He [King Jotham] built the upper gate of the house of the LORD and did much building on the wall of Ophel.
— 2 Chronicles 27:3 (ESV)
Archaeologist Eilat Mazar and her team have discovered a trove of bronze coins and cookware in a cave at the base of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. The discovery was made last month, on the fifth day of a new dig at the Ophel, which is mentioned in the Bible as a point of fortification.
Dr. Mazar speculates that the 7 x 14-meter cave was a hiding place for Jews seeking to escape the Roman siege and eventual sacking of Jerusalem during the First Jewish-Roman War (66–70 AD). At the end of that war, the Roman army destroyed both the city and the Second Temple built by King Herod the Great.
“It’s not a usual phenomenon that we can come to such a closed cave, untouched [for] 2,000 years, including the very last remains of life of the people who were sieged in Jerusalem, suffered in Jerusalem, till the very last minute of the Second Temple period,” The Trumpet quoted Dr. Mazar as saying.
The archeological team led by Dr. Mazar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is being financed by Herbert W. Armstrong College of Edmond, Oklahoma, and many of the team members are students of the college.
Picture on left: Bronze coins discovered in cave near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. (Credit: Eilat Mazar/Hebrew University). Picture on right: A trove of coins from the Jewish Revolt found outside Jerusalem by Israel Antiquities Association archaeologists in 2014 (Credit: Vladimir Neichin, IAA).
Optimism Turns Pessimistic
Dozens of coins were discovered scattered across the floor of the cave at a level that would correlate with the 1st century struggle of the Jews to extricate themselves from control by the Roman Empire. Similar coins were discovered in previous years.
Some of the coins discovered were minted during the second and third years of the war, but most were cast during the fourth and final year of the conflict (AD 69-70). According to The Times of Israel, designs on the coins featured Jewish symbols related to the holiday of Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) and a chalice.
The coins reflected the changing mood of the Jewish rebels as they progressed through the four-year war. The second year’s motto imprinted on the coins was “For the Freedom of Zion.” By year four, and with hope fading, the motto on the coins changed to “For the Redemption of Zion,” according to The Times.
Found in the cave with the coins were broken jars and cooking pots, and a network of tunnels with footholds and handholds carved into the walls, indicating that people seeking to escape the warfare overhead, actually moved around and lived for an extended time in this cave.
Ancient Writings Verify Dr. Mazar’s Find
During the final days of the war, the carnage above ground would have been almost unbearable. The man at the center of power was the Roman Emperor Vespasian, and his son Titus led the empire’s armies in laying siege to Jerusalem early in 70 AD. They got through the first two walls of the city in three weeks, but it took seven months to successfully storm the third wall, says Wikipedia’s entry on the Jewish-Roman wars.
Meanwhile, infighting among the Jewish rebel groups appears to have done Jerusalem in. One group burned all of the food in the city for the purpose of forcing a showdown. Ancient historian Flavius Josephus writes about the ensuing famine and slaughter, which drove many underground.
“Nor was there any place in the city that had no dead bodies in it, but what was entirely covered with those that were killed either by famine or the rebellion; and all was full of dead bodies of such as had perished either by the sedition or by that famine. So now the last hope, which supported the tyrants and that crew of robbers which were with them, was in the caves and caverns underground; whither, if they would once fly, they did not expect to be searched out, but endeavored, that, after the whole city should be destroyed, and the Romans gone away, that they might come out again and escape from them. This was no better than a dream of theirs; for they were not able to lie hid either from God or from the Romans.” – Josephus, The Jewish War 6:7:3, as read by Brent Nagtegaai, supervisor of the Ophel Excavations, in a YouTube video posted July 1, 2013.
– Josephus, The Jewish War 6:7:3, as read by Brent Nagtegaai, supervisor of the Ophel Excavations, in a YouTube video posted July 1, 2013.
Finally, the Roman army overpowered the rebels in the summer of AD 70 and Titus, according to Josephus, ordered Jerusalem and the temple to be demolished.
And so it was that a cave in the Ophel, abandoned and unknown for almost two millennia, today speaks (by giving up its contents) of the terrible tragedy that befell the Jewish population almost 2,000 years ago.
The Jewish-Roman wars turned the Israelites from a majority population in the Eastern Mediterranean into a scattered and persecuted minority, says Wikipedia. Only in the mid-20th century did they regain dominance in parts of the area which they previously ruled, after the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948.
Scripture Predicted the City’s Fall
Besides today’s archaeological evidence extracted from the ground and the eyewitness account of an ancient historian, the words of the Hebrew Scriptures point to the sacking of Jerusalem and the scattering of its citizens.
Moses, writing the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy centuries before, said that if the nation of Israel did not keep God’s commandments, it would be defeated. Its high walls would be torn down, and its population would be scattered.
The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them…
– Deuteronomy 28:25 (ESV)
They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land…
– Deuteronomy 28:52 (ESV)
The New Testament also speaks of the violent end of the ancient Jewish nation. Forty years before the fall of Jerusalem, Jesus Christ made this prediction about the temple–the central focus of Judaism.
Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.
— Matthew 24:1-2 (ESV)
And then, a few verses later, Jesus added the prediction that this seemingly incredible event would happen in the lifetime of the people listening to him.
Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
– Matthew 24:34 (ESV)
Jesus made the same prediction in the Book of Mark, Chapter 13. About 40 years later, what both Moses and Jesus had predicted came to pass. Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews were dispersed throughout the world.
What More Will We Learn?
The discovery of coins in a cave at the Ophel represents the most recent find by archaeology at the heart of this ancient city. In our Mar. 2, 2018 Thinker Update we reported that a clay seal impression (a bulla) had been found in the Ophel. It may have belonged to the Prophet Isaiah. That discovery was confirmed, again by Dr. Mazar, in the March-June 2018 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review (44:2).
What new “evidence” lies hidden in the earth, waiting to be uncovered, that will shed light on the origins of the Jewish people and their ancient writings?
Keep thinking.
Top Photo: Student from Armstrong College holds a coin discovered at the Ophel archaeological dig (Credit: Eilat Mazar/Hebrew University).
