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Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ005117S
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00:26 This is Ketef Hinnom a rocky null in the heart of Jerusalem.
00:31 It's situated on the south shoulder of the Hinnom Valley 00:35 opposite of Mt. Zion, over- looking the walls of the 00:38 old city of Jerusalem and the famous tower of David in 00:42 Jaffa Gate. The site is beside the ancient road between 00:47 Bethlehem and Jerusalem. It was an important road junction 00:52 between the land of the ancient Hebrew tribes of Judah 00:55 and Benjamin. Thanks to its location everyone who came to 01:00 Jerusalem and the City of David had to pass here. 01:04 The location of Ketef Hinnom high on a hill is beautiful and 01:09 strategic but there's more to Ketef Hinnom than 01:13 meets the eye. This rocky out- crop concealed hidden secrets. 01:17 Ketef Hinnom is a place of treasure, buried treasure, 01:22 treasure that's been buried here for 2,700 years. 01:28 This is the site of one of the most exciting and amazing 01:32 archeological-discoveries in modern times involving a hoard 01:37 of treasure including two silver scrolls that carried an ancient 01:41 message that surprised the world. 01:44 Join me as we unravel the mystery of the silver scrolls. 02:13 I was born in a time and place where nobody should be born. 02:17 I am a product of the II World War, I was born in the ghetto 02:22 of Budapest Hungary, actually nobody should be born there. 02:31 In January of 1945 the Russian army entered the ghetto 02:38 of Budapest and since then I'm a free person and I am 02:43 alive. I guess that between myself and death in the 02:50 concentration camps there is about a week or so. 02:53 'Twas the end of the war and the Germans were in a total 02:59 disorder already and they forgot vantus... 03:02 I owe my life to the Red Army to Joseph Sullen wonderful people 03:09 many people owe him, till death I owe him my life. 03:14 Dr. Garfield Barkay was born in the Budapest ghetto in 03:20 Hungary right after the Nazis entered the country and 03:24 immigrated to Israel with his family in 1950. 03:28 He soon developed a keen interest in the history and 03:31 archeology of his new homeland. 03:41 I came to Jerusalem when I was six and I began wandering around 03:46 in my house, I collected all kinds of artifacts, coins, and 03:50 and pottery, etc. and I wondered who were the people who 03:55 left these behind. 03:57 And I forced my father to buy me some books about archeology 04:02 and that was obvious that the next step would be studying 04:07 the archeology after I left the military service. 04:11 And so, after his military service he began studying 04:16 archeology and completed his doctorate Suma Cum Lauda 04:20 at Tele Viv University and then participated in and conducted 04:25 numerous excavations mostly focused on Jerusalem. 04:29 Today, he's considered by many to be the greatest expert 04:34 on the archeology of Jerusalem. 04:37 In the 1970's I was looking for a power urban activities 04:43 which took place next to a city that were depending upon 04:47 what happens in the city but they are outside the city. 04:54 And I tried to map all the extramural human activities 04:59 which took place outside the city. I tried to put myself 05:04 into the shoes of the ancient... Where would I put quarrying 05:08 where would I put burial activities where I would put 05:12 large public gatherings etc. Those are activities that don't 05:17 take place in the densely built up city. 05:20 So, theoretically, I stand out on the map and this would be 05:26 an ideal place. 05:27 Gabriel Barkay gathered to his friends had long been interested 05:35 in Ketef Hinnom, he'd taken a survey and collected pieces 05:39 of broken pottery here immediately below St. Andrews 05:43 Scottish Church and he found that the pottery shards 05:46 dated back to the time of the Old Testament Israelite kings. 05:50 This convinced him that this rocky knoll may well conceal 05:56 some long-hidden secrets. 05:58 In 1979 he decided that it was time to begin excavating the 06:04 site but he had a meager budget and so could only afford a team 06:08 of 12 and 13-year-old helpers from a local archeology club. 06:13 Not to be deterred, Barkay began to investigate this site 06:18 in earnest with his small work crew of young students 06:21 and volunteers. 06:23 Well excavation had been in progress only three days 06:28 when a burial cave was uncovered, the ancient tomb 06:32 had been cut into the limestone slope. Originally it would have 06:37 formed a rock cave but over the centuries the roof collapsed 06:41 leaving the cave floor exposed. 06:45 Excitement grew as one by one other caves began to materialize 06:50 there were nine in all, as Barkay inspected the burial 06:55 caves, the design and architecture told his trained 06:59 eye that they dated from the era of Solomon's Temple, 07:03 the first temple period, the 8th to 6th centuries B.C. 07:08 Don't expect to find any treasure here Barkay 07:12 told his young crew, its probably been looted centuries 07:15 ago, but never mind, we're looking for understanding 07:20 for how people lived for what happened, 07:23 but if we do find treasures, blessed be. 07:27 This burial cave dates back to first temple period, 07:32 it is a 2600-year-old burial cave which had the roof of 07:39 which was quarried away unfortunately but if it would 07:43 have been in here we would be in total darkness and 07:46 we would have to crawl on our bellies in order to enter. 07:50 The cave itself is a multi- chambered burial cave, 07:54 it has a large entry hole and it is flanked on all sides by five 07:59 burial chambers. The burial chambers, each of them was 08:03 meant for another son of the founding father. 08:07 This chamber has three benches upon which they stretch the 08:13 bodies, the benches are equipped with scooped-out headrests 08:18 for the heads of the deceased imitating some devices that they 08:25 had in their beds and then below underneath the benches for 08:31 stretching the bodies we have the repository which was for 08:35 the secondary burial, the burial of the flesh to place upon the 08:40 benches, the burial of the bones took place down below. 08:44 So they collected the bones after the decay of the flesh 08:47 in order to make room for the next generation upon 08:51 the benches. 08:52 The burial caves clearly reveal the burial customs of the 08:57 first temple period. Shedding light on an obscure text in the 09:02 Bible in Judges 2: verse 10. 09:12 The bones of the deceased were literally gathered and placed 09:16 with those of their ancestors, the fathers in the repository 09:20 under the burial bench. 09:22 Moving along the line of caves Barkay noticed that this one 09:29 was different from the rest. The care taken to carve and 09:33 smooth its walls showed that this was the tomb of a wealthy 09:37 Jerusalem family. Barkay had never seen anything like this 09:43 before, he ran his fingers along the bench, could this cave 09:48 contain a special surprise? Barkay hid beneath the bench 09:53 looking for the repository where they buried the bones 09:57 when he looked inside all he saw was what looked like an empty 10:02 rock floor, Barkay was deeply disappointed. 10:06 Now the repository of chamber number 25 in cave number 24 10:12 was found in the season of 1979 and when I first crawled into 10:21 the repository I realized that unfortunately it is looted 10:27 as were all the other caves we excavated before. 10:31 At least we had some well preserved architectural features. 10:38 I saw a kind of a floor there, rocky floor which hinted that 10:46 somebody was there before me. I had the small crew of students 10:51 among those kids, there was a small boy (little Nathan) 10:58 made me nervous all the time. He an ugly habit of always 11:03 pulling my shirt from behind when I would turn around 11:06 he would ask me silly questions. I couldn't bear the sight 11:10 of this boy anymore and so it happens that he made one of the 11:16 most important discoveries in my life. 11:18 Barkay needed to have all of the accumulated dirt and stone 11:23 cleaned out of the repository and he had the perfect person 11:28 to do the cleanout. I took that kid little Nathan 11:34 and I thought for a while I'm not going to see him 11:39 I gave him the job of cleaning up that place for a 11:42 photographer. So Barkay told Nathan that the repository 11:47 had to be as clean as his mother's kitchen 11:50 even if he had to lick it clean. It had to be spotless for the 11:55 photograph. To Barkay's surprise Nathan cleans out the 12:00 repository meticulously but then Nathan gets bored. 12:05 He has a hammer in his hand usually a bad combination 12:10 in his boredom, Nathan starts banging his hammer 12:14 on the repository rock floor and this is where truth become 12:19 stranger than fiction. The floor cracks opens up and reveals 12:24 an ancient treasure trove. 12:26 After a while, I was far away from here, I feel my shirt 12:31 being pulled from behind and suddenly when I turned around 12:36 I saw him holding two jugs repository jugs intact. 12:42 They were from first temple period. That was against all 12:47 instructions, he had to call over one of the archeologists 12:51 when I turned around with his discovery I was ready to 12:56 suffocate him on the spot, it was against all possible 13:01 instructions, in any case, he didn't come up with any 13:04 explanation where from he had those jugs, I went back 13:09 with him and then I realized what happened. 13:12 Apparently a layer of rock from the caved ceiling 13:16 had collapsed and covered the repository floor. 13:19 Nathan's hammering had broken it up and revealed the hidden 13:24 treasure below. Leave it to a 13-year-old troublemaker 13:28 to make one of the greatest archeological discoveries 13:32 of all time. A secret room filled with ancient treasure. 13:37 But now this required personal attention immediately. 13:41 So Nathan and his friends were sent home and replaced by 13:46 a team of university archeology students, they were sworn to 13:51 secrecy, they weren't even allowed to tell their parents 13:54 spouses or friends. If word got around Jerusalem 13:58 that there were a cave full of treasure here 14:00 it would attract modern day tomb robbers and create 14:04 a security nightmare. 14:06 Electricity was connected here by the nearby St Andrews Church, 14:11 the team worked 24 hours around the clock carefully stone by 14:16 stone, they removed the rubble. As the last stone was removed 14:21 light flashed into the complete repository for the first time 14:26 in almost one million days. 14:28 Its ancient treasure lay untouched, it had escaped 14:33 the greedy hands of grave robbers over the millennia. 14:36 Gabriel Barkay peered into the semi-darkness of this ancient 14:41 burial cave. What he saw caused his heart to race 14:47 with excitement. He had entered a long-lost world 14:51 never intended to be seen by human eyes. 14:54 Surrounding him were dozens of grinning skeletons, 14:58 the remains of ninety-five ancient Israelites, dead for 15:03 thousands of years and there was treasure, fabulous treasure. 15:08 In the flickering light thrown by the single light bulb, 15:12 he and his team saw a stunning array of burial gifts 15:16 over a thousand precious objects! There was silver 15:20 jewelry, coins, precious stones oil lamps, jars, and decanters 15:25 vessels of alabaster and ivory artifacts. 15:29 The excavation also uncovered an inscribed seal with the word 15:35 PAULTA, which is a shortened version of Palate Yahoo, 15:39 a common name found in the City of David at that time. 15:42 Evidently, this cave belonged to a wealthy family with that 15:47 name and at least 95 members were buried here over several 15:52 generations. 15:54 Amid the excitement one of the students attention was attracted 16:00 by a small object on the floor of the cave near where 16:03 she was kneeling. She called Barkay' s attention to 16:07 the gray-purple item on the floor. It looked like a 16:10 cigarette butt, it was the color of corroded silver. 16:14 Examining the small object Barkay recognized it as an 16:19 amulet. A strip of silver rolled up into a tiny scroll 16:24 with a hole in its center through which string could 16:27 be threaded. Barkay suggested that it was a pendant 16:31 probably worn around the neck by one of these Israelites 16:35 buried here in the cave. 16:37 Later as they sieved the soil accumulated on the floor 16:41 over the centuries another amulet a second still smaller 16:46 silver scroll was found in the cave. The larger scroll 16:50 was about two centimeters in length and one centimeter in 16:54 diameter. The second scroll was about half the size. 16:59 This is the first and only intact burial repository of the 17:03 1st Temple period 8th to 6th century B.C. ever found 17:08 in Jerusalem. Of some 1,000 items found in the tomb 17:13 the silver scrolls were a special interest to Barkay, 17:17 he was convinced that there must be writing on them, 17:20 he was sure of it but the scrolls were too brittle to 17:25 unroll. For two and a half years Barkay tried to find some 17:30 way of unrolling the silver scrolls, they were sent to 17:34 experts at the University of Leeds in Britain. 17:37 There some of the most experienced restorers of ancient 17:41 artifacts and metal experts available for such delicate work. 17:45 The British experts felt however that the danger of 17:50 danger of destroying the scrolls was too great, they refused 17:53 to risk working on the scrolls and returned them. 17:57 The scrolls were then sent to Germany, the German laboratory 18:02 similarly declined and sent the scrolls back to Israel 18:06 nobody was prepared to touch them they were just too delicate 18:11 and fragile, the danger of harming them was too great. 18:15 There was no previous experience in opening or unrolling 18:20 such objects and the natural way of dealing with it... 18:27 it was found out to be made of silver and we tried to heat up 18:32 the silver in order to soften it and to unroll it and that 18:39 was found to be destructive and actually, we lost some parts 18:43 in this way. For three years the contents of the scrolls 18:47 remained a secret, Barkay was frustrated, he feared the scrolls 18:52 would keep their secrets forever. 18:55 Finally, the scrolls were sent to the Israel Museum 18:59 of Laboratories, Joseph Dodo Schenav was given the 19:03 responsibility of devising some means to unravel it. 19:08 The responsibility was enormous, Schenav considered 19:13 every possibility, finally he came up with a new 19:17 and innovative solution, he soaked the largest scroll 19:21 in an acid solution to remove thousands of years of corrosion. 19:27 Then the outer layer was carefully smeared with 19:31 acrylic emulsion to give it strength. When it dried 19:35 it was transparent and elastic. Schienhav then carefully 19:40 unrolled the first layer...layer by layer, he repeated the process 19:45 millimeter by millimeter over a period of months both scrolls 19:51 were carefully unrolled. The larger of the scrolls 19:55 was about 2 centimeters wide and about ten centimeters 19:59 in length, it was made of pure silver. Eagerly Barkay placed 20:06 the largest scroll under a microscope it's covered with 20:10 writing...he cried excitedly as he squinted through the 20:14 eyepiece where he saw the faint etchings of ancient Hebrew 20:18 letters. Now, the challenge was to decipher the writing 20:22 and even if they could decipher the characters inscribed 20:26 on the ancient scrolls, would they, could they have any 20:31 meaning today? 20:33 I could identify the first word which I deciphered 20:37 immediately on the spot that was Udaveavave? 20:42 Which is anglicized as Jehovah or the private name of God. 20:47 Wherever the words the "Lord" appears in the English Bible 20:51 this is what we have in the Hebrew original. 20:54 But it wasn't enough to decipher the full message 20:58 and unlock the mystery of the silver scrolls. 21:01 However, now he was more determined than ever to find out 21:06 what was inscribed on the scrolls, he just had to discover 21:11 their message. 21:12 Years passed and then in 1998 the scrolls along with the other 21:18 treasures found at Ketef Hinnom were turned over to the Israel 21:22 Museum in preparation for an exhibit to be held some months 21:26 later. Ada Yardini, an expert in the ancient script noticed 21:31 something on the scrolls that Barkay and others had missed. 21:35 As she closely examined the scrolls, she discovered 21:40 God's name written a third time on both scrolls in three 21:44 consecutive lines armed with this new information she 21:49 sought the help of a friend, a devout Jew, he knew the 21:52 Hebrew scriptures virtually by heart, do you know the 21:56 priestly benediction he asked, it's the only place in the 22:00 scriptures where God's name appears three times like that. 22:04 This was the clue that unlocked the mystery of the 22:09 silver scrolls. 22:10 Yardini soon deciphered the rest of the words. 22:14 Inscribed on the scrolls practically word for word 22:18 was the priestly benediction found in Number 6: 24- 26. 22:24 They are the words that Moses brought from God and gave to 22:29 Aaron and his sons to bless the people. 22:32 The High Priest prayed this benediction, this blessing 22:36 over the children of Israel every day. 22:52 The silver scrolls contained the oldest Biblical inscription 22:57 ever found. When the ancient scribe etched those words 23:01 some 2,700 years ago, the prophet Jeremiah was 23:06 still alive, Solomon's temple still stood and the heirs of 23:10 King David sat on the throne. 23:12 The Dead Sea Scrolls would not be written for another 23:16 400 years. Now when the Dead Sea Scrolls were 23:20 discovered in 1947, they were the oldest Hebrew Biblical 23:24 inscriptions ever found, they were 1,000 years older 23:29 than any other manuscripts in existence, now the 23:33 silver scrolls are 400 years older and here's what's 23:38 amazing although written about 2,700 years ago, the words 23:44 are virtually identical with those found in our Bibles. 23:49 It's a staggering fact that in the course of over 23:53 two and a half millennia of copying by hand no errors 23:58 have crept into that text. 24:00 This suggests a remarkable accuracy in the transmission 24:05 of the Bible across the centuries and through the 24:08 millennia. The discovery of the Silver Scrolls is a timely 24:13 reminder that we can trust the accuracy of the Bible 24:17 as we have it today. 24:22 Perhaps the Silver Scrolls bring a special message from the 24:27 distant past to us all. You see, this priestly benediction 24:32 is the only prayer written by God Himself for His people. 24:36 Yes, this prayer etched on the Silver Scrolls is the only 24:42 prayer that was dictated by God to bless His people 24:46 and that includes you. This is God's prayer for you, in fact 24:52 in this blessing, God refers to you six times and His 24:58 blessing covers every aspect of your life. He knows exactly 25:04 what you need, He decides to shower you with the following. 25:34 An ancient blessing, God's prayer for you that demonstrates 25:38 His desire to bless you with prosperity, safe-keeping, 25:43 a lighted way, unmerited favor, affection, inner peace, 25:48 and happiness. 25:50 These are God's most basic desires for you, how good is 25:55 that, the message etched on the silver scrolls and now 26:00 etched on our hearts, a message thousands of years old 26:03 and still perfectly modern and relevant. 26:07 If you would like to find out more about the fascinating 26:12 discoveries from the past, that prove the accuracy of the Bible, 26:16 then I'd like to recommend the Free Gift we have for all our 26:20 Incredible Journey viewers today. It's the booklet 26:23 The Silver Scrolls and other amazing discoveries. 26:27 This booklet is our gift to you and is absolutely free 26:32 I guarantee there are no costs or obligations whatsoever. 26:36 So make the most of this wonder- ful opportunity to receive the 26:41 gift that we have for you today. Phone or text 0436.333.555 26:49 in Australia or 020.422.2042 in New Zealand or visit our 26:56 website at TIJ.tv or simply scan the QR code on your screen 27:02 and we'll send you today's Free Offer, totally free of charge 27:06 and with no obligation. Write to us at 27:09 GPO Box 274 Sydney, NSW 2001 Australia or PO Box 76673 27:18 in Manukau, 2241 New Zealand. 27:22 Don't delay, call or text us now. 27:30 If you've enjoyed today's journey to Jerusalem 27:33 and our reflections on the message of The Silver Scrolls, 27:36 the priestly benediction then be sure to join us again 27:40 next week when we will share another of life's journeys 27:44 together. Until then, let's pray the priestly benediction 27:48 given by God to bless His people. 28:03 Amen! |
Revised 2023-02-01