AMAZING ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/science/family-discovers-iron-hammer-nails

Family in Israel discovers ancient iron hammer and nails

A family uncovered an ancient iron hammer and nails during a community dig at an archaeological site in Israel.

The discovery was made during an excavation at the site of Usha, a settlement near Kiryat Ata, in the northern part of the country.

The ancient iron hammer and nails that were found during the Usha excavation. (Yoli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority)

Dating back to the Byzantine period, about 1,400 years ago, the hammer and nails were found near slag leftover from iron production.

1,500-YEAR-OLD CHURCH DEDICATED TO MYSTERIOUS 'MARTYR' DISCOVERED IN ISRAEL

“About 20 iron hammers are registered in the Israel Antiquities Authority records, only six of them from the Byzantine period,” said Yair Amitzur and Eyad Bisharat, who directed the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in a statement. “We already knew that the Usha settlers extensively manufactured glass vessels, since we found many wine glasses and glass lamps together with glass lumps that were the raw material; the discovery of the hammer, the nails and the adjacent iron slag teaches us that they also produced iron tools at the site.”

ANCIENT 'NEW YORK' DISCOVERED IN ISRAEL AS ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER LOST BRONZE AGE CITY

Aerial view of the winepresses and the adjacent ritual bath at the Usha site. (Photograph: Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities Authority)

The remains of oil and wine presses were also found at the site, along with two ritual baths that are hewn from rock, dating back to the Roman and Byzantine periods 1,800 years ago.

“The discovery of the ritual baths indicates that the Jewish press workers took care to purify themselves in the ritual baths in order to manufacture ritually-pure oil and wine,” said the Israel Antiquities Authority in a statement.

ISRAELI SOLDIERS DISCOVER 3,000-YEAR-OLD BIBLICAL-ERA WATCHTOWER

Archaeologists in Israel recently discovered the remains of a stunning 1,500-year-old church decorated with beautiful mosaic floors and Greek inscriptions.

The Byzantine church, which features a mosaic inscription to a mysterious “glorious martyr” and a unique cross-shaped baptismal font, was uncovered at Ramat Beit Shemesh near Jerusalem.

A young excavator holds the iron hammer that was discovered in the Usha excavation.

Last year, a previously unknown 1,500-year-old painting of Christ’s face was uncovered at a Byzantine church in Israel’s Negev desert.

BOOK OF RUTH: READ THEN LISTEN, CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER

THE BOOK OF RUTH

WORKING THROUGH CHAPTER BY CHAPTER

I find it very useful to pick up Hebrew vocabulary using this method.

This is for those who want to advance later. Save the files below so that you can use it in the future. It took me a lot of time listening to the reading and splitting the book of Ruth to its individual chapters.

(1) Work your way through each chapter trying to read and understand every word

(2) Once you have worked through it, listen to the chapter many times while you are driving or cooking. Try to comprehend what you hear.

Please download before they are removed from the Google Drive. Here is the link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wnemkXyEpmEJZfn9P4LAahiw6bLvsxp5.

FOLLOW-UP AFTER THIS:

If anyone wants to read Ruth together, we can try it using Zoom or Webex at a suitable time. I am still not very good yet at my reading, but I am working hard at it. I want to be able to understand what I read or hear in order for God's Word to sink in.

As I was working through Ruth 1, I saw more than the ordinary conversation that the mother and daughters-in-law had. It was a kind of a family affairs that we get to experience. It is interesting that the in-laws were so caring of each other. There was no selfishness in Naomi despite of her losing her husband and two sons.

The family had moved out to Moab during the famine in Israel -- and the word that was used of Moab is not the typical 'country' ('goy' in Hebrew) but the open fields ('sadeh' in Hebrew). The same word 'sadeh' was used in Genesis 1-3 as well. It's somewhat like the Safaris; therefore, both Orpah and Ruth were kind of like the aborigines of Moab. There was no civilisation but just open fields.

Thank you

PSALMS 119:137

Psalm 119:137 

צַדִּיק אַתָּה יְהוָה וְיָשָׁר מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ׃

Righteous are You, O LORD

And upright are Your judgments

PSALM 119:127

Psa. 119:127

 עַל־כֵּן אָהַבְתִּי מִצְוֹתֶיךָ מִזָּהָב וּמִפָּז׃

Therefore I love Your commandments 

Above gold, yes, above fine gold

PROVERBS 17:9

Proverbs 17:9

מְכַסֶּה־פֶּשַׁע מְבַקֵּשׁ אַהֲבָה וְשֹׁנֶה בְדָבָר מַפְרִיד אַלּוּף׃

He who conceals a transgression seeks love, 

But he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends.

LEARNING HEBREW FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL 1

Hebrew can be taught to the younger generation at Sunday School or even at home. Children pick up the language very fast.

If the churches want to see a revival of the Hebrew language, it is the younger generation that we need to teach for the sake of the future generation, so that they may study God's Word in its original language.

In this series, I have put together materials that can be used in the Sunday School. You may go through it and see which material is most useful for your kids.

With young children, giving them rewards for doing their homework is what motivates them.

Several steps that will ensure that your children learn to read Hebrew:

STEP (1) Make sure that they are able to recognise the Hebrew alphabet. You will also learn along with them as you teach. There are only 22 consonants in the Hebrew alphabet, and five of these consonants have their final form.

STEP (2) In order to read Hebrew, you cannot do with just the 22 consonants. You need the vowel system known as the Niqquods.

STEP (3) Consonants + Vowels = SYLLABLES

Syllable + Syllable (+ Syllable + Syllable +.....) form WORDS.

Word + Word (+ Word + Word + .....) form SENTENCES.

STEP (4) That's all the children need to learn to be able to read the Hebrew Bible.

Go to the NEXT PAGE.

LEARNING HEBREW FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL 4

Print these flashcards for your class. Click here to access the PDF. Paste each of the letter on a cardboard.

Give a card to each child. Ask them to remember the letter of the alphabet they are holding.

As you read out each letter of the alphabet, let them come to the front and arrange themselves into a row.

Do this every week for a year.


NOW, to learn the vowel system, go to this page.
Start by explaining the vowel system a-e-i-o-u. Then, let them watch the video clip.

LEARNING HEBREW FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL 3

More on the Hebrew Consonants. 

Make sure that your children are able to at least recognise the Hebrew alphabet. This is the most important step to learning to read Hebrew.

Go to Next Page.

LEARNING HEBREW FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL 2

In this series to introduce Hebrew to your Sunday School children, you may pick whichever material that is suitable from here to use in your class. There are also a lot of other resources available out that you may use.

Click on this image 

Go to Next Page.

A VERY GOOD HEBREW TEACHER FROM ISRAEL, MS SIGAL ZOHAR

I find Ms Sigal Zohar a very cheerful teacher of Hebrew. She works with Israel Institute of Biblical Studies.

You can watch lots of her video on Youtube. Just search in the Youtube for Sigal Zohar.

WHY YOU SHOULD LEARN HEBREW : HERE ARE SOME REASONS!

Here are some good reasons why we should all learn Hebrew if we want to understand God's Word even better: 

If you like some advice on whether to sign up with Israel Institute of Biblical Studies, let me know. Email LearnHebrew5780@gmail.com.

PSALM 119:105

Psa. 119:105

 נֵר־לְרַגְלִי דְבָרֶךָ וְאוֹר לִנְתִיבָתִי׃

Your word is a lamp to my feet 

And a light to my path

MY JOURNEY IN LEARNING HEBREW

My Journey in Learning Hebrew

This article was written in August 2019


By Stephen Ng 

About three months ago (around May 2019), I suddenly had a strong urge to learn Hebrew. 

For whatever reason, I started searching for materials that I could use to learn the original language used in the writing of the Old Testament. 

The first thing I did was to search for the Hebrew text of the Old Testament to feel what it is like. 

Well, guess what? I did not know where to begin or what to make of it. Is it more like Bangla, Hindi or Japanese? It certainly looked foreign to me. 

But now, three months later, I am able to read the Hebrew text albeit with some difficulties. I am like a Primary One child learning to read Mandarin for the first time, but I press on. 

It all began with just learning the 22 consonants of the Hebrew alphabet. It took me a week to practise all the letters from Aleph to Tav, learning just four letters each day. This was how I redeemed my lost hours, while waiting for my appointments. 

With these letters of the alphabet, I started figuring out some words in the Hebrew text. I looked up for more free online materials that are available easily by searching for key words like "Learn Hebrew". This is one example of a video clip which helped me learn the alphabet. 

With some help, I managed to pick up the language. What can one learn in just three months? Of course, there is no way one can master the language in just three months, but it the first step to a journey of learning to read the Old Testament in the original language. 

In my personal opinion, Greek is very much like English, while Hebrew is closer to our Bahasa Malaysia. Because of the origins of the two semantic languages, Hebrew and Arabic, from whence we get a lot of words in Malay, we read them in the Hebrew language as well.

For example, neviim (נְבִיאִים) is the word for the prophets in the Old Testament. It comes from the root word 'nevi' (נְבִיא) or the singular noun for prophet. It is no coincidence that the word Nabi, which came from Arabic, for example, has its similarity to the Hebrew language. 

In the process, I also signed up with the Israel Institute of Biblical Studies on an online 9-month programme on the Hebrew language. 

The benefits of learning Hebrew are aplenty. Besides being able to read the original text, I learn to appreciate the beauty of the language used in the Old Testament. 

New insights are gleaned as I started to look at the Hebrew lexicon, which can be done quite easily these days with the help of Bible software such as Accordance. 

People often give the excuse that they are too old to learn Hebrew, but I encourage them to pick up a new language after reading what the experts say about learning a language to prevent dementia. 

At the same time, I have also set up chat groups that help fellow Christians who want to learn Hebrew together to encourage one another to pick up the language. As Proverbs 27:17 says, "Iron sharpens iron", therefore, in order to learn a language, we need others who share the same passion to encourage one another. 

PSALM 119:75

Psa. 119:75

 יָדַעְתִּי יְהוָה כִּי־צֶדֶק מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ וֶאֱמוּנָה עִנִּיתָנִי׃

I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous,
And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.

PSALM 119:88

Psa. 119:88

כְּחַסְדְּךָ חַיֵּנִי וְאֶשְׁמְרָה עֵדוּת פִּיךָ׃

Revive me according to Your lovingkindness,
So that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth.

PSALM 119:89

This verse is so simple and sweet :

Psa. 119:89

לְעוֹלָם יְהוָה דְּבָרְךָ נִצָּב בַּשָּׁמָיִם׃

Forever, O Lord

Your word is settled in heaven

HEBREW IS SO VERY EASY... IT'S LIKE LEARNING ABC

When I first started learning Hebrew in May 2019 or just five months ago, I was overwhelmed by the Hebrew text.

ā  Num. 21:9‏ וַיַּעַשׂ מֹשֶׁה נְחַשׁ נְחֹשֶׁת וַיְשִׂמֵהוּ עַל־הַנֵּס וְהָיָה אִם־נָשַׁךְ הַנָּחָשׁ אֶת־אִישׁ וְהִבִּיט אֶל־נְחַשׁ הַנְּחֹשֶׁת וָחָי׃

Like most of you, I could not figure out how to even read the text. But God helped me! Within just four months, I was able to start reading the Hebrew Bible.
That's why I say it is so much easier to learn Hebrew than to learn English -- ESPECIALLY ONCE YOU FOLLOW THESE STEPS THAT I AM GOING TO BRING YOU THROUGH.

Step 1:

Learn the 22 consonants (and the final forms of five of them) in the Hebrew alphabet. This is the first building block to learning any language -- learn to recognise the alphabet. If you take just 20 minutes a day to learn five letters, you would be able to learn the entire alphabet in just one week. Click here.

Step 2:

Learn the vowel system in Hebrew. These are simple dashes and dots. If you think it is hard to remember the vowels, I have a mnemonics that will help you remember them easily. Click here.

Step 3:

Once you have learnt the consonants and niqqouds, now, try to pick a text from this blog and work through each letter of the alphabet and the niqquods. See if you can recognise them perfectly.


Step 4:

Next is to see how the consonants and vowels come together to form syllables. Most of us know how you can pronounce a syllable when you have the consonants and the vowels put together. For example:

To-ge-ther   we pronounce as 'together'
Con-so-nants  we pronounce as 'consonants'

Hebrew works exactly the same. Click here and here.

Step 5: 

Now you can start reading your Hebrew Bible.
You can read but you will not understand the text. Like the English language, we all take time to pick up the vocabulary as we go along, don't we?

Here are some resources that will help you along the way:

• A free and wonderful Hebrew Bible reader that will help you with your reading. Click here.
• Some useful resources including the Hebrew lexicon for you to download. Click here.
• Join a class on Hebrew. Click here.

I also conduct a one-day Hebrew workshop with games and fun for beginners to help you learn Hebrew. I do it for the love of the original language that God used to communicate with us. You may collect a love offering at the end of the day. Email me: LearnHebrew5780@gmail.com.


Happy learning!

THE FIRST FIVE VERSES OF THE BIBLE

Gen. 1:1‏ בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ׃

Gen. 1:1    In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

‎Gen. 1:2‏ וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵי תְהוֹם וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם׃

² The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

‎Gen. 1:3‏ וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים יְהִי אוֹר וַיְהִי־אוֹר׃

³ Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

‎Gen. 1:4‏ וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָאוֹר כִּי־טוֹב וַיַּבְדֵּל אֱלֹהִים בֵּין הָאוֹר וּבֵין הַחֹשֶׁךְ׃

⁴ God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.

‎Gen. 1:5‏ וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים לָאוֹר יוֹם וְלַחֹשֶׁךְ קָרָא לָיְלָה וַיְהִי־עֶרֶב וַיְהִי־בֹקֶר יוֹם אֶחָד׃

⁵ God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

GENESIS 12:3 WHERE ARE WE AS A NATION IN RELATION TO ABRAHAM

Genesis 12:3 

וַאֲבָרֲכָה מְבָרְכֶיךָ וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ אָאֹר וְנִבְרְכוּ בְךָ כֹּל מִשְׁפְּחֹת הָאֲדָמָה

“And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.””
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭12:3‬ ‭NASB‬‬

https://www.bible.com/bible/100/gen.12.3.nasb

PSALM 136 : 1

MEMORISE PSALM 136: 1

הוֹדוּ לַיהוָה כִּי־טוֹב כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ׃

136       Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, 

            For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Read and sung by Rev Dr Philip Siew, Principal of Seminari Teoloji Malaysia

Memory verse by 8-year-old girl: