an ancient site in the City of David (just outside the walls of the second temple), believe that this bulla dates back to the first temple period and proves the existence of Bethlehem.

This afternoon I had the privilege of walking through one of the newest tunnels being excavated in Jerusalem.  It  is a tunnel that runs from the west side of the City of David to the base of the temple, following along the temple's western wall.  It has been open a little less than a month and is supposedly going to continue being dug through over the next few years.  It seems, as of now, that it was used in antiquity as a water channel.  Anyway, I mention that here because once I came up out of the ground, I was standing beside the western wall.  Walking south a number of yards to the corner of the western and southern walls, I saw a very significant place, which in Greek is called το πτερυγιον (the edge, pinnacle or summit). Below, you can see a photo that I took of το πτερυγιον.  This is the place where, according to Matthew's account, Jesus likely was tempted by ο διαβολος (the devil).  Here's what Matthew's account says in Gre...

Last night, I watched an amazing video of up-and-coming technology that is allowing us to become more and more able to read the contents of ancient scrolls and other texts without even opening and/or damaging them. In a nutshell, the concept is to get the scroll, take x-ray footage of it, input that x-ray data into a computer program and then, let the program separate out the layers so that it performs a virtual unrolling of the scroll (this is being used for other types of documents too, such as the ancient codices). The technique, dubbed the EDUCE Project , is incredibly fascinating and got me really excited about the potential of this project, led by University of Kentucky professor W. Brent Seales . To really wrap your mind around the process, give the following video a watch and I promise, you won't walk away without your interest piqued!!!

Here's a fascinating 2.5 minute video on maritime archaeology in Caesarea. There's a nice little history lesson and some interesting photos and theories. Give it a watch: Diving in Caesarea . (HT: Bibleplaces.com )