End Times and Current Events

Archaeologists Uncover Entrance Gate to Goliath's City

Team of archaeologists from Bar-Ilan University discovers the fortifications and entrance gate of the Philistine city of Gath.

An archaeological expedition has discovered the fortifications and entrance gate of the biblical city of Gath of the Philistines, home of Goliath and the largest city in the land during the 10th-9th century BCE, about the time of the "United Kingdom" of Israel and King Ahab of Israel.

The excavations, conducted by a team from the Bar-Ilan University headed by Prof. Aren Maeir, are being conducted in the Tel Zafit National Park, located in the Judean Foothills, about halfway between Jerusalem and Ashkelon in central Israel.

Prof. Maeir, of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, said that the city gate that was discovered is among the largest ever found in Israel and is evidence of the status and influence of the city of Gath during this period.

In addition to the monumental gate, an impressive fortification wall was discovered, as well as various building in its vicinity, such as a temple and an iron production facility. These features, and the city itself were destroyed by Hazael King of Aram Damascus, who besieged and destroyed the site at around 830 BCE, according to a statement from Bar-Ilan University.

The city gate of Philistine Gath is referred to in I Samuel 21 in the story of David's escape from King Saul to Achish, King of Gath.

The Ackerman Family Bar-Ilan University Expedition to Gath is a long-term investigation aimed at studying the archaeology and history of one of the most important sites in Israel.

Tell es-Safi/Gath is one of the largest tells (ancient ruin mounds) in Israel and was settled almost continuously from the 5th millennium BCE until modern times.

The archaeological dig is led by Prof. Maeir, along with groups from the University of Melbourne, University of Manitoba, Brigham Young University, Yeshiva University, University of Kansas, Grand Valley State University of Michigan, several Korean universities and additional institutions throughout the world.

So far, according to the statement from Bar-Ilan, the group has discovered Philistine Temples dating to the 11th through 9th century BCE, evidence of an earthquake in the 8th century BCE possibly connected to the earthquake mentioned in the Book of Amos I:1, the earliest decipherable Philistine inscription ever to be discovered, which contains two names similar to the name Goliath.

They have also uncovered a large assortment of objects of various types linked to Philistine culture; remains relating to the earliest siege system in the world, constructed by Hazael, King of Aram Damascus around 830 BCE, along with extensive evidence of the subsequent capture and destruction of the city by Hazael, as mentioned in Second Kings 12:18; evidence of the first Philistine settlement in Canaan (around 1200 BCE); different levels of the earlier Canaanite city of Gath; and remains of the Crusader castle "Blanche Garde" at which Richard the Lion-Hearted is known to have been.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/198998#.VcCxWvlrWk4

Archaeological Find: A Testament to God's Work Throughout History

 The first reference to the city of Gath in the Bible occurs in the book of Joshua. In chapter 11 we’re told that there were no Anakim, a race of giants, left in Israelite territory except for a few in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod.
 
The next time we hear of Gath is in connection with one of those giants, Goliath, in I Samuel 17. From then on, Gath becomes the most-mentioned Philistine city in the Bible. In I Chronicles 18, David captures the city. In II Chronicles 11, his grandson Rehoboam fortifies it. The city was later captured by King Hazael of Damascus and then recaptured by King Uzziah, whose death figured in the vision of Isaiah 6.
 
Yet until recently, no one was sure exactly where Gath was located. It wasn’t so much that they doubted its existence as they couldn’t find it.
 
But now it appears they have.
 
Israeli archaeologists, digging at a site about 20 miles northwest of Hebron, found what is being described as a “massive gate” that marked the entrance to what was then the region’s largest city.
 
The gates aren’t the only impressive thing about what they’ve found. According to team leader Aren Maier, based on what they’ve dug up so far, the city’s walls and other fortifications were so formidable that they “formed a rather imposing boundary that prevented the Kingdom of Judah from expanding westward.”
 
Thus, we have evidence of the more or less constant conflict between the people of Israel and their Philistine neighbors. It took the greatest warrior of the Bible, King David, to overcome that “rather imposing boundary.”
 
And Maier’s team found more than fortifications. They also found the remains of a temple that, like Gath itself, changed hands several times. Interestingly, after the Philistines captured it from the Israelites, they not only destroyed it, they desecrated it by using it as a livestock pen. It’s a testimony in stone to the enmity between those two peoples as described in the Bible.
 
And it’s not the only such testimony in stone. A few years ago Eric Metaxas told our BreakPoint listeners about a find in the Valley of Sorek, which marked the ancient boundary between Israelite and Philistine territories and where the Bible tells us that Samson met Delilah.
 
The Philistine side was littered with pig bones, while there were none on the Israelite side. And so it’s reasonable to see that as “evidence of the Israelites’ sense of being set apart from their pagan neighbors.”
 
It’s reasonable because biblical faith is an historical faith. The accounts in the scripture do not take place in some mythical time-before-time like that of their pagan neighbors or the Bhagavad Gita in Hinduism.
 
They are stories about God and His servants—and enemies—working in human history in furtherance of a divine purpose whose culmination will also occur in human history. When John tells us that the “Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us”—the Greek verb there comes from the Greek word for “tent”—he was referring to Tent of Meeting in Exodus 27, where God met his people.
 
In entering time and place, as described over and over in the Scriptures, most significantly in Christ Jesus, God has hallowed human history. He made it the setting in which His salvific activity would take place. Thus it shouldn’t come as a surprise when finds like the one I just told you about occur. Activities in history, even seemingly insignificant ones, often leave traces.
 
But of course there’s nothing insignificant about Israel’s story. After all, it’s that story of the people whom God chose to use in order to repair all that human sin had broken, culminating in the sending of his Son, who—as the Apostle John reports—promises to “make all things new.”
 
And as Gath and its great hero found out at the young hands of Israel’s future king, that’s something that no barrier, no matter how imposing, can get in the way of.

http://www.christianheadlines.com/columnists/breakpoint/archaeology-find-a-testament-to-god-s-work-throughout-history.html