House uncovered in Nazareth dating to the time of Jesus
House uncovered in Nazareth dating to the time of Jesus
December 21, 2009 11:31 a.m. EST
The remains of the ancient dwelling will be displayed as part of a new center in Nazareth honoring Mary.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* House is first dwelling found in Nazareth from Jesus’ era, archaeologists say
* Discovery came during excavation for a new center honoring Mary
* Home found near Church of the Annunciation, the spot where some believe Mary lived
* Dwelling consists of two rooms, courtyard, handmade cistern to collect rain
Jerusalem (CNN) — Archaeologists in Israel say they have discovered the remains of a home from the time of Jesus in the heart of Nazareth.
The Israeli Antiquities Authority said the find “sheds light on the way of life at the time of Jesus” in the Jewish settlement of Nazareth, where Christians believe Jesus grew up.
The find marks the first time researchers have uncovered the remains of a home in Nazareth from that time period, the Israeli Antiquities Authority said in a statement.
“The building that we found is small and modest and it is most likely typical of the dwellings in Nazareth in that period,” Yardenna Alexandre, excavation director for the authority, said in the statement.
“Until now a number of tombs from the time of Jesus were found in Nazareth; however, no settlement remains have been discovered that are attributed to this period.”
Christians believe that Mary, the mother of Jesus, lived in Nazareth with her husband, Joseph. They believe Mary was in Nazareth when the angel Gabriel revealed that Mary would give birth to the son of God, a baby to be named Jesus.
A number of burial caves that date to the early Roman period also were discovered close to the inhabited area during the excavations, the authority said.
The discovery was made in the modern city of Nazareth during an excavation in advance of construction of the International Marian Center of Nazareth, which will illustrate the life of Mary.
An association in Nazareth plans to conserve and display the home’s remains in the center. It will be built next to the Church of the Annunciation, which stands on the spot where Catholics believe Mary once lived.
The Church of the Annunciation is in the heart of Nazareth, above an older church and atop the ruins of a church from the Byzantine period.
In the middle of these churches is a cave that was believed in antiquity to be the home of Jesus’ family. Researchers found storage pits and cisterns in the compound of the Church of the Annunciation, many of which date to the time of Jesus, Israeli archaeologists said.
In the excavation, a large, broad wall that dates to the 15th century was exposed. It was constructed on top of and used the walls of an ancient building, the statement said.
This earlier building — the one that dates to the time of Jesus — consisted of two rooms and a courtyard in which a rock-hewn cistern collected rainwater. Few artifacts were recovered from inside the building — mostly fragments of pottery vessels from the first and second centuries.
Also, researchers found several fragments of chalk vessels, which were used by Jews in this period because such vessels were not susceptible to becoming ritually unclean, researchers said.
Another hewn pit, whose entrance was apparently camouflaged, was excavated and a few pottery fragments from the early Roman period were found inside it.
“Based on other excavations that I conducted in other villages in the region, this pit was probably hewn as part of the preparations by the Jews to protect themselves during the great revolt against the Romans in [A.D.] 67,” Alexandre said.
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12.18.2009
Iran troops ’seize Iraq oil well’
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Iranian troops have entered southern Iraqi territory and taken control of an oil well, reports say.
An Iraqi official played down the incident, saying the area was abandoned and right on a disputed border section.
Iranian soldiers crossed the border and raised an Iranian flag over the Fakkah oil field, a US military spokesman told the AFP news agency.
But an Iranian oil company spokesman denied the accusation, saying no troops had taken control of any oil well.
“The company denies Iranian soldiers taking control of any oil well inside Iraqi territory,” the National Iranian Oil Company spokesman was quoted as saying by Iranian media.
Confirmation
Iraq’s Deputy Interior Minister confirmed the Iranians stayed in Iraq and were in control of the well.
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 We are awaiting orders from our leader  Ahmed Ali al-Khafaji
Deputy Interior Minister |
Earlier it was reported that they had withdrawn back across the border.
Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Ali al-Khafaji initially told the Reuters news agency the reports of the Iranian incursion were not true.
But Mr Khafaji later confirmed the incursion had taken place, and said 11 Iranians had dug-in at the oil well and had not left.
“At 3:30 this afternoon, 11 Iranian soldiers infiltrated the Iran-Iraq border and took control of the oil well. They raised the Iranian flag, and they are still there until this moment,” he told the Reuters news agency.
He said there had been no military response from Iraqi forces..
“We are awaiting orders from our leader,” he said.
The incursion is one of several that have occurred in the last few days, he said.
The well is about 500m from an Iranian border fort and about 1km from an Iraqi fort, US Colonel Peter Newell told AFP.
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Jesus Nearly Banned at White House Inn
By Eric Metaxas
- FOXNews.com
Is the Obama administration so afraid to offend people of other beliefs that they will seriously consider obliterating basic American traditions?
recommend (23)
Reuters
I can see the headlines now: “Gate-crashers Enter White House; Jesus Kept Out!” Except it almost happened. Really.
I was reading the New York Times Sunday Styles section yesterday (yep, I’m straight) when I came across an article about embattled White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers — she’s the one who broke with previous White House tradition by inviting herself to the state dinner when she should have been at the door keeping out the loopy riff-raff.
But in the twelfth paragraph of the article there was a real bombshell: It said that earlier this year at a luncheon with other previous White House social secretaries, Ms. Rogers claimed that this year the White House would have a “non-religious” Christmas celebration. (For those of you confused by that, it’s just like a “non-religious” Yom Kippur celebration, or a “non-Irish” St. Patrick’s Day celebration, or an “international” July 4th celebration.)
The Times article continued:
“The lunch conversation inevitably turned to whether the White House would display its crèche, customarily placed in a prominent spot in the East Room. Ms. Rogers, this participant said, replied that the Obamas did not intend to put the manger scene on display — a remark that drew an audible gasp from the tight-knit social secretary sisterhood. (A White House official confirmed that there had been internal discussions about making Christmas more inclusive and whether to display the crèche.)”
In the next sentence we learn that this radical idea was eventually scotched. (Perhaps the “audible gasp” from the bipartisan audience tipped them off.) But the fact that it was going to happen reveals a level of political tone-deafness in the current administration that is staggering. To most average Americans — who did not grow up in an Ivy-League, inside-the-Beltway hothouse governed by the rules of the French Revolution — the idea of keeping Jesus out of “the people’s house” at Christmas evokes disturbing images of the Holy Family being turned away from the Inn, or worse yet, images of Herod. But to a super-secular White House afraid to offend anyone — except for average Americans — it probably just seemed like another fab “progressive” innovation.
If President Obama wanted to fuel the fears of every serious Christian in America and actually prove that he is every bad thing they’ve ever heard about him on every crazy Web site, the idea of symbolically taking Jesus out of the White House at Christmas would be just the ticket!
Let’s face it: “Brand Obama” dodged a bullet by not going forward with this terrible idea, but only barely dodged it. After all, the facts of the story are right there in The New York Times for all to see.
What can be said of an administration so out of touch with the people it governs? Previous American presidents seemed to understand that while America is not “officially” a Christian nation, it is a nation whose Founders all believed in a Creator, and whose people are overwhelmingly Christian. Even Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton had the créche displayed during their administrations. What is going on?
Is this administration so afraid to offend people of other beliefs that they will seriously consider obliterating basic American traditions? As a friend of mine put it: their logic is like saying that serving American food at the White House state dinner might offend the Indians in the room.
But it’s never offensive to simply be yourself. What can be terribly offensive is bending over backwards when its absolutely unnecessary. Or bowing when it’s absolutely unnecessary. People may begin to suspect that you simply have spine issues — and yes, I mean that metaphorically.
Eric Metaxas is The New York Times bestselling author of “Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery.” His new book, “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About God (But Were Afraid to Ask): The Jesus Edition,” will be published this month by Regal Publishers. For more information visit www.ericmetaxas.com.
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Citizen Journalist Quote of the Day:
| chris jennings csjenningsrn@earthlink.net 72.40.91.112 |
Submitted on 2009/09/16 at 2:32am
Unfortunately, I could not get to DC, but did attend a tea party in Largo, at Gasoline Alley. Also, attended one in Lakeland, at Lake Eola Park, before that, Lykes Gaslight Park in Tampa. I am a changed person since experiencing these purposeful events. I love our country, and only wish some of those in government cared as much as we patriots do. We will prevail, of this I am certain. I look forward to my next tea party, and will continue to support this noble and necessary cause….to win our country back. |
11.15.2009 Blog Author’s Note to Visitors:
For many months I kept this blog and 4 others I run active on a daily basis with re-posted news, original essays by myself, news articles and new world order research that all carried detailed titles and detailed tags. The Obama White House is now carrying on an active surveillance program of Americans who dissent from their policies and war mongering, et al. Although I travel and relocate frequently, publishing under a pen name, I feel for this blog to remain up and alive, I need to post more discreetly. Urgent videos are coming online daily from citizen journalists everywhere, and at this point I am posting them untitled and untagged, as simply numeric listings, or simply listed as “array” – review all new postings to the right for the most important new citizen journalist videos I have located. To contact me, join the following site:
http://2012poleshift.wetpaint.com
When you locate important videos, download them and burn to CD discreetly. My instinct is that in 2010 the White House surveillance of the web will convert to more active suppression of dissenting views. To keep the truth alive send video urls discreetly via email, and / or list urls in pdf form as email attachments. Feel free to post your own good citizen journalism videos in the comment fields under the appropriate articles on this and my other blogs. God bless and keep you in His arms safe and sound.The Light will prevail in the end, and we all know it.
Chase Hunter
evermore888@gmail.com
11.15.2009
Top Trends of 2009 from www.trendsresearch.com
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Blog author’s note regarding the deplorable Fort Hood Massacre: This muslim lunatic was showing warning signs of his instability and his ill suited temperment for US army service for years. Someone along the way missed some very glaring warning signs. This man should have never even been in the US military in the first place. Why would our US military allow a radical muslim man who supports suicide bombers to be deployed in the mideast to counsel our war traumatized soldiers? That’s completely insane. – ckh
Fort Hood shooting: Nidal Malik Hasan ’said Muslims should rise up’
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who allegedly killed 11 people before being shot and wounded by police at Fort Hood, had said Muslims should “rise up” and attack Americans in retaliation for the US war in Iraq, a former army colleague said.
By Philip Sherwell in New York
Published: 1:41AM GMT 06 Nov 2009
Col Terry Lee, a retired officer who worked with him at the military base in Texas, alleged Maj Hasan had angry confrontations with other officers over his views.
Maj Hasan was reportedly fighting orders to be deployed to Iraq at the end of the month, claiming that he was the victim of harassment and insults because of his Arab background and his faith.
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The major is a psychiatrist who had been treating soldiers returning from Iraq for post-traumatic stress and alcohol and drug abuse problems.
“He was making outlandish comments condemning our foreign policy and claimed Muslims had the right to rise up and attack Americans,” Col Lee told Fox News.
“He said Muslims should stand up and fight the aggressor and that we should not be in the war in the first place.” He said that Maj Hasan said he was “happy” when a US soldier was killed in an attack on a military recruitment centre in Arkansas in June. An American convert to Islam was accused of the shootings.
Col Lee alleged that other officers had told him that Maj Hasan had said “maybe people should strap bombs on themselves and go to Time Square” in New York.
He claimed he was aware that the major had been subject to “name calling” during heated arguments with other officers.
Federal law enforcement officials have said Maj Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats.
The officials said the postings appeared to have been made by Maj Hasan but they were still trying to confirm that he was the author.
Maj Hasan’s cousin Nader Husan said he was happy working for the military but did dread deployment to Iraq.
Mr Hasan said his cousin was a US-born Muslim who had joined the military after high school. He had served as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC, which treats many badly wounded troops.
“He was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed dealing with the people coming back and … trying to help them with their trauma,” he said.
He said his cousin had been transferred to Fort Hood in April months ago and was very reluctant to be deployed to Iraq. “We’ve known over the last five years that was probably his worst nightmare,” he said.
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Fort Hood shooting: Texas army killer linked to September 11 terrorists
Major Nidal Malik Hasan worshipped at a mosque led by a radical imam said to be a “spiritual adviser” to three of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001.
By Philip Sherwell and Alex Spillius
Published: 8:17PM GMT 07 Nov 2009
Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother’s funeral was held there in May that year.
The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.
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Hasan’s eyes “lit up” when he mentioned his deep respect for al-Awlaki’s teachings, according to a fellow Muslim officer at the Fort Hood base in Texas, the scene of Thursday’s horrific shooting spree.
As investigators look at Hasan’s motives and mindset, his attendance at the mosque could be an important piece of the jigsaw. Al-Awlaki moved to Dar al-Hijrah as imam in January, 2001, from the west coast, and three months later the September 11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hamzi and Hani Hanjour began attending his services. A third hijacker attended his services in California.
Hasan was praying at Dar al-Hijrah at about the same time, and the FBI will now want to investigate whether he met the two terrorists.
Charles Allen, a former under-secretary for intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security, has described al-Awlaki, who now lives in Yemen, as an “al-Qaeda supporter, and former spiritual leader to three of the September 11 hijackers… who targets US Muslims with radical online lectures encouraging terrorist attacks from his new home in Yemen”.
Last night Hasan remained in a coma under guard at a military hospital in San Antonio, Texas, and was said to be in a “stable” condition. Born in America to a Palestinian family, Hasan, 39, was an army psychiatrist who had chosen to sign up for the US military against his parents’ wishes.
But he turned into an angry critic of the wars America was waging in Iraq and Afghanistan and had tried in vain to negotiate his discharge.
He counselled soldiers returning from the front line and told relatives that he was horrified at the prospect of a deployment to Afghanistan later this year – his first time in a combat zone.
Whether due to his personal convictions, his stress over his deployment or other reasons, Hasan is alleged to have snapped and gone on a murderous rampage with a powerful semi-automatic handgun after shouting “Allahu Akhbar” (“God is great”), according to survivors. He had earlier given away copies of the Koran to neighbours.
Investigators at this stage have no indication that he planned the attacks with anyone else. But they are trawling through his phone records, paperwork and computers he used before the attack during an apparently sleepless night.
Five of the 13 victims were fellow mental health professionals from three units of the army’s Combat Stress Control Detachment, it was disclosed yesterday.
It is understood that Hasan had been due to be deployed with members of those units in coming months. Whether he deliberately singled out other combat stress counsellors is another key question.
What does seem clear is that the army missed an increasing number of red flags that Hasan was a troubled and brooding individual within its ranks.
“I was shocked but not surprised by news of Thursday’s attack,” said Dr Val Finnell, a fellow student on a public health course in 2007-08 who heard Hasan equate the war on terrorism to a war on Islam. Another student had warned military officials that Hasan was a “ticking time bomb” after he reportedly gave a presentation defending suicide bombers.
Kamran Pasha, the author of Mother of the Believers, a new novel relating the story of Islam from the perspective of Aisha, Prophet Mohammed’s wife, was told of the al-Awlaki connection from a Muslim friend who is also an officer at Fort Hood. Using the name Richard, the recent convert to Islam described how he frequently prayed with Hasan at the town mosque after Hasan was deployed to Fort Hood in July. They last worshipped together at predawn prayers on the day of the massacre when Hasan “appeared relaxed and not in any way troubled or nervous”.
But Richard had previously argued with Hasan when he said that he felt the “war on terror” was really a war against Islam, expressed anti-Jewish sentiments and defended suicide bombings.
“I asked Richard whether he believed that Hasan was motivated by religious radicalism in his murderous actions,” Mr Pasha said.
“Richard, with great sadness, said that he believed this was true. He also believed that psychological factors from Hasan’s job as an army psychiatrist added to his pathos. The news that he would be deployed overseas, to a war that he rejected, may have pushed him over the edge.
“But Richard does not excuse Hasan. As a Muslim, he finds Hasan’s religious perspectives to be fundamentally misguided. And as a soldier, he finds Hasan’s actions cowardly and evil.”
Fellow Muslims in the US armed forces have also been quick to denounce Hasan’s actions and insist that they were the product of a lone individual rather than of Islamic teachings. Osman Danquah, the co-founder of the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen, said Hasan never expressed anger toward the army or indicated any plans for violence.
But he said that, at their second meeting, Hasan seemed almost incoherent.
“I told him, ‘There’s something wrong with you’. I didn’t get the feeling he was talking for himself, but something just didn’t seem right.”
He was sufficiently troubled that he recommended the centre reject Hasan’s request to become a lay Muslim leader at Fort Hood.
Hasan had, in fact, already come to the attention of the authorities before Thursday’s massacre. He was suspected of being the author of internet postings that compared suicide bombers with soldiers who throw themselves on grenades to save others and had also reportedly been warned about proselytising to patients.
At Fort Hood, he told a colleague, Col Terry Lee, that he believed Muslims should rise up against American “aggressors”. He made no attempt to hide his desire to end his military service early or his mortification at the prospect of deployment to Afghanistan. “He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there,” said his cousin, Nader Hasan.
Yet away from his strident attacks on US foreign policy, he came across as subdued and reclusive – not hostile or threatening. Soldiers he counselled at the Walter Reed hospital in Washington praised him, while at Fort Hood, Kimberly Kesling, the deputy commander of clinical services, remarked: “Up to this point, I would consider him an asset.”
Relatives said that the death of Hasan’s parents, in 1998 and 2001, turned him more devout. “After he lost his parents he tried to replace their love by reading a lot of books, including the Koran,” his uncle Rafiq Hamad said.
“He didn’t have a girlfriend, he didn’t dance, he didn’t go to bars.”
His failed search for a wife seemed to haunt Hasan. At the Muslim Community Centre in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring, he signed up for an Islamic matchmaking service, specifying that he wanted a bride who wore the hijab and prayed five times a day.
Adnan Haider, a retired professor of statistics, recalled how at their first meeting last year, a casual introduction after Friday prayers, Hasan immediately asked the academic if he knew “a nice Muslim girl” he could marry.
“It was a strange thing to ask someone you have met two seconds before. It was clear to me he was under pressure, you could just see it in his face,” said Prof Haider, 74, who used to work at Georgetown University in Washington. “You could see he was lonely and didn’t have friends.
“He is working with psychiatric people and I ask why the people around him didn’t spot that something was wrong? When I heard what had happened I actually wasn’t that surprised.”
Indeed, many of the characteristics attributed to Hasan by acquaintances – withdrawn, unassuming, brooding, socially awkward and never known to have had a girlfriend – have also applied to other mass murderers.
Hasan was born and brought up in Virginia to parents who ran restaurants after emigrating to America from the West Bank. He graduated from Virginia Tech university – coincidentally, the scene of the worst mass shooting in US history in 2007 – with a degree in biochemistry and then joined the army, which trained him as a psychiatrist.
Relatives said that he was subjected to increasingly ugly taunts about his religion and ethnicity from other soldiers after the September 11 attacks. But his uncle insisted yesterday that Hasan would not have been driven to mass murder by revenge or religion.
Speaking in the West Bank town of al-Bireh, Mr Hamad said his nephew “loved America” and could only have been caused to snap by an as yet unexplained factor. “He always said there was no country in the world like America,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “Something big happened to him in Texas. If he did it – and until now I am in denial – it had to have been something huge because revenge was not in his nature.”
•Additional reporting by Adrian Blomfield in al-Bireh
Every time i come here I am not disappointed, nice blog!
Greetings from Tim.
Totally what God has been speaking to me today. ,