Reporting of F.F.
Important discovery in Jerusalem in the Western Wall area, where Solomon's temple stood: the seal of the governor which confirms what is written in the Bible
Of Paolo Vites
It is certainly not the first archaeological discovery that confirms things written in the Bible, not only in the Old Testament, but also about the life of Jesus (for example the famous Nazareth tombstone from the Roman era, dating back to 41 d.C. who condemns anyone to capital punishment “removes corpses from tombs”, an evident reference to the resurrection of Christ or the proof of the existence of Pontius Pilate and Caiaphas). The Holy Land continues to reveal hidden secrets that one after another prove that, with all due respect to many, the holy book is anything but a fairy tale. The latest discovery in the series is a seal dating back to 2700 years ago, found during excavations in the Western Wall area, where the ancient temple of Solomon was located. On the seal is an ancient Hebrew writing that says it belonged “to the governor of the city of Jerusalem”.
In fact, in the Bible we read about two governors and the seal confirms the existence of one of them 2700 years ago. No other historical source had ever mentioned the figure of this character, only the Bible. The head of the excavations commented, Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, that “this is a very rare discovery. Its importance lies in the fact that we know the expression 'ruler of the city' only through the Bible. It is the first time we find mention of it in an archaeological context. Israeli scholars note that the Bible mentions two governors of Jerusalem who lived at different times: Joshua and Maaseiah”.
The risk now as we already read in some Israeli media, is that this discovery once again relaunches the debate on Jerusalem as the capital, but the archaeological discovery, unlike some Palestinian leaders who even dispute the very existence of Solomon's temple, it would confirm that the city was the capital of Palestine already three thousand years ago, when only Jews lived there.
