Over 100 tablets that have been dated back to Nebuchadnezzar’s era in Babylon have provided further support for the Scriptures showing the exile of the Jewish nation.
The tablets, which have just gone in display in Jerusalem, provide a look into the lives of the Jews as they lived in exile. Among day to day life items, the tablets trace a Judean family over four generations.
The tablets had been discovered in Iraq and rescued from ISIS by a UK-based Israeli collector. The artifacts are written in ancient akkadian cuneiform script.
“We started reading the tablets and within minutes we were absolutely stunned,” Babylonian expert Filip Vukosavovic told reporters. “It fills in a critical gap in understanding of what was going on in the life of Judeans in Babylonia more than 2,500 years ago.”
“On the one hand it’s boring details, but on the other you learn so much about who these exiled people were and how they lived,” he added.
The tablets will be displayed for one year at the Bible Land Museum in Jerusalem.
A man who was seen as a major stabilizing figure in the turbulent Middle East is dead at the age of 90.
Saudi King Abdullah died early Friday after what palace sources called “a short illness.” Abdullah had ruled Saudi Arabia since 2005 after the death of King Fahd.
Many residents of the nation saw Abdullah as a reformer. He allowed women the right to vote and to compete in the Olympics. He maintained close relationships with the United States and Britain, buying most of the nation’s defense equipment from the two nations.
He also made domestic violence against women a crime for the first time in the nation’s history.
He was also a major opponent to Islamic terrorism and called it not only a threat to the region but also to Islam. He launched education programs that were aimed at stopping Al-Qaeda from gaining a foothold with youth. He also took actions to keep the most extreme parts of Saudi Arabia’s religious establishment from being able to spread their message in the nation.
King Abdullah was found through diplomatic messages published by Wikileaks to have asked the United States to implant microchips on all terrorists at Guantanamo Bay to allow world governments to track their movements. He also privately urged the U.S. to attack Iran to destroy their nuclear program.
Former Crown Prince Salman became King. He appointed officials to new roles within hours of the death of King Abdullah, unusual in the Saudi succession pattern, which usually took months. Reportedly King Salman wanted to “show strength to Islamic extremists” that “Saudi Arabia is united.”
The last time Turkey allowed a new church to be built, Time Magazine was publishing its first issue, Warner Brothers established their movie studio and President Warren Harding was succeeded by Calvin Coolidge.
The Syriac Christian church will be built not far from Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Catholic churches in a suburb of Istanbul. Until this new construction was approved, the only construction allowed by the government was refurbishing established church buildings.
Only about 100,000 of the 80 million people in Turkey are Christian.
The move is seen as mainly political. Turkey has been under fire from the European Union after an ancient Byzantine church was converted into a mosque and all traces of Christian history wiped from the building.
The ruling party in Turkey has been working to align themselves with other Muslim-majority nations in the Middle East.
A study analyzing Wikipedia data to determine who has been the most significant person in history has said Jesus tops the list.
Two computer scientists used quantitative analysis of the data on Wikipedia to create the list that they said is similar to how Google ranks web pages in its search engine.
“We would call Jesus ‘The most significant person ever,’” Professor Steven Skiena said. “With over 2 billion followers a full 2,000 years after his death, Jesus is an incredibly successful historical meme.”
The scientists did add that the ratings could change over time because of the continuing evolving nature of Wikipedia. They noted many people in the lower parts of their list will likely have more significant movement through time.
Ranked behind Jesus in the list was Napoleon Bonaparte and William Shakespeare.
