The Intertestamental Period

Khirbet Qumran, a site located in the Judean Des- ert on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, is referred to as a khirbeh (an Arabic term meaning “ruins”) because one can still see the remains of struc- tures above the ground. Khirbet Qumran has gained great interest because of its proximity to the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Consequently, many have associated it with the community that wrote the documents. Some have identified Khirbet Qumran as the City of Salt (‘ir hamalēh) (Josh. 15:62), while others have regarded it as ancient Secacah (Joshua 15:61). Both cities are located in the territory allotted to the tribe of Judah. Roland de Vaux and Gerald Lankester Harding first excavated the site in 1949. During several seasons of ex- cavations, de Vaux believed that he identified five occu- pational phases. The first was a late Iron Age settlement that he considered as “Israelite.” The architectural and ceramic remains from the Iron Age date from the eighth century until the sixth century BC. The unearthed Iron Age architecture consisted of a rectangular building with a water cistern. The ceramic re- mains included pottery from the eighth to the sixth centuries BC and a jar-handle bearing a seal impres- sion with the Hebrew phrase lemelek (“belonging to the king”). Such jar-handles are important because they are found at other

Judean sites that also date presence of a lemelek to date the site itself. De the pottery and architecture well-known Israelite sites Qumran may have been and towers built in the Judean ziah, as mentioned in 2 Chronicles destroyed in the sixth century pied until the Second Temple De Vaux labeled the next as Phase I (Hasmonean) and ods: Phase Ia and Ib. Phase Ia the second century BC, possibly Jewish ruler John Hyrcanus I. BC and ended in 30 BC after earthquake struck the site. The for occupational Phase Ia consists collected rainwater from two ogists also excavated two ceramic corner. Scholars debate the identity pants, but some believe they mark Jewish sect, possibly the Essenes. ical evidence for this period has led site was occupied during de Vaux’s a small settlement. The occupational Ia was indistinguishable from Phase of Phase Ia and the beginning of Ib However, occupational evidence Qumran began to take on its final about half of them lived in Alexandria (constituting a third of the overall population of the city).

Ptolemaic Egypt provided the setting for a Jewish Golden Age, as its Greek concept of citizenship (Hellene) extended to any person from the territories conquered by Alexander, who could speak Greek and who willingly served the royal dynasty. Thus the Jewish population was able to be entirely Greek while at the same time practice their Jewish faith. Unfortunately, such privileged status vanished when Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire as the Romans regarded “citizenship” much more narrowly. As a result, the Jews received the legal status of “Egyptian” and were ranked on the same level as the indigenous people. It caused the decline of Egypt’s vibrant Jewish diaspora. It ultimately sparked the Jewish rebellion of AD 115–117, leading to the Emperor Hadrian’s final destruction of the Egyptian Jewish community. ballistae stones testify to the subsequent siege. Extensive remains from Jerusalem at the time of Jesus Christ were uncovered on the Western Hill of today’s Jewish Quarter and “Mount Zion.” They unexpectedly revealed elite neighborhoods with a luxurious material culture. Excavations on Mount Zion also exposed the possible house of Caiaphas the High Priest, evidence of an Es- sene Quarter and gate, and the Cenacle, the probable location of the Upper Room. Surveys and large-scale excavations along the southern

The two greatest legacies of Ptolemaic Egypt and the Hellenistic Jewish community of Alexandria are the Septuagint and the works of Philo. They provided tools for spreading Christianity to the Greek-speaking world, and more broadly, contributed to the foundations of Western civilization.

Since 1863, hundreds of both small and large-scale excavations in and around Jerusalem have enhanced our knowledge of Old and New Testament Jerusalem. Some of the most notable and recent them include the following: Kathleen Kenyon’s in the City of David and other sites around the (1961-1967), Nahman Avigad’s (1969–1982) exciting discoveries in the Jewish Quarter; Benjamin and Mazar’s (1968–2010) long-term project and base