Artifact Supports Israelite History on Temple Mount

Arabs who desire to control the Temple Mount in Jerusalem often deny that Israelite presence there predates Muslim presence that first appears about 700 AD. Yet, recent archaeological evidence counters the Arab claim. “A 10-year-old Russian boy… recently made an extraordinary discovery in Jerusalem. Working as a volunteer in the Temple Mount Sifting Project, he found a 3,000-year-old seal—engraved limestone about the size of a thimble, with a hole at one end so it could be hung from a string—from the time of King David [about 1000 BC]. The artifact was nestled in the hundreds of tons of earth and rock that had been illegally excavated from below the Temple Mount in the late 1990s by the Muslim Waqf… the seal confirms the ancient Jewish presence in Jerusalem—more than a millennium before the Muslim Dome of the Rock was built…” (Wall Street Journal, October 25, 2015).

Scripture places Israelites on the Temple Mount at the time of kings David and Solomon (see 1 Kings). This new “hard evidence” supports the biblical claim. Jesus prophesied of the end-time, saying: “For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known” (Matthew 10:26).

As the end of this age approaches, God is making known many truths that reinforce the validity of Scripture and His own existence. For more on the Bible’s validity, be sure to read The Bible: Fact or Fiction?